Flower Spelling - Chapter 35
Chapter 35 – Walking Tour of Kyo’s Sights
‘The centre of the time is in Kyo’
As Takasugi once said, on the surface Kyo seemed calm, but when walking around the streets, you often encounter keen-eyed samurai and ronin. Bloody rumors abound as a matter of course, such as where there was a manslayer yesterday, or whose house, a letter explaining the reasons for cutting down an alleged villain was thrown into.
Sogetsu spent her days doing chores at the clan’s residence and practicing dancing, just as she had done when she was in Edo. When Sogetsu expressed her desire to find a way to support herself, Katsura introduced her to Ikumatsu, a geisha at Yoshidaya in Sanbongi, near the clan residence. Ikumatsu was a geisha whom Katsura was familiar with, and she had a beautiful Fuji forehead and strong, clear eyes. When she saw Sogetsu, the first thing she said was.
“The way of the art is to devote oneself to it until death. It’s not so easy that you can do two jobs at the same time. Just because I’ve been introduced by Katsura, I won’t show any mercy.”
She flinched hearing that.
“If you insist on doing it, I shall take good care of you.”
She smiled at her, looking stunningly cool, and she found herself bowing her head in regards to her hospitality.
Katsura actively encouraged her to go out on errands, and she used the opportunity to look for folding screens.
One of the major changes was that she returned to her normal appearance as a woman, instead of wearing men’s clothes. This was because, having left Edo, she needed not to disguise herself from the officials. Having tied up her hair for the first time in a long time, she wore brightly colored kosode sleeves, which naturally made her heart flutter.
Just as she was beginning to get used to life in Kyo, Ito came to the capital. This meant that for the first time in a while, the four of them, Sogetsu, Takasugi, Kusaka, and Ito, were all together.
“I would like to go somewhere with the four of us again.”
When confronted with her selfishness, the other three nodded in agreement with her request. But each of them had their own role to play, and there was no way they could all fit in the same day. Kusaka, in particular, had become quite well known to the court nobility, and he was still making the rounds of the court nobility to secure their approval for the expulsion of the barbarians while the shogun was still in the capital.
One afternoon, the days passed with the promise of “someday”.
Was it divine guidance or sheer coincidence? All four of them happened to have free time that overlapped perfectly with each other.
If this opportunity is missed, there is no telling when the next one will be. The four of them quickly came to an agreement and left the residence together, before they had even had lunch.
??
Blue skies, thin clouds like a softly spread fabric. The sun was shining warmly and it was a perfect day for a vacation.
“We don’t have time to go very far, so we’ll just stick to the nearest place that looks good.”
The first temple visited was Chion-in, not far from the clan residence. This magnificent temple was associated with Honen, the founder of the Jodo sect of Buddhism, and was widely worshipped by both the Tokugawa clan and the general public. Passing through the huge two-story Sanmon gate supported by five pillars and climbing the steep stone steps, visitors will find themselves in the spacious precincts of the Mikado.
Takasugi, who was walking in the lead, turned around and eyed Sogetsu with an impersonal smile on his face.
“By the way, do you know it? The seven wonders of this place.”
“The Seven Wonders?… Oh, you mean like a forbidden room?”
Not a fan of ghost stories. When Sogetsu immediately became reluctant, Takasugi pointed to the three gates they had just passed and said, “Look.”
“That gate was built by a carpenter and his wife with all their heart and soul, but they committed suicide because of the high cost. A white wooden coffin containing a wooden statue of the deceased pair still rests on the gate and is said to cry out in an eerie voice at night.”
“Eek!”
Without being aware of it, she walked past it. Feeling a little spooked now, she stepped back to maintain her distance.
“How can you all pass through it undisturbed??”
At the side of her frowning face, Takasugi’s shoulders begin to shake slightly. It couldn’t be.
“??Were you joking!?”
Takasugi burst out laughing, as if unable to restrain himself.
“If the temple was haunted, people wouldn’t worship it so much!”
“How terrible, I thought you were being serious!”
“Well, well, it’s true that there are seven wonders.” Kusaka intervened to appease her. “It’s not exactly the sort of ghost story one would expect. Apart from the crying in the night, there’s The Coffin of White Wood, and The Forgotten Umbrella in the Mikado. You can see it just over there.”
Following Kusaka’s direction, she glanced up to see the tip of an old umbrella peeking out from under the eaves in front of her.
“Ah, indeed. But why would there be an umbrella there?”
“Well, I wonder why. It’s said to have been put there by the carpenter Hidari Jingoro, or by an incarnation of the white fox.”
“As I recall, it is supposed to protect the place from fire.”
Ito looked up alongside him. “I’ve heard of the Seven Wonders, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen them.”
“It’s interesting, isn’t it? What else do you have in store for us?”
“Yes, for example… No, let’s just go through them in order. We could just go around the hospital and you’d get a better idea of the whole thing that way.”
“Ah, that’s good!”
??
The long “Nightingale corridor” leading from the Mikado to the Grand Hojo, the “Large ladle” on the beam at the entrance to the Grand Hojo, and the “Missing sparrow” on the sliding doors, which was claimed to have been so beautifully painted that it sprang to life and flew away. The “Cat Facing the Front in Three Directions ” can be seen from every angle, as if it was staring straight ahead. One by one, they toured the complex with great interest, joining the throngs of visitors.
The last of the Seven Wonders was the Uryu Stone, which can be found on the roadside beyond the Black Gate. According to legend, a melon vine grew overnight, blossomed, and produced fruit on this large stone, which was said to have existed before the construction of Chion-in.
“There’s another legend that goes with it. If you dig underneath the stone, you’ll find a cavity that leads to Nijo Castle.”
“Heh… so if I go through here now, I can see the Shogun at Nijo Castle.”
“I suppose so,” said Takasugi, with an amused smile. “The Shogun would be quite shocked.”
?
After leaving Chion-in, Sogetsu and her friends went south to visit Kiyomizu-dera, a temple built on the hillside of Mount Otowa. The famous platform jutted out from the cliffs and offered a panoramic view of the town of Kyo through the budding trees.
“When you look at it like this, it’s truly a beautiful grid. And it’s full of huge temples.”
Sogetsu tried to compare her memories with the city of Kyoto where she lived, but regrettably, nothing struck her as nostalgic.
Standing side by side, looking down tirelessly, the four of them exchanged many stories.
Sogetsu and Takasugi amusingly recounted the events of their journey from Edo to Kyo, while Kusaka spoke passionately about the nobles and comrades he had met in Kyo.
“More importantly, Kusaka, have you found an intimate geisha yet?”
When Takasugi made a joke of it, Kusaka faltered slightly, stating that this discussion was not appropriate for the moment.
“Oh, that reaction means there is one, right? Where is the geisha from? Her age? Is she a beauty?”
“Shut up. I would never tell you.”
“I am curious too. What’s that person like?”
“I’ll introduce her at some point if the opportunity arises. More than that, Sogetsu has been apprenticed to Miss Ikumatsu, I suppose? How’s the training going?”
Sogetsu replied that it was a tough job, despite feeling that the conversation had been cleverly diverted.
“The Edo dance is very different from the Kyo dance, so I had to learn a lot of new things. Drop your hips more! That’s what she scolds me for every time.”
“Miss Ikumatsu seems to be relentless.” Ito chuckled. “Mr. Katsura was rejected badly once, you know?”
“Eh, Mr. Katsura!?”
Both Takasugi and Kusaka looked at Ito in wonder, as if they had never heard of it.
“She said she didn’t like boorish men apparently.”
“Mr. Katsura is a boor!? He’s always so perfectly behaved!?”
“That’s the part that didn’t appeal, wasn’t it? I felt sorry for Mr. Katsura, he was so despondent. I figured it was time for me, his long-time companion, and a man who knows women’s hearts, to step in.”
Ito neatly dismissed Takasugi’s suggestion that he was just a womanizer.
“I managed to coax the reluctant Miss Ikumatsu into meeting Mr. Katsura again.”
Somehow, a promise was made, and Katsura made a daring last-ditch attempt to win her over.
“He’s good at politics, but when it comes to women, he can’t pull it off.”
“Isn’t his personality good!” Sogetsu’s eyes twinkled. “I’d rather have it said quickly than in a roundabout way.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of a man and a woman, to play charades?”
“Surely is interesting for fun, but if you’re looking for a serious relationship, it’s definitely someone like Mr. Katsura. I think Miss Ikumatsu had never met anyone like Mr. Katsura before and was struck by his sincerity.”
“Sincerity…”
The men didn’t seem to get it.
?
The lengthening daylight of early summer soon turned to the west, and the shadows of the four of them elongated.
There was no end to the conversation, but they decided it was time to head back home, but didn’t want to go directly back to the clan residence, so they walked slowly with no sign of anyone else. Taking the diversions of an unfamiliar road, they ended up in a deserted alley.
“Oh, I didn’t know there was a temple here.”
Ito peered into an old temple in the middle of nowhere. Its roof tiles were peeling off in places and the mud walls seemed on the verge of collapse. Still, the temple was not abandoned, the floor of the hall was polished to the point where there was not a speck of dust, and the garden had been swept clean.
Sogetsu was drawn to a white flower that grew quietly in a corner of the garden. In the setting sun, the petals of the flower shone like gold.
“Beautiful…”
Takasugi, standing next to Sogetsu, said, “Oh, that’s a deutzia.”
“Deutzia?”
“Tree(?) of sky(?), together they meant deutzia. It blooms in April, and is also called ‘Unohana’. It is a well-known flower that has been written down in the Manyoshu. As far as I remember, there is a song by Otomo no Yakamochi… What was it again?”
??The moon will not rise when the Unohana blooms.
Come and hear the sound, even if it is only a whimper.
Kusaka, directed by Takasugi, recited the poem cheerfully.
“You know very well. And your voice is so good it makes one fall in love with it.”
At the sound of his voice, they turned to see a monk with whitened eyebrows watching them with a grin.
“Ah, are you the chief priest? Sorry for barging in.”
“No, no, go ahead and have a look. It’s a rundown temple that doesn’t get many visitors, and I am glad to hear that the flowers are beautiful.”
The monk seemed to be fond of talking and happily explained about his garden trees, which he prunes himself.
“You see, that pine tree was once dying, but somehow it was revived.”
By the pine tree, he pointed to.
A child’s large eyes peer out from the shadow of a pillar in the hall.
“Hey! What’s wrong with the dictation! Don’t slack off!”
At the monk’s exhortation, the child jumped up and disappeared.
“Ah, I am embarrassed to show you this. I take in a child who has no family and teach him to read and write, but as soon as I let him out of my sight, he tries to skip lessons.”
The priest’s expression was gentle.
“Ah, that, I have that sort of memory too.”
Ito’s eyes narrowed with nostalgia.
“When I was very young, I was sent to a temple. The monk was a strict man and I couldn’t play with my friends. I had a plan to sneak out. I hid a bamboo pipe under the floor and we used it to exchange letters secretly.”
“Heh.”
“When the monk found out, I risked going without food for three meals, but he finally forgave me, after I insisted that I would change my ways and study harder.”
“Different places, but still children behave in the same way.”
The monk laughed happily, and Sogetsu and the others thanked him for it and left the temple.
“… I am sure we’ll all go out like this again.”
In front of the gate of the clan residence. To Sogetsu’s words,
“… Yes, definitely.”
He returned a smile.
At that time, she believed him without a doubt.