Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 1: Great Spirit of Tokyo
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 1: Night of the Divine Possession
Chapter 3: The Strange Case of the Ministry of Finance
Junichi Narutaki smiled at Yukari, but then his expression turned serious. He glanced at Yoichiro.
"I hate to shift the topic to something so unpleasant, but are you sure nothing happened last night? Yukari came to see me early, and she seemed terrified. She told me that you hadn't come home. And then there was that fire at the Ministry of Finance. That's why I came here to see Yukari this morning."
“To tell the truth, Mr. Narutaki,” Yoichiro said, lowering his voice, "I was standing on that burial mound last night. And I wasn't alone—I was with a young army officer. It was terrible. Even now, I can hardly believe it.”
“On the mound? The one where Taira no Masakado’s head is buried?”
“Yeah. I’m glad you came. Every time something strange happens at the Ministry of Finance, like yesterday, they call the head priest from Kanda Shrine and hold a memorial service for Taira no Masakado. People talk about the curse all the time. Last May, Minister of Finance Sakatani Yoshirou became the chairman of the memorial committee. There was even a push to erect a monument by the mound for the sake of historical preservation. The real reason they created that monument was so that they could hold another memorial service to calm the curse. They performed the same ceremony as the monk Shingyo Shonin did back then.”
“No way!”
“It’s true. It was even published in the official gazette. Minister Sakatani himself took the lead in overseeing the memorial service. He has..." Yoichiro paused. "Ulterior motives, or at least secret ones. His wife is the daughter of Shibusawa Eiichi. Mr. Shibusawa is a key figure in the movement to clear Taira no Masakado’s name. He and many others are trying to overturn the belief that Taira no Masakado was a traitor and restore his honor. They used the excuse of a curse to get the Minister of Finance involved in the latest memorial service held for Taira no Masakado."
“Mr. Shibusawa is also a leading proponent of the Imperial Capital Renovation Plan you’re working on, isn’t he?”
“Of course. You could say that the Imperial Capital Renovation Plan is his life's work. However—”
“However?” Junichi’s thick eyebrows twitched slightly.
“The curse of this burial mound is a troublesome obstacle to the plan!” Yoichiro spat. Then he stopped speaking. He held his breath, swallowed hard, and glanced over at the mound.
Junichi noticed that the young official’s lips were trembling.
“This just gets curiouser and curiouser,” Junichi muttered.
Mitarashi Pond was getting busier. A bearded man led a tour group through the area. He pointed to the mound frequently.
“Are those people here to pray?” Junichi asked.
"No," Yoichiro said. "They're here to see the mound itself. Two years ago on April 4th, the manuscript in the Ōsubon Library became a national treasure.1 The manuscript was the biography of a rebel. It became a topic of gossip for a while because His Majesty the Emperor viewed it. That manuscript was shown at an ancient document exhibition in October of the same year. The burial mound of Taira no Masakado is featured in the manuscript, which the then-Minister of Finance Shibusawa pointed out in his opening remarks. After the exhibition, people started coming here in droves to tour the historic site."
“Oh? So the the venerable Mr. Shibusawa, our predecessor at the Ministry of Finance, advertised this place at the exhibition?”
"Not as such," Yoichiro said. "Oda Kanshi is the main person to blame for that. The Ushigome Association is a bastion of Taira no Masakado devotees, and Mr. Oda is their leader. They're almost all ex-employees of the Ministry of Finance, so they're a nuisance to us. The director asked me to go to them this morning and ask if they would hold yet another memorial service. Things are really getting out of hand."
Junichi frowned slightly. "I still don't understand the connection between the Imperial Capital Renovation Plan and the burial mound."
Yukari's scream—“Ah!”—cut off Junichi’s statement. No one could tell where the scream had come from at first. The tour group all looked toward Mitarashi Pond in alarm.
Yukari ran at her brother, who held her shoulders.
"I... I saw it," she said, eyes open wide, her voice hushed and distant as a sleepwalker's. "Above the pond. I saw it."
"Don't speak, Yukari," Yoichiro said. "You're all right."
His firm command calmed Yukari somewhat. She relaxed briefly, and then she fainted dead away. She would have fallen if Yoichiro weren't there to hold her up.
Translator's Note
1
大須本: Ōsubon, literally "big ought book," refers to a huge
library of sutras (Buddhist prayers). It is one of three great libraries of
sutras in Japan, the other two being in Daigo Temple (Kyoto Prefecture) and
Negoro Temple (Wakayama Prefecture). Ōsubon collects approximately 15,000
volumes.
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