After writing his diary entry as fast as he could, Kazuhito went out of the courtyard in the black robe of a monk. His younger brother, ex-Emperor Yutahito, had woken and taken firewood from the stable to the kitchen.
Yutahito was also a monk. He wore a dark gray robe with long sleeves, tied behind his neck to make carrying firewood convenient.
“Good morning, Brother,” he said to Kazuhito airily. Early morning sunlight was shining.
“Thank you for the firewood,” Kazuhito said to him.
“Are you looking for Hisanari?”[i] Yutahito asked him. He was thirty-two years old and the most moderate person in the family. He had become a Buddhist monk two years before without consulting his brother beforehand, although he had accepted Kazuhito’s opinions since they were young.
“Yes, I am. Is he in the stable?”
“Naohito is there with him. They are cleaning camellia leaves for tonight.”
“That’s good. You all have already been working for this moon party. Sorry, I’m running late.”
“No problem, Brother.”
Yutahito went away to the kitchen with the firewood.
Their “palace” was enclosed by a thorned hedge, and a sleepy samurai boy stood by the watchers’ gate. Spring mountains in fresh green could be seen through the high hedge around the small courtyard. It was a prison in the green of the woody ocean.
Hisanari of Wake, a physician of the royal family, lived and worked in the stable outside the house. When Kazuhito entered, Hisanari and Crown Prince Naohito were talking on a straw mat. Two baskets containing glossy green leaves were placed in front of them.
“Good morning, Doc,” Kazuhito said, and Hisanari bowed his upper body to his master.
“Good morning, Father,” Naohito said, wiping the fresh camellia leaves with a clean cloth. He picked a fresh camellia leaf from the right basket and wiped it with the cloth. After it was cleaned, he put it into the left one.
“Could you give me some time to talk with Doc?”
“Yes, of course. We were only talking about tea plant relatives.” After replying, Naohito went back to his task.
Kazuhito beckoned the doctor outside, and he stood up.
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“Psychoactive incense? Why would you like to know about such drugs, Your Majesty?” Hisanari said that in a vegetable garden by the stable.
“You’re one of the best people in this country who knows medicine. Is there incense or fumes that would strongly affect the human mind?”
Hisanari was touching his chin and took a breath. “It is funny you also say that...”
“What do you mean by that?” Kazuhito asked him.
“Once, Lord Tadayoshi asked me the same question you just did.”
“Um, when?”
“It was the day his first and only child was born. In addition, he further asked my father and me whether we knew a fatal poison to forget pain and kill humans, like sleeping peacefully. I thought, ‘What did he say? Such a celebratory day, the birth of his son, although he had been waiting for a long time...’”
“What did you reply to him?” Kazuhito asked.
“As you know, he had deeper knowledge in medicines than an ordinary pharmacist, and he was suspected of poisoning the princes of ex-Emperor Go-Daigo. We told him we had no incense or poisons that affected such potential in our stock. Still, he asked us more about exotic plant materials, opium, and cannabis grown overseas.”
“Father, excuse me. I’m back in the kitchen,” Naohito said to Kazuhito and left the stable with the baskets, going between the two men.
“Please come in. Could you talk with me inside, Your Majesty?” Hisanari led Kazuhito into the stable and gave a folding chair to his master.
Kazuhito entered and looked around the stable. Smells of dried herbs and old horse dung scented the space. A mortar for medicine was placed in front of a drawer next to the straw bed. After the master sat on the chair, the doctor knelt on the mat and began to tell what the deceased samurai had said.
“Last midnight, I was in the garden, looking at the serene moon for a long time because I was in the mood to remember the lord. He had said…
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‘I haven’t had a good night’s sleep for a long time since we destroyed the Kamakura shogunate. I want the good dreams that I had in my childhood. If you know, give me some sleeping drugs during the nights.
‘I hate hara-kiri and kubi-kiri, yet I was born into a samurai family. Cutting enemies’ heads and cutting our own stomachs are both the way of brutal minds. Humans shouldn’t do such horrible things.
‘My life had been occupied with war, so I don’t believe a peaceful age like The Tale of Genji[ii] would come again to my heart. If I should die, I want poison to make me sleep rather than any weapons cutting my body...’
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“We had a small amount of opium from China as a painkiller for Lady Sanjō[iii] after giving birth, and I gave a portion much smaller than the addictive dose to him with our advice.”
“Doc. I haven’t heard you had such a drug until now. Was it added to your usual tranquilizer portions for me?” Kazuhito said.
“No, I haven’t added it. Opium is very expensive and sometimes leads to heavy addiction in patients. It shouldn’t be commonly used. However, the lord looked very tired and sensitive then.”
Hisanari stood up from the mat and pulled a box from the drawer. He picked up a small package wrapped with paper.
“How many times had you prepared opium for him?”
“He didn’t call us so many times. Every three or four months, maybe. He looked satisfied with our medication. One day, he gave me a reciprocal gift. Here you are.”
Hisanari crouched in front of his master and opened the wrapping paper. There were curved-round and brown plant tubers like taros, but they were much smaller.
“These are high-quality bushi[iv] roots from Yezo,”[v] Hisanari said. “Indigenous hunters in Yezo kill big bears with arrowheads using bushi toxin.”
Kazuhito pulled back his hand from the package before touching the tubers.
“Don’t worry. They were already detoxified. Steaming fine aconites can make the best medicine for neuralgia.” Hisanari smiled.
The wrapping paper was doubled. The inner one was oiled to keep the roots dry, and the outer was pale brown. Kazuhito saw some ink lines on the outer paper.
“Could you take a look at his message?” the doctor asked him.
The ex-emperor nodded. He received the medicine package and carefully peeled the outer paper. He opened it and noticed a manga was drawn with a brush on the surface.
Two tubers of aconite with tiny eyes and mouths were cuddled together. A quote and a caption were added to them.
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“We would like to become good medicine rather than poison!”
The Bushi[vi] Brothers
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“A killing joke,” Kazuhito said with no smile. “I know he had a good sense of humor.”
“When the messenger told us about his sudden death in Kamakura, I remembered it was the day after the first anniversary of his little boy’s death from a cold. Fools are saying that the lord was killed by his brother, Lord Takauji. That’s nonsense. They could not kill each other, even in their serious conflict. Lord Tadayoshi must have poisoned himself.” Hisanari sniffled. “He loved Kamakura so much rather than Kyoto. Thus, he chose to die there.”
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Kyoto is a terrible place. It’s too humid and hot in summer and too cold in winter. Most eastern wild plants die here even though my wife cared for them tenderly.
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The doctor looked sentimental. “I hope he will reincarnate in my family. He should be an incredible physician because he had never mistaken his aconite doses. Why was Lord Tadayoshi born into the Ashikaga family?”
“Only Buddha knows that.”
“Your Majesty, are you angry with him still now?”
“Well…”
“Could you forgive him and pray for his next life as well as other war dead’s?”
Kazuhito nodded and gave the package back to Hisanari.
“Sure. I miss Tadayoshi as well as you, and... have you ‘opi...’ in stock here?” he asked the doctor.
“Opium. No, I haven’t.” Hisanari said. “They had been consumed completely before I came here. The Japanese pirate attack destroyed a trading company in Korea that used to buy pharmaceutical products, and its workers were killed. Our medical product trading has been stopped.” Hisanari stood up again and put the package back in the drawer.
“Sorry for my long sobbing. Then we will return to your question. Even if you demand such drugs rather than our ordinary tranquilizer, I won’t apply the psychoactive medicines to you without a strong reason. Why would you like to know the information about such drugs?” He looked at his master’s eyes.
“Last night, I dreamed someone came to my bedside. The vision and colors were much more impressive than my normal nightmares. It might be just a dream, but I slightly suspect a shinobi[vii] from someone who attempted to affect my mind came into the room,” he said.
“What’s the purpose of doing that? What are the benefits?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to know whether it is possible or not.”
“As I said, I was outside when you were dreaming. I hadn’t noticed any strange smells or anyone in the main building the previous night. Everything was silent,” Hisanari said. “Please don’t forget to take the tranquilizer I’ll prescribe before you sleep. If you allow it, I’ll set my bed on the edge of the kitchen next to your room. Could you leave the door to the kitchen open during your sleep?”
“Thank you, Doc,” Kazuhito said.
“It may be no problem...” Hisanari took a breath, and he looked like he remembered something. “Just a rumor I have heard that some heretic monks mesmerize people in secret rituals using imported cannabis or other poisonous drugs.”
“Cannabis?” Kazuhito said. “I thought them a material of fibers.”
“I heard the Indian strain of cannabis contains ingredients that cause hallucinations in humans. So, I was interested in the chemical components of exotic cannabis and told a man who worked at the company that I’d like to get them. He told me a Japanese monk who spoke fluent Chinese came to his ship a few months before, and he bought all their stock...”
“Um…?”
At that moment, Kazuhito’s stomach said he was hungry.
“Excuse me. I am very talkative,” Hisanari apologized.
Kazuhito shook his head with a smile. “Don’t worry. Thank you for your information. Let’s go back to have our breakfast.”
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The ladies had begun to have breakfast behind curtains in the main room while Lady Takako[viii] remained in the kitchen. Takako was the family chef who belonged to the Shijō family, whose business was cooking manners. She bowed to Kazuhito and prepared the sitting mat for Hisanari on the edge of the floor by the kitchen.
“Father, here you are.” Naohito gave the position by the open hearth to Kazuhito.
“Where is your brother?” he asked, and the lad gestured toward a folding screen in the back of the room. Kazuhito snorted gently, and he walked over there.
“Emperor Okihito!”
Kazuhito went behind the screen to his elder son. Okihito was still sleeping with the blanket over his head.
“Get up immediately. Wash your face and hands, put on clothes on your own,” Kazuhito said, taking the blanket from him.
“Oh, sorry... is it time for breakfast yet? Where is my toiletry box?” the young man mumbled with a sleepy voice.
[i] Wake no Hisanari, the royal family’s doctor. Today, descendants of the Wake family run a chemical company, Nacalai Tesque Inc., in Kyoto.
[ii] A novel written by Murasaki-Shikibu in the early 11th century in Japan. The story is about the life of Genji, who was a prince of Emperor Kiritsubo. Most of the intellectuals knew the storyline in the 14th century.
[iii] Tadayoshi’s wife. She had not given him a child until her forties, but he didn’t have other women as mistresses.
[iv] 附子, aconite.
[v] The northeastern region of Japan.
[vi] 武士 (bushi), which means warrior(s), is a homonym of aconite roots in Japanese.
[vii] A ninja, an agent of somebody who ordered spying.
[viii] The secretary of Yutahito, the daughter of Aburakōji (Shijō) Takakage, whose real name is actually unknown today.
and then Add to home screen.