The Emperor's woman Page 26
Bashan, or Satake Narimitsu as he was born, disappeared into the northern provinces, and nothing else was heard of him. But Morinaga’s fate became known soon after this conversation. The minister, Fujiwara Kaneie, conveyed the information to Akitada one morning.
“You recall the death of one of His Majesty’s ladies last winter?” he asked.
“Yes. She died of some illness, didn’t she?”
“Yes. A bit odd that. People have been saying she lost a child. The palace, of course, won’t confirm such rumors. However, it’s not the young woman who is being talked about but her brother.”
Akitada became alert. “Minamoto Maseie’s son?”
“Yes. It’s shocking. First the man loses his daughter before she can become a consort of the emperor, and then his only son dies. A hunting accident, apparently. It happened in Sagami, right after Maseie and Masanaga reached their home. Mind you, the young man had a poor reputation while he was here. The regent dismissed him from his post in the guard.” The minister shook his head. “Maseie’s karma must be very bad.”
Akitada nodded. He wondered how Maseie had managed his son’s death, but there would have been many opportunities. The father had avenged the daughter’s murder, but at what cost to himself?
For a moment, he lost himself in imagining the man’s pain and despair, uncomfortable with his own role in bringing it about. Yes, karma explained it very well. Maseie, as well as his children, must have earned these tragedies by having committed evil deeds in their past lives. One must accept one’s fate and strive to earn a better future.
Historical Note
The time of this novel is 1028 in the Heian period and predates the centuries of shoguns and samurai warriors. Though there certainly were wars and warriors, life was more peaceful and orderly than in later centuries. An emperor and a central government controlled the people from the capital city of Heian-Kyo (later Kyoto). Additional provincial administrations along with a well-organized transport system made for a mostly stable government. Most institutions and customs followed those in T’ang China, but the Japanese had long since broken off relations with that nation, and the meritocracy of the Chinese government had made place for promotion by rank and influence.
Control of the central government eventually passed into the hands of a single large family, the Fujiwara. Through marriage politics, senior Fujiwara officials held all the highest positions and controlled the emperor. They became the fathers-in-law, uncles, grandfathers, and cousins of ruling emperors. By encouraging the early abdication of emperors in order to replace them with more easily controlled children, they protected their power. Perhaps the most powerful man of the time was Fujiwara Michinaga, who ruled for many years, either as chancellor or as regent, being the father or grandfather of chancellors, empresses, and emperors. By 1028, he had died, but his power had passed to four of his sons
We know a great deal about life in the imperial palace. The court ladies of the time were avid writers and produced novels, diaries, and an abundance of poetry depicting their lives and those of the courtiers. Lady Murasaki’s Genji is the most important of these works. It describes the events in the life of an imperial prince who was also a famous lover. Then there are the diaries which deal with real events and real people at court and around the person of the emperor. Among these are Sei Shonagon’s sharp-tongued commentary, Lady Murasaki’s account of her service as lady-in-waiting to one of the young empresses, diaries of women like Izumi Shikibu, the Kagero Nikki, and the Sarashina Nikki. We learn from these not only about court observances, but also about the manners and mores practiced in this setting. Love affairs were common and fraught with grief for many of the women. Access to pretty young girls serving the emperor was apparently easy, and courtships/and affairs were pursued with alacrity by the gentlemen who served at court. The best and most accessible scholarly account of life at court may be found in The World of the Shining Prince by Ivan Morris.
With the administrative power almost exclusively in the hands of the Fujiwara family, whose daughters were usually empresses and consorts, emperors tried to rule briefly before resigning under pressure from their in-laws in favor of sons who were minor children and ascended the throne under the guardianship of a Fujiwara grandfather. Political uncertainties about the imperial succession could ensue when there were several claimants to the throne. Invariably, the choice of a crown prince was in the hands of his Fujiwara relatives but affected all the lives and careers of officials. Hence, in this novel, the seriousness of the alleged plot by Prince Atsuhira and the efforts of Minamoto Maseie to introduce his daughter Masako into the emperor’s bed.
Marriages for the upper classes were polygamous, that is, a husband could have several wives in addition to casual lovers. The wives differed in status, depending on their backgrounds and the birth of sons. A marriage could be dissolved on the husband’s word. But women of the eleventh century could own property. That fact and the influence of their fathers protected upper class women to some extent. Lady Kishi in the novel has considerable power even though her husband prefers others over her.
A commoner had rarely more than one wife, and she was usually a hardworking partner in the business or on the land. Poverty put women at great risk as families struggled to feed all their children. The Confucian ideals of obeying and honoring one’s parents forced them to work in near-slavery or to sell their bodies to support them.
The Willow Quarter mentioned in some Akitada novels has no solid historical sources. This is probably largely due to the fact that contemporary accounts were written by the upper classes who rarely referred to prostitution. But noblemen do speak of taking pleasure cruises to the brothel towns of the Yodo River, and one of the diaries mentions how the writer met a group of female entertainers while on the road to the capital. Female entertainers were not only talented performers of dance and song, but they were also available for sexual services. It stands to reason that the capital would have had prostitutes, and that they would have occupied a specific part of the city. For an account of the sex trade in early Japan, see Janet Goodwin’s Selling Songs and Smiles.
The references to bathhouses, blind masseurs, and various treatments of wounds and diseases rely to some extent on later sources, though an early treatise on medicine (Yasuyori Tamba’s Ishimpo) mentions acupuncture and moxa treatments and all sorts of odd herbal concoctions. In general, medical knowledge was rather primitive.
By the end of the Heian period, a guild or association system developed for trades. This included some of the outcast (eta) such as beggars and certain occupations thought to be unclean in terms of Shinto taboos (those who touch dead people and animals). Such brotherhoods usually existed under the protection of a temple and conducted themselves by their own rules.
The references to shinobi, the shadow warriors and forerunners of the ninja, can also be supported by contemporary accounts of the use of specially trained spies in times of war. Saburo learned his skills from monks, but Bashan trained with the northern army.
Law enforcement at this time was in the hands of a police force (kebiishi) and city wardens. Wardens supervised each ward of the capital and kept the peace in their own area. The imperial police investigated serious crimes, arrested criminals, and jailed them in two city jails. They worked closely with judges who heard the evidence and pronounced sentence. Flogging was a part of the gathering of evidence. Occasionally, mediums were called in to speak for the victim. Punishment consisted of incarceration or exile to labor camps. Executions were rare because of Buddhist laws against taking lives. Periodically, emperors would grant freedom to all prisoners to appease the gods in times of disasters and epidemics. Ranking police officers were trained warriors, and the top administrators, like Superintendent Kobe, belonged to the aristocracy.
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