"I'm already old, having spent most of my life right here," she said, "and I've seen a lot of tragic but compelling things happen here in the Hollow- everything from the Base Movement to the Church of the Flaming Green Tree. After the church disappeared, though, the young workers in this area just seemed to shrivel up and die, and even a staunch supporter like Mr. Matsuo went back to his temple.
"I was worried that the local spirits might get too frustrated. That's what happened just before and after the Meiji Restoration, when the riots took place.
The local spirits here have a history of stirring things up. And just while I was thinking these things, look what happened-you all decided to take over the chapel and monastery! I feel revitalized now, and I'm hoping that before I pass away something exciting will happen, just like the old days! Admit it, Mr. Matsuo, you feel the same way, don't you? The other day I stopped by the Church of the Flaming Green Tree Farm, and things seem much livelier than before. You all don't know about the Farm yet, but Mr. Soda has been interested in it for quite some time. The wife of the church's founder, who helped build the chapel and planned the monasteries, is running it with a small number of friends."
The rain continued to strike the surface of the lake forcefully, sending up a thick material, neither mist nor fog, rising up toward the dam. The splashes from the raindrops at their feet grew higher.
"Let's go inside," Asa-san said. "It's silly of me to expect you to sympa- thize with my feelings regarding this land. Besides, Mr. Matsuo's trying to keep me from getting too worked up."
"As if I had the strength to do that," the chief priest demurred, but this time he went first, leading Ogi and Dancer into the grounds of the compound.
At the end of the dam there was a metal staircase skirting the end of a stone wall that, old though it was, had been put to good use. At the top of the stairs a cobblestone path ran straight to the east. On both sides were Western- style wooden structures that looked like school buildings. As it had appeared from the dam, the roof of the building on the forest side was just slightly taller than the one nearer the lake. Ogi and Dancer walked around the monastery, a fitting name at least from outward appearances, and peeked into the kitchen, the laundry room, and the storage rooms.
The lakeside corner of the east dorm, the part of the building fronting the courtyard that led to the chapel, was set up as an office, while its counter- part in the forest-side dorm was a detached wing with a high watchtower- like roof. Hesitantly yet persuasively, Asa-san suggested that Patron and those who helped him might live there. A passageway connected the dorms and the chapel, covering a concrete ditch down which a roiling swath of water flowed to the lake.
Looking down at the water, Asa-san said, "It's raining a lot today, but even when it isn't there's a spring on the forest side always flowing into the lake. If there's anybody in your church who's done some farming, they could grow something there, since there's so much water. Behind the building on the forest side there's a fairly substantial piece of land running east and west.
That's part of the building's grounds and part of your land."
With Asa-san leading the way, Ogi and Dancer went into the chapel.
The rainy sky and the half dome on the conical ceiling were bright, but only a dim light--like a collision of intersecting prisms-filtered into the rest of the building from the windows on the wall of the cylinder that were uncov- ered. There was enough light for them to look around the interior, however.
Muffled rain beat against the solid roof. In the faint light, over two hundred chairs lined up in a fan shape threw shadows on the floor, and at the focal point stood a solid-looking lectern. Mr. Matsuo, coming in later, appeared at the entrance.
"I turned on the electricity," he said to Asa-san. "Shall I turn on the lights or keep it as is?"
"Why don't you turn them on. We're transferring this over as a build- ing I've taken care of, rather than as a church, so there's no need for us to get all pious about it."
"I just thought it would be nice to look outside from the chapel without any lights on," Mr. Matsuo said disappointedly, and threw the main switch.
Once the bright lights were on, the cylindrical building looked just like a modern concert hall. The walls were as Mr. Soda had said, lustrous from a high-tech high-pressure paint job. In contrast, from a set height up to the ceiling, the walls turned decidedly rough, with porous soundproof- ing boards overlying the concrete. With everything brightly lit, the windows and entrance door seemed to match, though they had had an odd look ear- lier in the dimness.
"What a magnificent hall!" Dancer said in admiration. She'd been silent up till then. "There's a piano, too, and wonderful audio equipment."
"The control room is next to the entrance," Mr. Matsuo replied.
"The floor is solid too."
"Most people ask about the acoustics," Mr. Matsuo said happily. "But you're right. The floor is solidly built."
"She's a professional dancer, you see," Ogi interjected, and Asa-san, as you might expect someone from the country to do, gave Dancer a careful once-over.
"I'm hoping you'll make full use of all the chapel's facilities," she said, a more formal look on her face now. "Will Patron give his sermons here? The other church had its sermons here, but also concerts open to the public that everyone could enjoy. Though it seems ages ago… There hasn't been a single concert here in the last fifteen years. As I said before, once the Church of the Flaming Green Tree was gone, everyone seemed to shrink back into their shells. Which is another reason why I'm so happy that new people will be coming here."
The light inside hit some broad-leaf tree branches, blown by a gust of wind, scraping against the east windows. Mr. Matsuo half turned to check out the movement and took up from Asa-san, his tone changed from before.
"The Base Movement had us all excited as kids, and the Church of the Flaming Green Tree movement, too, inspired the entire valley. I was so wrapped up in it from day to day I had no time to consider how it all fit into the history of this region… Now that I look back on it, though, I can see Asa-san is right-it may very well have been on the same scale as the insur- rections in 1860 and 1871. Even people who weren't directly involved got swept up in it. And after things settled down everyone became indifferent to the church. If it hadn't been for the funding from your headquarters, the extension of the monastery and even the chapel itself would have gone to wrack and ruin. Despite Asa-san's Herculean efforts, it's beyond one person's strength to keep them all up.
"Asa-san, here's what I think. I understand how happy you are that new people will be using the buildings for their activities. But as of today our roles as managers of the chapel and the monastery are over. We need to accept the fact that the beliefs of the people who will be coming here are different from the other church. After everything's been handed over, I think it would be better if we take a step or two back. Of course, if you find yourself in sympa- thy with this new movement, that's a different story."
"I wasn't even a follower of the Church of the Flaming Green Tree,"
Asa-san said. "I just helped them from the outside. Have you forgotten that?
The reason I was attracted by what the young people were doing in the Hol- low was just what the architect who designed this chapel said: 'There's power in the place.' I believe there really is such a thing as the power of a place. People have used the expression power of the land down through the ages.