The Painting (42 page)

It takes a moment for Ayoshi to understand what the woman has asked. No, says Ayoshi. She pauses and looks at the decorated woman.

The woman clicks open her purse, pulls out a photograph, and proudly hands it to Ayoshi. She tells Ayoshi her husband left Japan several years ago to set up a tea and silk import company. I am told he is a very intelligent man.

Ayoshi nods numbly and hands the picture back to the woman. She glances at the empty seat next to her and sees a twig of cherry blossoms, its pale pink flowers, delicate, like a newborn. Most likely it fell out of someone’s bouquet. She fingers one flower, feels the soft velvet of its petal, smells the strong scent of green and the pure white, the hints of red and yellow, the soft
cream along the edges. With a sudden intensity, she pulls out her sketchbook and begins to draw.

Oh, you are an artist. Are you going to America to paint?

Ayoshi pauses, lets the words sink in, the shadow of apprehension slowly dissipating. Yes, she says. Yes, I am.

The woman smiles appreciatively and asks if she might see her work.

All of it was burned in a fire, says Ayoshi, glancing down at her book. She tells the woman she is going to begin all over again.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

F
IRST AND FOREMOST
, I am especially grateful to Professor Phyllis Burke for her thoughtful and careful attention to this novel. Without her, this novel would not have come to be.

Although this is a work of fiction, some of the places and events are based on historical fact. Many books were important to me in my research.
Paris Under Siege, 1870–1871: From the Goncourt Journal
, edited and translated by George J. Becker, was invaluable to re-creating life in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Alistair Horne’s
The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–71
lent insight into the machinations of the war. I’m indebted to
We Japanese
, by Frederic de Garis, for its descriptions of Japanese traditions, ceremonies, and customs; also
The Revolutionary Origins of Modern Japan
, by Thomas M. Huber, put the Meiji Era in context. I also want to thank my Japanese language teacher, Atsuko Sells, who spent many hours explaining Japanese customs as well as her life in Japan.

A thank-you to Peter Allen, Nancy Tompkins, and Hannelore Seeger for their generous comments and suggestions. A special thank-you to Michelle Tessler and Antonia Fusco for their unwavering belief in the book. And thank you, Peter Seeger, my dear husband, for never doubting.

Published by
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
Workman Publishing
708 Broadway
New York, New York 10003

© 2004 by Nina Schuyler.
All rights reserved.
First e-book edition, October 2012.

Basho haiku on page vii from
An Introduction to Haiku
by Harold G. Henderson,
copyright © 1958 by Harold G. Henderson. Used by permission of Doubleday,
a division of Random House, Inc.

Izumi Shikibu poem on page 61 from
The Ink Dark Moon
translated by Jane Hirschfield
and Mariko Aratani, copyright © 1990 by Jane Hirschfield and Mariko Aratani. Used by
permission of Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are
based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of
the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. No reference to any real person is
intended or should be inferred.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

E-book ISBN 978-1-56512-881-1