#daysingreen

The story ends here. It was 29th April 1353 in the Gregorian calendar (the modern international calendar today).

In real history, Kazuhito and his family returned to Kyoto in 1357. Although most of Go-Daigo's descendants died, Kazuhito's sons could survive.

Ironically, Imperial Japan divinized Go-Daigo. Kazuhito wasn't counted as a Japanese Emperor in those days, even by his real descendant, Hirohito.

The 29th April 1901 was the birthday of Hirohito (Showa Emperor), a direct descendant of Kazuhito. A short time in the Heisei era, the day was a national holiday and had been called "Days of Green."

Historical fiction is just fiction, but it is a mirror of the real world of our modern society. The ghost of great imperial Japan and Go-Daigo are still living. When people are bewitched by them again, that might cause tragic consequences.

Thank you to the followers of this account for reading this novella!

#daysingreen
Chapter 12
--
5

“Great.” Kazuhito moved his arm outward. “By the way, I’d like to tell you that even the legendary works have a few imperfections. You would have different opinions about samurai from the author, Madam Murasaki, because she might not like her armed relatives in the countryside so much. If she had been born after the raid of Mongolia, I think she could have changed her opinion. One of my favorite characters is a samurai head, the provincial vice-governor of Hitachi...”

“Your Majesty! Please don’t be a story spoiler to a newcomer.” Sadako interrupted his talking.

“You’re right.” He stopped leaking.

At the same time, Koben stopped breathing suddenly. She looked beyond Kazuhito. He noticed her eyes began to wet, and he looked back.

“Princess...” the girl murmured.

His sons were dancing in the courtyard with the wisteria clusters on their heads and shoulders, like ancient dancers or a young spring god wearing wisteria vines and flowers to get a beautiful maiden in an ancient myth.

“It’s wonderful. I love the season of wisteria.” Iga admired the dancing.

“Me too,” Kazuhito said.

He realized that he had to take his small responsibility before he would go to hell, which promised absolute peace and equality. He must seek a new negotiation route toward General Kusunoki, who was Iga’s husband, because he was the head of the moderates in the Southern Court, step by step, and not with haste.

“Koben, whose stationery set do you usually use to write?” Kazuhito asked her.

“I borrow my father’s,” she said.

“If you like,” he said, “could you try my old one for your writing? I had made it small enough to be portable for writing poems everywhere, and it would be convenient for your active style.”

Iga and Sadako exchanged glances without words for a moment.

“It’s too much for me! I’m not worth such high kindness…”

“Listen, your madam is busy dealing with the difficult problems in her domestic life and the court. When you have questions about the story, you can note them and slip them in the book with the bookmark. Our ladies and I will answer with pleasure. The books also would be pleased by that, and I think that would be the best memorial service for Lady Otogi rather than chanting any sutras.”

“I’ll do that exactly!” Koben said in a vibrating voice and dropped the bale again.

Her shout sounded toward the blue sky and the shiny green mountains.

“It’s like a dream! I’d like never to wake up!”

--

The end.

#daysingreen
Chapter 12
--
4

“Be careful, kid!” Iga scolded him.

“Are you going to read the novel, too?” Kazuhito asked him.

“I, ...I importuned madam to ask you to lend the books for me yesterday. I’ve been dreaming of reading the story for a long time,” the boy said. “The princess hates the novel, so I haven’t been able to ask her about that...”

“You’re welcome. To avoid someone suspecting you’re a spy for us, I’ll lend a part of the series to Madam Kusunoki first. After you have read an issue, you should visit her and borrow the next issue there. Is that OK?”

“Absolutely!” He jumped, and his ponytail also bounced up and down.

“Valiants have loved beauties since ancient times. The strong warriors I knew also liked the novel. Boy, it’s not too early for you to learn women’s thoughts and hearts,” Kazuhito said.

Iga looked at Kazuhito with surprised eyes. A moment of silence passed.

“Your Majesty. Her name is Koben, and she is a girl!”

“What?”

The ex-emperor stared at the girl, his jaw dropping. She had thick eyebrows, and her face was tanned well. Her fingers were sinewy and longer than those of other same-age girls. “Oh, I’m very sorry to...”

Then his face changed to serious. The deep sadness came into his heart. He grabbed softly at the urn bag. When even girls and children were forced to fight wars, people would be forced to kill each other to the last one.

Besides the ex-emperor’s sadness, Koben said clearly, “It always happens, and please don’t apologize to me, Your Majesty. We live in an emergency, and even women must work as well as men. Anyway, I like martial arts lessons as well as reading.”

“Let me see...” Kazuhito searched his words for a while. Then, “The story was created three hundred years ago…” he said.

“I know. It would be difficult to read as directly as I would like, but madam will teach and explain it,” she said.

“Ah?” Iga pulled the ponytail of the girl. “My householding occupies me! You should ask such things of others,” she whispered to her.

(to be continued)

#daysingreen
Chapter 12
--
3

“I’m sure that the princess’s mother was released from her sin of the earth. She will never visit you again. After the rooster had woken me up, I walked around the courtyard to pick up vegetables. Because I heard some noises near the house, I found the basket by the front door,” he said.

“I see. Someone climbed trees in the early morning to pick them,” Okihito said, putting one of the clusters on his headwear like an ancient headdress. “The girl must have slept well last night.”

Kazuhito put his hand in his futokoro and the urn bag. All the cords that bound the urn’s lid had been broken, and a few fine bone particles were spilled out in the bag. Then he asked Sadako to bring a piece of paper and collected the tiny bones on the paper on the desk to put them carefully back into the urn.

“…I’ve been a high-maintenance boy for him yet,” he whispered to himself.

“Father?”

Naohito came from the direction of the gate.

“The guests have come,” he said. They looked over there. Two people approached the courtyard with some hesitation. They were Lady Iga and the watching boy.

Sadako came from the kitchen, and they talked in the courtyard. Kazuhito stood up and walked toward them.

Iga apologized that they had come too early and begged him to lend The Tale of Genji. The boy brought a bale of rice grains.

“We always welcome rations and lend the books with pleasure, after our ladies clean and finish to read them,” he smiled and said to her.

“I thank you for your high kindness, Your Majesty!” When the samurai boy screamed delightfully, he dropped the bale on his foot. “Ouch!” he shouted.

“Be careful, kid!” Iga scolded him.

(to be continued)

#daysingreen
Chapter 12
--
2

“Good morning. You’re too nice to each other!” Okihito laughed, raising the blanket high.

Kazuhito opened his eyes and noticed that he was holding Akiko’s hand. She also woke up and showed embarrassment on her face. “Oh, I had too much sleep and am barefaced!” She stood up and ran to the kitchen, hiding her red face.

“At midnight, Hisanari noticed you two were sleeping well outside, and I brought the blanket and the screen to you so you would not catch cold. Although the sun has risen, you still slept. So, my turn has come to take it off from you this morning, Father!”
Okihito spoke quickly and smiled all over his face.

The ladies had already taken the books away, and he heard footsteps approaching behind him. He looked back.

Hisanari stopped under the eaves with a basket. The basket was filled with several long clusters of purple wisteria flowers, slightly soaked by morning dew.

“Doc, where did you bring that from?” Kazuhito sat on the sheet and smelled their sweet perfume.

“Listen, Your Majesty. After I was sure you and Okata-sama were sleeping well here, I had an amazing dream in my straw bed. In the dream, a lot of celestial beings stayed in the courtyard. They were playing a spirited music, and the five-colored clouds floated around. I was bewitched by the wonder of it for a while. Before long, a piece of the clouds took the form of a beautiful woman dancing in a shiny dress, flying away to the moon in the western sky.”

Kazuhito narrowed his eyes but ambiguously smiled. The doctor might want to relieve him from the fear of the nightmare, although the ex-emperor knew that the beings who had stayed there the night before weren’t heavenly existences.

(to be continued)

#daysingreen
Chapter 12
Days in green.
--
1

Just after sunset. Wisteria scented the wooden sunshade by the veranda. The boy was lying on the wooden floor there, watching his uncle drawing. Ten days ago, the boy’s greyhound[1] gave birth to her puppies, and he asked his uncle to draw them.
His brush was a magical tool. Cartoon puppies appeared on the white paper.

“Come in. Soon, the darkness is going to come,” Grandmother[2] called to them from the room. “My prince, put a warmer gown on after bathing, or you’ll catch a cold.”

In the room, Tamako was practicing the biwa. Father taught her to play more delicately. Finally, she pouted, and he smiled helplessly. He showed her his good playing, but she shook her head and lay there.

“Come on, Kazuhito. Your sister gave up practicing. Are you playing this together?” Father told him, and the boy jumped and nodded. “Of course! Father, just a moment.”

He bowed to the uncle and picked the paper up. He brought it to Grandmother. “Look! My favorite is the white curly pup here. I’ll let him remain with me, and the others I’ll give my friends.”

“All of them are so cute.” She smiled.

He knew all of them in this room had already gone. It’s just a dream. He didn’t want to wake, never.

However, he had to return because someone abruptly removed his blanket.
---
1. The western variety of dogs had been imported then via China or other eastern and southern Asia islands.

2. Eifuku-mon-in (1271–1342), empress of Emperor Fushimi, poet, aunt of Saionji Kin-mune. After his death, she supported his wife in bringing up his son.

(to be continued)

#daysingreen
Chapter 11
--
8

Someone called him from the closest place in his heart. It wasn’t very pleasant.

He noticed that Akiko’s hair was getting longer and longer. She was still sleeping, but her hair strands, like tendrils of vines, tangled in his fingers and plectrum. He tried to break them, but they grew up in succession and twined his body again to attempt to stop his playing.

“Get off me!” he shouted. “Everyone is waiting for me to play!”

The audience booed, and Kazuhito tried to follow the harmony again.

“Kazuhito!”

An arm of bones appeared from his futokoro and poked through the biwa. The bone’s hand grabbed his right wrist.

“No!”

Kazuhito screamed as if the arm had also pierced him. It was a real pain. He felt extreme sadness—the plectrum swung in the air several times. Suddenly, by his struggling, the strings were cut.

“……!”

The dead in the courtyard were screaming, too.

At the same time, the rooster crowed. Although the moon remained on the border of the western mountains, the sunshine began to leak from the east.

The biwa and the plectrum melted and vanished as rotten meat on his lap. Kazuhito grabbed the urn in his chest with his left hand and lay down in front of the books.

(to be continued)

#daysingreen
Chapter 11
--
7

Kazuhito snorted. “Hah! Ex-Emperor Go-Daigo! After all, your main weapon was the flute, not the biwa, right? Poor dead, even in death, you want to be an absolute leader.”

Takaharu was obsessed with getting the biwa’s playing license. He had Minister Saionji, the grandfather of Kin-mune, give him the license. However, after winning the power game with real violence, he forgot his passion to play the biwa. The emperor’s interest changed to direct political power, like horses or treasures imported from China. Dust accumulated on the strings. When he ran away to Yoshino, the loyal biwas, including Genjō, had left the empty palace in Kyoto. Court ladies remaining in the palace noticed and saved them from the fire.

The sound of the flute was powerful and emotional. It was not so bad.

“Sorry, but I can play the biwa better than you. I prefer your flute.” Kazuhito smiled and added some chords to it.
Soon after, harps, percussion, and shengs* joined in. The flute became part of the harmony. The audience’s admiration increased as the clapping continued.

Kazuhito didn’t consider what kind of music he was playing. His fingers moved automatically along the excitement of his heart.

She began to sing a song.

The voice was sweeter than all other singers he had ever heard. It was sung in an unknown language, but he felt it was a love song.

Kazuhito forgot his other obsessions.
He forgot his young son, Iyahito, who was alone without his parents. He also forgot the existence of his wives, family members, loyal retainers, samurai in the shogunate, and the national people—all living humans. His cheeks were soaked with tears, and he couldn’t stop playing. It was like an eternal orgasm. There was peace and equality on the four strings of hell’s instrument. He wanted to become an anonymous ghost fire, playing the never-ending music.

“Kazuhito.”
--
*A wind instrument with bamboo pipes.

(to be continued)

#daysingreen
Chapter 11
--
6

It looked like it was made of ebony, as dark as charcoal in the burnt ruins of Yoshino. The sun and the crescent moon were painted with red lacquer and were arranged on the body. Both were floating on the bloody lacquered sea containing fine gold and silver particles.

The biwa from hell was there.

The fastest playing by strings sounded from somewhere, enticing him to play together. No one could follow Kin-mune’s quickest sound in those days. When he was killed, he had left his pregnant wife. Some elder nobles said to each other that his abnormal playing skill led to his unfortunate fate, although none blamed Takaharu directly for executing an imperial councilor without a judge. Fuck them.

Kazuhito had missed his amazing performance for a long time. He had been waiting to play the biwa with him again!

“Tell us. Tell us your truth.”

Kazuhito felt the audience was waiting for him. War dead, hell’s residents, or tengu were sitting there. They loved the art, the music, and something to excite hearts, like living humans. He gently let Akiko’s head down from his lap to the sheet. He took off his cloth cap and placed it under her head as a soft pillow.

His arms caught the biwa from the underworld and picked up the plectrum like bone-white from the body. The strings were already in tune. He was satisfied with their rich sound.

“It is like a dream...” he said.

Some scattered sounds rang in his head, but he ignored them. He started playing under the moonlight.

The strings fitted his left fingers. The colors were moon silver. Kazuhito looked around the ghost lights again but couldn’t find his friend’s figure. All of them looked like just anonymous fires. The voices of nobles, warriors, monks, farmers, merchants, peasants, and other people were speaking and singing, accompanied by clapping. No differences could be found among them.

Hell may treat all humans as equal.

He followed the extremely quick playing with deep chords. The dead player slowed his speed down to make harmonies as a reply. Suddenly, someone cut in on them with the flute. The blows were strong and arrogant. It seemed to try to take the initiative of the ensemble.

(to be continued)

#daysingreen
Chapter 11
--
5

“Doubts decomposed the unity of the Ashikaga shogunate, each other. This situation has benefited the Southern Court in recent years. In your turn, tell me your story. If you came from hell, could you find the people? Where are Moronao, Tadayoshi, or Takaharu? Are they waiting for me? Did Buddha salvage them?”

The woman’s laughing voice sounded near his ears. She didn’t answer his questions.

“I’m now just a prisoner. I may come to your place soon. Are you here to bring me to hell? I have not believed in hell for a long time. Please show me the evidence that you’re real. Why don’t you bring a burning iron carriage to me?”* he asked. “I was once an emperor of Japan, so I’d like you to assign them to take me on a sedan at least.”

It sounded like voices laughing around him. They were high and low, or women’s and men’s voices, and the waves of laughing moved the ghost lights.

―Tell us. Tell us your truth!―

Clapping of palms began, and someone started quick-picking the strings of the biwa. That was an incredible technique to play. That was familiar to him.

“Kin-mune?”**

No, he shouldn’t be here. Kin-mune, Young Lord Saionji, was Kazuhito’s best friend. He had cut off his head by Takaharu’s order because of an accusation of attempted rebellion to support the Kamakura’s successors twenty years ago.

“Why are you here?”

The light knocking on the biwa body was the only reply. The sounds of clapping became louder.

―Here?―

Somebody chuckled in his vicinity. He looked back at the farmhouse. His biwa was in his bedroom. He wished that it had been here.

Suddenly, a beautiful instrument appeared in front of him, where the wet book was on the desk, from the darkness. It hovered in the air, brightening with a ghost fire.

―Here you are.―

---
* People believed that hell’s carriage took very sinful humans away, even if they were still alive.

** (1310–1335) The politician of the Saionji family. He secretly supported a brother of the last shogun of the Kamakura shogunate and attempted a coup d’etat against Go-Daigo.
A wind instrument with bamboo pipes.

(to be continued)