The Wife of Seishu Hanaoka Page #3

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I would like to go home.

You're not looking too worn out. I am so relieved.

Otsugi is looking after you well.

There's a saying that it's a waste to feed the bride ...

... but in these troubled times Otsugi has looked after you well!

We should be grateful.

Yes indeed. We married her to the right family.

Unpei is talked of as the best doctor in the region. He has a very good reputation.

I hear he has had lots of apprentices coming to train with him. It's amazing.

Mum, Otsugi Hanaoka is pretty but it's all on the surface.

Deep down she's cold hearted and eaten by spite.

They say she's clever but it's cunning and she's calculating.

Taking me in as Unpei's bride while he was away was to make me earn money by weaving.

Her sending me home was definitely because she wanted to save food.

It's because I'm pregnant and can't weave any more.

That's just you being bitchy.

If you speak like that about such a wonderful mother-in-law heaven will punish you!

You don't understand ...

Pull yourself together. You will make yourself ill.

Just think about giving birth to a healthy baby.

That's a woman's job.

I will. I'll show her!

Otsugi can do a lot but she can't bear Unpei's child.

Just be a little more patient. A first birth takes half a day of labour.

Be strong.

She's good looking. How about calling her Koben! I thought it would be a girl.

Well done but I'd like a boy next time.

I can't relax until there is a Hanaoka heir.

OK:

Next time.

Look after yourself and recover your strength before you come back.

There are enough women to do all the work.

OK?

Please look after our very important bride.

4 years later the the famines and long rains had finished but ...

Okatsu, does it hurt?

When I breathe it throbs.

Since when?

There was a lump around the time of the Doll's Festival (early March)

Why didn't you tell me then?

It's breast cancer, isn't it?

There's no cure.

So I said nothing.

What is it mother?

Nothing. Go into the next room.

Unpei, can you make me one of your painkilling poultices?

They work on cuts but not for breast cancer. You will have to bear the pain.

Then give me the medicine you tried on the cats and dogs. The one that put them to sleep and they died.

It's a doctor's job to save life,

I can't give you a drug that kills, no matter how great the pain.

Then cut me open and do an operation. You're good at that.

If I could do you think I'd leave you in pain like this?

Okatsu wants it so much, won't you put on the poultice just to ease her mind?

Do you want to kill her?

I'm not trying to do that.

If I could trade places with her I would. I wish I could die instead of her.

There's wolfsbane in those poultices. It's fatal to swallow.

If I apply it to her breast she will put it in her mouth. Don't you realise that?

A woman's breasts are her life but can't you cut it out of her with your surgical kills?

She has a tumour the size of a fist and it's spread to her side and shoulder.

If I cut her its not just the breast and she's weak and couldn't bear the pain and loss of blood.

Perhaps if anaesthesia were possible ...

Anaesthesia is possible, isn't it?

Recently the cats and dogs sleep and don't move if you poke them with a stick ...

... and when they awake they can walk and they're fine, aren't they?

The anaesthesia is not ready. I know it's hard for you as her mother but I've done everything I can as a doctor.

I know it's 10 or 100 times worse operate and it twists my guts with frustration.

This cat fell off the veranda and hit it's head and died.

It fell?

It was staggering and its head was hanging and it dropped straight down.

Mother, this cat was brain damaged by the anaesthesia.

If I give it to Okatsu you know what will happen.

Mum, the villagers are saying Okatsu died because we are cursed because of all the dogs and cats we kill.

Shut up. You must never say that again.

If cats and dogs could curse us you wouldn't have been born safely!

It's not a curse that missed Kae and hit Okatsu.

Dr Hanaoka, you'll not be happy to hear it but I think it was just her natural time.

Doctors are not like priests and should not believe in allotted life spans.

Whatever illness people die off it can be prevented by doctors.

What killed Okatsu was me, me!

She died because my medical skills were not good enough.

7 years passed and things were peaceful.

Okatsu and Koriku are working for Unpei and have ended up without much chance of marriage.

I thought I mustn't do that with the younger ones and I got them married off last year.

Ryouhei is in Kyoto studying medicine.

Is that so? I suppose you must be very lonely.

Yes but Unpei's apprentices are increasing all the time and we had to build another house for them all.

Is Unpei's wife well?

Yes, she's always bursting with health.

Mother, Father is playing with the cats. It's quite funny. Look!

Mistress, this cat is brilliant at somersaults.

It slept for 3 days and is exactly as it was before.

There's no damage.

It's been 10 years since you started but anaesthesia is now a reality.

Think how pleased your father would have been.

We haven't succeeded yet. Cats and people are very different.

The amount I used for this small cat would not be effective on a human.

It's a question of how much to increase the dosage to get a human to sleep safely...

... the difficult bit is yet to come.

I see.

Unpei, I want you to listen carefully because I have thought about this a lot...

Why are you being so formal?

I want you to use me for the anaesthesia experiments.

It's the middle of the night so I was worried. Don't scare me.

If you test anaesthesia on a person you'll be able to perfect it.

Being so close to your goal and not going the last stretch would be idiotic.

I gave birth to you ... and I know what you want.

I know that better than anyone else.

That's ridiculous. I want you to use me for the experiments.

I made up my mind a long time ago. Will you please use me.

That's out of the question.

If something were to happen to you I could never face people.

Your life is precious. You must live and see that the family is successful.

The one who couldn't face people is me - the daughter-in-law.

How could I be happy if I was giving drugs to my beloved mother-in-law?

This is my role.

No. I have less life ahead of me ...

... Unpei has a wonderful wife and I am content and my work is done.

You still have an important role to provide heirs.

Until you have done that your body is too valuable to mishandle.

people say a bride should go if she can't have a child after 3 years.

All I have given birth to in 15 years is one brainless girl...

Why is my life so precious?

I want him to use me.

Kae, are you defying me? I am your mother-in-law.

Yes, on this occasion ... I cannot allow my elderly mother-in-law to do this. I am the wife!

Kae, are you telling me that I am old and therefore useless?

Stop! Stop this!

Enough talk of "few remaining years" and whether you're afraid to die ...

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