Rurouni Kenshin Chapter 229
Thanks to Shizuki for this "Mini Summary"!
The ugly man is explaining to Sanosuke that he wants to
control/buy out the silk market in the village, because
silk is being exported ever since Japan opened it's
ports. But there is one guy getting in the way of the
deal he's working w/.. so they would like Sano to get
rid of the man.
<skip the section w/ Hiruma Bros>
The note attached to the arrow states a time & place for
a duel.
Uki<?> asks where he's going.. is he going to fight when
they have to make the straw hats by tonight.
When Sano & the man meet, Sano is surpised to see him.
The man asks, "is there something on my face?" and Sano
mumbles, "oyaji." (= dad.. but cruder, guy-ish way)
The man responds, "Sanosuke...?" then says, "well, I used
to have a son, but he ran away from home 10 years ago with
some kangun imposter named Sagara"
Sano replies, "yeah, i used to be 'Sanosuke,' but I'm
now 'Sagara Sanosuke'"
Note: in the Tokugawa period, peasants weren't allowed
to leave their village w/o permission, although
by the time Sano left home, that law wasn't
enforced as much.
Note 2: peasants officially did NOT have last names
during the Tokugawa period. remember that
in
the flashback scene, Sano asks Sagara if
he
can have a last name when all classes
become
equal.
The man says something about him acting as a father for
Sano, just because he happens to have the same name as
his "disowned" son... and they fight.
After they're exhausted, Sano & dad talk about things.
The dry field (hatake) they had was destroyed by the
silk buyer because he was resisting to their attempt
to control the silk market. So in order to keep Uki and
Outa from starving, they make straw hats at home to sell.
Sano asks his dad why he bothers to go against them,
when the silk buyers are making their lives miserable.
The dad says, "remember how this village was before?
because it was so remote, no matter how good the daikon
(japanese raddish) or the silk was, no one would travel
the distance to buy them, so they had to sell them
cheap. finally the village is able to have 3 meals a
day with white rice.." so he doesn't want the village
to go back to how it was.
Sano asks about the "backup" the silk buyer was
talking about. His dad tells him that the buyer has
an ex-Ishin Shishi on their side, who's in a high
political position.
The silk buyer is drinking w/ the politician, who is
his uncle. Thanks him for helping him since he was a
riki-shi (sumo wrestler). The uncle says something about
it being a lot of trouble when the buyer almost killed
his (sumo) master.
Sano's dad goes home, and Uki notices that he's in a
good mood.. "did something good happen?"
Meanwhile Sano thinks, "an Ishin Shishi again? No matter
where i go (what i do?), i can't clear my head about it"