The Dragon Scroll

Akitada remained where he was. Tasuku had unknowingly reopened the wound. He closed his eyes, and the wintry scene shifted to the veranda of the Temple of the Merciful Goddess. Somewhere in the winter night an owl cried with a lonely, mournful sound. In the garden below a woman stepped into a man’s embrace. Then night passed into day, a gray and misty day when snow swirled, danced, and settled on her hair like an ornament of crystal beads. Or drops of dew.

“There you are! All alone in the dark?” Kosehira put his hand on Akitada’s shoulder. “Has Tasuku gone? Poor fellow.”

“Yes, Kosehira.” Akitada rose slowly, feeling like an old man with his cold-stiffened limbs and his thoughts of death. “I must be on my way, too. It has been a long day.”

“Nonsense, my friend.” Kosehira looked at him anxiously. “You mustn’t let Tasuku’s decision get you down. He was tired of the world and chose another life. You, on the other hand, have a great future ahead. Everybody says so. You will do great things someday. I feel it in my bones.” He firmly grasped Akitada’s arm and pulled him back toward the voices and the laughter, the sounds of zither and flute, and the world of men.

* * * *

HISTORICAL NOTE

D

uring the Heian period (794-1185), the Japanese government still loosely resembled the centralized empire of Tang China. Japan was ruled from the capital, Heian Kyo (Kyoto), by an emperor and an elaborate bureaucracy of court nobles. Outlying provinces were administered by governors who were dispatched from the capital every four years with their own staff to oversee law and order, as well as tax collection. At the end of their tenure, an inspector (kageyushi) would make sure that their accounts were in order. But the distances were great and transportation still in its infancy. Bandits and pirates roamed the land and the seas. Provincial landowners, including the great monasteries, set up their own armies to defend their property. Toward the end of the Heian period the military power of these private interests became a danger to the governors and to the empire.

The events in this novel are fictional, but they play out against the politics and culture of the eleventh century. Akitada is a member of the ruling class and serves in the central government in the capital, but he is on the very fringes of their slowly eroding power. He is well born, university educated, fluent in the Chinese language of government, imbued with Confucian ideals, and struggling to climb the administrative ladder of rank, power, and privilege. Unlike most of his peers, he consorts with the common people, is inept at poetry, and dislikes the Buddhist faith.

Early Japanese culture was based on that of ancient China. Thus, the calendar followed the sexagenary cycle, and era names were periodically designated by the court. To simplify greatly, there were twelve months and four seasons as in the West, but the year began about a month later. In the eleventh century, a workweek lasted six days, starting at dawn, and was followed by a day of leisure. As in the Chinese system, the day was divided into twelve two-hour segments. Time was kept by water clock and a

By the eleventh century, Japan had two religions, Shinto and Buddhism. They coexisted peaceably. Shinto, the native faith, venerates the kami, divine forces in nature that assure good harvests. Buddhism, imported from China via Korea, became extremely powerful through the court aristocracy. Shinto is responsible for many taboos. Buddhism stipulates a hereafter involving both hell and paradise. There were many well-endowed Buddhist temples, monasteries, and nu

Much of life during these times was restricted by i

Buddhism dictated a meat-free diet consisting mostly of rice, other grains, fruit, vegetables, and fish. People still drank rice wine in preference to tea. Men did not shave the top of their heads and wore their hair long and twisted into a topknot; women wore theirs loose, trailing to the floor, or tied with a ribbon. Upper-class women blackened their teeth. Depending on class, clothes were made from either silk or hemp. The upper classes layered their simple kimono-style garments lavishly, while peasants made do with short pants and shirt, or even just a loincloth. This was not yet the time of the samurai, but martial arts of all sorts were gradually becoming important. Nobles were certainly taught to ride, use a bow and a sword, and engage in battle, but most preferred writing poetry and participating in court ceremonial. Fighting with wooden swords (kendo) was known, but for the common man the weapon of choice was the staff or pole(bo), which was readily available and less expensive, hence Tora’s stick-fighting skills (bo-jutsu).

The role of women in early Japanese society was restricted. Upper-class women spent most of their lives in the i

The issue of law and order is important for crime and detective fiction. In some ways, eleventh-century Japan was quite modern in this respect. It had a police force, judges, prisons, and a set of laws pertaining to crime and punishment. However, since Buddhism forbade killing, the worst that could happen to a murderer was that he would be condemned to exile at hard labor and his property and that of his family be confiscated. Interrogation permitted torture, since confession was necessary for conviction. Prisons were generally full but emptied periodically through general amnesties. As a result, crime of all sorts tended to flourish, to the great frustration of law-abiding citizens.

Kazusa province was part of what became modern Chiba prefecture, and the famous Tokaido highway, linking the eastern provinces to the capital, already existed, but much of the detail for Akitada’s journey and for life in Kazusa is fictional.

Some of the plots in The Dragon Scroll are loosely based on ancient Japanese tales. The pirate plot and the case of the missing lady-in-waiting were suggested by episodes inUji Shui Monogatari, and the story of the three monks has its source in Sa