A date was set for a meeting between the prospective bride and groom. It was arranged that they should meet in 'neutral territory' – a tearoom in the clubhouse for the high-ranking retainers for their clan. As expected, the lady came with a chaperone, her personal maid. Young Kanbei too, was accompanied by his orderly Shichiroji. At first, the blond boy was worried that his commander would ruin the meeting with a sullen attitude, but to his relief, Kanbei at least made the effort to be polite.
Shichiroji guessed right. Chihiro was not too ugly. In fact, she was very far from ugly. The samurai woman had a pleasant oval face, shiny pale blue hair and flawless ebony skin. Her maid, in contrast, did not have flawless skin. An angry white scar crossed the servant's right cheek and part of her right ear was missing.
But the young man was not looking at the serving woman. He was looking at her fair mistress.
The mutual interview went well. In fact, better than Kanbei had hoped. The two samurai chatted amiably about their various tours of duty and asked politely after each other's work. The matchmaker was right. Lieutenant Hasegawa Chihiro seemed to be intelligent, disciplined and of good disposition. Kanbei did not see the effervescent cheerfulness that his aunt mentioned, but that would not be expected for a first meeting, which had to be conducted with appropriate reserve.
At length, the unsmiling maid spoke, "My lady, it is time to go." Chihiro excused herself and rose to leave with her dour maid.
Gazing after Chihiro's tall, graceful figure, the young officer smiled in spite of himself. Shichiroji grinned. It was the first time he had seen his master smile ever since he entered the service of the Shimada household.
Marriage was a matter of duty. Few men expected to love their wives or even like them. But Kanbei thought that perhaps loving Chihiro might not be too hard. Perhaps in the years to come, they will learn to love each other.
The cheeky voice of his orderly interrupted his thoughts. "You like her!" Shichiroji said brightly.
"You're out of line," Kanbei rebuked the boy mildly. But the officer did not sound too annoyed.
--
Later, in the Shimada household…"Did our son agree?" Shimada Seibei asked his wife Satomi. "It went well," the middle-aged woman replied as she beamed with joy.
Thus, a wedding date was set after the appropriate exchange of engagement gifts. If all went as planned, the young couple would be married before Kanbei had to return to the front.
--
In the Hasegawa estate…
"What will become of us after you wed, sister-friend?" The maid said to her mistress in the privacy of Chihiro's chamber.
"We will do what other women have always done. They marry and carry on as before. Their husbands allow it."
"I fear Shimada Kanbei is not that manner of man. What if he wishes to be rid of me?"
"I will not allow it. You will move with me to the Shimada house, and you will stay with me as my handmaid. "
"It will be agony for me to let another touch you." The scar-faced samurai said unhappily.
"But that is the only way. Our foremothers have not asked for anything different." The bride-to-be sighed.
"But I am not like them." The shorter woman said stubbornly. "I will have all or nothing."
"You want something that is beyond our reach." Chihiro replied resignedly.
"And above my station." The low-ranking samurai woman spat bitterly.
"If only one of us were a man. Then our way would be easier." Chihiro whispered as the two friends touched their foreheads together.
"Even if one of us had been a man, you would still be out of my reach," the brown-skinned samurai reminded her dark mistress. "For my household ranks far below yours."
Author's Comments:
As to the history of women-women liaisons, Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan suggests: "Lesbian relationships… were particularly common in the shogun's seraglio…" Such a phenomenon was not limited the Japan. The history of the Jin Dynasty (a Jurchen dynasty) in northern China records that all the Imperial Wives had maidservants dressed as men, whom they had for bed partners. Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan also mentioned records of women 'who despised liaisons with men' and preferred other women.
romantic friendships between women were also amply recorded in pre-modern Chinese literature, such as Pu Songling's Liaozhai Tales.