Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 2: Supernatural Babylon
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 2: The Demon's Origin
Chapter 11: Dreaming of the Imperial Capital
The Tsuchimikado household was steeped in a profound sense of spiritual defeat. Hirai Yasumasa spent several days on the floor of the ritual hall, his heart and mind in tatters. He had lost the will to stand. Anyone observing him might believe that he was inches from death.
On a clear morning ten days after the fateful battle, Yasumasa peeled his aged body up from the floor and lowered himself onto the veranda facing the sun-drenched, glittering autumn courtyard garden.
The fragrance of yellow chrysanthemums brought a faint brightness to Yasumasa's heart. The chrysanthemums glittered brilliantly in the sunshine and colored the garden like an altar covered in gold leaf. The pond dug out in the center of the garden was thickly covered with green moss, and not a single ripple marred the still surface of the water. Several vermilion carp swam through the green water as if carried along by a current deep beneath the pond's surface.
"Is Kamo here?" Yasumasa asked.
After a short while, a middle-aged man appeared at Yasumasa's shoulder. "You called?" Kamo asked.
"I want to have a look at the center of the city."
"Which area, sir?"
"Around Marunouchi and the Ministry of Finance. And the Imperial Palace as well."
It had been a long time since he had gone out. Yasumasa had lived in Kyōtō for many years, devoting his days to the study of sorcery and astronomy. He had never examined the imperial capital closely with his own eyes. He took a rickshaw with Kamo to Marunouchi. The weather was pleasant, and there were many people out and about.
"Kamo, I hear that there are some distressing rumors about the grounds of the Ministry of Finance of late," Yasumasa said quietly.
"Are you referring to the haunting?"
"What haunting?"
"The grounds of the Ministry of Finance were originally the residence of the great elder Sakai Tadakiyo.1 You are aware of what happened there, are you not?"
"The play Sendai Hagi is set there, I believe."2
"That is correct. Way back when, Date Tsunamune was placed under house arrest for disorderly conduct. The new lord, little Kamechiyomaru, was only two years old. The actual political power of the domain was in the hands of Hyōbu Munekatsu, the tenth son of Lord Masamune. The magistrate at the time was Harada Kai.
"The conduct of Hyōbu and Kai came to the attention of the shogunate, and an inquiry was to be held at the Sakai residence. When Kai could no longer evade the charges of meddling in the affairs of the domain, he suddenly fell into a state of madness, slew Date Aki—who had informed the shogunate of what was happening—and was cut down on the spot.
"People say that the ghost of Harada Kai appears on the grounds of the Ministry of Finance. He has disheveled hair, a drawn sword in hand, and he is drenched in blood."
"And what about the rumors concerning Taira no Masakado?"
"Those exist as well. Within the Sakai residence there is a mound where Taira no Masakado's head was supposedly buried. People say that any attempt to move it brings a curse."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid I don't know the details beyond that."
Yasumasa fell silent and did not speak again until they passed Ōtemachi and entered Marunouchi. He seemed to be looking for something specific. Whenever they passed a place that interested him, he would survey the surrounding terrain. The rickshaw swayed precariously when he made these movements.
The two of them decided to rest for a short while in Ginza. They took a stroll around Hibiya Park and then followed the newly constructed paved road toward the Ministry of Finance. They were retracing their steps by this point. The Ministry of Finance grounds were before them. The Imperial Palace and the moat surrounding it were visible to their left. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon, and the autumn sun was waning. The imperial capital sank into dreamlike dusk as the sun set.
Yasumasa leaned against the rickshaw's backrest. He looked toward the Imperial Palace and tried to empty his mind of all intrusive thoughts.
The silence and emptiness all around was broken by the jumbled voices of restless spirits. Yasumasa had come here specifically to listen to what these spirits had to say.
Yasumasa listened intently to the voices, tuning out everything else. Some spirits expressed themselves using images instead of sound. Yasumasa felt like he was in the middle of a lantern show at night; there was so much to hear and see and understand, and much of it was unclear at first glance.
Nijūbashi appeared before his eyes and then slipped past, giving way to a stand of pine trees. The setting sun glittered on the surface of the Imperial Palace's moat. The moat curved left and receded toward Kudanshita.
Yasumasa's rickshaw turned in the opposite direction. The scenery that the spirits focused on shifted to show Ōtemachi, a proud center of Japanese economic activity.
Images appeared frame by frame before Yasumasa's eyes and vanished in a flash. The smooth flow of light and shadow lulled him into a momentary stupor.
Then the images all went away, and all he saw before him was a simple black-and-white screen. Yasumasa heard a strange hissing sound and tilted his head. He opened his eyes, but all he could see was a stream of dark shadows sliding past him and the rickshaw.
Then there was a sudden jolt to his senses, and Yasumasa saw a splash of red against a black background.
What did that mean?
Yasumasa held his breath and tried to recall every detail of this alarming vision. The red he had seen was the red of blood and sunsets. A gigantic sun shone this same red color as it sank between brick buildings like a capsized ship. The image wavered at the edges like a mirage.
Under the setting sun, countless corpses floated in a pond dyed red. They were wearing uniforms. These were soldiers.
Yasumasa gasped at the bloody display. The more he looked, the more dead men he saw. They crowded the surface of the pond, obscuring the water.
There was an empty, hollow sound, and when Yasumasa blinked again, the vision was gone. The Western-style streets of Ōtemachi were below him. He was stunned. The rickshaw was still moving.
"Mr. Hirai, is something wrong?" Kamo asked. He had followed Yasumasa in a different rickshaw.
"It's nothing," Yasumasa said. He grinned wryly and thrust his hands into his sleeves.
How ominous to see an army of corpses in Ōtemachi. Yasumasa hadn't expected to see such a thing at all. The Western-style buildings scraped the sky all around him, casting deep shadows.
Edo Castle was called Chiyoda Castle until the end of the Edo period.3 The origin of the name could be found in legends surrounding Ōta Dōkan's founding of the city of Edo and his building of the castle.
Dōkan founded Edo because he received a divine revelation in a dream one night. Ogyū Sorai claimed that it was a dream of a giant monk dancing.4
Dōkan resolved to build a castle at Edo, but he needed auspicious omens to convince others of his plan. He needed proof that if a castle were built there, its prosperity would be assured far into the future. He took a stalk of bamboo with leaves still on it and drew the shape of the castle on the ground, then asked his retainers what the nearby village was called.
One retainer replied, "It is called Chiyoda, Takarada, Shūgen Village, sir."
"Every one of these is an auspicious name!" Dōkan cried, slapping his knee in delight.5
Yasumasa recalled another legend. When Dōkan was returning from a pilgrimage to Benzaiten of Enoshima, an auspicious dotted gizzard shad jumped into his boat at the offing of Shinagawa.6
Tōkyō was blessed and benefited from divine protection, so why had Yasumasa just seen such an ominous vision right in the center of the city? The old sorcerer pondered this question deeply.
1 Sakai Tadakiyo (November 29, 1624 – July 4,
1681) was a daimyō (feudal lord) in Kōzuke Province, and a high-ranking
government advisor and official in the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan..↩
2 Sendai Hagi refers to both a famous historical Date family succession dispute and its legendary theatrical dramatization, which is one of the most celebrated stories in traditional Japanese performing arts. The story is based on the 17th-century power struggles within the Date family of the Sendai Domain. Conspirators, including the villainous Nikki Danjo and his sister Yashio, plot to seize control of the family from the young heir.
3 The
Edo period (1603–1868) was the final era of traditional Japanese government
and culture. Established by Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was characterized by over
250 years of unprecedented peace, rigid social stratification, strict
isolationist foreign policies, and vibrant urban and artistic growth. ↩
4 Ogyū
Sorai (1666–1728) was one of the most prominent historians, philologists,
and Confucian scholars of the Edo period in Japan. ↩
5 Chiyoda means "Thousand Years Field." Takarada means
"Treasure Field." Shūgen means "Celebratory Words" or "Celebratory
Declaration." ↩
6 Benzaiten is one of Japan’s most revered goddesses and the patron deity of the island of Enoshima. As the only female member of the Seven Lucky Gods, she is associated with everything that flows—water, music, poetry, speech, and wealth.
Konosirus punctatus is a species of fish in the family Dorosomatidae. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Konosirus. Its common names include dotted gizzard shad and konoshiro gizzard shad. It is native to the northwestern Pacific Ocean, where it occurs along the Asian coastline. This fish is usually up to 25 centimeters (9.8 in) long, with the maximum recorded length of 32 centimeters (13 in). It has a somewhat compressed body and a slightly projecting snout. There is a dark spot behind the gills, with several lines of dark dots next to it. ↩
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