Around the time of the cat-and-mouse story, the Tokugawa clan was at the end of its reign (in the year 15, I believe), and the times were changing rapidly, with many disturbances continuing to occur.

In addition, the weather at that time was extremely unfavorable, with continuous bad harvests, heavy rainfall, and dreary weather every day. The price of rice was as high as 2.8 to the yen (2.8 shaku per sen). It was natural that the world would be in an uproar if the price of rice, which had previously been 4 to the yen, soared this high. However, just because rice became more expensive, it did not mean that everyday necessities also became more expensive. On the other hand, a single piece of Sawan (a type of pickled dumpling) is now as expensive as a piece of Tenpo at 72 cents. In other words, the economic world was in a disorderly condition. 　At this time, the world was at a standstill, and a commotion among the impoverished suddenly broke out. 　When a certain person passed by the neighborhood of a trifoliate temple in Nakanogo, he saw a large group of people with paper and weed flags flying, shouting a war cry, breaking down rice stores, and taking away the rice without permission. As I told my neighbor about what I had witnessed yesterday, he said, “Strange things happen, strange stories.

The outburst has already spread throughout Edo City, and there are frequent outbreaks of the “poor people’s commotion” here and there. It was truly frightening how quickly it spread, a kind of mob mentality, and the whole world was filled with this rumor, and people’s hearts were panicked. 　Some people said, “There is a sign on the front of a certain big shop. 　I heard that the signboard of a certain big store had been torn down and taken to Mt. Strange things happen. It is a strange thing. Everyone listening to the story had a strange look on their faces. They said that in the past, when there was a rice riot, the Oyakashu came out and did something like that. He was thinking in his gut that it must have been the same thing this time, which made him even more anxious, and he was getting more and more excited about the situation. 　While I was working in my master’s store, even as a child, I could not help but worry about my parents as I heard all this chatter. Even while I was working diligently, I would suddenly think of home, and I would stop my work and think of my parents. I wonder what my father would be doing right now. I wonder what my mother is doing. When I think back to ……, I feel that I can’t leave my master’s house alone.

When I was a child, my father sacrificed himself for the family because of his parent’s physical illness. I am much older than the age at which my father devoted himself to the family, and yet here I am, sitting comfortably at my master’s house, looking the other way at the family and my parents. This is not the time for this. I must help my father in his time of need, just as he did. –I must do what my father did. 　I couldn’t help but think this way. 　One day, at dusk, I left my master’s house and returned to my parent’s house in silence. My father looked at me with a rare look. My mother, however, still had something kind to say to me. 　I turned to my father. 　I have heard so many rumors about the world and how noisy it is, that I am worried about our house. 　I said something to the effect that I was afraid to say. I thought that this would relieve my father’s anxiety and soften his countenance, but I was wrong, for he came in with a terrible, stern voice, shouting at me.

Have you forgotten what I said, you idiot? The night before you left for your master’s house for the first time, what did I say to you? Once you go to the master’s house, no matter what happens, you must not step over the threshold of this house before your age is up. What did you hear in my heart when I told you that I would break my ankle if I came back on the way to the master’s house? When I was a child, I became a half-hearted person who could not learn a job due to the family’s circumstances. I would not send you on an apprenticeship if I were counting on your help, no matter how much noise you make in the world or how poor you are. What can you do if you live in your master’s house for a year and then leave him halfway through your apprenticeship without completing your apprenticeship? Don’t be so cocky as to say, “I’ll go back and help my parents. I have acquaintances and contacts. I can’t show my face to the world if I leave an insolent person like you at home, who came back half-heartedly. I’ll cut off the relationship between father and son as of today, so do as you please. I’d like to break your legs, as I said before, but I’ll give you a break just for this evening. I’d like to break your legs, but I won’t do it tonight.

This is why this is a truly frightening spectacle. I was afraid that if I hesitated, I might actually break my ankles, but my father’s stern rebuke made me realize how wrong I was, so I apologized to him on the spot and said with tears in my eyes, “I will never be a scoundrel again. 　I see. That is all I need to know. I have an elder son, Minosuke, and you are my second son, but to my mother, you are her only child, so I forgive you this time for your mother’s sake. Until you become a full-fledged human being, I will not ask you to borrow my arm, no matter what happens to you. Do not think about home, work hard and serve your master. That is what you must do. If you understand, that’s all that matters. 　My mother made tea and sweets for him, and that evening he went back to his master’s house to work even harder. 　If my father had not given me such a lesson, if he had spoken to me in a lenient manner, or if he had tried to borrow even a little help from me for his own reasons, I could almost have imagined what my future would have been like. If I had been a normal person, I would not have been so harshly and clearly punished as my father was, but I do not know how happy I would have been to have been rebuked so harshly.

My father, as I have often said before, was a man of pure temperament, honest and true to his word. When he retired in later years, he received an allowance from me and went to visit the gods, etc., and he spent the allowance he received in a beautiful way. …… Rather than spending it on himself, he would buy whatever he could find of Edo’s specialties and give them to his family as souvenirs, and we would all take them home as tea. The old-fashioned temperament has not changed a bit, as everyone is happy to make tea together and eat it. Often, the souvenirs included o-hagi from Shibaguchi, tata-mochi from Shinmei, and daikoku-zushi from Tsuchihashi.