After the quake blind willow, sleeping woman dance dance dance

thing
that 
had crawled out of a hole in the earth—a slimy thing of uncertain shape that in fact 
was not 
supposed
to come out into the light. He might conceivably be one of the 
things that Professor Ebisuno had lured out from under a rock. Tengo unconsciously 
wrinkled his brow and placed the business card, which was still in his hand, on the 
table. Toshiharu Ushikawa. That was this man’s name. 
“I am sure that you are very busy, Mr. Kawana, so with your permission I will 
abbreviate any preliminary background and proceed directly to the heart of the 
matter,” Ushikawa said. 
Tengo answered with a little nod. 
Ushikawa took a sip of tea and launched into the business at hand. “You have 
probably never heard of the New Japan Foundation for the Advancement of 
Scholarship and the Arts, Mr. Kawana.” Tengo nodded. “We are a relatively new 
foundation that concentrates on selecting and supporting young people—especially 
those young people who are not yet widely known—who are engaged in original 
activity in the fields of scholarship and the arts. In other words, our aim is to nourish 

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the budding youth who will carry the next generation on their shoulders in all fields of 
Japan’s contemporary culture. We contract with specialists to propose candidates for 
us in each category. We choose five artists and scholars each year and provide them 
with grants. They can do anything they like for one year, no strings attached. All we 
ask is that they submit a simple report at the end of their year—a mere formality—
outlining their activities and results, to be included in the foundation’s magazine. 
Nothing more burdensome than that. We have just begun this activity, so the 
important thing for us is to produce tangible results. We are, in other words, still in 
the seed-planting stage. In concrete terms, what this means is that we will provide 
each recipient with an annual stipend of three million yen.” 
“Very generous,” Tengo said. 
“It takes both time and money to build up or discover something important. Of 
course, time and money are not in themselves a guarantee of great results, but they 
can’t hurt. The total amount of time available is especially limited. The clock is 
ticking as we speak. Time rushes past. Opportunities are lost right and left. If you 
have money, you can buy time. You can even buy freedom if you want. Time and 
freedom: those are the most important things that people can buy with money.” 
Hearing this, Tengo almost reflexively glanced at his watch. True, time was ticking 
past without a letup. 
“Sorry for taking so much of your time,” Ushikawa added, obviously interpreting 
Tengo’s gesture as a demonstration of his own argument. “Let me be quick about this. 
These days, of course, a mere three million yen is not going to enable a lavish 
lifestyle, but it ought to help a young person pay the bills very nicely. Which is our 
basic purpose: to make it possible for recipients to spend a full year concentrating on 
their research or creative projects without struggling to support themselves. And if the 
governing board determines at the end-of-year evaluation that the person produced 
noteworthy results during the period, the possibility remains for the stipend to be 
extended beyond the single year.” 
Tengo said nothing but waited for Ushikawa to continue. 
“The other day I took the liberty of listening to you lecture for a full hour here at 
the cram school, Mr. Kawana. Believe me, I found it 
very
interesting. I am a total 
outsider when it comes to mathematics, or should I say I’ve always been terrible at it 
and absolutely hated math class in school. I just had to hear the word ‘mathematics’ to 
start writhing in agony and to run away as far as I could. But your lecture, Mr. 
Kawana, was utterly enjoyable. Of course, I didn’t understand a thing about the logic 
of calculus, but just listening to you speak about it, I thought, if it’s really so 
interesting, I ought to start studying math. You can be proud of yourself. You have a 
special talent—a talent for drawing people in, should I say. I had heard that you were 
a popular teacher, and I could see why.” 
Tengo had no idea when or where Ushikawa could have heard him lecture. He 
always paid close attention to who was in the room when he was teaching, and though 
he had not memorized every student’s face, he could never have missed anyone as 
strange-looking as Ushikawa, who would have stood out like a centipede in a sugar 
bowl. He decided not to pursue the matter, however, which would only have 
prolonged a conversation that was already too long. 

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“As you must know, Mr. Ushikawa, I’m just an employee here, somebody the 
cram school hires to teach a few courses,” Tengo began, anxious to waste as little 
time as possible. “I don’t do any original research in mathematics. I just take 
knowledge that is already out there and explain it to students as simply and 
entertainingly as I can. All I’m doing is teaching them more effective methods for 
solving problems on college placement tests. I may have a certain talent for that, but I 
gave up the idea of being a professional researcher in the field a long time ago. For 
one thing, I couldn’t afford to stay in school any longer, and I never thought I had the 
aptitude or the ability to make a name for myself in the academic world. In that sense, 
I’m just not the kind of person you’re looking for.” 
Ushikawa hurriedly raised his hand. “No, that’s not what I’m getting at at all. I’m 
sorry, I might have made this more complicated than it has to be. It’s true that your 
math lectures are interesting and unique and original. But I didn’t come here today 
about that. What we have our eye on, Mr. Kawana, is your activity as a novelist.” 
Tengo was so unprepared for this that he was momentarily at a loss for words. 
“My activity as a novelist?” 
“Exactly.” 
“I don’t understand. It’s true, I’ve been writing fiction for several years, but 
nothing of mine has ever been published. You can’t call someone like that a novelist. 
How could I have possibly attracted your attention?” 
At Tengo’s reaction, Ushikawa smiled in great delight, revealing a mouthful of 
horribly crooked teeth. Like seaside pilings that had been hit by huge waves, they 
pointed off in all directions and were befouled in a great many ways.