“Ow! Just kick me in the nuts and get it over with.” Han made a show of wincing. “First I get taken out of the game, and now you’re going to rub it in?”
Mariko laughed. “Come on. You have to admit you’re interested, neh?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Me too.”
GLOSSARY
A-side: for SWAT operators, the front side of a building
ama: traditional Japanese free divers, best known for diving for pearls
ambo: ambulance
Aum Shinrikyo: Supreme Truth Cult, responsible for the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995
B-side: for SWAT operators, the side of a building to their left as they approach the A-side
bizen: an unglazed style of Japanese pottery
bokken: solid wooden training sword, usually of oak
bushido: the way of the warrior
C-side: for SWAT operators, the side of a building to their right as they approach the A-side
CI: Covert Informant
D-side: for SWAT operators, the backside of a building (or, for irregularly shaped buildings, the side opposite the A-side)
daisho: katana and wakizashi together, the twin swords of the samurai; literally, “long-short”
dono: an honorific expressing great humility on the part of the speaker, more respectful than -san or even -sama
foxfire: magical lights said to be carried by foxes or fox-spirits
Fudo: a Buddhist deity, typically depicted as an angry, red-skinned demon with sharp horns and fangs, often wielding a sword and a lariat
gaijin: foreigner (literally “outsider”)
geisha: a skilled artist paid to wait on, entertain, and in some cases provide sexual services for clientele
gokudo: extreme, hard-core
gumi: clan (as in Kamaguchi-gumi)
haidate: broad armored plates to protect the thighs, usually of lamellar
hakama: wide, pleated pants bound tightly around the waist and hanging to the ankle
haori: a Japanese tabard (i.e., short, sleeveless jacket) characterized by wide, almost winglike shoulders, often worn over armor
hazmat: Hazardous Materials Team; alternatively, hazardous materials and items
Ikko Ikki: a peasant uprising, largely disorganized and only nominally Buddhist, whose political and economic influence endured for over a hundred years until the Three Unifiers quelled it in the late sixteenth century
kaigane: a sharp, stiff tool with a blade like a spatula used by ama to pry shellfish from rocks and coral
kaishaku: a samurai’s second, charged with virtually beheading him if he should cry out while committing seppuku
Kansai: the geographic region around Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka, and the locus of political power for nearly all of Japanese history
kappa: a water-dwelling mythological being, humanoid with reptilian features, with a topless head and a water-filled bowl in place of a brain
katana: a curved long sword worn with the cutting edge facing upward
kenjutsu: the lethal art of the sword (as opposed to kendo, the sporting art of the sword)
kiai: a loud shout practiced as a part of martial arts training, usually uttered upon delivering a strike
kiri: a paulownia blossom, the emblem of Toyotomi Hideyoshi
koku: the amount of rice required to feed one person for one year; also, a unit for measuring the size of a fiefdom or estate, corresponding to the amount of rice its land can produce
MDA: methylenedioxyamphetamine, a hallucinogenic amphetamine
Mount Hiei: a mountain overlooking the city of Kyoto, home to hundreds of monasteries and the traditional locus of political power for Buddhism in Japan
odachi: a curved greatsword
oyoroi: “great armor”; a full suit of yoroi armoring the wearer from head to toe; literally “great armor”
Raijin: demonic god of lightning, thunder, and storms
ri: a unit of measurement equal to about two and a half miles
rikishi: sumo wrestler
ronin: a masterless samurai (literally “wave-person”)
Ryujin: dragon-god of the sea
sama: an honorific expressing humility on the part of the speaker, more respectful than -san but not as humbling as -dono
sarin: a potent neurotoxin
seiza: a kneeling position on the floor; as a verb, “to sit seiza” means “to meditate” (literally “proper sitting”)
sensei: teacher, professor, or doctor, depending on the context (literally “born-before”)
seppuku: ritual suicide by disembowelment, also known as hara-kiri
shakuhachi: traditional Japanese flute
shamisen: traditional Japanese lute
shinobi: ninja
shoji: sliding divider with rice-paper windows, usable as both door and wall
sode: broad, panel-like shoulder armor, usually of lamellar
SOP: Standard Operating Procedure
southern barbarian: white person (considered “southern” because European sailors were only allowed to dock in Nagasaki, which lies far to the south)
sugegasa: broad-brimmed, umbrella-like hat
Sword Hunt: an edict restricting the ownership of weapons to the samurai caste; there were two such edicts, each one carrying additional provisions on arms control and other political decrees
tachi: a curved long sword worn with the blade facing downward
taiko: an enormous drum; alternatively, the art of drumming with taiko
temari: embroidered silk thread balls; alternatively, the craft of making temari
tengu: a goblin with birdlike features
Tokaido: the “East Sea Road” connecting modern-day Tokyo to modern-day Kyoto
tsuba: a hand protector, usually round or square, where the hilt of a sword meets its blade; the Japanese analogue to a cross guard
wakizashi: a curved short sword, typically paired with a katana, worn with the blade facing upward
washi: traditional Japanese handmade paper
yakuza: member of an organized crime syndicate; “good-for-nothing”
yoroi: armor
yukata: a light robe
yuki-onna: a predatory winter-spirit that hunts on snowy nights, taking the form of a pale (usually naked) and very beautiful woman
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book required a lot more research than the last one, for many reasons. For one thing, it’s longer. For another, Mariko isn’t working on her own; as soon as I reassigned her to Narcotics, I signed myself up for more cop research. And of course there’s the obvious: I’m not a historian by training, and between Daigoro and Kaida, more than half of this book is historical fiction. Compounding that, Daigoro spends his time interacting with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the most influential figures in Japanese history. When you put people like that in your story, you’ve got a certain obligation to get them right.