Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 1: Great Spirit of Tokyo
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 6: Those Who Command Shinigami
Chapter 27: The Night of the Initiation Ceremony
A piercingly harsh winter gale was blowing. The February night had an oppressiveness sufficient to drive people and beasts into their nests and keep them there.
Two men strode into the wind, cutting the darkness in two. They were about to turn the corner onto the main street. The back side of the huge photography studio standing on that corner was so quiet and still it was hard to believe that it stood in Yokohama's bustling Chinatown. The studio's name was Umeya, and it was a remarkably prosperous establishment. There were rumors that the owner supported continental rōnin and exiles as something of a hobby.
The two men came around to the back of the studio and approached a row of dilapidated tenements standing side by side in its shadow. They looked around to confirm there was no one about, then knocked briskly on the sliding door at the entrance.
The door opened without a sound. A man in strange attire towered over them. He was still young, probably not many years past twenty. The gear he wore was utterly outlandish. His feet protruded from shabby Chinese-style trousers, shod in the bizarre combination of a sandal on the left and a Western shoe on the right. The garments he wore resembled Ryukyuan folk dress.1 His shirt was tightly cinched at the waist with a white cord and a red headband with five knots adorned his forehead like a crown.
The taller of the two visitors let out a soft gasp of surprise. The young man's strange getup reminded him of an African witch doctor.
His voyage around the southern tip of Africa had been dogged by a strange fate. At the end of 1908 (Meiji 41), he had left his homeland of Germany, and the long sea journey east by way of Africa to the up-and-coming nation of Japan had been far from a stirring, romantic adventure. His travels had been awkward and greatly irritating. No matter what ports he called at—Cape Town, Calcutta, Java, Hong Kong—he always saw the flag of the British Empire. Only when he reached Ryukyu and at last beheld the simple, powerful Japanese flag did he regain his peace of mind. The British Empire had not reached Japan. The thought was strangely relieving to his frayed nerves.
During that voyage while waiting in Cape Town for the loading of fuel and provisions, he had seen a native witch doctor with bird feathers adorning his head performing a prayer over a sickly, emaciated child. The gaudy costume that man had worn looked remarkably like what the young man in Chinese clothes was wearing now. If so, then this young man might also be an Eastern master of magic.
He turned the thought over quietly in his mind. The fog of recollection was blown away in an instant as the man accompanying him hurled words at the young man in a voice as sharp as a blade.
"I have brought an applicant for admission to the Green Lodge. I want you to carry out the initiation ceremony," a pale-faced Lieutenant Katō said. His waxy complexion had nothing to do with the frigid February weather. The bluish pallor of his skin was inherent to his nature.
"Herr Katō, ist dies... die Grün Lodge?"2
Lieutenant Katō glanced sideways at his companion and gave him a small nod.
"Ja, Herr Haushofer."3
The young man who had been listening to their exchange placed his left hand on his chest and showed them the back of his hand. He bowed and then and straightened his fingers in demonstration. This was a secret signal.
The man bent his thumb and ring finger and extended the other three fingers straight up. This represented heaven. Next, he extended his thumb, index finger, and middle finger and folded the other two fingers at the second joint. This was the code that represented the earth. Finally, he raised his thumb and little finger and folded the other three; this indicated humankind.
Heaven, Earth, and Humankind together: this code meant the person was a member of the Triad, a Chinese secret society.
Katō quickly returned the same code with his own hand.
The young man in strange attire smiled broadly and led the two of them into the row house. They entered the parlor, which was floored with worn rice mats. Several men were already seated there, all of them dressed in the same bizarre attire as the young man who had come out to receive them. The red headbands with five knots made it like each of them was wearing a crown of flame.
The members of the Chinese secret society gathered here called it a red headscarf, and they always wore it for important ceremonies.
Mr. Haushofer let out a soft breath.
"Mr. Katō, we've been waiting," one of the secret society members said. "We are prepared to hold the initiation ceremony."
Lieutenant Katō urged Mr. Haushofer forward. They sat down in the center of the room. The middle-aged man from Germany found it difficult to sit cross-legged in the Eastern style, so it took some time for him to settle himself.
Two secret society members rose to close the door. Then they drew their swords and positioned themselves in two corners of the room. Three men seated in places of honor burned incense, murmuring an incantation in Chinese. Leaving one man in the center, the other two moved their cushions to the far ends of the room.
The person left in the center would preside over the initiation ceremony. The man who moved to the left was the incense master. To the right, an executive member called the guide took up his position.
The initiation ceremony began. It consisted strictly of one hundred and eight questions and answers, to be carried out without a single mistake. The questions were put by the incense master, but the initiate was not permitted to answer them directly. Instead, a proxy called the vanguard answered on his behalf. This role fell, of course, to Lieutenant Katō as his sponsor.
"Who art thou, and from whence hast thou come?" the incense master asked.
"I am Koukei no Tenyūkō," Lieutenant Katō replied.
"Speak no falsehoods," the incense master intoned. "In this world, there is no one who bears the surname of heaven. Where were you born?"
"I am one who served as a eunuch in the palace of the Chongzhen Emperor," Lieutenant Katō said. "I revere heaven as my father and earth as my mother, the sun as my brother and the moon as my sister. So that heaven might govern the world, it gave birth to the sun and the moon. This brought about the Ming Dynasty.4 The Qing overturned it, so I have taken for myself the name Koukei no Tenyūkō. To restore Ming and avenge the burning of Shaolin Temple, I have inscribed my name among the ranks of the army. I have come so that I may become a brother of the Hong family."5
The dialogue proceeded like flowing water. The Triad, like the great majority of secret societies, desired the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the restoration of the rightful Ming dynasty. For that reason, all members of the Triad became honorary members of the Hong family and took the surname Hong. Hong was the name of the imperial family that had founded the Ming dynasty.
An incense burner carved with the motto "Down Qing, Up Ming" sent sweet-scented smoke into the air, wreathing the Seven-Star Sword, an artifact which foretold a future in which the Qing dynasty would fall, resulting in the restoration of the Ming dynasty.
Karl Haushofer, the German officer receiving the initiation ceremony, waited for the ritual to end while gazing at the purple smoke that rose like a dragon ascending to heaven.
Translator's Notes
1
The Ryukyuans are the indigenous people of the Ryukyu Islands,
stretching from Kyūshū to Taiwan in southwestern Japan. Traditionally forming the
independent Ryukyu Kingdom, they have a distinct culture, six endangered
languages, and unique spiritual traditions, with over 1.4 million living in
Okinawa Prefecture today. ↩
2 The man speaks German here,
asking, "Mr. Katō, is this the Green Lodge?" ↩
3 Lieutenant Katō also responds in German: "Yes, Mr.
Haushofer." ↩
4 The Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) was the final imperial dynasty
of China ruled by the Han people, established by Emperor Hongwu after
overthrowing the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. Known for its immense economic
power, cultural brilliance—including porcelain and literature—and the
construction of the Ming Great Wall, the dynasty was marked by a shift
towards, then away from, maritime exploration. ↩
5 The kanji spelled "kō" in Japanese at the end of the name Lieutenant Katō gives reads "Hong" in
Chinese. ↩
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