Itō Shizumi watched as the boats carved the sea into a foaming mass of churning white curls. They circled each other in wide arches, the fishermen about the gunwales gesticulating wildly in posturing shows of aggression. Shizumi saw a man go red as he screamed at an interfering craft, his rage erupting beyond any semblance of control. Shizumi himself looked down into the hull of his own boat at the empty net strewn about the soaked, salty smelling floor around his boots. The sun was already out in earnest and time was beginning to slip away with increasing rapidity.
The puttering roar of a rusty engine to Shizumi’s left stole his attention away from the buzzing madness of the distant boats. A collection of thin men, skin waxy and tight from exposure to the sun and dressed in the utilitarian cloth common amongst the fishing peasantry of Japan were crammed into the brim of a boat slightly larger than Shizumi’s. From amid the mound of bodies emerged the face of Takuya, an older fisherman from the same community as Shizumi who was scratching at his thick black beard and began barking at the younger man in his halting voice.
“They’re out like starving dogs today,” he said as he craned his neck at the buzzing chaos, his gaze returned to Shizumi, who was sitting on the rotting plank of wood which served transom. The whole world bobbed gently as the sea rolled. “Hungry ino sniff out the stores and leave a man and his family to starve when winter arrives.”
The youths who made up most of the rabble on Takuya’s boat began to shout curses in excited anger but the old fisherman hushed them with a rising of his hand. “What do you do with a rabid ino, Shizumi?”
He said nothing in response, merely tugged at his boats own decrepit motor as his craft lurched forward. Takuya smiled and the men cheered as they rushed their own boat in response. The wind increased as they picked up speed, the crisp sea-air punctuated with salt and the groan of motors and the screaming of men. The world zipped by as the distant circling craft grew closer, the noise of the confrontation grew louder as Shizumi began to make out the ugly faces of the foreigners and the incomprehensible scribble of their language on the hulls of their boats.
As the two ships went further into the maelstrom, a larger foreign ship took notice and kicked forward to intercept them. A young man on Takuya’s craft hoisted the Samurai flag above their heads, tied upon twisted stick. It fluttered violently in the wind as the two boats charged ahead. Several figures on the foreign ship became distinguishable. They were rushing along the deck in a frenzy, screaming in high pitched yips in their strange words.
Takuya slowed the boat as they got closer to the foreigners. The dogs were on the gunwales, waving their arms threateningly but the locals would not back down. As the boats got so close that they touched a few of the youths jumped forward trying to scramble onto the enemy craft. The ino swung at them with clubs but Takuya’s men persisted gripping wrists and wrenching the weapons away and all of the sudden they were swarming onto the deck. Shizumi pulled his boat up along the port and climbed aboard, in his right hand he held a metal club he used to kill jumping fish. He turned and rushed into the melee as the fishermen swung their clubs and knives at the foreigners who in turn retaliated. Grunts. Heavy breathing. Screams. The club cracked against his attacker’s jaw as Shizumi ducked a swing of a Korean pocket knife and struck out. Blood and crushed teeth clattered onto the deck. A young man from Shizumi’s village convulsed on the salty floor as he clutched the stab wound in his side, blood washed and foamed with the seawater.
The samurai banner waved from the deck of the foreign boat and the other Japanese fishing vessels cheered as the violence escalated. It reached a pitch as they threw the intruders back to the cabin. A great cheer went up from the locals and Shizumi joined until a loud crack echoed across the waves and put silence to the confrontation. Shizumi felt the morning air forced suddenly from his lungs and the sensation of a warm wetness contrary to the cold of the ocean spray. A top the cabin of the boat the echo of the gunshot faded and the bewildered face of a foreigner emerged from behind the sights of a long rifle. Shizumi felt his head lighten and he collapsed into unconsciousness.
