Laura Rowland - The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria

“Stop!” Magistrate Aoki shouted at the women, then ordered the guards, “Get them out of here!”

The guards pushed back the mob. Women moaned, struggled, tore their hair, and wept. They overwhelmed the guards and fell to their knees, occupying every empty space on the courtroom floor. Magistrate Aoki grimaced in disgust, then returned his attention to Fujio and Momoko.

“Have you anything to say in your own defense?” he asked, clearly determined to ignore the interruption.

“I didn’t do it!” Momoko’s desperate wail rose over the noise.

Hirata, still standing near the dais, watched with horror and pity as the yarite simpered at Magistrate Aoki. Fluttering her eyelids, she wriggled her body in a grotesque attempt to seduce, and cried, “Please believe that I’m innocent!”

The magistrate’s flinty gaze was merciless. “I pronounce you guilty as an accomplice to murder. You are sentenced to death.”

Guards bore the weeping, swooning Momoko through the crowd, out of the room. Magistrate Aoki addressed Fujio: “What do you say for yourself?”

The room fell silent as the women waited for their idol to speak. Fujio said in a clear, ringing voice, “I confess.”

An uproar of screaming and weeping burst from the women. Young girls beat their heads on the floor; the nuns chanted prayers. Magistrate Aoki yelled orders for the women to be quiet and the guards to remove them. Fujio struggled to his feet, weighted by the shackles. Slowly he turned toward the crowd. His noble, somber mien quieted the women. Tearful adoration shone on their faces as they beheld him.

“Thank you, Hirata-san, for trying to help me,” Fujio said. “Thank you, honorable ladies, for your favor. But I know when I’m beaten, and I’d like to leave this life with grace. Therefore, I will sing my confession in a song I’ve written.”

He looked to Magistrate Aoki, who frowned but nodded. Inhaling deeply, Fujio donned a look of intense concentration. He paused on the verge of the performance of his career, as suspense hushed the court. Then he sang in a stirring, melancholy voice:

“Love is a garden of many flowers,

Where the rose, peony, and iris unfurl their petals to the sun.

My life was a garden of beautiful women,

Which I wandered to my heart’s delight, sampling every blossom.

But in the garden hides a flower of death,

Whose sap is poison, and its thorns sharp as knives.

Into my life came the Lady Wisteria

Whose charms lured me to my downfall.

We loved each other with a passion as hot and bountiful as summer

Until anger and hatred poisoned our paradise.

I bruised the soft petals of her skin, I crushed the fragile stem of her body, I drew the sap of her blood,

Until my Wisteria lay dead before me.

Now love is an empty wasteland,

Where harsh winds blow over weeds, rocks, and bones.

My life is a road to the execution ground,

Which I walk in hopeless misery toward my death.”

Hands upturned, body slumped, and his expression tragic, Fujio let his last note fade in the silence. Then a thunder of cheers, applause, and sobbing burst from the women. Fujio bowed. Magistrate Aoki looked irritated by the spectacle.

“I pronounce you guilty of murder and sentence you to death by decapitation,” he said.

As the guards escorted Fujio out of the room, the women followed him in a wailing, sobbing procession.

Hirata dreaded telling Sano that their last two suspects would be dead before they could resume the investigation.

Line up the soldiers, Masahiro-chan,” said Reiko.

Squatting on the nursery floor, the little boy carefully positioned his toy horsemen, archers, and swordsmen as Reiko and his old nurse O-sugi watched.

“That’s very good.” Reiko smiled at her son, but her mind was on Sano. Ever since he’d left for the palace, she’d waited in fearful suspense for him to return from his meeting with the shogun. She longed to know what was happening.

A loud crash from outside startled her and Masahiro and O-sugi. It sounded as if someone had broken down the garden gate. Then Reiko heard muttering and stomping. Puzzled, she rose, opened the door, stepped onto the veranda, and saw Sano in the garden. Head down, fists clenched, he stalked around trees. His feet trampled flowerbeds; his gait was unsteady.

“I can’t stand it,” he muttered. Breath puffed from him in white vapor clouds that rapidly formed and dispersed in the cold, sunlit air. “I can’t stand it anymore!”

Alarmed by his strange behavior, Reiko hurried across the garden to Sano. “What’s happened?” she cried.

Sano whirled toward her, his eyes wild and face contorted by fierce emotion. “Lady Yanagisawa brought the pillow book too late.” He continued prowling the garden while Reiko ran after him. “The shogun had already read it. He now suspects me of murdering Lord Mitsuyoshi!”

“Oh, no.” Reiko stopped, and her hand clasped her throat as horror and comprehension flooded her. She’d never seen Sano this upset because nothing this bad had ever happened before.

“That despicable, scheming, foul Hoshina got hold of the book. He made sure His Excellency saw it.” As Sano poured out a disjointed account of the meeting, his arms lashed out at bushes that got in his way. Reiko realized that he wasn’t just upset, but furious. “Hoshina branded me a traitor! I barely managed to convince the shogun to give me a chance to prove I’m innocent!”

Reiko caught up with Sano and reached for his arm. “Everything will be all right,” she said, trying to soothe him despite her own terror.

But Sano careened backward across the grass, shouting, “For four years I’ve done everything the shogun has asked of me. I’ve shed my blood for honor!” Sano halted and tore open his garments to reveal the scars on his torso. “I know His Excellency owes me nothing in return, and I wish for nothing except for him to see me as the loyal retainer that I am!”

Reiko noticed O-sugi and Masahiro standing on the veranda, gaping as Sano raved. “Go back inside,” she called to them, then urged Sano, “Please calm yourself. Come in the house before you freeze.”

He appeared not to hear her. “You’d think that once-just once-His Excellency could have faith in me and disregard the slander of my enemies,” Sano said, addressing the world at large. “But no-he was quick to believe everything Hoshina said against me. He was ready to condemn me on the spot, without even hearing my side of the story!” Sano gave a bitter laugh. “The only thing that saved me is that I’ve been in these situations enough times to know how to talk my way out of them.”

Although the shogun’s frequent injustices toward Sano pained her, Reiko had never heard him complain. The Black Lotus case had taxed his endurance, and this outrage had finally shattered it. Frightened for her husband, and frightened of him, Reiko crept toward Sano.

“You’ll get out of this one, too,” she said. “The shogun will trust you again.”

“Oh, no. He won’t.” Eyes dark with anger, Sano backed away from her. “Because I’m finished. I’ve had enough violent death, enough dirty politics, enough of trying to please a master who always threatens to kill me.” He pumped his fists at his sides and threw back his head. “I can’t stand any more!”

Reiko gasped. “What will you do?” she said, and heard her voice quaver with fear. If Sano renounced his servitude to the shogun, he would lose his livelihood and home as well as his honor. Her cold hands pressed her cheeks. “Where will we go?”

“I don’t know.” Sano resumed his blind, furious strides around the garden. “I don’t care, as long as it’s far from Edo Castle and everyone here!”