Thoughts from Episode 61: Heavy clothes to fill

For the first time in two months, today’s post concentrates on just one chapter, with the thirteenth volume being one of the eight included in my translation. Plenty has happened in the story since Episode 35, covering about a year of in-story time by my estimation. I did summarise volumes 8-12 in the last few posts, but let’s begin with a brief reminder of where we are right now.

Sara took over Suiren’s position and worked as Togu’s naishi no kami together with San no Hime. Togu, who later stepped down, is now known as Ichi no Himemiya (or Mitsuko). Sara is now the Emperor’s naishi no kami, working closely with people like the imperial archive keeper. Suiren, in turn, took over Sara’s position and now works as a general in the Imperial Guards, though she left the capital for a while after a thwarted attempt to visit Mitsuko. The Emperor has worked out that Sara is not really Suiren, but hasn’t truly confronted him. Tsuwabuki is now married to Shi no Hime, and has zero understanding of what has happened with Sara and Suiren. And finally, during the search for a new Togu, two monks have arrived to cause problems: one, Ginkaku, was banished but continued to cast curses from far away, and his disciple, Genkaku, is now ready to carry out Ginkaku’s evil plans.

Yoshino no Miya’s counter-curse against Ginkaku appears to have succeeded, but at a cost. Suiren informs the Emperor and Sara that Yoshino is in some sort of coma, and is instructed to patrol the palace. Meanwhile, Genkaku, who has been staying at Kakumitsu’s residence, sets the house on fire before catching Umetsubo and her maid as they try to escape.

Suiren gets dressed for action, speaks with Tsuwabuki, and leaves her regular uniform with Sara. She then runs into Mitsuko and advises her to return to the Suzakuin. Mitsuko acquiesces, but sends San no Hime to visit Yoshino on her behalf, and points out that although the fire has died down, there are now signs of a disturbance approaching the palace proper.

When Sara returns to the oddly quiet palace, he encounters Umetsubo’s maid. He sees Genkaku (remembering him from Kurama and immediately linking him to the snake incident from volume 12), who has taken Umetsubo and the maid there. Genkaku attempts to strangle Sara, but Sara manages to stab him and attack him with the crystal ball he received from the Emperor. Though Sara escapes, he has his kamoji of Suiren’s hair yanked off in the process and witnesses Genkaku starting a new fire. The chapter ends with somebody closely resembling Suiren running to deliver news to the Emperor.

Panels from volume 13, page 18.

©Chiho Saito／Shogakukan

A lot of time has gone by since Sara and Suiren made the dramatic decision to switch places and go back to Heian-kyo. As I touched on at that time, this change isn’t presented as a return to their true natures, but as going against their usual instincts. And even this late in the story, there are still indications that they haven’t settled comfortably into their new roles.

When Tsuwabuki appears in this chapter, Sara avoids him, then remarks to Suiren about how his former colleague behaves the same way he always did. Suiren asks if he misses his time as a court gentleman and Sara suggests that he is over it by now, but when Sara responds that Suiren now looks the part of a soldier, Suiren disagrees. After all this time, Suiren still regards herself as an えせ武者 (a false soldier – “a pale imitation” in my translation). She leaves with a wry smile and says, “The armour is heavy” (鎧が重いよ).

Suiren’s comment on the weight of her new clothes reminds me of a moment from much earlier, shortly after the siblings return to the capital. In Episode 34, Sara is exhausted after a tough first day as Togu’s naishi no kami, and tells Torako, “Women’s clothes are so heavy” (女の装束は思い). Obviously, we can read both lines literally – yes, armour is likely to be heavy, and yes, the many layers of Heian court women’s dress add up – but it’s hard not to see a figurative meaning too. Wearing clothes that they don’t feel at ease wearing is a challenge for Sara and Suiren; it’s a heavy burden, and so is the responsibility attached to them.

Speaking of responsibility, there is another moment in this chapter that calls back to the time when Sara and Suiren return to Heian-kyo. To persuade Mitsuko to go somewhere safer, Suiren insists that as somebody who could still end up ruling the country if things went horribly wrong, Mitsuko’s life is not only her own. Sara’s mother Nishi says something very similar in Episode 33, admonishing him for disappearing and causing his loved ones such heartache.

I’ve mentioned before that although the topic of fate comes up a lot, the narrative of the manga strongly suggests that the siblings are free to shape their own destiny. Still, it isn’t as simple as them getting to do whatever they like at all times. They originally leave their positions in the capital when everything starts to crumble, but when they consider the power they have to help the people they care about, they make a choice to go against what feels easiest and take on new roles. The responsibility they ultimately feel may be a heavy burden to bear, but it comes along with their active choice to keep on living.

Thoughts from Episode 21: You only live twice

At the end of the previous chapter – and volume – Sara had what seemed horribly like morning sickness. This time, he goes to see his former wetnurse Aguri, whom he used to visit for a few days every month until very recently, to subtly ask about the typical symptoms of pregnancy. He soon concludes that it is just as he feared, then takes a week off from work to go and see Yoshino no Miya, the only person he can think to confide in.

Sara tells Yoshino he wants to die, but Yoshino tries to change his mind. He suggests that Sara has the ability to “die” once and then live a second life, implying that he has done something similar himself. In the end, Sara is inspired to persevere, but remains unsure of what to do.

Meanwhile, Tsuwabuki is indiscreetly snooping, and in his attempts to find out where Sara is, he ends up speaking to Shikibu-kyo no Miya, who reveals that Sara had just returned to speak to him. In fact, Sara is listening right at that moment, and isn’t too pleased about Tsuwabuki’s loud mouth. Afterwards, they have an argument, Sara collapses, and when Tsuwabuki insists on fetching a doctor, Sara blurts out the truth about his pregnancy.

Since early in the story, fate has been an important recurring theme in Torikae baya. Sara and Suiren’s peculiarities and their troubles are attributed to karma from their past lives, and when things go wrong, it can feel a lot like they’re helpless to make it better. But at the same time, the issue of fate is an area where the manga actually challenges the source material a bit: a topic that came up when I spoke to Saito was that the original story has quite a stern Buddhist outlook and that she wanted to make her version more “positive”.

That’s something that comes across strongly in this chapter. When Sara realises what has happened and questions what to do, he believes there’s no way he can go on living. He thinks of the tengu that supposedly cursed him and Suiren – the most prominent representative of fate in the manga – and asks if it is a shinigami, coming to take him away.

Panel from volume 5, page 24.

©Chiho Saito／Shogakukan

Immediately afterwards, he visits Yoshino no Miya, whose mysterious power to predict the future also reflects the significance of fate. Indeed, Yoshino is associated with the tengu, but an important difference is that he emphasises Sara’s power to make his own decisions. Sara, despairing, wants to be told what to do, and he responds:

I will not tell you whether to have the baby,

or whether to join the priesthood!

What you do with the rest of your life

is something you must decide for yourself!

As much as Yoshino uses divination to claim that Sara is destined for a bright future, he also suggests that it’s up to Sara to shape that destiny. He tells Sara he’s reached a fork in the road (分かれ道 – this is also the title of the chapter!) where he needs to decide on a new course of action. And in Yoshino’s idea about living one life and then another, there is the suggestion that even one’s ultimate fate needn’t be truly final.

And so, even though the siblings still go through plenty of hardship in Saito’s version of the story, they’re portrayed as having the agency to control how their lives pan out. They ultimately make their own decisions, for better or for worse.

Thoughts from Episode 4: Religion in Torikae baya

This week’s chapter introduces a major new character and reveals some more about something that we got a touch of last time: organised religion at the court.

Episode 4 begins shortly after the eclipse incident, with Tsuwabuki increasingly sticking his nose into Sara’s business. According to Tsuwabuki, and reportedly others in the palace, Sara isn’t as amorous as a real young man at court should be. Tsuwabuki and his usual two buddies try to teach Sara about romance and how to seek it most efficiently, all of which sounds like a huge hassle to Sara. Especially annoying for Sara is Tsuwabuki’s continued insistence on getting to meet Suiren. It all results in Sara feeling quite forlorn about his place in the world.

Meanwhile, we meet Lady Reikeiden, the Emperor’s consort, and Lady Umetsubo, the Crown Prince’s consort. They’re also Kakumitsu’s two eldest daughters, making them Sara and Suiren’s cousins. Umetsubo is mad with jealousy over her father’s interest in the pair, and is convinced that there’s something fishy about them. Finally, she learns from a former employee at Marumitsu’s home that Sara’s mother supposedly had a baby girl while Suiren’s mother had a baby boy. This isn’t enough for Umetsubo to figure everything out, but she’s suspicious – and she’s not happy about it.

Dainichi Nyorai.

Cropped panel from volume 1, page 131. ©Chiho Saito／Shogakukan

In this story, we hear a lot about fate, and particularly how people’s misfortunes are the consequence of their previous lives. This is the most obvious link to Buddhist ideas, but religion shows up regularly in lots of other forms too. Episodes 3 and 4 have introduced quite a few of these.

Last time, I mentioned the men from the on’yoryo. They introduce themselves as the Masters of Astronomy (天文博士), Chronometry (歴博士) and Divination (陰陽博士). These guys are experts in strands of what we call onmyodo, covering various forms of divination based on yin and yang, the elements, the movements of celestial bodies, etc. I think of these three as somewhere between scientists, priests, magicians and (this being the Heian court) bureaucrats. They don’t play a huge role in the story, but they provide a little taste of the varied belief systems involved in court life.

Another detail in Episode 3 was a crystal ball, which the Emperor says he once stole from his younger brother Togu. The crystal ball contains an image of Kundali, a fearsome deity with many arms holding various religious implements and wrapped in snakes. The title page for the chapter shows Togu dressed like Kundali and holding the same items: a vajra (thunderbolt) and a trisula (trident). Elements like these can be very useful for me as the translator, as some of them can be distinctive features of a particular deity, helping me figure out exactly what I’m looking at and why that matters. As one of the Five Wisdom Kings, Kundali is an originally Hindu deity with the power to repel evil, and when Togu faces the eclipse with this crystal in hand, he too displays that power.

So what sort of Buddhism are we looking at? The sects that really took off during the Heian period were Tendai and Shingon, but can we get more specific? A scene in Episode 4 gives us a bit more information on this front. When Tsuwabuki is giving Sara tips on being more manly, he suggests that temples are good places to meet people, because esoteric teachings (mikkyo 密教) are popular with the nobility. They attend a sermon, where we see a statue that appears to be of Vairocana (Dainichi Nyorai), a central buddha in esoteric sects – handily (heh) recognisable by the position of his hands.

Tsuwabuki also claims that listening to these sermons is a great way to pick up chicks – which sounds a lot more plausible when the priest starts talking about “entering a state of ecstasy through sexual intercourse between man and woman” (男と女が性の交わりによって恍惚境に入ること). It sounds like this comes from the Rishukyo (理趣経), an important scripture in Shingon, which draws from Tantric Buddhism, or Vajrayana. That’s the same “vajra” as the thunderbolt held by Kundali/Togu in the previous chapter, by the way. Overall, I’m inclined to think that the focus on these more mystical-sounding ideas is pointing towards Shingon being the fashionable branch of Buddhism in Torikae baya. There are some other details that might help pinpoint it even more closely, but I’m no expert, so at least for now, that’s as definitive as I’m willing to get!