The Temple of the Dead Read online

  The

  Temple of the

  Dead

  An Akitada Novel

  I. J. Parker

  I∙J∙P

  2022

  Copyright © 2022 by I. J. Parker.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Published 2022 by I.J.Parker and I·J·P Books

  3229 Morningside Drive, Chesapeake VA 23321

  http://www.ijparker.com

  Cover design by I. J. Parker.

  Cover image by Tsuchiya Koitsu

  Back cover image by Kawase Hasui

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and

  incidents are a product of the author’s imagination.

  The Temple of the Dead, 1st edition, 2022

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Praise for I. J. Parker and the | Akitada Series

  Pronunciation of Japanese Words

  “a” as in “father” | “e” as in “let” | “i” as in “kin” | “o” as in “more” | “u” as in “would.”

  “g” as in “game” | “j” as in “join” | “ch” as in “chat”.

  Contents

  Characters

  1 | Rain

  2 | The Missing Governor

  3 | The Tribunal

  4 | The Silk Merchant

  5 | Small Gains

  6 | Ushimado

  7 | A Headless Corpse

  8 | A Dinner Party

  9 | The Rice Merchant’s Wife

  10 | Where is Yoshihito?

  11 | A Watery Grave?

  12 | The Witness

  13 | The Secret of the Temple

  14 | The Pagoda

  15 | Yoshihito

  16 | The Two Dead Men

  17 | The Trouble with Witnesses

  18 | The House of Golden Flowers

  19 | The Tortured Man

  20 | The Mysterious Friend

  21 | A Strange Marriage

  22 | The Little Buddha

  23 | Housekeeping

  24 | The Letter

  25 | A Woman’s Lot

  26 | Filial Duty

  27 | The Foxes of Ushimado

  28 | A Murderous Town

  29 | Okabi’s Wisdom

  30 | Yoshihito Rebels

  31 | A Surprise Visitor

  32 | Another Murder

  33 | The Silk Merchant’s Sons

  34 | More Trouble with Foxes

  35 | The Watchman’s Story

  36 | Mino Masajiro

  37 | The Wheel Turns

  38 | Into the Tiger’s Lair

  Epilogue

  Historical Note

  About the Author

  Books by I. J. Parker | The Akitada series in chronological order

  The collection of stories

  Other Historical Novels

  Contact Information

  Praise for I. J. Parker and the

  Akitada Series

  “Elegant and entertaining . . . Parker has created a wonderful protagonist in Akitada. . . . She puts us at ease in a Japan of one thousand years ago.” The Boston Globe

  “You couldn’t ask for a more gracious introduction to the exotic world of Imperial Japan than the stately historical novels of I. J. Parker.” The New York Times

  “Akitada is as rich a character as Robert Van Gulik’s intriguing detective, Judge Dee.” The Dallas Morning News

  “Readers will be enchanted by Akitada.” Publishers Weekly Starred Review

  “Terrifically imaginative” The Wall Street Journal

  “A brisk and well-plotted mystery with a cast of regulars who become more fully developed with every episode.” Kirkus

  “More than just a mystery novel, (THE CONVICT’S SWORD) is a superb piece of literature set against the backdrop of 11th-century Kyoto.” The Japan Times

  “Parker’s research is extensive and she makes great use of the complex manners and relationships of feudal Japan.” Globe and Mail“

  “The fast-moving, surprising plot and colorful writing will enthrall even those unfamiliar with the exotic setting.” Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

  “. . .the author possesses both intimate knowledge of the time period and a fertile imagination as well. Combine that with an intriguing mystery and a fast-moving plot, and you’ve got a historical crime novel that anyone can love.” Chicago Sun-Times

  “Parker’s series deserves a wide readership.” Historical Novel Society

  “The historical research is impressive, the prose crisp, and Parker’s ability to universalize the human condition makes for a satisfying tale.” Booklist

  “Parker masterfully blends action and detection while making the attitudes and customs of the period accessible.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Readers looking for historical mystery with a twist will find what they’re after in Parker’s latest Sugawara Akitada mystery . . . An intriguing glimpse into an ancient culture.” Booklist

  Pronunciation of Japanese Words

  Unlike English, Japanese is pronounced phonetically. Therefore vowel sounds are approximately as follows:

  “a” as in “father”

  “e” as in “let”

  “i” as in “kin”

  “o” as in “more”

  “u” as in “would.”

  Double consonants (“ai” or “ei”) are pronounced separately, and ō or ū are doubled or lengthened.

  As for the consonants:

  “g” as in “game”

  “j” as in “join”

  “ch” as in “chat”.

  Contents

  Characters

  1 Rain

  2 The Missing Governor

  3 The Tribunal

  4 The Silk Merchant

  5 Small Gains

  6 Ushimado

  7 A Headless Corpse

  8 A Dinner Party

  9 The Rice Merchant’s Wife

  10 Where is Yoshihito?

  11 A Watery Grave

  12 The Witness

  13 The Secret of the Temple

  14 The Pagoda

  15 Yoshihito

  16 The Two Dead Men

  17 The Trouble with Witnesses

  18 The House of Golden Flowers

  19 The Tortured Man

  20 The Mysterious Friend

  21 A Strange Marriage

  22 The Little Buddha

  23 Housekeeping

  24 The Letter

  25 A Woman’s Lot

  26 Filial Duty

  27 The Foxes of Ushimado

  28 A Murderous Town

  29 Okabi’s Wisdom

  30 Yoshihito Rebels

  31 A Surprise Visitor

  32 Another Murder

  33 The Silk Merchant’s Sons

  34 More Trouble with Foxes

  35 The Watchman’s Story

  36 Mino Masajiro

  37 The Wheel Turns

  38 Into the Tiger’s Lair

  Epilogue

  Historical Note

  Characters

  Japanese family names precede proper names

  Main characters:

  Sugawara Akitada nobleman, governor

  Sadako his wife

  Tora & Saburo his retainers

  Fujiwara Yoshihito the prime minister’s nephew

  Okabi an elderly secretary

  Miyuki a crippled scribe

  Lieutenant Ota a police chief

  Abe a coroner

  (also: tribunal staff)

  Characters associated with murders at the River Temple:

  Mino Miyoko beautiful owner of a high-class brothel

  Mino Tomiko her younger sister

  Tsugita Heishiro an elusive witness

  Kyoko his wife

  Matsumae & Haruko Tsugita’s landlord and his wife

  Wake, Akomaro a provincial chief

  Owari, Yoshifuro another provincial chief

  Mino, Masajiro Owari’s retainer, father of Miyoko & Tomiko

  Wakita &Toyonagi two thugs

  (also vagrants, monks, asobi, and a shamaness)

  Characters associated with the case of the headless corpse:

  Ishida, Toyoshi a wealthy rice merchant

  Motoko his young wife

  Characters connected with the case of the two sons:

  Midzuno, Asaji ailing owner of a silk shop

  Yoshiaki & Munechika his sons

  (also their mother, a shop assistant, and a neighbor)

  1

  Rain

  The weather turned ominous near the border.

  They had been traveling for days. Sunny late summer days had progressively turned cloudy and windy. It was autumn again. The rain had started several miles back at the last post station before Bizen Province and was quickly getting worse. The man at the post station mentioned flooding.

  “Flooding’s terrible in Bizen,” he said. “All those rivers heading to the Inland Sea. The Yoshii River wiped out whole villages and temples last year. Everything gone!”

  That had been in Harima Province, and now t
hey were in Bizen and close to their destination. They were traveling on the Sanyodo, the main highway linking the provinces of western Honshu with the capital. It was supposed to be a good road, well maintained by each province with corvee labor, but here it was narrow, and their wagons were wide. Worse, the firm road surface had become mud imbedded with slippery stones. Even the horses slipped, and one wagon had already slid down an embankment, taking an hour to extricate.

  As for the scenery: they were passing through a valley that was mostly forest. Now and then, a few rice paddies with half-drowned young rice plants lay abandoned to the weather. And the rain hung in thick curtains over the prospect ahead. Behind, the wheels creaked and clattered, hooves splashed, and hoarse voices shouted to the animals. It was a dismal journey.

  The rain was not the first signal that problems lay ahead. Akitada had looked forward to being Bizen’s new governor, recently appointed to the post and on his way with an unwieldy entourage to take over the reins of administration from his predecessor.

  The assignment was considered a plum. It was a full governorship. He was not merely filling in for some imperial prince who held the post long distance from the capital, skimming off half the salary, and frequently meddling in matters he did not know or care about. No, this time, Akitada had been given a post that was not only lucrative, but also fully his own.

  The prime minister had acknowledged that Akitada’s many years of service and several outstanding accomplishments had benefitted the emperor, the nation, and the Fujiwara family, and that he had earned this belated reward.

  But then he had tempered the joy by informing him that his favorite nephew, Yoshihito, would accompany him and serve as assistant governor.

  “He’s young,” his Excellency had said, “but I have faith that he will learn. You will keep an eye on him and teach him all you know. His behavior here in the capital worries his mother. She’s His Majesty’s cousin, you know. Yoshihito is eager and has promised to keep in touch.”

  A warning if there ever was one! Not only had Akitada been told to take along a spy who would report regularly, but this was some half-baked, spoiled brat who was bound to throw temper tantrums and then complain to his illustrious family about how he was being treated.

  Akitada’s fears had not been eased when he met the nephew. Fujiwara Yoshihito was a mere youngster of twenty-two years. He was dressed in sumptuous silk robes of the brightest hues and treated him to a disturbing flood of happy chatter about parties and hunting trips. How was such a creature to manage in a province where life was often rough and dangerous?

  Oh, yes. The prime minister had also mentioned belatedly that Akitada was to stop the pirates that seemed to have taken a foothold in his new province and were committing a series of atrocities.

  In the midst of these glum considerations, the recent subject of his worries suddenly joined him. “What are your thoughts, Akitada?” he asked with a grin.

  They both wore straw rain gear, capes and wide-brimmed hats. These were by now heavily soaked and dripping. Akitada looked at the prime minister’s favorite nephew and saw the white teeth flashing. The fellow seemed incurably cheerful. He found this instantly irritating and said coldly, “You must remember to address me as ‘my lord,’ or ‘sir’ in public. This casual manner is not acceptable in official situations.”

  “Sorry. But we’re not in public now. This is an infernally slow journey. I wondered if you’d like me to ride ahead to see what conditions are.”

  The grin was still there. Oh, to be so young again when even a slow journey through mud and rain was a call to adventure.

  With a grudging nod, Akitada said. “Very well, but don’t go too far. Just see if you can get a glimpse of the river.” The river was the Asahi which came from the mountains to their right and passed through a wide plain toward the Inland sea. The provincial capital, Okayama, was on this river and close to the coast.

  Yoshihito saluted and galloped off into the rain and mist.

  Little wonder the young man had become impatient. Their entourage accounted for the miserable slowness even more than the weather. It consisted of men, women, and children, traveling by horse, wagon, or on their own feet. The wagons contained provisions and members of the Sugawara household. In addition to his two retainers, Tora and Saburo, Akitada had brought his wife Sadako, Tora’s wife Hanae, and Saburo’s small son Masashi. They and Sadako’s maid traveled in one of the wagons. It was a minimal household, as such things went for noblemen taking up provincial assignments, and yet the slowness of the wagons and attendants on foot had added days to his journey to a province that was reasonably near the capital.

  Akitada would have preferred to travel alone on horseback, but a certain amount of pomp was not only required but necessary for the protection of travelers and goods. The roads swarmed with highwaymen.

  Their procession had wound its way along the Sanyodo from the capital. Six armed horsemen rode ahead shouting, “Make room!” “Make room!” whenever they encountered traffic, and ten armed runners trotted behind carrying flags with Akitada’s name and rank. These were followed by the mounted members of the governor’s party, Akitada, Tora, Saburo, and Yoshihito. Then came the wagons, the first containing the women and children, the rest carrying goods and provisions. The wagons were pulled by oxen. The long, slow snake of the procession ended with a tail of ten more armed runners. Most of these people expected to be paid off and return to the capital.

  It had been merely cumbersome in the beginning. The whole procession had at least moved at a trot and Akitada had enjoyed the countryside and occasional chats with his wife or his companions, but then the rains had started.

  Yoshihito returned eventually to report that the river was swollen, but he thought they could cross it on horseback. The wagons would have to wait on this side. There seemed to be a large house some little way up the foothills, where the others could find refuge.

  Akitada glowered. “I am not leaving my family.”

  “No, of course not. I could go on by myself and make sure everything is ready when you get there.”

  Oh, the impatience of youth!

  “No. You will stay with us. It’s too dangerous.” Whatever he did, Akitada would make sure no harm came to this scion of the prime minister’s family.

  *

  The rain abated a little, but when they reached it, the river looked dangerously swollen. The great house, it seemed, belonged to a provincial lord by the name of Wake Akomaro. It was an impressive, if ancient, cluster of dwellings surrounded by earthworks, walls, and gates. The compound contained not only large storehouses, but also many longhouses, some in ruins. Akitada knew that the Wake family had once ruled a large portion of Bizen Province until the Taika reforms had shifted the power from local families to the emperor in the capital and a central government. The current Lord Akimaro carried less power in the capital than one of the emperor’s secretaries. Still, this might be very different locally. Akitada looked forward to meeting the man.

  He came to meet them in the entrance courtyard in the rain, a tall, middle-aged man bowing formally and with the proper degree of respect. Then he gave orders to his servants to look after the women and to house the rest of the people and animals, before whisking Akitada and Yoshihito inside.

  It was a venerable house, but dark and depressing. Akitada shivered in his moist robes even after his wet rain gear had been taken from him. He wished for a fire, or a small warm room with glowing coals in a brazier and some warmed wine. They got none of these. Instead they were led into the large reception room where a few cushions had been placed on the bare wood floors. Akomaro gestured to these and they sat down.

  Akitada glanced at walls covered with ancient weapons and with flags and banners hanging in tatters, their colors long since faded to yellows and grays.

  Their host saw his astonishment and said, “We are a very old family, an old clan. Much older than that of the present emperor. Much, much older than the upstart Fujiwara.”

  Taken aback, Akitada said, “Allow me to introduce you to my young friend here. Fujiwara Yoshihito is related to the current prime minister and will serve as assistant governor of this province.”

  Yoshihito grinned, bowed slightly, and said, “He’s my father’s brother. And my mother belongs to the imperial clan.”

  Akomaro stiffened, then returned the bow. “I see.” Turning back to Akitada, he said, “And you are Sugawara. The new governor?” He sounded surprised.