Sowing Ghosts 5.2

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 5]

“She was my friend.” Kanegawa Akihiro sat, perfectly rigid, on the cold floor of the chamber in which he was being held. The room felt as cold as the floor; the rain, which had not stopped overnight, pounded on the tiled roof. A lamp provided little light, so that the secretary seemed to have only half a face. The visible part of Kanegawa’s face, drawn and pale, suggested he was still feeling a kind of shock — even though he had not seen Lady Tomiko’s body himself. Hiroki, watching the young man, reminded himself that Kanegawa was a clerk, not a warrior, and had probably never come this close to death before. Now he was facing his own death, and likely by shameful execution rather than honourable seppuku.

Sowing Ghosts 5.1

Previous    First

CHAPTER FIVE

INVESTIGATION

The eighth day of the second month

“What you are telling me, I think, is that I wasted my time yesterday.” Tetsuo stabbed at a pickled plum. “And now we have three jobs to do and any single one of them would be enough to occupy all of us. Even if you are right about that woman, Hiroki, we can’t do two things at once. Not and do them well.”

“Nonsense,” said Shiro, his face alight. “We can do it all. Any one of us is a better man than any ten of the men we’ve met this week, Tetsuo. Even you.”

Sowing Ghosts 4.6

Previous    First

[Concluding chapter 4]

The rain had stopped by the time Hiroki returned to their mansion. Before it had stopped, though, it had flirted seriously with turning to snow, and had made the end of his long day nearly as trying as had been the examination of Lady Tomiko’s body.

It was well into the new day — at least the lesser Hour of the Ox — and he could not remember feeling this tired at any time that hadn’t involved a campaign. The harae purification ceremony had not taken long; in fact it had taken more time for Hiroki to have the priest awakened than it took the priest to perform the pouring of the water and waving of the hiraigushi. But it had taken a horrible hour of walking in the icy rain and sleet to find an occupied shrine, and Hiroki had been shivering so hard by the time he had the priest’s attention that he had a hard time following the ritual.

Sowing Ghosts 4.5

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 4]

For some time after she had gone Hiroki stared, thinking, at the doorway through which she had vanished. Have I changed so much? She has hardly changed at all, he thought. Could it be that she had simply willed herself to forgetting she had ever had a son? Despite his best efforts this was not something he had ever accomplished where his own son was concerned.

He shook his head, as if the violence of the motion would drive all thought of the boy from his mind, and allowed himself a tiny smile. There was some relief, at least, in the thought she truly had not recognized him. The alternative would have been extremely uncomfortable — and it would have made his tasks in the capital next to impossible to accomplish.

Sowing Ghosts 4.4

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 4]

Mother stared at him for a moment that seemed to promise no end, and Hiroki was unable to speak, so astonished was he at her presence. The fingers of his right hand clenched and opened, clenched and opened again, and when he realized that what they wanted was to be wrapped around the hilt of his dagger he was horrified.

Then the gate of memory gave way and he saw the face of his dying wife, and then the face of the son his mother had taken away from him, thoughts he had forbidden himself to have throughout the years of his wandering. The impulse to strike her down, to obliterate this woman the way she had obliterated his former life — his former self — was so strong that he found himself offering a prayer of thanks to the gods for the rule that forbade warriors to wear their swords inside a lord’s house.

Sowing Ghosts 4.3

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 4]

“A commendable beginning, I think,” Lord Naitō said as the three men walked away from the arms master’s audience chamber. “I believe, though, that there is a step you must take before you examine the grounds or interview the secretary.”

“What is that, lord?”

Lord Naitō gestured to a passing servant; when the latter approached he muttered something in the woman’s ear and she hurried away. Hiroki was about to repeat his question when an older woman shuffled up to them, head bowed down but with every aspect of her person radiating the sickness of fear. “This person,” Lord Naitō said, “will take you to the room in which the crime was committed. You will begin your investigation by examining the body.”

Hiroki could not suppress his surprise. “The body? It is still there?”

Sowing Ghosts 4.2

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 4]

Arms Master Lord Miyoshi looked ill: his jaw slack so as to draw down his face and shrink his cheeks, his eyes dull and their lids purple-grey. Hiroki saw no redness; the lord had not been crying, he guessed. Was it anger as much as shock, then, that made him appear this way?

“My lord,” said Lord Naitō as he, Lord Matsukata and Hiroki knelt before him, “we have summoned Hiroki as you requested. He is prepared to do as you wish.”

“You have my thanks,” the arms master said, in a voice barely audible. “Please tell me what else you need from me.”

Sowing Ghosts 4.1

Previous    First

CHAPTER FOUR

CONTAMINATION

Hiroki sat down abruptly. “Murdered?” The base of his spine hurt and he shifted, trying to ease this new pain. “When?”

“That is not known for certain,” Lord Naitō said. “The body was discovered nearly two hours ago, during the greater hour of the monkey.”

“It is most disturbing,” Lord Matsukata said.

“But how?” Hiroki asked. “How could an enemy get into this mansion? Through all the guards we’ve seen?”

“Lord Miyoshi has accused his secretary of the crime,” Lord Naitō said. “Kanegawa is under guard in a storage building.”

Now We Are Sixty-Four: VI

A CROWN OF SPIKES

The virus creeps, on lead-pan feet,

And makes us look to inward space;

It’s not so much the missing beat

Of life as it’s the raw disgrace

That comes from knowing that you’ve failed

To keep your distance from the rest;

And put your health at risk entailed

Through contact with the bloody pest.

Pandemic’s cruel spikes ensure

We’ll be a long time shut inside;

To keep our body fluids pure

We’re being forced to crawl and hide;

But there’s a future bright ahead

Showing dimly through the mist;

Because we all down-vote the dread,

Somehow we will all persist.

Sowing Ghosts 3.6

Previous    First

[Concluding chapter 3]

As he dressed in clothes that would both be suitable for an appearance before the arms master and keep himself warm, Hiroki wished that Tetsuo or even Shiro would appear at the kitchen door before he was ready to depart. Someone already wet through from walking or riding home in the icy downpour wouldn’t object to going right back out into the rain to answer the summons. And surely only one of them was needed.

No one had arrived by the time Hiroki reached the kitchen, though, and so without — he thought — grumbling too much he stepped into his wooden geta clogs and wrapped the largest of the bulky straw rain-cloaks over his shoulder. As he struggled to ensure the straw covered his chest as well as his back, Jiro placed a conical straw hat on Hiroki’s head. “This is the best I can do, master,” Jiro said. “I would gladly come with you bearing an umbrella, but I suspect—“

Sowing Ghosts 3.5

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 3]

The rain was cold and seemed to smack against Hiroki’s skin with vicious force, but he maintained his steady pace. After a good start his day had declined into frustration and now all he wanted to do was be warm and dry.

I should have just stayed with Katsumi, he told himself. I could probably have remembered a poem or two. Instead he had done as he’d promised Lord Naitō and begun visiting Lotus-sect temples to ask about the Uesugi. He had done such a poor job of interviewing the abbot of this temple, though, and been treated so rudely by the abbot’s assistants and guards, that he had decided there was nothing to be gained by doing any more work today.

Besides, he had learned as much about the Uesugi — and, he supposed, the Hōjō as well — from Lord Hosokawa Katsunata as he could have from a full day spent talking to any but the most learned of monks. What he really had to do now was absorb what he had been told, and decide how best to advise his superiors.

He might have been more determined had the weather been better, but it had started poorly and steadily got worse. It was raining by the time he reached the temple, and now — If those clouds get any lower, he thought, I’ll be walking on top of them. And despite the heavy clothes he wore, the chill was eating into him. Cold weather was bad, but cold, wet weather was horrible. Now the rain was getting into his eyes, and it stung.

For a moment he wondered about Tetsuo and Shiro, but immediately he did he concluded that both were probably behaving more wisely than he was. Shiro would certainly spend the night in one of the Mount Hiei temples, and Tetsuo was already safe and warm in some sake-shop or other, where the press of bodies would ensure that none of this horrible cold got through to him.

So why aren’t you running for home? By rights he certainly ought to have: at this pace he’d be so chilled by the time he got to the mansion he would fall sick. I will not run, he decided, because I will not be made to run. He would not exert himself because of the weather any more than he would exert himself to help Hosokawa, or Miyoshi, or anyone but Lord Tanuma. I will not be comfortable again until I feel that I am in control of my circumstances. And at the moment I am far from feeling in control.

He had to shout to get the gate-keeper’s attention, and once he was in the grounds of the mansion he realized he would have to walk around to the back of the house and come in by way of the kitchen, unless he felt like shouting some more to be let inside: the rain was now falling heavily enough that all of the buildings had been closed up, their massive shutters lowered and locked into place.

By the time Hiroki had reached the kitchen the rain had turned to sleet, and he could hear it thumping against the shutters as he stumbled, shivering, to the big central fire. He had got so cold, he realized, that it was going to hurt a great deal while he warmed his hands and feet. But at least he was safe now, and he had done it on his own terms. He made certain to thank the cook very carefully when she gave him a large, roughly made cup, and filled it with hot tea.

Warm as it was, though, the kitchen was too busy a place in which to think about how he was to advise Lords Naitō and Matsukata. When the pain in his feet had been reduced to a spiky sort or tingling, therefore, he took the ugly mug, refilled, out of the kitchen and into the room in which he slept. Somebody had already kindled the brazier, and it was with real gratitude that Hiroki sat down, one futon under him and another wrapped around him, and began to search for a way out of the web of obligations into which this embassy threatened to weave them.

He had come to no conclusions — but had finished the tea and was about to call for more — when his servant Jiro stumbled into the room. “Sorry, lord,” he said, dropping to his knees and lowering his chin to his chest. “Urgent news, for you. Are the other gentlemen in?”

“No, they are both still out,” Hiroki said. “In this weather I don’t expect Lord Shiro to be back until tomorrow.” Jiro looked very unhappy, he decided. And it took a lot to make Jiro unhappy. “What is it?”

“A messenger, lord, from the Lords Naitō and Matsukata.” He paused to gulp a breath. “You’re to come to the arms-master’s place immediately. The messenger says it’s urgent.

“And he looks frightened almost to death.”

Next    Characters    Chapter 1    Chapter 2    Chapter 3

Sowing Ghosts 3.4

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 3]

Hiroki found Katsumi in the tea-shop, an empty cup on the table in front of her and a grim, blank expression on her face. He was certain he knew the reason for her expression: with the weather as wretched as it was, and threatening worse, there were few people in the streets and that meant little or no business for her. “Hello,” he said. “Could we talk?”

She looked up at him but it seemed to take a moment for his presence to fully register with her. The smile that touched her face then looked more like an expression of relief than of pleasure, but Hiroki couldn’t grudge her that. “Talk?” she asked. “That’s not a request I hear much.”

“I have a proposition for you.”

“Now that is something I am more familiar with.”

Sowing Ghosts 3.3

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 3]

“Am I really going to have to spend the entire day sitting and waiting on our lords?” Shiro looked at Hiroki in a manner suggesting despair, as though he’d been asked to open his belly. No, thought Hiroki: he’d be happier about that than about the prospect of sitting indoors all day.

“I’m afraid there is no other choice,” Hiroki told him. They had fallen behind Tetsuo and the two lords, Naitō and Matsukata, during the walk to the arms master’s mansion. “Our lords require one of us to wait on them while the other two conduct the research they have asked for. As Tetsuo is injured, it is safer for our lords that you stay with them. It’s duty, Shiro, and that’s all.”

Sowing Ghosts 3.2

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 3]

Shiro arrived at the mansion kitchen just as Hiroki was completing his cleansing and bandaging of Tetsuo’s wound.

“He got you, did he?” Shiro asked, dropping to the floor and wiping his brow. “Must have been a lucky shot. Nothing else he fired at us came close. Well, except for that one arrow that I smacked right out of the air. Did you see that, Tetsuo?”

“I was busy at the time.”

“I’ll have to do it again for you.” Shiro pulled off his socks, wriggling his toes, then shifted closer to the central fire.

“Not that I want to interrupt this discussion of your many excellences,” Hiroki said, beginning to put away his healing herbs, “but did you by any chance catch up with the man?”

Sowing Ghosts 3.1

Previous    First

CHAPTER THREE

ARROWS

“Stay down, lord!” Tetsuo grunted as Lord Naitō struggled with him. “Somebody shooting at you.” Hiroki turned to his left: the arrow had come from the west.

Yes, there he was. “On the wall,” Hiroki said. “One man. Look out.” Another arrow was on its way.
The bowman was far enough away that there would have been time enough to dodge the arrow had it reached them. Instead it smacked into the frozen mud a couple of paces short of where they stood. A good thing he was short with that arrow, Hiroki thought. I’m too slow, and he’s firing too quickly. No peasant, this one.

Sowing Ghosts 2.6

Previous    First

[Concluding chapter 2]

Two men emerged from the arms master’s gate as Hiroki waited, watching the road for danger. They weren’t the men he’d expected. “I told you nothing useful would come of this, and I was right, wasn’t I?” the wakashū said in the grating voice Hiroki had quickly come to detest. “I wish I understood why,” the wakashū continued, “you continually insist on dragging me to this place when I haven’t had a full night’s sleep. I need my sleep, and you know that.”

The couple passed in front of Hiroki without stopping or even acknowledging his existence. “And all to spend time with that horrible woman, who is twenty-five if she’s a day and has no wit and no conversation.”

Sowing Ghosts 2.5

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 2]

The next day Lord Naitō ordered morning rice for the greater hour of the Tiger, the period immediately before dawn. Shiro grumbled as he ate, but then Shiro was never at his best before the sun rose. Tetsuo, who had already cleaned his weapons and stretched himself before dressing, not only refused to sympathize but teased his companion coarsely while the poor boy struggled to finish. In the end Shiro had to pour the last of his tea into the last of his rice when the three warriors were summoned to escort Lords Naitō and Matsukata to the arms master.

This morning Tetsuo and Shiro carried their lances with them. The yari was a warrior’s main battlefield weapon, but the capital of the empire ought not to have been a battlefield, and they ought to have been able to leave the lances, blades in their leather covers, at the mansion when they walked the streets. After yesterday’s incident, though, Hiroki had decided that the claims of etiquette did not supersede their responsibility for their lords’ safety. Hiroki himself carried his bo, the long wooden staff that was his preferred weapon—and that of many warrior monks.

Sowing Ghosts 2.4

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 2]

Hiroki found Katsumi in the street just outside her tea-shop. She did not see him approach, and it was clear to him he had startled her when he said to her:

  Past and
    gone now
  is the time I awaited,
  leaving me
    clinging-
  anxious for wind
    from the pines,
  like dewdrops
    at break of day.*

The anger in her eyes vanished when she turned and saw him. “My lord,” she breathed, smiling. “You have come back. And you recited a poem for me!”

Sowing Ghosts 2.3

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 2]

“How comfortable this is.” Shiro flexed his sock-clad toes before settling down onto the thick, soft straw mats that made up the floor of the house's central room. “Much better than that stinky old temple. Even better than our place back in Kozuke, you know. It's a strange way to furnish a house, but I do like it.”

“Lord Hosokawa said it was the new style,” Hiroki said, admiring the effect of the room, whose walls let in some of the diffuse late-afternoon light. In truth, the use of rice-paper walls and mats on the floor wasn't all that new. But it had yet to reach the eastern provinces, certainly. “I agree with you, Shiro: this is comfortable indeed. And how convenient for us that our superiors found this house rather too new and too unfamiliar for their comfort.”

Sowing Ghosts 2.2

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 2]


“Your men fight very well,” Lord Hosokawa said to Lord Naitō. He wiped his blade on the short kimono of the dead captain, then sheathed it. “I have been introduced to your warriors, lord, but not to yourselves. This person is Hosokawa Katsunata.” Lord Hosokawa bowed as to an equal.

Lord Naitō returned the bow in kind; Lord Matsukata’s bow was just a bit more respectful. “You represent a very powerful clan,” Lord Naitō said. “Are you one of the arms master’s men, then?”

Sowing Ghosts 2.1

Previous    First

CHAPTER TWO

ADJUSTMENTS

When Lord Naitō and Lord Matsukata finally reappeared the sun was beginning to touch the western hills. Both men looked worn, their faces slack and their shoulders slumped, when they came into the room in which Hiroki and his friends waited. The lords did not sit, nor did they accept the offer of tea. “It is time we left this place,” Lord Naitō said. “We have much to talk about, but not here.”

Hiroki feared the worst, but when Lord Naitō spoke next — which was not until they were safely outside the compound of the arms master’s mansion mansion and walking east to the temple — it was to say, “This was a most successful day. I believe our lord will have cause to be pleased with us.”

Sowing Ghosts 1.6

Previous    First

[Concluding chapter 1]

The room to which they were taken was at the front of a smaller house on the west side of the large central courtyard. The walls—some of thin wood, some merely rice-paper in wooden frames—had been moved to open the room to the courtyard. Though it was cool the room was still sheltered from what wind there was, and a series of charcoal-burning braziers made conditions more comfortable once Hiroki was inside.

Three young men were seated on the soft mats in front of a painted screen; all turned to face them as Hiroki, Tetsuo and Shiro were brought into the room. One was the secretary, Kanegawa; the other two were strangers. Very handsome strangers, Hiroki decided, wondering how jealous Shiro would be of their bright silks and glossy hair. Something about the younger of the two strangers seemed odd to Hiroki; then he realized that the younger man was in fact not younger. He was only dressed and coiffed that way.

Sowing Ghosts 1.5

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 1]

Arms Master Miyoshi Takahashi was not a well-favoured man. His chin was weak, his hair was thin, and a softness in cheeks, body and hands argued for a life that was less active than it ought to have been.

For all that, though, Hiroki was impressed by his presence when he entered the room. The arms master was superbly dressed and accoutered, and his eyes, clear and firm, seemed to take the measure of Hiroki and all his companions in the time it took him to step through the doorway. Tetsuo, alarmed, swallowed the last of his tea abruptly as Hiroki, Lords Naitō and Matsukata, and Shiro made their bows. If he isn't deliberately trying to throw us off-balance, Hiroki thought, he has excellent instincts for the uses of power. 

Sowing Ghosts 1.4

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 1]

The young man who appeared in the audience-room once they had settled themselves was plainly dressed but possessed of a sense of elegant self-control. His top-knot and short-sword proclaimed his samurai status, but Hiroki did not think he had the look of a warrior. “Good morning,” the new arrival said. “This person is Kanegawa Akihiro.” He bowed, as a subordinate. “I am secretary to the arms master. Am I to understand that you have a petition to present to my lord?”

“Not precisely,” Lord Naitō said, removing their papers from his sleeve. “This letter is from our lord of Kozuke province and explains the nature of our embassy.” He placed the papers on a low table and sat back as the secretary walked over to pick them up.

Sowing Ghosts 1.3

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 1]

Tetsuo breathed out loudly and slowly. “I have never seen so many buildings in one place in my life,” he said, awe in his voice. Tetsuo was so broad across the shoulders, and his neck so massively muscled, that he looked shorter than he really was. His physicality made him the ideal person to lead their procession this morning; nobody would want to get in his way.

“And they’re huge,” Shiro added from his position at the rear. The second of Hiroki’s subordinates—and companions—Shiro was young, slender, and considered himself the epitome of elegance. In Kozuke, at least; Hiroki doubted his self-esteem would long survive their arrival in the capital. “Nobody in Kozuke has a house like these,” Shiro added, the envy impossible to ignore.

Sowing Ghosts 1.2

Previous    First

[Continuing chapter 1]

Her name was Katsumi and she occupied — it seemed too much to think she lived in — a room at the back of a tea-shop on Nijō Avenue well south of the good neighbourhoods. Hiroki found himself amused that her neighbour was Tōjiji, one of the huge Lotus-sect temples. Equally amusing was that, while she was happy to welcome him onto her futon, she would not let down her hair for him. He had to ask her about that, when they had finished, and she gave him a small, careful smile and said, “We do not know one another well enough yet, lord.”

“Somehow, though,” he said, sitting up, “I have got the impression that it was you who approached me and not the other way — what many would call the normal way.”

She appeared to think carefully about what he had intended as a jest. “I think I could tell that you were a cultured person,” she said after a while, looking down at the floor rather than at Hiroki. “And I am most interested in cultured persons.” Now she looked up at him. “So of course I made it easy for you to come here with me.”

Sowing Ghosts 1.1

CHAPTER ONE

SMOKE

The eighth year of the Daiei era, fourth day of the second month
(February 23, 1528)

Is the capital really this badly unsettled, Hiroki asked himself as he walked, or is it me? The little he’d seen of Kyoto thus far seemed uncomfortably like the countryside: both seemed broken, and with nobody interested in making the effort needed to fix them. The one big difference between capital and countryside was the smell of wood-smoke here, heavy and sour in the cold, damp of late afternoon. The smell meant there had been fighting recently. It was a smell he had grown up with, but it still bothered him.

As did his inability to understand why he had been sent here.

On the surface, he was the leader of the small escort of an embassy sent by his liege, Lord Tanuma of Kozuke province, to the shōgun in the capital. But his skills were not those of a typical warrior; he was never going to be renowned for his abilities with lance or sword. What he was good at—and training his two subordinates to be better at—was learning things. Seeing his way through mazes and confusions, and so easing his lord’s way. Guarding diplomats seemed to be a waste of his talents.

Sowing Ghosts: Dramatis Personae

(Note that in Japanese culture the family name is first and the given name follows. In order to avoid confusion—and to follow historical fashion—many individuals are referred to by title or position rather than name. Those characters marked with an asterisk * are historical figures; all others are creations of the author)

VISITING FROM KOZUKE PROVINCE

Yoshino Hiroki — A samurai in the service of Lord Tanuma

Shimada Tetsuo — A samurai in the service of Lord Tanuma; companion of Hiroki

Otomo “Shiro” Hideo — A samurai in the service of Lord Tanuma; second of Hiroki’s companions

Jiro — Hiroki’s personal servant

Naitō Katsunori — Minister of the Left in the administration of Lord Tanuma; leader of the embassy to the capital

Matsukata Akatomo — A personal retainer of Lord Tanuma and his personal representative on the embassy

Sowing Ghosts: Calendar and Clock

The Japanese calendar and clock were based on the Chinese model as it existed at the time of the Tang Dynasty. What follows is a very brief description, providing only enough information to make the dates and hours used here comprehensible.

YEARS

The Japanese calendar used era names, which were assigned by the imperial household and follow no particular pattern. Era names were changed when the timing was considered auspicious, but also when events were unlucky and a change in luck was desired. The era in which this book is set, Daiei, began in mid-1521 CE; the era name was changed because of a series of inauspicious events (both military and environmental) persuaded the authorities the Eishō era should be ended. The Daiei era itself lasted only seven years (Eishō had lasted some seventeen) before it, too, was brought to an end by various calamities.