Goroji Suga and Eriko Fukami arrived at Ofuna Station from Tokyo on the Shonan train. It was nearly 7:00 pm when they got out of the ticket gate.
They dropped in at a soba-noodle restaurant, familiar to them, on the 7th floor of the station building and took dinner with hot sake.
They went home by taxi and Suga got off first.
When he entered his house on the 10th floor of the condominium, Sachiko, wife of his son Koichi, was anxiously waiting for him.
"Grandpa, I received a phone call from Yaizu City that your friend died. Would you call back now?"
She shows her memo to him.
Suga dials to Yaizu and accepts their request to have some message of condolence as a representative of his friends.

With this and that two days later, he attended the funeral in Yaizu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. He left there late at night since a chat about various topics lasted long, and came home at midnight.
He found the document on the table from Takenaka Corp., but, too tired to open it, went straight to bed.
The radio-cassette player at the bedside begins to sound a rakugo vaudeville instead of a lullaby.
Next to the popular intro theme,
"Well..., I am going to talk about something silly and incoherent..."
It is master Kokontei Shinsho as usual.
"... in the old days... Shinagawa was called South, ... Senju ... called skelton, ..."
He has already fallen asleep with regular breathing.

-----
<The Four Gods with sparkling eyes are just before me. ... I get melt in the flaming heat...>
Suga woke up breathing out at a stretch from the breast. It was before 5 o'clock, still dark.

He puts on a cardigan over pajamas, boils water in a kettle and pours home-roasted coffee into a mug. The aroma of Mocha flavor drifts in the air.
This mug was presented by Eriko Fukami who bought it at the china museum in Meissen, Germany several years ago. A simple gilt-edged white mug, designed with two small blue swords crossed each other, shows the year 1952 at the under part.
Murmuring "Half a century...," he sips the straight coffee with a strong acidic taste. The new day of the elderly began.

Suga takes out the document from a home-delivery pack. It is the copy of what he saw in the meeting room of Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei the other day, with the front cover of Tokyo Commercial College.

He opens the page of "Kanematsu Memorial Auditorium" with a notebook on the side. It is written in the old Japanese kana usage.

This college suffered a misfortune by the Great Kanto Earthquake in September, Taisho 12 (1923), and all the school buildings were destroyed. Immediately the college worked out the recovery plan and decided to move to Kunitachi, west of Tokyo. ... It also decided to construct the new school buildings from Showa 3 (1928) spending for five years.

Suga goes on reading carefully.

1. In Taisho 13 (1924), Kanematsu Company proposed to Tokyo Commercial College (TCC) that it would build the auditorium as the memorial event in honor of the 13th anniversary of Fusajiro Kanematsu's death and would donate it. Kanematsu Auditorium began construction in August 8, Taisho 15 (1926) and was completed in August 31, Showa 2 (1927). 2. Executives of Kanematsu Company Toranosuke Kitamura, Matsushiro Fujii, Sotaro Hayashi, Unosuke Maeda, ... 3. Members of the architectural committee Zensaku Sano (representative), Chuta Itoh, Sentaro Iura, Sotaro Hayashi, Mitsuki Hori, Taro Hoshino, Tadayuki Nasa, Gen Murase, Teijiro Ueda, Renkichi Uchiike, Zenichi Kurokawa, Unosuke Maeda, Kakuhei Matsui, Matsushiro Fujii, Keikichiro Kimura, Tsunaichi Gozen, Keitaro Shibagaki 4. Design Manager: Chuta Itoh, Construction Manager: Kakuhei Matsui, Design Chief: Kanae Tokuoka, Site Formen: Kozaburo Takatsuka, Kyoji Nunokawa, Tetsu Morita 5. Constructor: Takenaka Corporation

Suga's eyes fall on the article of a certain architect. He sits up and sips half-drunk coffee.

... I had the most interest in the Kanematsu Auditorium of TCC designed by Chuta Itoh and completed lately. The architecture in Romanesque style has an exquisite mixture of Eastern and Western characteristics. ... Especially the grotesque sculptures at a capital, bases, stairs and everywhere inside are an uninhibited and unusual design which is the unique way of Dr. Itoh and clearly emerges his identity never imitated by any others. Besides, an enormous number of grotesque monsters are all different kinds of patterns and elaborate crafts. I cannot miss the most enthusiasm and sincerity in every sculpture. In addition I would like to express my best respect for his sincere and earnest attitude in the design.

The words of gratitude of Zensaku Sano, president, are a little long.

Kanematsu Company donated to us this large auditorium as the memorial event in honor of the 13th anniversary of Mr. Fusajiro Kanematsu's death. When I asked the design to Dr. Itoh, he sympathized with our college's thought and determination as well as the ambitions of Kanematsu Company. Dr. Itoh, under this impression, gave his ready consent to our plan in spite of his busy jobs. He not only demonstrated all of his scholarship, experience and ability to the design, but he actively reflected his opinion in the bidding condition and so on. During the construction period he came here to Kunitachi of Musashino Wilderness far from Hongo of Tokyo not only every Sunday but also on week days whenever he could. He did not leave the designs to other people in charge, other than that, he fulfilled to make most of the sculptures by himself. He never minded any stains on his clothes and kneaded clay himself. Also in order to proceed everything satisfactorily, he directed Mr. Kakuhei Matsui, his beloved pupil, as a supervisor, and all the people in charge of construction were his pupils.

"Breakfast is ready, Grandpa."
Sachiko and a grand child call him.
"Thank you."
Coming back in mind, he looked up and saw Mt. Fuji strikingly large in the clear sky.