Hyakkimaru's Birth
Book 1 of the Dororo Novel Series
Toriumi Jinzō
Part 2 - Enlightenment
Chapter 1
Oniwakamaru's laughter seemed like a miracle. He was no longer an expressionless doll that ate and displayed no reaction to anything. Jukai had found him and treated him in the hopes that something like this would happen. Up until now, Oniwakamaru had lived in a world that he couldn't hear or sense at all, but that was changing. He could hear—even without ears. Jukai didn't know how, but he suspected that Oniwakamaru had some rare talent or gift. He seemed to understand the mountain's wild monkeys, even though they didn't speak in words. He also displayed a desire to explore his environment: he moved on his own, and moved his head back and forth.
Jukai checked Oniwakamaru's senses again after he laughed and observed no obvious change, but he wasn't worried. He knew that Oniwakamaru was changing; time would make those changes more apparent.
"Do you...think he might...speak?" Sakuzō asked.
"Time will tell," Jukai said. "You might want to try shouting words instead of just sounds."
"Words? What kind of words?"
"Talk," Jukai said. "Talk like you're having a conversation, only make it louder."
"I'll do it," Sakuzō said. "I'll try talking to him." His expression was more serious than Jukai had ever seen it.
Jukai nodded, then took a sip of sake. "Make sure you're shouting right in his ear, like before," he said. "Shock the animals and even me if you have to, but keep trying to get a reaction."
There was a large brass gong stored near one wall of their main living area. Sakuzō pulled the gong out from the wall a little, preparing it for use. He brought in Oniwakamaru from outside, then banged the gong with a wooden bachi1 as loudly as he could.
The gong itself was very large; it had the story of how Momotarō won over the animals to his cause before he headed to Onigashima, the island of demons.2 When struck, the gong was so loud that it shook the walls of the room. Jukai heard a tinny ringing in his ears.
"Don't hit the gong so hard," he said. "You'll make his eardrums rupture."
"Did I...overdo it?" Sakuzō asked. He bowed his head in apology.
Jukai was worried about Oniwakamaru's eardrums, but when he looked at him, the boy was smiling slightly. Jukai smiled, too. Apparently, the gong was something else that he could hear.
After that, Jukai started giving Oniwakamaru acupuncture treatment. He boiled needles to sterilize them, then stripped Oniwakamaru down. He was just about to stick the first needle into Oniwakamaru's skin when Sakuzō seized his arm. Sakuzō had never seen acupuncture treatment before. To him, the needles looked more like terrifying weapons than medical tools.
The general treatment method was to place needles into six vital points to stimulate blood flow. There were over seven hundred and thirty different acupuncture points that could be tried, but Jukai opted to start with the basics. The theory of acupressure and acupuncture was much the same, but acupuncture was considered a more aggressive and effective form of treatment because the needles actually pierced the skin.
Acupuncture was an ancient art that was said to have originated in India or Persia, though it existed as a medical treatment in China since the end of the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 AD). Jukai tried to explain what he hoped to accomplish by giving Oniwakamaru acupuncture treatment.
"I wish he could talk so he could tell us what hurts," Sakuzō said. "But if you really think that it will help him recover his senses, then go ahead, taifu."
"It might even help him become capable of speaking," Jukai said. Sometimes, acupuncture had effects that went beyond medical science's ability to explain.
"That sounds like magic," Sakuzō said. "You'll raise him to be a hermit, like in all those old stories about wizards and sages that live on mountaintops."
"Maybe," Jukai said noncommittally.
"Are you saying that Oniwakamaru might have magic?" Sakuzō asked incredulously.
Jukai shrugged.
"Wow." Sakuzou blinked, then smiled. He was speaking more smoothly and easily than he had a few years ago. Jukai noticed this before Sakuzō himself did. Sakuzō's efforts to help Oniwakamaru learn to speak had aided in his throat's rehabilitation as well.
Jukai performed acupuncture every day, placing needles in the six most vital points. The results of this course of treatment became apparent some months later. Sakuzō's voice also continued to improve. All change came slowly, but things were finally changing for the better.
***
Oniwakamaru turned four in the spring.
"'Ah,' Oniwakamaru," Sakuzō said. "'Ah.' Try to say it."
"Oo," Oniwakamaru said.
"I didn't say 'oo,' I said 'ah.'"
"Oo, ah," Onwakamaru said.
Sakuzō smiled and clapped his hands. "Good. Now try 'ee.'"
"Eeeee...."
"Right! That's right, Oniwakamaru." He laughed—and didn't realize that he was crying.
Oniwakamaru imitated his laughter. "Hahahahaha...." His expression was strange when he laughed, mainly because he lacked eyes. His mouth contracted and relaxed, much like it did when he was eating. His cheeks were red; his complexion looked as healthy as any ordinary child's. Sakuzō's long and patient voice training had improved his health and stamina at least as much as Jukai's acupuncture treatment, if not more.
Sakuzō pointed to his mouth and repeated basic sounds and words with great diligence and care. He didn't get bored; he actually found it a little fun.
"I'm your uncle Sakuzō," he said.
"I'm your uncle Sakuzō," Oniwakamaru repeated back.
"No, I'm your uncle Sakuzō, not you," he said.
"Oh. Uncle Sakuzō?"
Sakuzō nodded in satisfaction. "Good. And who are you?"
"...a monkey."
"No! You're Oniwakamaru. Say it slowly now. Oh-nee-wah-kah-mah-roo."
"Oh-nee-wah-kah..." he trailed off, then shifted his head a little to the left.
"What's wrong?" Sakuzō asked.
"Pee pee," Oniwakamaru stuttered out.
"Ah, I see." Sakuzō scooped up Oniwakamaru and carried him to the pit toilets. Up until this year, Sakuzō had been much preoccupied with changing diapers and doing laundry, but now, Oniwakamaru was able to make his needs known, if only in simple ways.
His mental and communicative development became even more obvious when he turned five. When both he and Sakuzō realized that he could hear more or less normally, Jukai had started singing songs and reciting ballads to teach Oniwakamaru history. Surprisingly, Oniwakamaru memorized all the stories and songs he heard after only a few repetitions. He was very curious and always wanted to hear more. His listening comprehension was uniformly good; he had the vocabulary of someone twice his age.
Oniwakamaru's conversation wasn't limited to just people, either. He seemed to be able to communicate with the wild monkeys, deer, foxes, birds, and other animals on the mountain.
"Shinosuke, come here!" he called out to one of the deer he'd named. The stag approached Oniwakamaru's cart without fear and rubbed his furry face against Oniwakamaru's. Oniwakamaru giggled, enjoying the softness of the stag's fur. This was evidence that he could feel sensations and textures, which Jukai had never been able to confirm before.
It wasn't clear how, exactly, Oniwakamaru and the animals could communicate, but none of the animals ever tried to harm him. Jukai was overjoyed at these new abilities, but he was also a little afraid. He didn't understand their origin or how they worked, but he knew that Oniwakamaru was exceptional: singled out for some purpose. Pieces of his body were missing. Jukai suspected that the secret of his mutilation was the key to understanding his strange abilities.
Jukai and Sakuzō had mostly avoided talking about Oniwakamaru's obvious, and bizarre, physical state. There were questions that they could ask Oniwakamaru to learn more about his physical health and body, but neither Jukai nor Sakuzō had mustered up the courage to do so. Oniwakamaru was a person with feelings—and he'd already been through so much. Poking and prodding at him, even if only with words, seemed disrespectful somehow.
So Sakuzō and Jukai's unspoken questions remained unanswered. Oniwakamaru had questions of his own, which he started asking when he was almost six years old. He approached Jukai and said, "Father." Sakuzō had taught Oniwakamaru to call Jukai that.
"Yes?" Jukai asked.
"I...want to see your face," he said.
Jukai didn't know how to respond to that. He rubbed his cheek hard in a clear display of irritation. Then he brought Oniwakamaru's cheek to his own face.
"Oh! It's your nose!" Oniwakamaru said. He'd spent a lot of time with his animal friends and knew the general shapes of body parts of animals and insects by touch.
"Yes, that's right," Jukai said.
"You said in your stories that tengu3 have long noses."
"They do," Jukai said. Oniwakamaru must have remembered that from one of his tales about Yoshitsune.4 Oniwakamaru loved adventure tales about brave warriors. All of his favorites were about Yoshitsune, whose tragic early life was similar, in many ways, to his own.
Yoshitsune had lived at the beginning of the Kamakura Period. His older half-brother, Minamoto no Yoritomo, would establish the Kamakura shogunate with the help of Yoshitsune. Like Oniwakamaru, Yoshitsune had been raised on the mountain of Kurama. There were many legends that he'd learned swordsmanship from the tengu, long-nosed goblins with bright red faces.
Yoshitsune fought the famed warrior monk Benkei5 on Gojo bridge in Kyōto in a duel. Oniwakamaru was always rapt when Jukai reached that portion of the tale; he remained utterly still and didn't move—sometimes it didn't even seem like he was breathing. Stories were the way he understood the world around him, including how people looked and acted.
Jukai shifted Oniwakamaru's face so that his cheek rested against Jukai's ear. "That's an ear," Jukai said.
"It's so warm."
Jukai kept moving Oniwakamaru's cheek around and explaining different facial features. Oniwakamaru smiled and asked questions about each new discovery. Jukai's ears were warmer than anything he'd ever felt before.
"Oniwakamaru," Jukai said, "I'm thinking of giving you a nose and ears, too."
"Really?"
"Yes. And eyes."
"Really?" His tone was awed.
"Oniwakamaru..." Jukai picked him up in his arms and held him tight.
***
Jukai crafted artificial eyes that appeared similar to human ones. He acquired the materials he needed from Genkai Namitarō, then got to work. When he was done, he called in Sakuzō to take a look at them.
"I'm going to put these in Oniwakamaru's eye sockets," Jukai said.
Sakuzō shuddered when he looked at them. "Are those...monkey eyes?" he asked fearfully.
"No. I made these to look like human eyes," Jukai said.
"Huh? You can really make things like that?"
"Yes. They make them for people who have lost eyes."
"If you put them into his eye sockets, will he be able to see?" Sakuzō asked.
"No," Jukai said. "Artificial eyes are just...decoration. He won't be able to see with them." His expression conveyed his deep disappointment. "But they will gleam and shine like real eyes."
"Will putting them in hurt?" Sakuzō asked.
Jukai frowned. "Surgically implanting them so that they don't fall out will hurt, at least a little. But after that, no, they shouldn't hurt. With any luck, people who look at him will think he has eyes, unless they look very, very closely."
Sakuzō's shoulders slumped in relief. "All right. Let's put them in, then. Fake eyes are better than no eyes at all."
Sakuzō carried Oniwakamaru into Jukai's laboratory space and lay him down on a table. He'd explained what Jukai was planning on the way, but his nervousness made it difficult for him to explain things in full.
"This will hurt a bit," Jukai said, "but you'll be all right. I promise."
Oniwakamaru squirmed and almost fell off the table, but Sakuzō caught him. "Oniwakamaru, be brave. Brave like Yoshitsune."
Oniwakamaru stopped squirming. "I'll be brave," he said.
"You're amazing," Sakuzō said. "I'm so proud of you."
Jukai placed pressure on Oniwakamaru's eye sockets and discovered that he had full sensation there—only his eyeballs were missing. He had Oniwakamaru drink a solution of various medicines mixed together, including one that acted as an anesthetic, so that he could complete the surgery more easily. Oniwakamaru remained conscious—barely—during the procedure, but he didn't move or cry out even once. It was likely that his condition—lacking so many parts and nerves—helped him to endure the pain. The artificial eyes wouldn't make him see, but they would make his face more expressive. And most people had eyes. Yoshitsune had eyes. Oniwakamaru wanted them, too.
Oniwakamaru had his eyes wrapped in bandages for a week after the surgery. He didn't notice any change to his face after the bandages came off. If he had hands, he'd be able to touch his new eyeballs to learn more about them, but he didn't, so he had to rely on Jukai and Sakuzō to tell him what he looked like now.
"You...you look great," Sakuzō said. He sounded sincere. The artificial eyes caught and reflected light just like real ones.
"Really? I'm glad," Oniwakamaru said. He tried to imagine what he looked like.
When Jukai looked at him, something tightened in his chest: he saw the face that Oniwakamaru might have had if he'd been born whole. Oniwakamaru couldn't blink or close his eyes, but simply having them made him look like he could see at first glance.
Jukai finished making prosthetics for Oniwakamaru's ears and nose in the autumn. The nose was made of a bird bone, which formed the bridge, covered with thin, tanned leather the same color as skin. It had no holes for nostrils, but this helped protect Oniwakamaru's exposed nasal cavity from water and other elements. The ears were made of similar materials.
Jukai consulted an ancient Indian surgical text, the Shushrita Samhita, that detailed one hundred and twenty-one different surgical procedures.6 Though old, many of the fundamental principles of surgery were recorded there. The foundational principle of surgical technique was that a surgeon's best tools were his hands.
Jukai had studied in the Indian city of Calicut during his medical training. He learned all the world's words for 'surgery' there—手術 in his own language, kheiros in Greek, chirurgie in German, 手术 in Chinese. The importance of a surgeon's hands was often emphasized in the etymology of the word itself.7
The anesthetic Jukai used for Oniwakamaru's surgeries was made from henbane, cannabis and a few other ingredients. Although Jukai learned to make this anesthetic in India, the process of its creation was known in China as well; he never had any trouble procuring ingredients. The process of mixing the anesthetic was something of a secret in Japan; Jukai doubted that any of the Imperial Court physicians knew how to make it.
With his tools, medicines, and prosthetics prepared, Jukai was ready to perform surgeries for Oniwakamaru's artificial nose and ears.
What he was doing was largely based on what he'd learned by treating the criminal class, and from barbers. In those days, criminals could be punished by having their noses and ears cut off. Those who tended to their wounds and repaired their faces were typically not doctors, but barbers. The work of doctors and barbers did sometimes overlap; what the barbers learned and accomplished by treating criminals and common thieves eventually led to the development of plastic surgery.
The surgeries that Jukai performed on Oniwakamaru were surgeries of just this type. First, he performed acupuncture and gave Oniwakamaru an anesthetic. Since Oniwakamaru was still very young, he monitored the dosage of the anesthetic very carefully. Then, he cut and removed skin to make room for the prosthetics, though he tried to make his cuts as unobtrusive as possible. After the nose was fully attached, he made more cuts and grafted skin over the false nose to make it look more natural.
Jukai cleaned all of Oniwakamaru's stitched-up surgical wounds with a solution of strong alcohol, then covered them with a poultice made with Japanese laurel and purple loosestrife to prevent excessive bleeding.
Oniwakamaru's recovery time for the surgical attachment of his false nose was four days. He thrashed and groaned with pain for a few days, but by the fourth day he was entirely calm and happy again. Thanks to Jukai's precautions against infection, his wounds never festered and he didn't catch a fever.
Jukai performed the surgery to attach Oniwakamaru's ears about a month after he'd recovered from the surgery on his nose. The ears proved much easier to attach. All he had to do was cut the skin a little and embed an elongated tab that was part of the artificial ears, then sew it all up. The recovery time for this surgery was much shorter; Oniwakamaru felt hardly any pain afterward. Like his nose and eyes, his ears were not functional, but when he tilted his head to listen to voices, he appeared to be hearing with them.
Jukai had never performed surgeries of this kind on children before, but Oniwakamaru tolerated the pain and boredom of recovery better than many adults he'd treated.
Oniwakamaru underwent both surgeries with no major complications: the result was a complete, if artificial, face. Scale models and molds for artificial limbs and appendages were usually made for adult sizes, so the appendages looked too large. The scars from the surgery also made his face look a bit like patchwork until they healed. As Oniwakamaru grew into his new face, he would start to look more like a normal child.
When all the surgeries on Oniwakamaru's face were done, Sakuzō propped him up against the wall of a barn and looked at him all day as he went about his daily chores.
"Oniwakamaru, you have a face!" Sakuzō said. "It's a good face, too. Taifu is the best doctor in all of Japan."
Oniwakamaru giggled like he was ticklish. "You're bragging about dad again, uncle Sakuzō."
"I am not," Sakuzō said indignantly. "I'd put him up against any doctor in the Imperial Court—or even all of them working together."
Sakuzō's praise was entirely sincere. Jukai had given him a new leg and treated Oniwakamaru so that he could hear and speak. It was no exaggeration to say that he was expecting miracles. Maybe Oniwakamaru would learn to see next?
Jukai was more level-headed and practical in his estimation of his own abilities, but in his heart, he wanted the same things as Sakuzō. Oniwakamaru had already been through so much. He'd recovered more than Jukai had expected, but Jukai wouldn't stop trying until he found a way to give Oniwakamaru everything that he lacked.
Translator's Notes:
1 A bachi is straight, wooden stick used to play Japanese taiko drums, and also the plectrum for stringed instruments like the shamisen and biwa. ↩
2 Momotarō is a Japanese folk hero who earned the trust of a pheasant, monkey and dog by feeding them dumplings. Together, they headed for Onigashima, the island of demons, and defeated all the demons and monsters. Momotarō's name means "peach boy," since he was born from a peach.↩
3 Tengu are a type of legendary creature found in Japanese folk religion. Sarutahiko Ōkami is considered to be the original model of Konoha-Tengu (a long-nosed supernatural creature with a red face), which today is widely considered the tengu's defining characteristic in the popular imagination. Older conceptions of tengu portray them as animals or animal spirits, especially monkeys and birds.↩
4 Minamoto no Yoshitsune was a military commander of the Minamoto Clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura Periods. He is considered one of the greatest and the most popular warriors of his era, and one of the most famous samurai fighters in the history of Japan. Yoshitsune died after being betrayed by the son of a trusted ally.↩
5 Benkei: Yoshitsune defeated the legendary warrior monk Benkei in a duel. From then on, Benkei became Yoshitsune's retainer, eventually dying with him at the Siege of Koromogawa.↩
6 The Sushruta Samhita is an ancient text on medicine and surgery, and one of the most important such treatises on this subject to survive from the ancient world. It is one of the two foundational Hindu texts on medical profession that have survived from ancient India. Its composition date is unknown, but it is believed to have been written sometime in the 6th century BCE.↩
7 Both the Chinese and Japanese word for 'surgery' include the kanji for 'hand,' 手. Kheiros is the ancient Greek word for 'hand.' Chirurgie is derived from the Greek kheiros and further derived from Latin chirurgia.↩
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