Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 2: Supernatural Babylon
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 5: Destruction in the Year of the Boar
Chapter 21: Hirai Yasumasa Reveals a Secret
I write this letter concerning the background of Second Lieutenant Katō Yasunori of the Army, which I promised to Mr. Kōda Shigeyuki. This report is incomplete, but I send it in its current state.
1. The birthplace of Lieutenant Katō, Ryūjin Village in Kii Province, is a sacred land of immortals renowned throughout the world. Its founder was En no Ozunu, progenitor of shugendō. It leads behind Mt. Kōya. Legend says that it was opened when Kūkai received a revelation in a dream from one of the dragon kings. The place possesses sacred springs. Since ancient times, it has been regarded as an old site of ascetic practice and ritual discipline. It is also said to produce cinnabar. In the Edo period, there was a custom of purifying and renewing the traditional bathhouse in every Year of the Boar. Therefore, the boar is revered.
Incidentally, ritual groups that revere the boar are often called Katsuragi by ancient peoples. It may be the land of a group or family called Katsuragi.
2. There are no families in Ryūjin Village bearing the surname Katō. It does not appear in old documents, either. However, as this village lies near a shugendō training ground, there are many rumors that strange people practicing sorcery dwell in the nearby mountains.
In Chronicles of Japan, in the entry for the fifth month of the reign of Emperor Saimei, it is written:
There was one riding a dragon through the sky, whose appearance resembled that of a man of Tang. Wearing a blue oiled hat, he sped from the peak of Mt. Katsuragi and hid in Mt. Ikoma.
There are strong signs that sorcerers from Tang China settled in Ryūjin Village.
Therefore, if he comes from a lineage connected to sorcerers of China or Korea, then he is likely connected to powerful families that did not submit to the rule of the Japanese imperial court.
3. The emperor often dispatched the Kibi family on expeditions to Korea. It was, so to speak, a convenient form of exile abroad. There is an old account about a man named Kibi no Tasa who crossed to Korea. The emperor took away Wakahime, his wife, while he was gone. Because of that, he conspired with the Silla kingdom and devised a plot to conquer Japan.
It is said that this Tasa took a wife from the Katsuragi family. The emperor at this time was Yūryaku. Yūryaku was in conflict over the imperial succession with Prince Ichibe no Oshiha no Miko, and is said to have been a schemer who destroyed the Katsuragi family, which was related to that prince by marriage.
According to Chronicles of Japan, the god Hitokotonushi looked exactly like Yūryaku. Considering that after the two met face to face, the Katsuragi family disappeared from the official histories, one is led to think that Yūryaku was a bitter enemy of Hitokotonushi and of Katsuragi. The Kibi family also did not submit; it is possible that they were linked with Katsuragi in some way. In fact, in the land of Kibi there is a legend of a Demon’s Castle. Among the common people, this has been handed down as the Momotarō fairy tale.1
4. Furthermore, both Kibi and Katsuragi were renowned as warlike peoples. To cite one example, Katsuragi distinguished itself greatly during Empress Jingū’s campaign against Silla, and Kibi served as a powerful vanguard in the expedition against Silla. When they outfitted ships and crossed over to the continent, it is said that they armed themselves after painting themselves with red earth— cinnabar.
The Provincial Records of Harima says this:
When Okinagatarashihime no Mikoto wished to subdue the land of Silla and prayed to the various gods, Niutsuhime possessed a shrine maiden and said, “Subdue the land of Silla by using cinnabar.” The goddess Niutsuhime who possessed the shrine maiden is the goddess who gives birth to red earth.2
“Red earth” means cinnabar. In modern terms, cinnabar is a compound of mercury and sulfur. Using this cinnabar, they coated a heavenly spear, set it upon the prow and stern of a divinely blessed boat, and then painted the boat and even military garments—everything—with cinnabar. Our country’s forces advanced to attack Silla while covered in cinnabar. We attacked our enemies painted red.
I believe this action demonstrated Japan’s most powerful sorcerous arts at the time. Most likely, both Kibi and Katsuragi shared knowledge of the usages of cinnabar. They possessed land that produced cinnabar. The principal deity of sacred Mt. Kōya, behind Ryūjin Village, is Niutsuhime, the goddess that creates cinnabar. Ryūjin Village may have been a training ground where both magical power and martial power were cultivated through this cinnabar as intermediary.
5. Kibi no Makibi, envoy to Tang China, brought magical arts (including Qimen Dunjia to Japan. I have also heard that Makibi’s mother was of Katsuragi origin. Moreover, according to my own family’s tradition as written in The Book of the Sun and Moon, it is stated that Abe no Seimei, one of the greatest masters of Japanese sorcery, was in fact a descendant of Makibi.
6. Finally, I will write of Emperor Yūryaku, who is connected in one way or another with all these unconquered peoples. There are in the records many secret matters sufficient to arouse suspicion. For example, from the Yūryaku chronicle in the Chronicles of Japan:
When the emperor went out to Ono by the river to hunt boar and waited to loose an arrow, a gadfly came flying swiftly and tried to bite his arm. Then a red dragonfly appeared, ate the gadfly, and flew away. Because of this, the Emperor called our country Dragonfly Island thereafter.
When the emperor hunted on Mt. Katsuragi, a boar suddenly came forth and tried to devour him. The emperor used his bow to stop it, then raised his foot and trampled it to death.
From this account, I suspect that Emperor Yūryaku himself was perhaps a sorcerer possessed of knowledge concerning birds, beasts, insects, fish, and even medicinal plants. Perhaps he personally commanded beasts and insects. I share Mr. Kōda’s opinion that magic is nothing other than the free command of animals and plants.
To add one further remark: after Emperor Yūryaku’s reign, every sort of art and technique, from sorcery to government, came to be concentrated in the Imperial Court and those associated with it. Those pursued by Yūryaku fled to Korea, or the Kantō region, or to Bōshū.3 I believe that these embittered peoples left behind vengeful spirits in their wake.
I wish to add at my humble opinion concerning the curse magic employed by Katō. Certainly, the specific discipline originated in the heterodox esoteric practices of India, which passed through China and Korea before reaching our land. However, the creatures used in curse magic, chief among them snakes, fleas, and lice, are objects of belief called monogami in East Asian sorcerous practices. Monogami means “thing deities,” and mono further signifies both “thing” and “spirit.” Thus, Katō’s curse magic is the orthodox branch of current East Asian demonic arts. Indeed, the various secret techniques preserved by the Tsuchimikado family since Abe no Seimei’s time are the same kind of techniques as Katō’s demonic ways.
It is only reasonable that the Imperial Court should honor Abe no Seimei and assign Watanabe no Tsuna and the other Four Heavenly Kings—slayers of demons under Minamoto no Yorimitsu—to the duty of guarding Kyōtō. Watanabe no Tsuna, Sakata Kintoki, Usui Sadamitsu, and the warrior Hirai Yasumasa—who, strangely enough, shares my very same name—slew demons. These men are described as people of the mountains and people of the waters. They were not human, but something close to demons themselves. To have their own kind police demons—that is cunning, is it not?4
I believe that this man, Lieutenant Katō, is perhaps a descendant of the ancient unsubjugated peoples, and moreover one who has inherited both the resentment and the demonic arts of Katsuragi and Kibi. A lawless fellow seeking to endanger our unbroken line of beneficent sorcery that has persisted for ten thousand generations. And Katō is not Japanese. Most likely, he is Korean.
Since I shall soon meet death, there is no need for concealment, and so I shall also speak of the shame of my family. It concerns the Seimei Seal.
The cursed talisman, the Dōman Seiman, manipulated by that heretic Katō, is exactly identical to the Seimei Seal—the secret emblem of the Tsuchimikado family. In Kii it is still called Dōman Seiman and is used by seafaring folk as a protective charm.
Its origin lies in the shape of the sea-creature called a demon of the deep. It is a monstrous sea urchin which possesses ferocious poisonous spines. The seal is a ritual implement indispensable for warding away evil. This pentagram-shaped amulet derives from the customs of the ama, called the water people in our ancient records. In the west, there is a legend of a water creature with horns. As for the dragon gods, they are revered by a people who worship the god of water. And in Abe no Seimei’s writing, The Book of the Sun and Moon, it is said that the Tsuchimikado family descends from a mysterious people whose bodies bore scales.
***
Mr. Kōda, the above is everything that I can respectfully reveal to you. In my opinion, the key to unraveling Lieutenant Katō’s actions lies hidden in his secret history. And that key is resentment! That, in a single word, is it. Therefore, what Katō seeks is destruction. He desires the destruction of the imperial capital.
I, the unworthy Hirai Yasumasa, believe that revealing all of this to you may serve in some small way to protect the empire. Katō intends to destroy the imperial capital by using Qimen Dunjia. He abducted the young lady Yukari because she is essential to his plans.
He intends to summon Hitokotonushi, Sugawara no Michizane, Taira no Masakado, and other cursed gods sleeping beneath the imperial capital. He will gather up the spiritual power and hatred of the unsubjugated people of the past and wage war upon the city.
The young lady Yukari was pressed into Katō’s service as a spirit medium—that is, a temporary vessel for the gods and spirits to inhabit. Her mysterious disposition is suited for that role, poor unfortunate girl.
Mr. Kōda, this is the last service I can render. Just now, I divined when Katō intends to complete the destruction of the imperial capital. He will enact his plan in the Year of the Boar. Do not forget it! The Year of the Boar is associated with the boar once worshiped by Katō’s ancient, unconquered ancestors.
With this, I have said all that must be said. From here on, I shall serve at the side of the great Emperor Meiji. The Tsuchimikado family fought against an evil demon that wielded the same secret arts as we do, and we were defeated.
Katō is our Ashiya Dōman. Dōman ensnared Abe no Yasuna, father of our ancestor Abe no Seimei, in a vile scheme and stole the secret book, The Book of the Sun and Moon. In Anthology of Tales Old and New, he appears as the monk Dōma and is involved in every conspiracy that sought to endanger loyal servants of the Imperial Court, beginning with Lord Michinaga no Fujiwara, who was an evil sorcerer himself.
But now, the heroes once called the Four Heavenly Kings of demon subjugation are no more. We have no great sorcerer like Abe no Seimei to call upon to defend the realm. We of the Tsuchimikado line have failed to destroy the second coming of Ashiya Dōman. How mortifying, Mr. Kōda! I cannot bear it.
I shall be buried in the soil of the imperial capital, bear upon me Seimei’s Seal as a talisman of divine protection, and become a guardian of the nation until the evil influence departs from the skies of Tōkyō. It would be presumptuous of me to seek to follow the example of Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu, yet in death I shall become a foundation stone for the defense of the imperial capital.
Hirai Yasumasa
It was a long letter. Kōda Shigeyuki read through it by candlelight. A chill went down his spine.
“What can this mean?” He muttered as he folded up Yasumasa’s letter. The warning about the Year of the Boar shook him to his core. His glanced at the calendar on his desk and confirmed this year’s zodiac sign. Then he bent his fingers, muttered something, opened them again, and repeated the same motion.
“What year…” he murmured, folding down one finger as he counted. “1921 (Taishō 10),” he said. Counting further, he bent his fingers again, then raised his voice and cried: “What year of the Taishō era falls on the Year of the Boar?”
He shook his head again and counted the number of fingers he had bent. Two. This year was 1913 (Taishō 2). The Year of the Boar would be ten years from now.
He stepped out onto the veranda.
It was a moonlit night. Having entrusted Yukari to Dr. Morita’s care, he felt a weight lifted from his shoulders. He wanted Hirai Yasumasa’s letter again. Hirai had written it in 1912 (Meiji 45), just after the emperor’s death.
Lieutenant Katō was still a problem. Unless his hiding place could be found, there would be no way to stop the destruction of the imperial capital. Hoping to find some kind of clue, he reread Yasumasa’s letter. The more he read it, the more terrifying the text seemed. It declared that Lieutenant Katō Yasunori was a demonic agent of vengeance born from the grudges accumulated over fifteen hundred years of Japan’s secret history.
“But there is certainly something that comes to mind…”
He remembered what Mori Rintarō had spoken of when he’d served with Katō in Manchuria. Apparently Katō had talked in his sleep in Korean. And then there was the present secret society incident. It was already known to the authorities that he had gathered members of a bizarre secret society, manipulated them, and carried out acts of sabotage within Japan. Those secret society members had fled the continent. A few weeks earlier, Katō had deserted from the army. He was currently missing. The army ordered the military police to begin searching for Katō.
Shigeyuki gazed out at the night and remembered the old sorcerer Hirai Yasumasa.
Had his corpse been buried in the center of the imperial capital, as his will had instructed? He hoped so.
Tōkyō had been founded by people who were seeking independence, not subjugation—not even to heaven’s laws. Edo meant “water gate”—a gathering place of the water people. It was a frontier settlement where immigrants with deep ties to Korea and Tang China had settled. The Ōtemachi area, located at the center of Tōkyō, was the sacred burial ground of the water people called Tsuchigumo.
The gods who still protected Tōkyō were Taira no Masakado, Sugawara no Michizane (Tenjin, the god of knowledge), Hitokotonushi, and seven foreign gods known as the Seven Lucky Gods.5 In other words, foreign deities symbolizing immigrant peoples defended Tōkyō.
Hirai Yasumasa had also written that he would defend Tōkyō in death. But what could his frail old spirit possibly do against the hatred and resentment of thousands of people slain unjustly in the past? Could the Dōman Seiman talisman protect people? Would the Four Heavenly Kings and Abe no Seimei pacify these and ferocious vengeful spirits?
“Spiritual warfare,” Shigeyuki muttered quietly.
Moon blew through the garden, altering the previous stillness. The sound of the wind soughing through the pine needles made Shigeyuki’s hair stand on end. The moon was hidden by dark clouds.
A huge and powerful spirit raced eastward at dreadful speed.
It began to rain. Pink flashes of lightning linked heaven and earth, heralding the arrival of demonic forces. A crash of thunder so violent it seemed like it would split the ground made Shigeyuki cover his ears.
Jagged lightning struck toward the center of the imperial capital, released like a vivid arrow of light. Shigeyuki stood motionless on the veranda, drenched by the violent rain.
More lightning flashed—once, twice, and then there was a roar that sounded like the heavens were collapsing in on themselves. An eerie peach-colored lightning bolt illuminated Tōkyō’s nightscape for the span of a breath. It seemed like vengeful gods were descending upon the earth.
There was Taira no Masakado with an arrow driven into his forehead. There was the pale, resentful face of Sugawara no Michizane, who had wept and fought against false charges.
Shigeyuki shut his eyes instinctively and shook his head.
That night, Tōkyō experienced a storm unlike any other. A lightning strike occurred within the grounds of the Ministry of Finance, which was about to begin renovation work.
By the next morning, sensational headlines declaring the storm to be a curse of Taira no Masakado filled the pages of every newspaper.
1 Momotarō
means “peach boy.” It is about a boy who is born from a peach and adopted.
When he grows up, he assembles a small army of animals and goes to
Onigashima, the island of demons, to conquer it.↩
2 The Harima no Kuni Fudoki (translated as The Provincial Records of Harima) is an early 8th-century geographical and cultural record of Harima Province (present-day southern Hyōgo Prefecture). Completed between 713 and 716, it is one of only five surviving provincial Fudoki in Japan. Its sole-surviving manuscript is a designated National Treasure. Fudoki means something like “local record” or “provincial record.”
3 Bōshū
is another name for
Awa
Province. ↩
4 Watanabe
no
Tsuna,
Sakata
Kintoki, and Hirai Yasumasa were legendary samurai warriors of the mid-Heian
period. They served as the elite retainers of the Minamoto clan general
Minamoto no
Yorimitsu, and together with
Usui
Sadamitsu, formed his famed “Four Heavenly Kings” (Shitennō) fighting
force."↩
5 The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan, Shichifukujin, are an eclectic group of deities from Japan, India, and China. Only one is native to Japan (Ebisu) and Japan’s indigenous Shinto tradition. Three are from the Hindu-Buddhist pantheon of India (Daikokuten, Bishamonten, and Benzaiten) and three from Chinese Taoist-Buddhist traditions (Hotei, Jurōjin, and Fukurokuju). ↩
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