RYŌMA!: The Life of Sakamoto Ryōma: Japanese Swordsman and Visionary, Volume III by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07VNFZTJ5
Publisher: Takahashi Akira
Published: 2019-07-22T23:00:00+00:00

8

THE TWILIGHT OF THE GENJI ERA

Rain is falling falling

falling on grassy fields

Without a sound it comes

to soak the world

That morning, Ryōma took out his Mutsu-no-kami Yoshiyuki sword and, humming this song to himself, was tapping the blade with polishing powder. Outside it was raining. He was still a temporary lodger at the Satsuma residence and seemed likely to stay there until the end of the year.

“Oh, it’s raining today.” A cheeky look on his face, Mutsu Munemitsu poked his head around the door. “So you’re polishing your sword, are you? I’m afraid Saigō-kun won’t be back until after the New Year.” Mutsu sat down.

Saigō Takamori was now in Iwakuni, in Chōshū’s Suō Province. He had been asked to go there by Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, supreme commander of the punitive force against Chōshū, to obtain a bloodless surrender from the domain. The negotiations were inevitably complicated and would probably keep him there through the end of the year.

“And are we going to stay here dawdling away our time until he comes back to Osaka?” asked Mutsu.

“Don’t see what else we can do.” Ryōma concentrated on polishing his sword. He was doing this so carefully that it looked almost funny to Mutsu. Ryōma didn’t seem to care much for things at all and had no particular fondness for swords, but this Mutsu-no-kami Yoshiyuki sword alone he took extremely good care of.

“So until Saigō-kun comes back, nothing happens with our project—is that it?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

“Shows just how much control Saigō has over the Satsuma domain.”

“Not just Satsuma. Saigō’s taking care of the problem that hurts the shogunate the most—Chōshū. So it seems he’s about to start leading the shogunate around by their noses, too.”

“Well, I guess that’s no surprise.” Munemitsu was now sitting with his arms around his knees. “We’re going to spend the end of this year watching the winter rain and waiting for this one guy Saigō. We can’t even get started on our plan for a naval company.”

“That’s right. Maybe we’ll just be humming a tune for a while.”

“Ah!” Mutsu looked up, startled. “Was that you I just heard singing that ditty about the winter rain? I can’t believe it.”

“Nothing to be so surprised about. My sister Otome taught me how to sing all kinds of songs and to accompany myself on the shamisen too.” Still tapping his blade with polishing powder, Ryōma started to sing in a surprisingly good voice.

Off the Urado shore

my lonely love sits in a boat in the rain

fishing for tuna

Yosakoi, yosakoi.

“Strange song that.” Mutsu burst out laughing. Yet in a vague sort of way, the song seemed to speak to their current situation. The lover fishing for tuna off the Urado shore would be Saigō. Of course whether that huge samurai fishing in the rain was feeling lonely or not was an entirely different matter.

* * *

After Mutsu left, Ryōma rolled over on his back, hearing the rain without really listening to it. Something was troubling him. The night before, he had received a long letter from his sister Otome.

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