Bakemono Yashiki, page 9 by James S. de Benneville
<< Return to Title Details & Download10
192
XXII. The Shrine of the Jinnai-bashi 201
XXIII. A Winter Session 212
XXIV. The Tiger at the front Gate; the Wolf at the Postern 218
XXV. Chu[u]dayu wins his Suit 229
XXVI. Sampei Dono 236
XXVII. Aoyama wins his Suit 245
XXVIII. The Sarayashiki 251
PART I
TALES OF THE EDO BANCHO[U]
CHAPTER I
THE Chu[u]gen ROKUZO
Rokuzo the chu[u]gen sighed as he faced the long slope leading to the Kudanzaka. Pleasant had been his journey to this point. From his master's yashiki in Ichigaya to the shop of the sandal maker Sukébei in lower Kanda it had been one long and easy descent. Sukébei had gratified Rokuzo with the desired and well established commission or "squeeze." Orders for sandals in the yashiki of a nobleman were no small item. Rokuzo was easily satisfied. Though of a scant thirty years in age he had not the vice of women, the exactions of whom were the prime source of rascality in the sphere of chu[u]gen, as well as in the glittering train of the palace. At the turn of the road ahead Rokuzo could eye the massive walls of the moat, which hid the fortress and seraglio built up by the skilful hands of Kasuga no Tsubone in her earnest efforts to overcome the woman hating propensities of the San-dai-ke, the third prince of the Tokugawa line, Iyemitsu Ko[u]. Rokuzo was a chu[u]gen, servant in attendance on his master Endo[u] Saburo[u]zaémon, hatamoto or immediate vassal of the commander-in-chief, the Sho[u]gun or real ruler in the land of Nippon since the long past days of Taira Kiyomori.
Rokuzo had no great lady in charge of his domestic arrangements, one whose obsession it was to overcome his dislike of man's natural mate. Nor had he such