映画は４代将軍家綱の頃の話だから、今から３００年以上前の話だ。主人公、安井算哲（さんてつ）は天文に興味を持ち、当時使われていた宣明暦が間違っていることを発見し、独自に大和歴（貞亨暦）を作成する。しかし、暦を管理していた公家が反対し、最初作った大和歴が完璧でなかったせいもあり、一度は挫折するが、数学家の関孝和に叱られ、水戸光圀の支援もあって、日本の国土にあった暦を作る。公家に対抗するため、京都の町中で、大和歴か、唐から由来した宣明暦か、どちらが正しいか勝負に出る。もし大和歴が正しければ、その日に日食が起こるが、起こらなければ切腹すると公家に約束する。しかし、その刻になっても太陽は欠けない。いよいよ切腹ということで、小刀を抜いて、手で持ち、指から血が流れ、腹を今切らんとするその時、太陽が欠けてくる。
七転び八起きで、ついに暦を完成するに至るまでの挫折とたゆまぬ努力が素晴らしい。映画の一番の山は、最後の切腹場面だ。
人は何に感動するか、冲方はよく知っている。命を懸けることだ。 「ベニスの商人」のアントニオは自分の心臓を、友人バッサニオの借金の担保にする。ポトマック川に墜落した飛行機のある乗客（男性）は自分の命を犠牲にして数人の乗客を救う。幡随院長兵衛（ばんずいいん ちょうべえ）は死を覚悟して敵地に乗り込む。
映画の最後の場面で、太陽が欠けてきた時は、そうなるとわかっていたのに、涙が出てきた。
AT THE RISK OF YOUR LIFE
I saw a film Tenchi Meisatsu (Cosmic Observation) based on the novel of the same title written by Tou Ubukata.
It is a story that takes place more than 300 years ago in the era of the fourth Shogunate Ietsuna Tokugawa. An astronomer, Santetsu Yasui, finds a shortcoming of the then used Senmei Calendar. So, he makes the Yamato Calendar. However, the court nobles in charge of the old calendar for hundreds of years are against the new one, which is later found to be inaccurate,too. As a result, Santetsu suffers repeated setbacks, but he is encouraged by a mathematician Takakazu Seki and a Shogunate relative, Mitsukuni Mito, and finally revises his calendar.
He goes to Kyoto to prove its accuracy. He says to the people, “Which is more accurate, Senmei Calendar or my Yamato Calendar? Mine predicts that the solar eclipse will happen tomorrow, but the other does not. Please come here tomorrow and observe the eclipse.”
Listening to Saitetsu, some nobles challenge him saying, “Can you stake your life on what you say?”
“Of course, I will commit hara-kiri,” he says.
On the next day people gather to the observatory and wait for the eclipse. The predicted time comes, but the sun shows no sign of change. The nobles shout, “Commit hara-kiri.” Santetsu has no choice but do so. He pulls out a sword, holds it in his hand, with fingers bleeding. And the moment he is about to thrust the sword, dozens of birds suddenly fly away from a grove of trees and the people shout, “Look, there goes the eclipse!”
Ubukata knows how to move the reader. People move when an incident, fictional or real, involves human lives. Antonio in The Merchant of Venice stakes his life for his friend Bassanio as collateral for the loan from Shylock; in January, 1982 a middle-aged passenger of a crashed airplane into the Potomac sacrificed his life in an attempt to save other passengers freezing to death in the river; and Chobei Banzuin, a 17th century street tough, was killed in a samurai’s house because he had accepted his invitation knowing that he would risk his life.
Although I knew the eclipse would take place in the climax, tears stood in my eyes when the sun began to wane.
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