Summary and observations on Volume 11: An eventful couple of weeks!

We have another volume taking place over a particularly short time period, beginning shortly before the summer purification at the end of the 6th month, and ending just after Tanabata (famously the 7th day of the 7th month). Major plot points this time include the conclusion of the Ginkaku storyline, Togu stepping down, and Suiren going missing.

What? Suiren goes missing? I hear you cry! At the end of Volume 10, Suiren and the boys were fleeing Kurama with hard evidence of Ginkaku’s treasonous acts. This volume kicks off with Suiren saving one of her servants from a warrior monk, only to fall into a ravine in the process. Fortunately, the evidence – an oni skull and creepy little effigies of the Emperor, Suzakuin and Togu – is safely passed on to Yoshino no Miya, who gets it into Sara’s hands.

Togu is shocked to hear that Suiren has disappeared, but is determined to carry out the summer purification as her final public service. During the ceremony, the skull is revealed, leading Genkaku to try and escape, but Yoshino blocks his way and informs him he will be taken to a distant place of exile.

Following the purification, the now former Togu decides to go in search of Suiren, with San no Hime, Yoshino and the boys in tow. But when Togu stops to pray, she is separated from the rest of the party as a thick mist falls – a similar situation to Episode 24. She follows a mysterious light and ends up at the same shrine from that expedition, and finds Suiren, who was rescued. The pair have a very romantic reunion, and since Togu can no longer be called Togu, they reveal their personal names, Tsukimitsu (月光) and Mitsuko (光子). They match! Aww.

But even with all that sorted, not everything is resolved. While Suiren goes back to Ashiya for her sort-of exile, Mitsuko returns to Heian-kyo, where there is no longer a Togu. Mitsuko is now quite esteemed after a strong performance at the purification, but has indeed stepped down. The Emperor doesn’t really want to reinstate her because of the restrictions the role would place on her, and her father agrees. And with Yuzuru now out of the running, it means that for the time being, they just have… no one.

Finally, there’s the ongoing situation between Sara and the Emperor. During a ceremony for Tanabata, they have a bit of a moment, and the Emperor reckons it’s time to make his move, but Sara pulls away and inadvertently reveals the arrow scar on his shoulder as he leaves. The Emperor now realises that Sara is, well, Sara, but he can’t quite figure out what that would mean. Mitsuko, who already knows the big Sara/Suiren secret, dodges his probing questions, leaving him perplexed. Meanwhile, the volume ends with one more person learning about the scar and its significance: Umetsubo, receiving a letter from the banished Ginkaku.

Cover of volume 11. ©Chiho Saito／Shogakukan

And now for some other details:

• This volume features Suiren and Mitsuko embracing on the front cover. It’s a nice image, but I hadn’t really thought too much about it until I saw the sketch of it included inside with the note “『歓喜天』より”. This indicates that it is based on Kangiten, the Japanese Buddhist interpretation of Ganesha depicted as an elephant-headed couple in a similar pose to Suiren and Mitsuko.

• Just before learning that Suiren fell off a cliff and vanished, Mitsuko asks if she went to Yoshino’s residence or returned to Suma. In Volume 10, Suiren was found not in Suma but in Ashiya, and this is confirmed again later in this volume, so I think rather than being a mistake, Mitsuko probably just thinks of them as being near each other (which they are!) Furthermore, Suma was better known than Ashiya as a place of exile in the Heian Period, with a certain Hikaru Genji voluntarily exiling himself there. So it might be that this is Mitsuko’s fangirl side coming out. Anyway, I feel I should point out as a former Hyogo resident that Suma and Ashiya are both perfectly lovely places to visit today.

• Those places aren’t very far from Heian-kyo, but Ginkaku is banished much further away. We’re never told exactly where it is, but Yoshino tells him he’s going to a remote island. The history of Heian period banishment would suggest that a “remote island” is likely to mean either Sado or the Oki Islands. There is a brief view of the location later, but it’s not specific enough to identify the exact location, at least as far as I can tell. And though I can’t personally speak for Sado, the Oki Islands are somewhere I’d happily be exiled.

• Blink and you’ll miss it, but Episode 53 provides a name for another of Suiren’s male servants. When they first showed up, one was introduced as Jiroemon and another as Gyuomaru, but we didn’t know about the others. Here, the guy who disguises himself as a farmer’s son (the same guy who ends up saving Suiren!) to smuggle the rest of the group into the temple in Episode 50 is identified as Toshiyuki (利行). And because the designs of the Boys are so consistent, it means I can use that information to update the translation!