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 5: The Soldier and the Civil Servant
A year had passed since Yoichiro met the strange Lieutenant Katō Yasunori. Yoichiro recalled that meeting vividly. It was a spring evening; cherry blossoms danced in the air. That day, Yoichiro had followed the road from Ueno Hill to the Yoshiwara pleasure district. He was a young bureaucrat in his second year of government service. Emboldened by drink, he had linked arms with his colleagues and charged into the pleasure district. At that moment, he had felt very brave and bold.
Yoichiro's first look at the women's languid figures behind the red lattice windows sent him running, instantly sober. He considered that night a mistake caused by youth and inexperience.
His colleagues had found his skittishness amusing. Emboldened by liquid courage, they had hauled Yoichiro into a brothel by force. Yoichiro resisted, of course. His colleagues reprimanded him for being indecisive. This led to a fight. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, Yoichiro was kicked and shoved mercilessly. Other customers mocked and berated Yoichiro. A crowd of people came to watch the fight.
“What’s going on here?” A tall, well-built man asked one of the onlookers as he stumbled upon the violent scene. His face was long and thin and his cheeks were sunken. He didn't look like a typical Japanese person. He was dressed as a soldier.
The onlooker gave him an appraising look. "Just a brawl, soldier. Nothing for you to concern yourself with."
The young soldier’s eyes glimmered coldly from beneath the brim of his military cap. The chill in his gaze was unsettling.
The onlooker froze, mouth agape, startled by the soldier’s piercing eyes. Even more frightening was the gray light shining from his pupils.
Then the soldier lowered his cap and pushed through the crowd. He grabbed the arm of one of the civil servants engaged in the brawl.
"Stop!" the soldier shouted. His voice was stern and commanding.
Everyone froze. The men attacking Yoichiro were momentarily paralyzed. The sight of the soldier spooked them.
Yoichiro was on the edge of consciousness and could no longer move under his own power. The men around him dispersed, hurrying out of the red light district.
A short while later, Yoichiro pressed his hand to his cheek and groaned in pain. His face was bleeding.
"Are you all right?"
Yoichiro looked up and saw the soldier standing there, expressionless. He'd never seen the man before, but they seemed to be about the same age. The soldier's perfect posture and composed attitude made him seem older.
"Thank you for helping me. May I ask which unit you serve in, officer?" Yoichiro asked.
"I am no one of consequence."
"Ah, please wait!" Yoichiro called out as the soldier turned away from him. "Tell me your name, at least, sir."
The soldier looked at the young civil servant--really looked, and he was shocked to find powerful spiritual power lurking within the young man. He was beaten up and should have been at his weakest, but the soldier sensed spiritual pressure and a painful prick of something like affection or empathy.
Ridiculous! That was what the soldier thought. He tried to put all thoughts of the young man out of his mind, but that proved difficult. Abandoning him here would have made him feel guilty. Denying the young man's power over him made him feel like he was lying to himself.
Yoichiro kept looking up at the soldier, motionless. He was like a child actor in a kabuki play. There was nothing arresting about his presence at all, but the soldier sensed the hidden power within him. Here was a young man full of contradictions--and potential.
"Well, if you insist," the soldier said. "I am Second Lieutenant Katō. I'm on my way back to the Ministry of War."
“Forgive my late introduction. I am Tatsumiya Yoichiro, a junior official working at the Ministry of Finance.”
The soldier replied with a mocking smile. "Yet you started a fight in the red light district. How bold of you."
Yoichiro blushed bright red. “I am deeply ashamed. I came here without complaint, but I could not bring myself to remain."
“Are you averse to women, Mr. Tatsumiya?” The soldier’s voice was cold.
“No, it’s just that with women of lower status—”
“Lower status? Do you mean the courtesans?”
Yoichiro bit his lip and muttered in a low voice, “No. I mean, with all women...” He looked around.
The onlookers had dispersed now that the fighting was done. In the evening under the falling cherry blossoms, the courtesans were dazzling. Their skin was painted white and their lips were cherry red.
“I don’t want to say it.”
The soldier shrugged. “You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to.”
“I am... afraid of touching women.”
The soldier’s eyebrows twitched in response. The strange sense of tenderness he had felt earlier suddenly made sense to him.
“You’re afraid of women?”
“Yes,” Yoichiro replied, his face growing even redder. “It’s embarrassing to admit, but when I was a child, I once strangled a girl with all my strength. I thought that if I didn’t, I would be killed myself. Ever since then, whenever I stand before a woman, I feel like less than a man. The desires I'm supposed to have are buried beneath that experience.”
“You mean you have difficulty with relations between men and women?”
Yoichiro nodded deeply, his face flushed. “But you didn't need to know that, sir; you are a stranger. Please forget what I just said."
“Wait.” The soldier glared at him, turning his face toward the civil servant. "What happened to that girl?”
"I meant it as a childish prank, but I nearly killed her. I believe she survived, but I’m not sure—she might have died. All I remember is the sight of adults hurriedly carrying her away, limp in their arms. After that...” He shrugged. "I was left behind. I stood in the dark, empty house alone and stunned for what felt like an eternity. It was like a dream. I might have killed her. I don't know. The adults could have disposed of the body and brought in another girl to take her place. She was only two years old at the time."
"So you did kill her," the soldier said. His smile lit up his eyes.
Yoichiro wanted to protest, but he was injured and vulnerable and had already said too much. "I killed her. That's why I punish myself now. I'm a wreck."
"Because you're haunted by guilt?" the soldier prompted.
"Sometimes I have dreams. I dream about her, about strangling her." He brushed mud and dirt off his coat. Cherry blossoms fell around him like fresh-fallen snow. They weren't cold, but the streets of the pleasure district were covered in shining white petals that looked just like snowflakes from a little distance away.
The soldier pulled his cap low, refusing to show his face to Yoichiro. It was obvious that he was still staring. "Your dreams--do you have different ones? Dreams that come true?"
"Yes, many times."
"Truly?"
"I've been told that I'm good at predicting things."
The soldier suddenly looked up, a cold smile on his face. He seemed genuinely interested. "You're an intriguing man."
"I'm a powerless, impotent man who cannot even touch a woman. To tell the truth, the child I nearly strangled—”
“Stop. You don’t need to say any more,” the soldier interrupted angrily. He gave Yoichiro a smile full of meaning and intent. "Shall I heal that guilt for you?"
"Heal it?"
“Will you leave it to me?”
“Leave what?”
“Everything about you.”
“What do you mean by that?!”
Yoichiro grew angry, but the soldier remained calm.
“It’s best if you leave both your heart and body to me.” He laughed suggestively.
Yoichiro had no idea what the soldier meant. Before he knew it, the two of them were acquaintances and then colleagues. It was difficult to describe their relationship.
***
Cherry blossoms in March were like snowflakes swirling in a blizzard. The two men ran together through the cloud of petals tinged by the red lights.
After that, Yoichiro sometimes found the soldier standing in front of newly built Western-style walls and buildings. They kept running into one another, to the point where Yoichiro wondered if their encounters were coincidental or fated.
Yoichiro and Lieutenant Katō eventually had the opportunity to work together in an official capacity. After the victory in the Russo-Japanese War, a plan was revived within the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to renovate the imperial capital, Tokyo, and demonstrate the grandeur of Japan to the world.
By chance, both of them were selected from their respective ministries to participate as administrative officers in the renovation project. Neither had made any prior arrangements, yet it was as if they were drawn together to take on the same task.
Needless to say, there were countless difficult problems to solve regarding the planned renovations. Second Lieutenant Yasunori Katō focused first on a particular issue: the burial mount of Taira no Masakado and the bad luck surrounding it.
The choice to focus there was puzzling to many people, not least Yoichiro.
“If we don’t resolve this matter, the success of the Imperial Capital Renovation Plan cannot be assured.” This was one of the Lieutenant's favorite things to say.
Yoichiro rarely revealed exactly what his duties were to anyone, and Lieutenant Katō never seemed to confide in other people. They kept their work faces on in public and only confronted the horror that lurked around Taira no Masakado's burial mound in the dead of night and in secret.1
It had been a full year since their first meeting. That chance encounter would change everything.
Translator's Notes
1 The description here references Noh masks, white masks that conceal faces
and expressions during traditional Japanese plays. ↩
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