A Tale of False Fortunes (14 page)

Kishi would not listen to anyone who tried to stop her. Half-crazed, she joined Korechika in a cart, wailing plaintively, “I’ll go with him . . . at least as far as Yamazaki. . . .” They were unable to force the empress’ mother from the cart and decided to send her back somehow or other after they were beyond the capital. Under the imposing guard of the imperial police, the party escorting Korechika to his place of exile left through the middle gate and headed toward Yamazaki.

The empress stood in the ravaged side room, watching transfixed as Korechika’s cart drove off. At length she returned to the curtained dais in the main building. She had Kureha fetch a pair of scissors and tried to cut her body-length, glossy black hair. “Your Highness, you must not be so rash! Think of the prince you are carrying. . . .” Her nurses, Jijû and Chûshò, clung to her arms, and Kureha likewise made a determined effort to stop her, but the empress’ resolve was firm. After cutting off more than a foot of hair, she bunched it together and
88
c
A Tale of False Fortunes
said tersely, “Take this to the palace, and have Ukon no Naishi present it to his majesty.”

After receiving the lock of hair that night, the emperor’s grief was such that he clutched the liquid-cool, heavy tress to his breast and wept until daybreak. All the next day, he refused to go to the throne.

Neither did the emperor wish to see the empress dowager or Michinaga. When he thought of the cruel blow dealt to the empress and to her father’s household by an imperial order that did not in the least represent his wishes, his nights became sleepless.

Seeing how profoundly shaken the emperor was by the empress’ remonstrance, even Michinaga was sorry that his medicine had been too effective, and he changed Korechika’s and Takaie’s places of exile from Tsukushi [Kyushu] and Izumo to the nearby provinces of Harima and Tajima. After remaining by Korechika’s side for half of the journey, Kishi finally gave up and returned to the capital, but upon seeing that the empress’

locks were shortened, she again collapsed in tears.

In contrast to the rundown appearance of the now master-less Nijò residence, where the empress had quietly secluded herself, the daily stream of carts through the gate of Michinaga’s Tsuchimikado Palace seemed endless, and the sycophantic voices of his visitors floated on the air like the twittering of a flock of birds.

Toward the end of the fifth month, when people of the capital were beginning to forget the uproar, Kureha finally took a day’s leave from the empress’ court and went to Yukikuni’s house.

Yukikuni’s house was in the middle of a block not far from the office of the imperial police.

Although Kureha had informed Yukikuni ahead of time that she would stop by on her way back from visiting a temple, when she was shown inside a servant boy said, “My lord is now at the riding grounds breaking horses. Please wait for a while.” Yukikuni’s parents had died two or three years earlier in a smallpox epidemic. His mother was the daughter of an assistant
Chapter Four
c
89

commander in the provincial government of Owari, and the entire inheritance from her family had been left to him. For a young, single military officer, he was therefore rather well off, and had a house full of servants.

In the guest room, built to imitate the palace style of archi-tecture, along with a sword there was on display a large overrobe of yellow-green figured cloth, apparently from Michinaga as a reward for his recent meritorious services in seeing Korechika off to exile. Looking at it, Kureha was gripped by an unpleasant premonition as she recalled the day when Yukikuni entered the curtained dais in the Nijò mansion, but she dismissed those feelings and looked out into the rear courtyard from interstices in the lattice on the north side.

An entire large, vacant lot there had been turned into a riding ground, with cherry trees and maples planted in every corner. Yukikuni, the sleeves of his hunting robe gathered up, was riding an overly spirited sorrel. He drew in the reins of the unruly steed as it was about to rear, and went racing about the grounds as he broke the animal. A burly young man—one of the horsekeepers—ran behind in the dust, now falling back when it seemed he was about to be kicked by the restive horse, now running closer again. The usual gentleness had disappeared from the face of Yukikuni, who was ably riding the raging horse; his perspiring face had reddened from his forehead to his firmly set cheeks. Kureha’s heart unexpectedly raced as she looked at the gallant manliness of her lover. For some time she continued to lean against the lattice, watching the mounted figure of Yukikuni as he rode away and then back again. Perhaps because he was concentrating so intently on drilling the horse, however, he never once looked in her direction.

When Kureha returned to her seat after a half hour or so had passed, the long twilight hours of summer were already about to turn into night. Yukikuni, who had washed himself at the bathhouse and changed clothes, entered, the color of polishing powder still on his cheeks.

“I’m sorry I kept you waiting. . . . I’ve been breaking that restive horse for the lord regent.” As he apologized, he sat close
90
c
A Tale of False Fortunes
to Kureha and asked, “Aren’t you hungry? You’re on your way back, aren’t you, from a pilgrimage to Iwashimizu?” Instead of being so solicitous, Kureha wished he would embrace her roughly and run his fingers through her hair. Since she could not make any such request, she decided to dine with him, and mentioned some sweetfish she had had delivered to the kitchen.

“Sweetfish? Thanks, that’s quite a treat. I’ll have them cooked right away, and then let’s eat.”

Both of them were somehow too embarrassed to talk about their unexpected meeting during the great arrest a month earlier.

With the sweetfish as a side dish, Kureha offered milky white saké to Yukikuni. After two or three cups he finally asked,

“How has the empress been since then? I have been worried that all the uproar might have been bad for her in her condition. I hear that she cut her hair . . . .”

“That’s right. She took up the scissors herself. But actually, she only cut a bit off the end, so you wouldn’t know just to look at her. But I hear that his majesty really took it to heart when he saw what she had done, and that the places of exile for the palace minister and the middle counselor were changed because of that. . . .”

“That’s probably true. Knowing the lord regent, he probably intended to have all supporting male relatives out of the way before the empress gives birth to a prince. Ordinarily, he seems to be a broad-minded sort of person who isn’t fussy about particulars, but once he makes up his mind to do something, he doesn’t deviate from that. The truth is, the only one the lord regent fears right now is the empress. There’s no telling what kinds of terrible things might be in store for her highness, and the danger is greater than just false mediums. You, too, must be careful.”

Kureha nodded in wholehearted agreement as she listened to Yukikuni’s kind advice. Then she said almost boastfully, “You saw the empress too, then, didn’t you? Wouldn’t you agree that she is a peerless beauty?”

At that, Yukikuni’s face flushed around his eyes as he stam-Chapter Four c
91

mered an answer. “There was a lot of glare, and I don’t really remember her face. The only thing that remains in my mind is your angry face. . . .”

Kureha returned to the Nijò mansion that night. Although Yukikuni had seemed so robust and fearless as he trained the horse on the grounds, when the two of them met alone, he seemed fatigued and physically unresponsive. They did not share their usual rapture, and Kureha felt that something was lacking. In the cart on the way back to Nijò, she muttered to herself, “I wonder if there’s something wrong with him physically. Tonight he didn’t say a word about our wedding day, even though he always makes a point of talking about it. . . .” On the eighth day of the sixth month, a fire broke out in the west wing of the Nijò mansion where the empress was staying.

The great mansion that former Regent Michitaka had maintained with such refined taste was reduced to ashes in one night during the absence of its masters, Korechika and Takaie.

It was in the middle of summer, when there was no need to keep fires for warmth. It was said that it was probably due to the inattentiveness of a low-ranking servant, that a lamplight was placed too close to a paper screen or something. But it was also furtively whispered about that someone had complied with Michinaga’s wishes that—should an opportunity present itself

—the empress’ life be taken, and had intentionally set the fire knowing where her chamber was. Such rumors were passed about from the palace all the way down to the market place.

When Michinaga received the news, he went to the imperial palace for an audience with his majesty in spite of the late hour.

The regent himself seemed relieved to report, “Fortunately, the empress was safely removed to the mansion of Takashina no Akinobu.” Actually, even during the worst of the conflagration Michinaga had been worried and inquired several times about the safety of the empress, but those who were disposed to think the worst of him rumored that his only concern was whether or not his plan had succeeded.

The flames had spread rapidly. By the time Kureha became aware of them, an infernal blaze like a red lotus blossom was
92
c
A Tale of False Fortunes
creeping closer to the curtained dais where the empress was sleeping.

The sound of wood splitting, the screams of people running about in confusion, the crash of things falling over . . . all were accompanied by a life-and-death urgency not felt in the previous disturbance at the mansion. A suffocating smoke and the odor of burning enveloped the main building. The ladies-in-waiting quite forgot themselves as they scrambled to find an escape. Nurse Chûshò and Kureha put a thin silk cloth over the empress’ hair, and, standing on either side of her, each took a hand and tried to escape along the veranda toward the east wing. Suddenly, a suspicious-looking smoke began to billow up from beneath the floor, blocking their way. “Oh, it has spread to here!” cried the confused nurse, and she came to a standstill.

Then, as if disgorged from the dense, billowing smoke, a dark, masked figure suddenly approached, wrested the empress’ hand from Chûshò’s grasp, and stood in front of them, blocking the way out, seemingly to force the half-conscious empress to return to the inferno. Kureha screamed frantically, “What are you doing? This is the empress! This is an outrage. . . . Don’t you see there’s nothing back there but flames?” She tried to free the empress’ hand from the man she believed to be an ally; however, not only did his vise-like grip not yield, but without saying a word he pushed Kureha away, hitting her head hard against one of the outside pillars.

Her voice choked with smoke, Kureha cried out, “The empress . . . somebody . . . save the empress!” In her half-dazed mind, she thought it strange that none of the many ladies-in-waiting and attendants who ought to have been at her highness’

side were around. When she again grasped the pillar and lifted her reeling head, she could see another dark figure wordlessly approach the previous giant of a man and, effortlessly freeing the empress’ outer robe from his grasp, carry her at his side as if receiving a fancy package.

The big man silently fell down onto the floorboards before the approaching flames, seemingly struck down by the latter dark figure who, coughing in the smoke, carried the empress with utmost care and approached the balustrade where Kureha
Chapter Four
c
93

was. “That was close. . . .” muttered the man. When Kureha could finally see his face, she let out a startled cry: “Yukikuni!” Kureha’s voice had become hoarse from the smoke, but she crawled up to Yukikuni and clung to his feet. However, he seemed not to recognize her then. Brutally kicking away her hands, he went to the balustrade and shouted, “Secretary of the Imperial Police Yukikuni has rescued the empress. There’s no time to lose. Someone down there make ready to receive her.” He shouted this announcement two or three times, and faces filled with awe and excitement gathered beneath the balustrade.

The superintendent of the imperial police, who had just arrived, yelled back, “You’ve done well, Yukikuni. Get her highness inside these curtains before the roof caves in!” Yukikuni gently set the empress, her eyes closed like a Buddhist image, down in a five-colored, figured cloth spread out by five or six minor attendants.

“Do you have hold of her?”

“I have her.”

“You jump down, too, and be quick! The eaves are about to come down!”

“All right.” Before he could say more, Yukikuni jumped from the balustrade. At that moment he thought he heard a woman’s voice behind him calling, “Yukikuni!” He realized it was Kureha and recalled with uncanny vividness that it was her small but strong hands that had gripped his feet only a few moments before. Kureha had been left behind in the blaze! As soon as he realized that, he tried to go again toward the stairs.

“Yukikuni, are you mad? The whole wing is on fire!” Almost simultaneously with the superintendent’s frantic shout, there was a terrific rumble and the crash of a falling beam, and Yukikuni had to dodge a lightning-like pillar of flame that fell right in front of him.

“Kureha is dead. . . . She’s in the middle of those flames.” The thoughts screamed in his mind as he stared vacantly up at the main building of the Nijò mansion, now burning furiously and scorching the summer night sky like a colossal beacon fire.

He had acted to the full extent of his powers to protect the life
94
c
A Tale of False Fortunes
of the empress. He had not been party to any specific information but sensed intuitively that the defenseless empress, together with the child she was carrying, would doubtless be subjected to Michinaga’s plots to eliminate them. Perhaps it had been the instinctive sensibilities of one in love. To Yukikuni’s mind, such a beautiful person, left alone and without support, must not have to endure further unhappiness, much less be killed. To prevent such an outcome he would willingly risk his life. He realized only too well that his love must ever remain unrequited, and yet in the resplendent beauty of the empress, who had looked at him with such dignity on the day he entered the dais to arrest Korechika, Yukikuni sensed the summation of all feminine virtues, a fountain of allure one glimpse of which would captivate any man’s soul. After sleeping with Kureha on the evening not long before when she had called on him, an empti-ness remained in his heart as if he had been embracing an earth-enware doll. On the day of the arrest he had taken home with him a silver comb with several silk-like strands of glossy black hair wrapped around it that had been caught in the cord of his robe. He kept them next to his bosom as a priceless treasure, taking them out time and time again to stare at them wistfully.