A Tale of False Fortunes by Fumiko Enchi

Author:Fumiko Enchi [Enchi, Fumiko]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-11-08T06:11:06+00:00

Korechika had commissioned the Daigen Service, a rite properly limited to the court—had all been eclipsed by their one distinct act of attacking retired Emperor Kazan. All at once, the gathering rain clouds had turned into a terrific thunderstorm, pelting down upon the household of the former regent.

As soon as Korechika, who had been depending on Empress Teishi as the clan’s mainstay of support, saw that misfortune was beginning to multiply around him, he invited the empress to his Nijò residence and put her up in the main hall. Her mother, Kishi, and her grandfather, Takashina no Naritada, among others, perhaps held the view that leaving her at court, where Michinaga’s power was most evident, would bring some unforeseen misfortune upon the pregnant empress, who went to her brother’s residence incognito and under cover of night. Out of diffidence to Michinaga, few attended her, but Kureha never left her side as she went to Korechika’s Nijò residence. While Kureha was dutifully seeing to all of the empress’ needs, that fateful day arrived: the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month.

On that day, powerful military commanders—Korenobu, former governor of Mutsu Province, Koretoki, lieutenant of the Left Gate Guards, and Yorimitsu, former governor of Bizen—

rode into the palace compound at the head of their troops and set up innumerable encampments. The crown prince’s guards and the main palace guards stepped up a rigorous watch over comings and goings through the gates and prepared for an emergency. The ostentatiousness of Korechika’s arrest, in spite of his obvious lack of military force, was calculated to demonstrate the regent’s power. It was also a scheme to sever, once and for all, the bonds of the emperor’s affection for the empress

—bonds that tied him to the former regent’s household.

It was common then for yin-yang divination masters to say that natural disasters portended armed disturbances, and in this case, too, various rumors were noised about. Respectable aristocratic families made defensive preparations, and even insignificant merchant families prepared to flee with their belongings on their backs in case of an emergency. Everyone seemed stricken with panic.

78 c A Tale of False Fortunes In the former regent’s household, it was the younger Takaie who alone was managing everything with a cheerful countenance in the midst of all this. He realized that Michinaga’s exaggerated posturing was aimed at consigning his family to oblivion, and that behind it lay a formidable hostility toward the empress and himself. Yet he wore a complacent smile in spite of such private bitterness.

Had Korechika been a bit bolder in his judgment, Takaie would have been quite prepared at any moment to invoke the afterglow of his late father’s glory and have a showdown with Michinaga. In light of his brother’s surprising faintheartedness in these trying circumstances—and of the empress’ pregnancy

—it occurred to him that this time there was simply nothing for it but to lie low and plan a later comeback.

A number of soldiers and court officials had for years taken up residence with Korechika and

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