Taira Sukenori had promised he would make Hatta’s children rich. Specifically, he would arrange marriages between the children of both families. Young Hatta Takashi would take the Taira daughter in marriage, along with a very large dowry, and Takashi’s sister would marry Lord Sukenori’s heir.
The terms were extremely generous and the Hattas owned little but some poor land and a good name. The Tairas were a powerful family. The elder Hatta agreed and confessed to the crime.
The first indication that Lord Sukenori had no intention of keeping his word came when he told the authorities that the rice merchant had raped Hatta’s daughter. Hatta had not liked it but was convinced that such a claim would get him a lighter sentence, or perhaps none at all. In the end, however, he was convicted of murder and sent to the north to work in the mines. He died there.
But things got even worse for the Hatta family. Neither marriage took place, and the Hatta home was confiscated and sold for blood money. In his fury over his father having been duped and condemned for something he did not do, Hatta Takashi attacked Taira Sukenori, stabbing him so severely that he nearly died.
Thus Takashi traveled the same path as his father before him. And his mother died soon after and Takashi’s sister went into service in the Taira household as part of the reparations for the attack. She became a Taira slave.
It took Takashi nearly twenty years to flee the mines. By then, he had become a trusty, lived outside the mine, and had a family. But he had never given up on his vengeance. One day he left his family, and went on the road, where he fell in with a troupe of itinerant performers.
Nothing in all of this was unexpected, though Akitada thought the tale shocking enough and wished there were some way to find justice for what had been done to the Hatta family. Alas, after committing six murders, Takashi could not hope for mercy.
“Why did you kill so many?” Akitada asked, frustrated by the situation. “Why those two old men in Okuni?”
“They were witnesses,” said Takashi. “And they lied.”
“You mean they saw the murder committed?” asked Takechi.
“They were beaters during the hunt. I don’t know if they saw what happened, but they agreed to lie and say my father shot the merchant.”
“And the others?” asked Takechi.
Takashi shook his head. “What does it matter?” For the first time, he showed frustration. He sagged, resting his chin on his chest. “Leave me alone now.”
“The truth matters, even after all these years,” Akitada said. “You should know that better than anyone.”
Takashi sighed. “The judge refused to listen when I protested my father’s sentence. When Father withdrew his confession, he ignored him. He was in Taira pay.”
“Hmm,” said Takechi. “Can you prove that?”
Takashi just gave him a look. “The jailer Tokuno beat my poor father when my father tried to deny his guilt. He was an animal and deserved to die.”
“Taira Sukemichi was not an evil man like his father,” Akitada pointed out. “It may be that he bedded your sister without making her his wife, but he raised their child like one of his own. And why kill Fumi Tokiari? He had done nothing to you?”
Takashi glowered. “He collected the blood money. We lost everything; my mother died and my sister became a slave.”
“It doesn’t really matter what everybody else did or didn’t do. The only man who really harmed your family was Taira Sukenori. Everything else followed from his murder of the rice merchant and the plot he fabricated to escape just punishment with your father’s assistance. Your father was as culpable as he.”
Takashi reared up in sudden fury and tried to throw himself at Akitada. Only his chains stopped his violent lunge, and he fell back, sobbing. “You dog-official,” he shouted. “Dog-official like the Taira dog-officials! May the gods destroy you all! May a thousand devils flay you alive in hell! May you burn forever. You use people and throw them away like so much filth. You take our land, rape our wives and daughters, and kill us when it suits you.” He choked and collapsed into incoherent curses, tears running down his face.
Takechi touched Akitada’s arm. “Come, sir,” he said. “We have all we need.”
Akitada nodded, but he had one more question. “Why did you leave a figure of Jizo on the bodies of the men you killed?”
At first, the prisoner did not answer. Then he muttered, “I’m a traveler in a dark and dangerous world, a world where all roads lead to death. I needed his protection until I had my revenge.”
∞
Outside the jail, Takechi said, “So it meant nothing. We’ve been racking our brains in vain.”
“Not quite nothing.” Akitada had felt a great depression settle over him during the interview. Like some huge dark cloud, it managed to blot out the joy of springtime, love, and hope. “ ‘A dark and dangerous world,’ he called it. Jizo was his talisman. After each murder, he left it behind as a token that he had fulfilled an oath he made to his dead father.”
“Jizo is a kind spirit, a spirit of protection for the weak. It’s a shocking insult to ask his help in the killing of innocent people.”
“Well, not quite innocent in several cases, but you’re right.” Akitada sighed. “We’d better report to the governor.”
∞
Kosehira heard their account silently. In the end, he only said, “Well, he’ll be condemned to exile again and sent back. For all we know, he’ll step right back into his position as trusty and live out his life with his family. We have a very inadequate system of justice.”
Akitada felt compelled to protest. “Hatta had very great provocation. It should have been Sukenori who was sent to work in the mines.”
Kosehira thought this funny. “Such a thing would never happen, Akitada. Send a Taira nobleman to the mines? The notion is mad.”
Akitada snapped, “Yes, and that is what causes men like Sukenori to behave the way they do: they know they can’t be touched. The only thing Sukenori feared was the loss of a lucrative position he craved.”
Kosehira gave him a sharp glance, perhaps to warn him that Takechi was with them. Akitada looked at Takechi who looked back. At that moment Akitada felt a greater bond with Takechi than with Kosehira, even though he was his best friend and father-in-law.
As if he had read his thoughts, Kosehira said, “You are one of the good people, Akitada, and you’ll soon surpass men like Sukenori. Consider this a good fortune for those without power.”
∞
In spite of all the happy preparations around him, Akitada could not shake his depression or the nagging thought that he, too, might succumb to the poisonous lure of power some day. Then a small consolation arrived in the form of a message from Warden Masaie. Young Masaie had married the maid Mineko. This news went a long way toward lifting Akitada’s spirits as he prepared to bring Yukiko home to a house that had been too long without joy or hope for the future.
Historical Note
The city of Otsu was an important port and business center during the Heian period. Having briefly served as capital once, it never lost its importance because of its location at the southern tip of Lake Biwa near the place where the Seta River emerged from the lake and flowed southward to become the great Yodo River, thus linking shipping from the lake to the Inland Sea. In addition, two important highways connecting the capital to the provinces passed through Otsu; here the Tokaido, the great eastern highway, and the Tosando, the great northern highway, met to continue to the capital and thence to the western provinces. The city thus became a center of travel and commerce.