The Fourth Treasure by Todd Shimoda

Author:Todd Shimoda [Shimoda, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-50561-1
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2002-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

KYOTO

Aragaki had just finished his calligraphy practice session, when Kando called. The investigator said he had recently come across information that would be of great interest to him.

“Of great interest?” Aragaki repeated. “I can’t imagine what that would be.” Probably a sales call, he thought.

“Would the Daizen Inkstone be of interest?”

Conflicting thoughts swirled in Aragaki’s mind: it was a ruse to distract him before the next competition; it was some sort of scam. But if it were true … “Of course it would be of interest.”

They agreed to meet at Kando’s office. On his way there, Aragaki continued to be skeptical and tantalized. When his predecessor, Shimano, the twenty-ninth Daizen sensei, disappeared along with the Daizen Inkstone, Aragaki had assumed he had committed suicide, possibly in the mountains near the school’s retreat. Aragaki had heard from the caretaker that Shimano had been spending time there. Aragaki speculated that Shimano could not bear the responsibility of being the Daizen sensei at such a young age. He also speculated that he had taken the Daizen Inkstone with him so it would always be with him, even in death. Aragaki, then the top instructor and soon to be crowned the thirtieth Daizen sensei, had led the instructors on a search of the mountains near the retreat. They found no trace of Shimano.

Aragaki still vividly remembered the last time he saw Shimano. That morning, he had met with him and the other instructors at the Daizen school’s business office and classrooms that were housed in a Kyoto-style machiya town house. The offices took up the front half of the long and narrow building, and the classrooms that looked out onto the garden were in the back.

When he saw the sensei, Aragaki had wanted to greet him with: “Hello, Young Sensei!” But he resisted the affront.

During that meeting of instructors, Aragaki wanted to discuss the procedure of selecting a new head Daizen sensei. The vague selection process was almost entirely the preference of the current Daizen sensei, although the candidate instructors’ bodies of work and competition records were factors. The preference of the Daizen sensei would never be completely eliminated from the process, but Aragaki was prepared to argue (and most of his fellow instructors agreed) that it should be weighted a third at most.

While not on the official agenda, Aragaki also was curious about one of Shimano’s new students, a woman who had never been officially registered in the school. If any other instructor had taken a student without such notification, he would have been disciplined.

When the meeting began with a discussion of the next retreat, Aragaki noticed Shimano staring off into space. All of the discussion items went by without him saying more than a word or two. Even the discussion of the head sensei selection process didn’t cause Shimano to do more than nod two or three times. Aragaki’s proposal to establish quantifiable criteria was quietly approved.

All that happened years ago, but it still gave Aragaki a shiver of discomfort. Though no excuse, he realized that ambition had affected his rationality.

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