back and we get into his green sports car. A Mazda Miata with the top down. My backpack's too big for the little trunk, so we tie it down tight on the rear rack.
'It's a long drive, so we'll stop along the way for dinner,' Oshima says. He turns the ignition key and starts up the engine.
'Where are we headed?'
'Kochi,' he replies. 'Ever been there?'
I shake my head. 'How far is it?'
'It'll take us about two and a half hours to get where we're going. Toward the south, over the mountains.'
'You don't mind going so far?'
'It's okay. It's a straight shot, and it's still light out. And I've got a full tank.'
We drive through the twilit city streets, then get on the highway heading west. Oshima changes lanes smoothly, slipping in between other cars, effortlessly shifting gears. Each time the hum of the engine changes slightly. When he shifts gears and floors it, the little car's soon zipping along at over ninety.
'The car's specially tuned, so it's got a lot of pickup. This isn't your ordinary Miata. Do you know much about cars?'
I shake my head. Cars are definitely not my specialty. 'Do you enjoy driving?' I ask.
'The doctor made me give up any risky sports. So instead I drive. Compensation.'
'Is something wrong with you?'
'The medical name's kind of long, but it's a type of hemophilia,' Oshima says casually. 'Do you know what that is?'
'I think so,' I say. I learned about it in biology class. 'Once you start bleeding you can't stop. It's genetic, where the blood doesn't coagulate.'
'That's right. There're all kinds of hemophilia, and the type I have is pretty rare. It's not such a bad type of the disease, but I have to be careful not to get injured. Once I start bleeding I have to go to the hospital. Besides, these days there're problems with the blood supply in hospitals. Dying a slow death from AIDS isn't an option for me. So I've made some connections in town to supply me with safe blood, just in case. Because of my disease I don't go on trips. Except for regular checkups at the university hospital in Hiroshima, I hardly ever leave town. It's not so bad, though-I never did like traveling or sports all that much anyway. I can't use a kitchen knife, so doing any real cooking's out, which is kind of a shame.'
'Driving's a risky enough sport,' I tell him.
'It's a different kind of risk. Whenever I drive I try to go as fast as I can. If I'm in an accident driving fast I won't just wind up getting a cut finger. If you lose a lot of blood, there's no difference between a hemophiliac and anybody else. It evens things out, since your chances of survival are the same. You don't have to worry about things like blood coagulation or anything, and can die without any regrets.'
'I see.'
'Don't worry,' Oshima laughs. 'I'm not going have an accident. I'm a careful driver and don't push it. I keep my car in top condition, too. Besides, when I die I want to die quietly, all by myself.'
'Taking someone else with you, then, isn't an option either.'
'You got it.'
We pull into a rest stop restaurant for dinner. I have chicken and a salad, he orders the seafood curry and a salad. Just something to fill our stomachs, is the best you could say about it. Oshima pays the bill, and we climb into the car again. It's already gotten dark. He steps on the accelerator and the tachometer shoots way up.
'Do you mind if I put on some music?' Oshima asks.
'Of course not,' I reply.
He pushes the CD's play button and some classical piano music starts. I listen for a while, figuring out the music. I know it's not Beethoven, and not Schumann. Probably somebody who came in between.
'Schubert?' I ask.
'Good guess,' he replies. His hands at ten-and-two on the steering wheel, he glances over at me. 'Do you like Schubert?'
'Not particularly,' I tell him.
'When I drive I like to listen to Schubert's piano sonatas with the volume turned up. Do you know why?'
'I have no idea.'
'Because playing Schubert's piano sonatas well is one of the hardest things in the world. Especially this, the Sonata in D Major. It's a tough piece to master. Some pianists can play one or maybe two of the movements perfectly, but if you listen to all four movements as a unified whole, no one has ever nailed it. A lot of famous pianists have tried to rise to the challenge, but it's like there's always something missing. There's never one where you can say, Yes! He's got it! Do you know why?'
'No,' I reply.
'Because the sonata itself is imperfect. Robert Schumann understood Schubert's sonatas well, and he labeled this one 'Heavenly Tedious.''
'If the composition's imperfect, why would so many pianists try to master it?'
'Good question,' Oshima says, and pauses as music fills in the silence. 'I have no great explanation for it, but one thing I can say. Works that have a certain imperfection to them have an appeal for that very reason-or at least they appeal to certain types of people. Just like you're attracted to Soseki's The Miner. There's something in it that draws you in, more than more fully realized novels like Kokoro or Sanshiro. You discover something about that work that tugs at your heart-or maybe we should say the work discovers you. Schubert's Sonata in D Major is sort of the same thing.'
'To get back to the question,' I say, 'why do you listen to Schubert's sonatas? Especially when you're driving?'
'If you play Schubert's sonatas, especially this one straight through, it's not art. Like Schumann pointed out, it's too long and too pastoral, and technically too simplistic. Play it through the way it is and it's flat and tasteless, some dusty antique. Which is why every pianist who attempts it adds something of his own, something extra. Like this-hear how he articulates it there? Adding rubato. Adjusting the pace, modulation, whatever. Otherwise they can't hold it all together. They have to be careful, though, or else all those extra devices destroy the dignity of the piece. Then it's not Schubert's music anymore. Every single pianist who's played this sonata struggles with the same paradox.'
He listens to the music, humming the melody, then continues.
'That's why I like to listen to Schubert while I'm driving. Like I said, it's because all the performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic kind of imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert. If I listen to some utterly perfect performance of an utterly perfect piece while I'm driving, I might want to close my eyes and die right then and there. But listening to the D major, I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of-that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally, I find that encouraging. Do you know what I'm getting at?'
'Sort of…'
'I'm sorry,' Oshima says. 'I tend to get carried away on the subject.'
'But there's all kinds and degrees of imperfection, right?' I say.
'Sure, of course.'
'Comparatively speaking, which performance of the D major sonata do you think's the best?'
'That's a tough one.' Oshima gives it some thought. He shifts down, swings over to the passing lane, swiftly slips pass a huge refrigerated eighteen-wheeler, shifts up, and steers back into our lane. 'Not to frighten you, but a green Miata is one of the hardest vehicles to spot on the highway at night. It has such a low profile, plus the green tends to blend into the darkness. Truck drivers especially can't see it from up in their cabs. It can be a risky business, particularly in tunnels. Sports cars really should be red. Then they'd stand out. That's why most Ferraris are red. But I happen to like green, even if it makes things more dangerous. Green's the color of a forest. Red's the color of blood.'
He glances at his watch and goes back to humming along with the music. 'Generally I'd have to say Brendel and Ashkenazy give the best performances, though they don't do anything for me emotionally. Schubert's music challenges and shatters the ways of the world. That's the essence of Romanticism, and Schubert's music is the
