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

 

PEOPLE OF THE CAPITAL

Hosokawa Katsunata — A young relative of both chief ministers; a person of some power in the capital and surrounding provinces

Wakashū (Togashi Shokan) — Friend and lover of Hosokawa Katsunata; presents as an adolescent though older

Mother (Inaki Sakiko) — Hiroki’s (estranged) mother; an employee of the imperial palace, where she acts as an administrator

Katsumi — a sex-worker from the southern part of the capital, interested in poetry

Saburo — owner of the teashop in which Katsumi lives

Inaba Michizane — a ronin (master-less warrior)

Kita Hayato — a ronin

THE SAKAI SHOGUNATE

Ashikaga Yoshitsuna* — Shogun of the Sakai party

Miyoshi Motonaga* — Officially deputy military governor of Yamashiro province, in reality the leader of the Sakai shōgunate

Chief minister (Hosokawa Harumoto)* — Kanrei of the Sakai party; also formal head of the Hosokawa clan (a title much disputed)

Arms master (Miyoshi Takahashi) — A senior member of the Sakai shōgunate’s administration, and the shōgun’s official representative in the capital

Miyoshi Tomiko — widowed younger sister of the arms master, and his official hostess

Kanegawa Akihiro — Secretary to the arms master

Aki — Tomiko’s personal maid

Jitsuko — Senior maid in the arm’s master’s household

Yanagimoto Kataharu* — Minor lord of Tanba province, Miyoshi Motonaga’s opponent in the battle for supremacy in the Sakai shōgunate; also allegedly a former lover of Hosokawa Takakuni (see Omi shōgunate)

Kōzai Motoharu — Tomiko’s secret lover and would-be husband (a cousin of Yanagimoto Kataharu)

THE OMI SHOGUNATE

Ashikaga Yoshiharu* — Shogun of the Ōmi party

Chief minister (Hosokawa Takakuni)* — The so-called “Ōmi Kanrei“, de facto leader of the Omi shōgunate