What ifRizal and O-Sei-San, for the whole month in Yokohama, got into this cultural arrangement? There is no mention of this kind in any of Rizal’s biographies. Why? Because the Samurai cultural practice of “temporary marriages” has mainly been shielded away from the lenses of others, much less the “Victorian staid and proper Westerners.” However, this is an ancient respectable Japanese tradition. The women are neither geishas nor prostitutes. They belong to the top of the social class: the Samurai’s daughters! What ifthis relationship develops between a highly cultured Samurai daughter and Rizal? What if,in Rizal’s house on a hill that had paper walls and a splendid view of Yokohama harbor, they write sentimental haiku poetry together?
Si Pepe, dokumentado: Bago pa ang Escritos de José Rizal noong dekada 1960, inipon na ng historyador na si Teodoro Kalaw ang mga sulat ni Rizal sa 6-tomong Epistolario Rizalino. Naglabas din ang Bureau of Public Libraries ng kanilang kalipunan ng iba’t ibang Rizaliana sa Documentos Rizalinos. Isa sa pinakamagandang kalipunan ng primaryang batis ukol kay Rizal ay ang One Hundred Letters of José Rizal to his Parents, Brothers, Sisters and Relatives (1959) na hindi lamang nagtataglay ng mga salin kundi ng facsimile ng mga orihinal na manuskrito ng mga sulat ni Rizal. Ang aklat naman ni José Alejandrino na La Senda del Sacrificio (The Price of Freedom, 1933/1949) ay nagkukwento ng isang verbal na pahayag sa kanya ng best friend niya na si Rizal na nagsasabing mas pinapaboran niya ang mga katangian ni Elias kaysa sa makasariling si Crisostomo Ibarra/Simoun sa kanyang mga nobela.