On the appointed day all the village officers met at the place agreed upon,—­Sogoro, the chief of the village of Iwahashi, alone being missing; and as on the following day Sogoro had not yet arrived, they deputed one of their number, named Rokurobei, to inquire the reason.  Rokurobei arrived at Sogoro’s house towards four in the afternoon, and found him warming himself quietly over his charcoal brazier, as if nothing were the matter.  The messenger, seeing this, said rather testily—­

“The chiefs of the villages are all assembled at Funabashi according to covenant, and as you, Master Sogoro, have not arrived, I have come to inquire whether it is sickness or some other cause that prevents you.”

“Indeed,” replied Sogoro, “I am sorry that you should have had so much trouble.  My intention was to have set out yesterday; but I was taken with a cholic, with which I am often troubled, and, as you may see, I am taking care of myself; so for a day or two I shall not be able to start.  Pray be so good as to let the others know this.”

Rokurobei, seeing that there was no help for it, went back to the village of Funabashi and communicated to the others what had occurred.  They were all indignant at what they looked upon as the cowardly defection of a man who had spoken so fairly, but resolved that the conduct of one man should not influence the rest, and talked themselves into the belief that the affair which they had in hand would be easily put through; so they agreed with one accord to start and present the petition, and, having arrived at Yedo, put up in the street called Bakurocho.  But although they tried to forward their complaint to the various officers of their lord, no one would listen to them; the doors were all shut in their faces, and they had to go back to their inn, crestfallen and without success.

On the following day, being the 18th of the month, they all met together at a tea-house in an avenue, in front of a shrine of Kwannon Sama;[61] and having held a consultation, they determined that, as they could hit upon no good expedient, they would again send for Sogoro to see whether he could devise no plan.  Accordingly, on the 19th, Rokurobei and one Jiuyemon started for the village of Iwahashi at noon, and arrived the same evening.

[Footnote 61:  A Buddhist deity.]

Now the village chief Sogoro, who had made up his mind that the presentation of this memorial was not a matter to be lightly treated, summoned his wife and children and his relations, and said to them—­

“I am about to undertake a journey to Yedo, for the following reasons:—­Our present lord of the soil has increased the land-tax, in rice and the other imposts, more than tenfold, so that pen and paper would fail to convey an idea of the poverty to which the people are reduced, and the peasants are undergoing the tortures of hell upon earth.  Seeing this, the chiefs of the various villages have presented petitions, but with what result is doubtful.