ABSTRACT
It was the spring of 1898. Hisada Kiseki came to convince club members to relocate with him to the Kansai region. I was invited, too, but at the time could not put off making a trip back to my family home. I was called to return because a major problem had arisen, one that upon returning home left me utterly amazed. My younger brother, the dry goods dealer, had stolen my father’s registered seal. He then used it in mortgaging most of the family’s mountain land and Þ elds as well as the paddies in the Roppon-matsu district. He used the money as collateral to borrow from the Kōyō Bank and an Odawara-based usurer. All of this suddenly became known because the repayment period was looming and my younger brother had gone into hiding. My elder brother was beside himself. All my mother could do was to weep constantly as she teetered on the edge of a breakdown.
