Great Construction
Life Before Faith 2
As I have been particularly fond of movies since youth, there was a time when I wanted to become a movie director. But when you think about it, even if one were successful as a movie director, it is not a big deal, so I decided to make a success of myself in the movie industry. I first took it into my head to construct a movie theater and aimed for that goal, but then I heard about someone who had been able to obtain the proper licensing for the establishment of a theater and was having difficulties with insufficient capital. I thought the situation sounded promising, and I promptly met with this person where I confirmed the circumstances for which I became enthusiastic. In the beginning we agreed to be equal partners, but as our project progressed it was decided that I would be the head of the enterprise. In any case, it was a period when commodities were cheap, and we established a joint stock company with a paid-up capital of 25,000 yen [100 million yen in 2020] for which I received one-half of the stock certificates. Of course, I became the senior managing director, and an appropriate site was found that was quickly purchased. Construction was started. However, I was completely inexperienced in the entertainment industry and related businesses, so matters were not easy, but as I believed that experience is everything, with much anguish I persevered, and although on a small scale, a movie theater was built. We prepared for the opening.
In those days, however, unlike today, action-photograph halls had to employ personnel such as reconteurs and musicians of both Japanese and Western music. For this, notifications and gifts had to be distributed to dignitaries and influential men in the district, but since we were involved with a way of doing business entirely different from that to which we had been accustomed, the trouble it took was not easily overcome. On top of that, behind this company was a complete amateur, a greenhorn who was crazily plunging right into their world. I was looked down upon and made light of and I did not know what to do.
But there was something indeed peculiar. That is, from the very beginning, I experienced a condition of unknown cause. Whether in aspects of construction or in other routine matters that would come up, when the appointed day came around for me to visit some place, just as if on schedule, I would get a fever or experience some other kind of unpleasantness. Repeatedly I experienced this and tried to leave my home for appointments, but the surprising thing was on opening day. Since I was the managing director, I had invited dignitaries such as the ward boss, district head, and other local luminaries, so I had to be there myself, but in the morning when the day arrived, I came down with a fever of forty degrees, and even though I huffed and puffed, I could not do anything and had to ask a deputy to take my place. The whole series of events was just inexplicable.
Somehow the theater managed to open, but the peculiar occurrences continued. After opening, I was supposed to go to the theater every other day, but when I did so, the moment I got in the theater door, my back would start to hurt. It was so bad that as I would go to climb the stairs, I had to grab hold of the stair railing and crawl up. When I returned home, my back was all right again. One person who heard this account told me that it might be a curse and that he knew the ascetic of a certain sect who could determine such things. He suggested I have the priest give the place a look. I had him examine the theater, and the priest said that the face of a dead person appeared in the middle of the stage. I felt a chill when said that the face was scowling in a hateful manner. In those days I was still a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, so I did not entirely believe the story, but since peculiar things continued to happen, I thought to myself, I guess there might be such things. When I pulled away from the business, I felt better day by day.
Now when I think of what happened, I understand that in consideration of my mission, God was indicating I should not get involved in such a business and stopped me.
An Account of Myself, 1952, unpublished
translated by cynndd
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“Mushinkō Jidai 2” was written as a chapter in a volume to be titled Watakushi Monogatari (An Account of Myself) that is now dated 1952. Meishu-sama never finished a completed manuscript for this volume and none of the contents were ever published while Meishu-sama was alive. Another chapter in manuscript that remains in which Meishu-sama details his struggles with adversities is also titled “Mushinkō Jidai.” Whether Meishu-sama provisionally named these chapters, or whether he intended both to be titled such and distinguished them by “1” and “2,” or whether these numbers were added later by anthology editors to distinguish manuscripts of the same name in progress (more probable) is unknown. “Mushinkō Jidai 2” has never appeared in a Japanese anthology nor in translation. Another aspect that shows how An Account of Myself was left in early stages of development is that there is also the manuscript in the volume for a chapter titled “The Cinema and I.”