Looks like they're nowhere near us.
I guess that weather was too much even for the 7th.
I can't see them just giving up and going home, though.
They'll be expecting us to head down the mountain towards Abashiri.
Otaru
Asahikawa
Daisetsuzan Volcanic Group
Tokachi Region
Kushiro
Abashiri
We'll do what they're not expecting, head toward Tokachi, and shake them off.
Let's do it.
We told Kiroranke Nispa and the others to meet in Abashiri if we got separated.
I sent a telegram to Otaru to check on Huci when we left Yuubari.
Hitomai Post Office
We should get the answer here at this post office.
From who?
Asirpa's uncle.
He used to work with the Japanese,
so he knows how to read and write a little.
What does it say?
"Huci making raikurushiyuku."
What's "raikurushiyuku"?
Raykur Siyuk... a burial shroud.
When an elderly Ainu knows that death is near,
they prepare their own burial shroud in secret.
Why did you say that?
I just told her what the spirits told me.
There is a traitor near Asirpa-san.
I don't want Huci to die.
She fed me. She said the Ainu care for children.
She says you can't go to the next world without kids.
When an Ainu dies,
those left behind must perform a ritual before they can pass on to the afterlife.
So they'll raise any child,
even one not their own.
Cikapasi, don't worry.
I'll bring Asirpa back safe and cheer up Huci.
That's my job.
She fed me, too, so I'm one of her kids.
No way. You're her gigolo, Tanigaki Nispa.
He sure is.
The role in life I've been looking for...
Golden Kamuy
Several Months Ago
Lt. Tsurumi, have you ever heard of a food called kanemochi?
It's a portable emergency ration we Ani Matagi use.
We make one shaped like a ball and one shaped like an oval,
and take both into the mountains with us.
Supposedly the round one is the sun and the oval one is the moon.
Episode Eighteen Ani Nekko
Kanemochi, huh? I've never heard of it.
How's it taste? No different than other mochi?
We add water to rice powder,
then mix in miso or salt.
Knead thoroughly, wrap in a leaf,
and then bake in a covered pan in the ashes of the hearth.
Tozawa Matagi, by the way, are forbidden from adding miso to their kanemochi.
So each village has its own rules, huh?
My dad was a very stern and uncompromising man,
so I never told anybody,
but I actually did something a little special to my own kanemochi.
But one day another Matagi found out.
How?
We were hunting a wild goat we Matagi call an "aoshishi."
Matagi travel in small groups, and each member has a different role
to play in the hunt.
Ani
There's a scout called a mukaimatte who gives orders to the whole group.
Then two riflemen called matsumai.
And two seko who aren't allowed to use guns yet.
The seko's job is to shout and drive the prey into the riflemen's sights.
The bears that the Matagi call itazu have a tendency to run uphill into the mountains.
So the seko drive them toward the peak.
But the aoshishi are the opposite.
We try to drive them away from the peaks.
I was a seko, out with a boy a year older than me named Aoyama Kenkichi.
When we got to the peak, the weather suddenly changed.
We sought refuge in a cave,
but the blizzard continued, trapping us for days.
The beans and rice we'd brought quickly ran out.
The kanemochi serves as the last meal you can eat at times like that.
No matter how cold it gets, it doesn't freeze, and it never spoils.
And just nibbling a little fills you up.
Ken...
What?
I was just thinking this might be our last meal.
Hell no.
I'm surviving, even if I have to cook and eat you.
Hey, did you mix something in to this kanemochi?
What is this?
Wait. Don't tell me.
I'll guess.
It's...
I know! Walnuts!
You put walnuts into it, Genjirou.
Yup. But don't tell my dad, Kenkichi.
Hey, Genjirou...
We're getting out of this alive.
Yeah.
After that, Kenkichi married my younger sister, Fumi,
and we became in-laws.
I see.
Fumi and Kenkichi lived quietly a ways up on a mountain, away from the village.
On that day, I was making kanemochi at home.
My brother came in from outside, with a look on his face like I'd never seen before.
Fumi is...!
When I saw the panic in his eyes, I felt like I'd been stabbed with an icicle.
By the time I arrived, the little hut where the two of them lived was already...
Inside, I found her body burnt to a crisp.
Why?
What happened? What happened?!
Fumi!
There was a stab wound in her heart.
And next to her, Kenkichi's masuke.
The short blade we call a masuke is the soul of a Matagi.
Kenkichi was nowhere to be found.
Where the hell is Kenkichi?
Our son has never come back here! Please don't hurt us!
You're not hiding him, are you?
I searched everywhere for him, but never found him.
But one day, I heard a rumor that he'd joined the 7th in Hokkaido.
Give it up, Genjirou. Don't abandon Ani for revenge.
Don't waste your life.
I can't give up after he killed my sister!
Screw being a Matagi. I'm never going back.
There were 37 Tondenhei villages in Hokkaido.
Between my military training and the farming I did,
I looked for Kenkichi, but had no luck.
Just before we left for war,
my brother sent me a message telling me my mother was dead.
Fumi's brutal death. The fact that I'd abandoned my homeland to go to war.
The two of them were too much for her frail heart. She quickly became sick and died.
My hatred swelled as I told myself Kenkichi was responsible for everything.
If I went to Port Arthur, where the soldiers from Hokkaido were gathering,
I could find Kenkichi.
And when I found him, I'd wait for my chance in the middle of the battle,
and shoot him from behind!
Golden Kamuy
Lushun
I saw a haggard man sitting in the corner of one of the trenches.
His face was so covered in blood,
either his own or that of an enemy, that I couldn't make it out, but...
A white sash...
This man is a survivor of last night's suicide charge!
I'm amazed he survived.
Got any food?
Y-Yeah.
Eat.
Thanks.
I appreciate it.
It's got a firm texture. Is this... mochi?
I taste miso. Is it some kind of Akita dish?
How did you know it was Akita?
I knew it.
The way you said "eat" just now.
That's Akita dialect, right?
There was a private in the 1st Division, where I'm from,
who was from a place called Ani in Akita.
He told me about it.
He said he was a hunter back home before he came to Tokyo.
It was Kenkichi.
I'd finally found my sister's killer.
He'd gone to Tokyo, not Hokkaido.
The soldiers at Hill 203 were from the Hokkaido 7th, the Shikoku 11th,
the Kanazawa 9th, and the Tokyo 1st.
Yes.
The gods had helped me find my sister's killer.
That's how it felt to me.
I wanted to go find him immediately,
but I knew if I saw him, I'd lose control.
I still had the mental calmness left to want to
bring an end to this journey of revenge in the middle of a battle,
where I wouldn't be caught.
But that hill...
...wasn't the sort of place where I'd have time to look for Kenkichi.
The Russians threw grenades, and we threw them right back.
As we began to push them back further and further,
they tied grenades to their bodies and jumped into our trenches.
That was rough.
One Russian would take out ten of us.
And then another came.
Stop him!
Two or three hits from a Type 30 didn't even slow him down.
And then a lone man came running out of one of the trenches.
Kenkichi!
Kenkichi just barely survived.
At last, the moment I'd been waiting for was here.
That's how it seemed to me.
Kenkichi, I finally found you!
I'll stab you in the heart, just like you did to Fumi!
Tanigaki, he's done for.
He can't even hear you.
His eardrums have probably been destroyed!
Fumi...
The battle had just reached a stalemate, and the whole place became strangely quiet.
Why? Why'd you kill Fumi, Kenkichi?
Wh-Who are you?
I don't know who you are.
But I want you to take a message...
...to a man named Tanigaki in Ani, up in Akita.
I married the Tanigaki family's daughter.
She was so beautiful. Far too good for me.
The two of us lived quietly, deep in the mountains.
One day, she became sick with smallpox.
Don't tell my mom or dad.
Fumi!
If you do, they'll get worried and come here.
And if it spreads to them...
Fumi!
You can't stay here, either.
Wh-What are you saying?
We'll die together!
When a member of a mountain family catches smallpox,
we abandon that family member so it won't spread.
But I couldn't do it.
I'd heard a story about animals finding their way into an abandoned home,
and killing the defenseless sick people inside.
I couldn't let her die alone.
But she refused to allow it.
If it was found out that one of the Tanigakis got smallpox,
the rest of the village would shun them.
The other Matagi would refuse to hunt with the rest of her family.
She wanted me to kill her and leave the village before anyone found out.
She covered her pox-riddled face with a cloth, and said to me...
If it doesn't spread to you,
you must decide how to spend the rest of your life.
Find your role in life.
Fumi...
And at last, I...
The two of us both thought of a way for her to suffer as little as possible.
I am a hunter, so I used the method I knew best.
Just like Fumi told me, I burned down our home,
and left the village without telling her family about her death.
I've spent the rest of my life bearing the guilt of killing her.
My actions have caused great pain to her family.
If I can heal those wounds in any way...
Please.
Please, tell this story to Tanigaki-sama in Ani, Akita.
Kanemochi with walnuts...
Genjirou, is that you?
And then, he died.
Kenkichi found his role in life,
and spent the rest of his days carrying it out.
Every day I ask myself, what is my role in life?
I can't go back to Ani now.
I can't face my brother or father.
Tanigaki...
I need you.
First, will you start by making me
some of these kanemochi with walnuts?
Of course.
Kushiro Marsh
Hey, look at that.
Somebody's dancing all the way out there.
Isn't that Asirpa?
This is a dance from Kushiro, huh?
The sarorunrimse...
The crane dance.
Somebody's coming.
Look! I knew it, it's Asirpa!
Cikapasi and Cironnup...
And Tanigaki.
How?
Next Time: Kamuy Hopunire
Next Time: "Kamuy Hopunire."