Hanabishi Fusai no Taima-chou

Viscountess Murotsuji was speaking.

“——I’ve been hearing the sound of a shamisen for about half a month now. Yes, yes, a shamisen. Like something a geisha would play… I don’t have a clue what kind of song it was, if it was a nagauta or tokiwazu.1 But whatever it was, it had that resonating ‘ben-ben’ sound. Especially on a dreary, rainy day, yes, just like today, can you hear it from afar? And when I say afar, I don’t mean it comes from outside the house. I hear it from the inside of the house, from the end of a dark hallway. And so, I fearfully went to the end of the hallway, and there is nothing there. Of course there wouldn’t be. But then I hear it again, this time from the other end. ——Is that not creepy?”

“Yes, it truly is,” Takigawa Suzuko, who was sitting on a sofa facing her, nodded deeply. Wearing a fresh-green crepe kimono with a pattern of butterflies, she had an air of gracefulness about her. She was seventeen years old, the youngest daughter of Marquis Takigawa. She was a maiden with a beauty like a statue nearing completion—looking too mature to be called a girl, but not matured enough to be an adult.

At Suzuko’s reaction, the viscountess let out a sigh of relief and placed her hand over the breast of her mousy wisteria kimono. There was a ring with a pale yellow-green gemstone on her finger.

“My husband says he doesn’t hear anything, and that it was just my imagination. But recently, I’ve even been seeing a figure…”

The viscountess clasped her hands to her chest and hunched her back.

“I’ve only glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye. When I turn my head towards it, it moves quickly. But even though I can’t see her clearly, somehow, I can tell that it has the appearance of a woman quite clearly…even the pattern of its kimono.”

Suzuko shifted her gaze to behind the viscountess and quickly looked away.

——A dark purple kimono with willows.

“The background is a vivid dark purple, and there is a pattern of willows…”

Suzuko lightly nodded at the viscountess’s words. The kimono of the woman standing behind her right now matched her description exactly.

The woman was looking down, so her face couldn’t be seen. Only her beautifully shaped pale forehead stood out clearly. Her hair, tied in the tsubushi Shimada style, was dishevelled and unkempt. The area from the collar of her kimono to the chest was drenched. Not with water, but with dark red blood.

The blood was pouring from the woman’s throat.

“Were you acquainted with any geishas?”

When Suzuko asked the viscountess that, she shook her head and said, “No.” But then, she added wryly, “I’m not sure about my husband, though,” and smiled faintly. Her husband was Viscount Murotsuji. He was an adopted son-in-law from a relative’s family.

Rain beat against the windows of the Murotsujis’ elegant Western-style mansion. Mixed in with the sound was the timbre of a shamisen. It was a hard, reverberating sound of a plectrum plucking strings. The viscountess’ shoulders trembled, and she looked frightened.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes.” Suzuko’s answer was short.

“You did hear it, I knew it, I’m not hallucinating, am I? Aah, no…”

The viscountess covered her ears with trembling hands.

“Why in the world…what kind of curse is this…this has never happened in the Murotsuji family…”

The viscountess hung her head and muttered, as if trying to not hear the sound of the shamisen.

Suzuko noticed that the woman in the dark purple kimono was holding a plectrum. Blood was dripping from it. There was the sound of sobbing mixed in with the sound of the shamisen. It didn’t come from the viscountess. It came from the bleeding woman. Suzuko leaned forward slightly and tried to listen to it more closely. However, when the viscountess said, “Pardon me,” Suzuko had no choice but to turn back to her.

“Does this sort of thing happen often? You seem knowledgeable. Would it go away if a purification rite was performed?”

“I only collect ghost stories as a hobby, so I’m not an expert at all. If you ask me if this is common or not, then I would say it is rare. I’m afraid that I don’t know much about purification rites.”

Reiko replied matter-of-factly. The viscountess looked discontented.

“Then, do you know Baron Hanabishi?”

Suzuko was taken aback by the sudden change in topic.

“Hanabishi…? No, who exactly is——”

Suzuko suddenly stopped in the middle of her sentence, for the woman standing behind the viscountess lifted her head.

Her face was pale. The blood had drained from it, and her eyes were dull. Only her lips were strangely red, but upon a second look, she realized that blood was dripping from it. Her mouth was moving and she seemed to be saying something, but no voice could be heard. Blood was flowing backward from her cut throat, gushing out of her mouth instead of her voice.

——…Ah…

She could only hear a faint, hoarse moan. The woman writhed in pain and bent her body. Fresh blood scattered onto the carpet.

“What is the matter?”

Puzzled, the viscountess followed Suzuko’s gaze and turned around. At the same time, the woman brandished the plectrum towards the viscountess.

“No!”

Suzuko jumped up from the sofa and leaned over the table to cover the viscountess with her body. At that moment, there was suddenly a scent. It was a cool, clear, and dignified perfume.

The door was opened forcefully. The scent got stronger. When she lifted her head, her eyes were met with beautiful clothing.

The word “juunihitoe” popped into her head. It was the kind of clothing worn by imperial princesses she had seen in books. The attire of the woman in front of her matched it perfectly.

The woman with a white oval face, elegant almond-shaped eyes, and long flowing hair was standing beside her in a juunihitoe. For a moment, Suzuko couldn’t tell if she was a living person or a non-living one.

Suzuko saw both the living and the dead equally. Though if it were a bleeding, obviously non-living figure, anyone would be able to tell it was a ghost right away.

It was only from the movements of the woman in juunihitoe that Suzuko realized that she wasn’t alive.

The woman, with extraordinary speed, pounced on the woman in the bloody dark purple kimono and ate her head.

Ate. That was the only word that could be used to describe it.

The woman in juunihitoe didn’t open her mouth and bit her teeth in. When she pounced, the head of the woman in the dark purple kimono disappeared like smoke. Then, her upper body. And after that, her lower body.

The only thing that remained was the shamisen plectrum, which fell onto the carpet. It was covered in dark blood. And after she blinked, it was gone.

The woman in juunihitoe turned around. The corners of her red mouth lifted up. She was smiling.

After she smiled, her form wavered. She dissolved like tobacco smoke and gently hung in the air. The smoke was swiftly flowing towards the entrance of the room. Following it with her eyes, Suzuko let out an “Ah.”

A man was standing there.

When had he gotten there? He was a tall young man dressed in a well-fitted dark grey suit and looked to be in his mid-twenties. His handsome face was more virile than elegant, but it wasn’t coarse. There was a faint smile on his lips.

The smoke stretched towards him, and then surrounded his body. For a moment, it looked like the woman in juunihitoe was coiled around him before it disappeared.

Suzuko stayed rooted to the spot, stunned. She could see what had happened before her eyes, but she couldn’t understand what any of it actually meant.

“Is everything all right with the viscountess?”

The young man said. His voice was soft and low. Startled, Suzuko looked down at the viscountess. She had lost consciousness. She might have seen the ghost brandishing the plectrum at the moment she turned around.

“She has fainted.”

“That’s not good. I must call a doctor.”

After saying that, the young man left the room. Suzuko laid the viscountess down on the sofa and placed a cushion under her head. Leaving the viscountess to a maidservant who had come running, Suzuko left the room. As the mansion became noisy, she headed for the door. She told one of the maids that she was leaving and asked her to call her own maid and manservant. As she sat down on a settee in the spacious entrance hall to catch a breath, she almost jumped up when a voice nearby said, “Are you leaving already?”

She turned towards it and saw the young man from before standing right next to her. She was surprised since she hadn’t sensed him at all.

He isn’t a ghost…I think.

Since he went to call somebody, he should be a living person. She looked up at the young man dubiously. He smiled faintly.

“I’m not a ghost, miss.”

He had a smooth, pleasant voice. He might have had the nicest voice she had ever heard. Although, Suzuko stared at the young man’s face closely.

He seems shady.

“That thing from before…what exactly is that?”

The young man tilted his head slightly at her question, the smile still on his face.

“‘That thing,’ you ask? Could you please narrow the subject of your question? It’s quite difficult for me to answer.”

Suzuko furrowed her brows and spoke quickly. “The woman in juunihitoe.”

“Huh…”

The young man stared fixedly at her, and then immediately sat down next to her. Suzuko was about to move closer to the edge when she detected a gentle and pleasant fragrance coming from the young man. It was the same fragrance from before. Unlike western perfumes, it was the aroma of burned incense.

“My name is Hanabishi Takafuyu. I work as a merchant in Yokohama. I also have a house in Kojimachi.”

The young man didn’t answer her question and introduced himself instead. That was the name she heard from Viscountess Murotsuji earlier. Suzuko looked at the young man’s profile.

“Baron…Hanabishi?”

“That’s correct.”

The young man—Hanabishi Takafuyu smiled. He’s someone who’s terribly good at smiling that way, Suzuko thought. As she was thinking that, she went through list of noble families in her head.

Baron…Hanabishi…Hanabishi…

She retraced her memories and managed to recall it.

“By Baron Hanabishi…you aren’t a shrine…shinkan, are you?”

“The term ‘shinkan’2 is strictly used only for those of the Ise Grand Shrine. The Hanabishi family are shinshoku. We are the chief priests of Shimagami Shrine on Awaji Island.”

“Aah…”

Shinshoku nobility. The nobility, a privileged class established in the Meiji era, included former court nobles, feudal lords, people of merit during the Meiji Restoration, Buddhist priests, and many others. The shinshoku of shrines such as Ise Grand Shrine and Izumo-Taisha were also classified as nobility.

“Oh, but you said you were a merchant…”

“There are a few circumstances behind that. If you’re interested, I’ll tell you about it.”

“I’m afraid I must decline, sir.”

Suzuko shook her head. His smile was unbearably shady. She wanted to leave this place immediately. Her maid, Taka, hadn’t arrived yet. This Kojimachi mansion wasn’t so far away from the Takigawa estate in Akasaka, so she could return home by herself, but then she would get scolded by Taka later.

“You’re the youngest daughter of Marquis Takigawa.”

Suzuko glanced at Takafuyu’s smile.

“I am, but I don’t believe we have ever met.”

“This is the first time we have met. However, I have heard about you everywhere I went.”

“Everywhere you went…? Come to think of it, why are you here—”

“I was asked to perform a purification rite. I am a priest, after all.”

Purification rite?

Was it that? The woman in juunihitoe eating the ghost, was that…?

Remembering the scene, Suzuko frowned.

“I’ve heard that your hobby is collecting ghost stories. I don’t believe that is popular among young ladies, so why do you do it?”

“Everyone has their own hobbies,” Suzuko merely replied curtly.

“Quite an eccentric hobby, isn’t it? There are plenty of other activities more befitting a young lady.”

“If it isn’t befitting a ‘young lady,’ then perhaps it’s appropriate for me,” Suzuko spoke sharply, a little irritated by Takafuyu’s teasing tone.

“Ah, I’m sorry if I caused you to misunderstand. I was not saying that ironically because you were born in a slum.”

Suzuko looked at his face. He was looking back into her eyes, still with that thin smile on his face. Takafuyu’s eyes were a deep reddish-brown, and unlike his expression, they were dark like the darkness of a thick forest.

Feeling a strange chill, Suzuko quickly stood up.

“I’m taking my leave.”

“I’m sorry, did I offend you?”

“No, it’s true that I grew up in a slum, and everyone knows that.”

“No, I said something unnecessary. I apologize.”

“I told you, that isn’t the case.”

On the contrary, she was irritated by exchanges like this. Suzuko turned her face away and headed for the door. Takafuyu followed her.

“You’re not going home alone, are you? Your chaperone—”

“I can return by myself.”

“Surely you jest. If you’re truly leaving, I’ll give you a ride in my car. It’s raining. I don’t want your clothes to get wet and for you to catch a cold.”

Suzuko remained sullen and silent in response to Takafuyu’s repeated words.

“Takigawa-san—Suzuko-san, you were able to see that jourou.”3

“Huh?”

Not knowing the word “jourou,” Suzuko turned around. There was a cold smile on Takafuyu’s face, different from the one from earlier.

“Suzuko-san, won’t you marry me?”

Suzuko was too stunned to speak.

The spring of 1920 was in the midst of a recession. The unprecedent economic boom brought about by the world war quickly withered with the end of the war, and although there was a short rally, it was completely ended by the stock market crash in March. The so-called “ship rich,” “steel rich,” and “stock rich,”4 who profited from the war and had their eccentric spending habits frowned upon by the public, had mostly fallen into decline after the war.

A serious problem for the Takigawa family was the collapse of stock prices. The Marquis Takigawa, who was Suzuko’s father, wasn’t an economist at all, but he loved to invest. When he was told that he would regret it if he missed out on a purchase now, or that he could recover his losses, he readily invested into whatever it was. Therefore, they were directly affected by the stock market crash.

The Takigawa family was a noble family that was considered wealthy even among the aristocrats. Originally feudal lords in the Ise region, with land income and a finance business called Takigawa Trading Company in their hometown, so they had more than enough money to live on. However, currently, her father was wasting it all. The family was unanimous in their opinion that he had to be made to retire as soon as possible, and they were also worried about how to make him retire without it becoming a scandal. The fact that he had no intention of retiring was also a problem. Suzuko was sure that he was still spending his money cheerfully somewhere today.

Her father, as was typical of libertines, was also a ladies’ man. In addition to his legal wife, he also had several mistresses and even seduced a maid. That maid was Suzuko’s mother. It seemed that there was a complicated dispute between her mother and the family after she conceived Suzuko, and her mother left the Takigawa estate and drifted here and there, ending up in a slum in Asakusa. Since her mother died of illness when she was very young, Suzuko didn’t know where her hometown was or whether she had any relatives there.

Suzuko was eleven when she was taken in by the Takigawas. At that time, the previous Marquis was still alive, and her father remained in the background. In fact, even now, her father was busy playing around out there and only came home when his wallet was becoming empty. For Suzuko, her father was fainter than a heat haze, and her impression of him was quite weak.

""

His legal wife had died of childbirth fever and was already deceased when Suzuko was taken in. One of his mistresses lived in the mansion. There were other mistresses, but she was the only one who bore children, and so only she was allowed to live in the mansion. Suzuko had never met the other mistresses.

In addition to Suzuko, her father had a legitimate son by his legal wife, and two daughters and a son by his mistress. However, her older brothers lived in a boarding house, and her older sisters were married, so they didn’t live in the mansion from the time she was taken in and now. Although her brothers spent weekends at the mansion and her sisters came to visit often, other than the servants, Suzuko and the mistress lived alone in the vast mansion.

“Suzuko-san, your aunt from Azabu came to see me this morning and suggested that you should be married off to Baron Hanabishi. What do you think?”

It was a late afternoon in April when Chizu, her father’s mistress, said this to Suzuko. She almost spat out the tea she was drinking. It was a few days after she met Takafuyu at the Murotsuji house.

On that day, when Takafuyu suggested marriage to her, Suzuko had immediately responded with, “I refuse.”

It was incomprehensible. It was unconventional for him to ask her to marry him in front of her without a matchmaker or any marriage talks, but more than that, Takafuyu was suspicious-looking and unknown to her, so she couldn’t come up with anything other than refusing his proposal. In response to Suzuko’s firm answer, Takafuyu just smiled without a word. That was also creepy.

He came to remove the obstacles in his way.

Of all people, her Azabu aunt. She was her father’s younger sister and said to be a lady who loved helping with marriage proposals more than anything in the world. She wondered how he approached her.

“Nothing more needs to be said…please decline, as always.”

“Oh my, such a waste. Baron Hanabishi is tall and very good-looking.”

I know. But she didn’t say that and quietly sipped her tea.

“He’s also a wealthy man, and he does a wide variety of business.”

“Isn’t that difficult in today’s economy?”

“Didn’t you know? The other day at Mitsukoshi, you bought the ‘Dahlia’ from ‘Flora.’ You also bought ‘White Lily.’”

“The Western Fragrance…?”

“Western Fragrance Flora” was a pressed incense that imitated the scent of Western perfumes. Pressed incense consisted of kneaded fragrant powders that were die-cut and dried, basically incense sticks with unusual shapes, but “Flora” was innovative in its use of colorful flowers such as roses, violets, and dahlias, and the incense was made in the shape of each flower and very adorable, looking like colorful dried sweets. Its pretty labels and advertisement depicting a flower goddess was also popular with many people from housewives to schoolgirls. It was said to be especially fashionable among schoolgirls to put them in a gauze bag and tie it up with a satin ribbon, using them as sachets.

“…I didn’t know that…”

“Besides, the Hanabishi family is a venerable house with a long history.”

“…But, he’s a baron.”5

Suzuko said, as if in protest, and Chizu giggled. She was a woman of sharp and intelligent beauty, and her smile with the corners of her mouth slightly lifted suited her well.

“Titles like baron and marquis don’t necessarily correspond to family rank or history. It’s a system created by the government, but it’s not at all what it should be. The Hanabishis are older than your run-of-the-mill nobility. I think they’re even older than my family.”

Chizu used to be a geisha, but she was a daughter of a fallen noble family. Many of the noble families had difficult financial situations, accumulating debts and struggling. Some of them had even had to give up their titles because they couldn’t keep up appearances of nobility.

“You also know the story of Baron Senge of Izumo-Taisha, don’t you?”

“Yes…”

The Senge family had been the chief priests of Izumo-Taisha for generations, and their history was, needless to say, very old. When they were elevated to the nobility in the Meiji era, they were treated the same as the other shinshoku families and made into barons like everyone else. The head of the Senge family at the time asked the government for a higher title. In the end, his wish wasn’t granted.

“The Hanabishi family are the chief priests of a shrine on Awaji Island that enshrines the deity Izanagi-no-Mikoto, but they were originally lords of the island. It is said that during the Asuka or Nara period, fragrant woods drifted ashore on the island and were presented to the emperor.”

“Oh, really…”

Suzuko’s indifferent response clearly indicated that she wasn’t interested. On the contrary, Chizu continued to talk enthusiastically.

“Their mansion in Kojimachi is also lovely. You should go and see it. It’s a Western-style brick mansion covered in ivy. The atmosphere is wonderful.”

“You seem very enthusiastic. But I remember you telling me that I didn’t have to marry and that I could become a professional woman.”

Chizu loved new things. She used a flat-iron to make her hair wavy and sometimes wore Western clothes. Western-style clothing for women was still a rarity and mostly only for uniforms of professional women, such as female conductors for blue buses. It was also only a few months ago that the first female conductors in Japan were created.

However, a daughter of a noble family working in some sort of occupation would receive severe criticism from the public. It was an unrealistic and offhanded remark.

“You’re lucky. If Gozen-sama6 had still been alive, you would have been married off to some nouveau riche sly fox without any use arguing about it.”

“Gozen-sama” referred to the previous Marquis. Her father’s father, which meant that he was Suzuko’s grandfather. Although it should be her father who should be called Gozen-sama, as he was the head of the family now that her grandfather was dead, it was still her grandfather who was called Gozen-sama. Chizu called Suzuko’s father “Danna-sama.”

Her grandfather was a strict person, and everything in the Takigawa family was decided by him. Both of Chizu’s daughters—half-sisters to Suzuko—married into conglomerate families. Those decisions were made by their grandfather.

After Suzuko was taken in, by her grandfather’s policy, she was tutored by a private tutor instead of attending a girls’ academy that admitted girls of the nobility.

Both Chizu’s son and the son born to the legal wife, who died of puerperal fever, were moved to a boarding house outside the mansion at the age of seven and brought up under strict discipline. Everything was done by the order of their grandfather. Apparently, there were many such families among the nobility.

When her grandfather was alive, her father’s good-for-nothing tendencies were somewhat subdued, but since his death two years ago, her father had been like a kite with a broken string. No, perhaps like a horse that had been put out to pasture.

“There’s no guarantee that Baron Hanabishi would be better than a nouveau riche sly fox.”

“Oh my! But Baron Hanabishi is such a handsome man.”

Chizu was a pushover for looks. She loved beautiful men and women alike. Since she herself was so beautiful that her picture was often featured in women’s magazines, one would think that she should just look in the mirror, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. Incidentally, she wasn’t concerned about what was behind those beautiful looks. That was why she was qualified to become Suzuko’s father’s mistress.

“…I’m sure that someone like that has plenty of other marriage proposals.”

“Well, he’s in business and he’s busy with that, so he has put off marriage. He finally had some free time and felt inclined to get married. I told you, didn’t I? You’re lucky.”

“…”

Shady. Suzuko recalled Takafuyu’s fake smile.

“…Chizu-san, do you know what a ‘jourou’ is?”

“Oh, what’s that? A jourou?”

Chizu was taken aback by the unconnected question, but answered without seeming to have any suspicions.

“A jourou is, well, to put it simply, a high-ranking woman who serves in the imperial court. I wonder if you would understand what I mean when I say naishinosuke…7 They are the daughters of cabinet ministers, or women about the third rank or so. There are three types: jourou, chuurou, and gerou.”

“Hmm…”

In short, a high-class woman. Does that mean the woman in juunihitoe was that kind of person? Why does it matter that I could see her? And how is this connected to the topic of marriage?

Suzuko rested her chin in her hands as she pondered. “Don’t put your chin in your hands. It’ll warp your jaw,” Chizu scolded, and Suzuko stood up.

“I’m going out for a little while.”

“Oh, where to?”

“Chizu-san, you told me, didn’t you? ‘You should go and see it.’ I’m going there right now.”

“Oh my.”

Chizu blinked in surprise. “You’re going to Baron Hanabishi’s place? Are you interested?” she said with a smile of satisfaction. “I hope he’s not a good-for-nothing on the inside like Danna-sama.”

Without responding to that, Suzuko said, “I’ll go get ready,” and returned to her room.

Woo new project!! Hope this one doesn’t get licensed too

Also I know the translated title isn’t the best so I’m considering just using the romaji

Footnotes

Nagauta and tokiwazu are music traditionally performed on a shamisen.Shinkan means “Shinto priests.” To be specific, shinkan are government officials. After 1894, only priests of the Ise Grand Shrine can be called shinkan, but this was abolished after WW2.A jourou is a high ranked court lady.The term used here is “narikin” which means new money.Marquis is higher than baron.Gozen-sama means person of high rank or nobleman.Gen no Naishinosuke is a character from the Tale of Genji. She is a high-ranking court lady.