Sowing Ghosts 18.6

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[concluding chapter 18... and the story]

“I’m going to miss that mansion,” Shiro said. “I wonder if Lord Tanuma employs anyone who would be able to make tatami. Those mats are amazingly comfortable.”

Ahead of them a troop of soldiers came to attention at the Kurama Barrier. Hiroki watched them more closely this morning than he had on his previous trip through the barrier, only a week or so before. I have learned much, he thought, and I don’t necessarily like all I have learned. Those warriors, for instance: they were not samurai; they were townspeople who worked for the neighbourhood-safety organizations. How had Katsumi put it? Something like, Soon there will be no point in you people coming back to the capital at all. The thought she might be correct was disconcerting. The world is disarranged enough as it is, without townspeople taking over control of the capital. What has happened to our leaders?

“We never did find out what was really expected of us where Yanagimoto is concerned,” Tetsuo said. “And if we were ever told to fight the man, nobody has passed that order on to me.”

“I don’t know that Yanagimoto had anything to do with what happened to us,” Hiroki said. “As for our fighting for — or against — any of the factions in the capital, I don’t believe anyone in the capital is organized well enough anymore to command Lord Tanuma — or anyone else in the provinces.”

One man is well-enough organized, he realized, and that’s Miyoshi Motonaga. The one who seems to enjoy working with men from the provinces, who keeps himself outside the capital. Hiroki wanted to believe that Miyoshi Motonaga was just another ambitious samurai leading yet another faction fighting for Kyoto. But is he really? Something about him is very different. And though he could have given us much more trouble than he did, yet he is leaving us alone. Why?

You’ll want to learn everything you can about that man, Hiroki told himself.

“Just as well,” Shiro said. “We’re going to be busy enough this spring and summer just defeating all of Lord Tanuma’s enemies in Kozuke. We won’t have time to worry about the capital, next year or any year.”

“There will be time enough to worry about Lord Tanuma’s enemies in Kozuke,” Hiroki told them, “once we have safely got back to Kozuke. One task at a time, gentlemen.”

Pausing to let Lords Naitō and Matsukata, the servants and their baggage catch up, Hiroki, head held high, led them through the barrier.

They began to climb the north-eastern hills, leaving the smell of wood-smoke behind them.

THE END

Next    Characters    Chapter 1    Chapter 2    Chapter 3    Chapter 4    Chapter 5    Chapter 6
Chapter 7    Chapter 8    Chapter 9    Chapter 10    Chapter 11    Chapter 12    Chapter 13    Chapter 14
Chapter 15    Chapter 16    Chapter 17    Chapter 18

Sowing Ghosts 18.5

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[continuing chapter 18]

Katsumi lay on her side, one hand propping up her head while the other traced the characters in the book she was reading. Hiroki, standing in the doorway to her room, saw sweat beading on her forehead and said to himself, Increase the dosage in her medicine tonight. The wound isn’t healing quickly enough.

“I am sorry to see you still in pain,” he told her.

“I have an enormous hole in my leg,” she said. “Of course I’m still in pain.” She took a deep breath. “I am sure I will still be in pain long after you have left the city.”

Sowing Ghosts 18.4

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[continuing chapter 18]

He had eaten a bowl of millet porridge with pickled vegetables, and then a bowl of noodles in broth, and drunk several cups of tea, and now Hiroki sat, reclining slightly, in the mansion’s great bath. His knee heartily approved of the heat and moisture, and it was possible now for him to believe he would be comfortable on horseback for however long it took to return to Kozuke.

“I always feel a bit strange conversing with someone in the bath,” Lord Hosokawa said from the doorway. “My ancestor Masamoto was murdered in his bath, you know.”

“I know,” Hiroki said. “I remember being told about it.” He nodded for Lord Hosokawa to sit anywhere he could be comfortable. “I will trust you, having no real choice in the matter.”

Sowing Ghosts 18.3

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[continuing chapter 18]

“What’s the hour?” Hiroki stretched, sucking in a breath as his knee protested, and pulled the upper futon right up to his chin.

“The horse, sir,” Jiro said. “Practically mid-day. Should I have woke you earlier?”

“No, and I’m glad you didn’t,” Hiroki said. “Are the others awake yet?”

“Yes, and both Tetsuo-dono and Shiro-dono have bathed. You mentioned as how you would be wanting a hot bath today yourself. Should I have the bath-house readied?”

Sowing Ghosts 18.2

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[continuing chapter 18]

Perhaps it was simply the shock of hearing the accusation spoken aloud, but Kanegawa Akihiro’s rigid composure — and posture — shattered and collapsed.

“It was the end of everything,” he said, sobbing into his hands. “Her decision destroyed me. If she told our lord what we had been doing I would be disgraced or even executed for the part I had played in negotiating with a clan the Miyoshi oppose.”

“And you were overcome?” the arms master asked. “You lost your self-control in your anger?”
Kanegawa nodded, wordlessly. Hiroki frowned at the lord.

“I am sorry, my lord, but this was not the spontaneous action of a passionate man driven past his ability to control himself.”

Sowing Ghosts 18.1

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

DEPARTURES

The sixteenth day of the second month

Hiroki watched closely to see how Kanegawa would respond to the accusation, but for the longest time the secretary seemed frozen. His brush hovered above the paper before him; not even the ink seemed able to move, and so no droplets fell from the brush.

“A man of action,” Hiroki said with scorn, “would perhaps have tried to cut his way out of this trap. Or at least to deny the charge.” The insult was calculated, but Kanegawa seemed not to have heard or understood it. Again, he did not respond at all.

“But — ” the arms master began.

After staring at Kanegawa for a long breath he opened his mouth again. “I had no real reason for believing Kanegawa had done anything wrong. I imprisoned him simply because I had to do something, and he was the most convenient.” If the lord flushed a little at the admission, it was only justified. No proper lord would have behaved in that way toward a vassal, Hiroki thought.

Decadent Societies, Part 3

From our library; note the Couture
painting, unfortunately black-and-white 

Yesterday I tried to examine the question of American decadence as raised by the late Robert M. Adams in his book Decadent Societies. My conclusion was that, from the perspective of 2020, the USA of the early 1980s was not in fact decadent, and a lot of the symptoms of potential decadence Adams identified turned out not to be all that deadly.

What might be the condition of the USA in mid-2020? Let’s look again at the main symptoms of societal decadence Adams declared:

·       military weakness;

·       losses in major wars;

·       food insecurity (dependence on outside sources beyond the society’s control);

·       technological stagnation;

·       a “grossly oppressive” tax system;

·       acceptance of rising inequality;

·       inability to prevent massive losses through epidemic disease;

·       a complete lack of concern over the increasing proportion of the population with little to no reason to continue to support the society’s existence.

How does the US stack up in 2020?

Decadent Societies, Part 2

Romans of the Decadence by Thomas
Couture, via Wikimedia Commons

About 40 years ago, Robert M. Adams wrote Decadent Societies, a short book (or long essay) that attempted to answer two questions: 1) What did the best-known “decadent” societies of the West have in common? 2) Was the United States of the time decadent by those criteria?

Adams suggests “…’decadence’ may be used as shorthand for the condition of society incapable of transcending difficulties that, years before, it would have shrugged off as routine.” Among the symptoms he lists are:

·       military weakness;

·       food insecurity (dependence on outside sources beyond the society’s control);

·       technological stagnation;

·       a “grossly oppressive” tax system;

·       losses in major wars;

·       inability to prevent massive losses through epidemic disease;

·       acceptance of rising inequality;

·       a complete lack of concern over the increasing proportion of the population with little to no reason to continue to support the society’s existence.*