The Ronin’s Mistress

trees, gongs and bells rang continuously, chasing away the evil spirits of the old year. Market stalls sold a special holiday beverage-shogazake, a sweet, milky fermented brew seasoned with ginger root. Lieutenant Tanuma bought a cup for Reiko. She sipped it as her procession wound among the forty-eight subsidiary temples that clustered around Zojo Temple. Many were prosperous, large, and elegant. The shogun was a devout Buddhist and generous to his favorite religious orders. But Reiko’s destination was among the humbler, less favored kind.

Reiko alighted outside a weathered plank fence that enclosed two small buildings. These squatted under a shaggy pine tree. The plaster on their walls was scabby and discolored. Because the Asano clan’s fortune had been confiscated, Lady Asano hadn’t had a dowry to get her into a better convent. When Reiko rang the bell on the gate, a novice nun dressed in a frayed hemp robe and cloak answered.

Reiko introduced herself. “I’m here to see Lady Asano.”

The novice let her inside while her guards waited in the road. The larger of the two buildings was the worship hall. It was deserted, the pine boughs by the door the only sign of the New Year season. Reiko and the novice entered the smaller building, the convent. It was almost as cold as outdoors. Reiko removed her shoes but not her coat. In a small chamber with worn-out tatami on the floor, the novice seated Reiko by the alcove, which contained a bonsai in a ceramic planter and a scroll that bore a line from a Buddhist scripture. She fetched a charcoal brazier, placed it before Reiko, and departed. Reiko looked around. Furnishings consisted of a low, scarred table and cabinet. She warmed her hands over the brazier, but her toes were numb with cold by the time a thin, stooped nun arrived.

The nun had sagging features below a stubble of white hair that gleamed like frost on her shaved head. She knelt, bowed, and said, “I am the abbess of the convent. My apologies, but you will not be able to see Lady Asano. She does not receive visitors.”

“Perhaps your novice forgot to tell you that my husband is the shogun’s chief investigator,” Reiko said.

“Certainly I respect your honorable husband’s status, but I beg you not to intrude on Lady Asano. She came here believing that she would be safe from the outside world.”

“I understand, but this is a matter of life and death.”

The abbess blinked at Reiko’s strong words. “May I ask, life and death for whom?”

“The forty-seven ronin,” Reiko said.

“What forty-seven ronin?”

Reiko was startled. “Haven’t you heard?” She explained, “The forty-seven ronin are Lady Asano’s late husband’s former retainers. They killed the man they blamed for his death. The man was Kira Yoshinaka, the master of ceremonies at Edo Castle.”

The abbess drew back in shock. “I had no idea. We’re very secluded here.”

A loud clatter came from the doorway. There stood a nun who wore a stained apron over her hemp robe, and a faded blue kerchief knotted around her shaved head. The mop and pail she’d just dropped lay on the floor.

“I prayed that it would happen,” she said in an exultant voice. This was Lord Asano’s widow, Reiko realized. “Someone has avenged us. At last!” She began to weep.

The abbess gave Reiko a look of reproach. “You’ve upset her. You should leave.”

“No,” Lady Asano said, sobbing into her hands. “I must speak to her.”

“The affairs of the world are not your concern,” the abbess reminded her gently.

“Please!” Lady Asano begged.

“The forty-seven ronin have been arrested,” Reiko told the abbess. “They may be condemned to death even though they fulfilled their duty to their master. Lady Asano may be the only person who can save them. Would you want their deaths on your conscience?”

The abbess reconsidered, said, “You may have a few moments with Lady Asano,” then withdrew.

Wiping her tears on her sleeve, Lady Asano hurried into the room. She knelt and leaned toward Reiko. “How did the revenge happen? I want to know everything.”

Disconcerted by such avid curiosity, Reiko took a closer look at Lady Asano. The woman was at least ten years younger than Oishi’s wife, Ukihashi. Her skin was still firm, her body’s contours softer. But unlike Oishi’s wife, Lord Asano’s had never been a beauty. Lady Asano had small, widely spaced eyes and an irregular, full-lipped mouth in a round face. Even in better times she would have been plain.

“The forty-seven ronin broke into Kira’s house on the night of the blizzard,” Reiko said. “They killed Kira.”

“Tell me how.” Lady Asano’s sallow cheeks turned pink.

Reiko shrank from feeding her bloodlust with gory details, but Lady Asano deserved to know them, and there was apparently no one else to tell her. “They cut off his head.”

Lady Asano breathed through her mouth. “Did he feel pain?”

“Probably not much,” Reiko said. The disappointment on Lady Asano’s face chilled her. Lady Asano clearly bore a grudge against Kira. “It would have happened fast.”

“Did Kira have time to be afraid?” Lady Asano seemed to hunger for proof that he’d suffered.

“I expect so. When the forty-seven ronin invaded his house, he escaped through a secret exit and hid in a shed. He’d have listened to them killing his retainers. He’d have heard them coming after him.”

“Which one of them did it?”

“It was Oishi.”

Gratitude and shame mingled in Lady Asano’s expression. “I thought he’d neglected his duty to my husband. But I misjudged him. He’s an honorable samurai after all.” Apprehension replaced her glee over Kira’s fate. “What’s going to happen to Oishi? And the others?”

“Nobody knows yet.” Reiko told Lady Asano about the scandal, the controversy in the government, and the supreme court.

Lady Asano listened with a bemused air. “To think that all this happened while I’ve been shut away in here. And I never would have known but for you.” Her voice faltered in confusion. “Why did you come?”

Reiko explained that Sano was investigating the vendetta for the supreme court and she was helping him. She forbore to mention that she was trying to save her family; she didn’t want to burden Lady Asano with her own problems. “There are questions about what led up to the vendetta. The fate of the forty-seven ronin may depend on the answers. I came because I was hoping you could provide some.”

“Me?” Leeriness narrowed Lady Asano’s small eyes into slits. “How could I?”

“You were married to Lord Asano. You knew Oishi. And I think that we women often see and hear more than people give us credit for.”

Lady Asano clasped her rough hands together, as if protecting something in the space between them.

“Oishi and his men put their lives in jeopardy to avenge your husband,” Reiko reminded her. “Shouldn’t you help them now that they’re in trouble?”

Lady Asano looked down at her hands. “What are they saying about what they did?”

Reiko didn’t want to be the one answering questions, but unless she complied, Lady Asano would probably tell her nothing. “Oishi says that Kira bullied your husband because he refused to pay a bribe. He says your husband attacked Kira because he snapped. Oishi’s son claims that the forty-seven ronin always intended to avenge Lord Asano, and they waited two years to put Kira off guard.”

When Lady Asano remained silent and uncooperative, Reiko said, “But Oishi’s wife tells a different story. She says Oishi never cared about avenging your husband’s death. She claims he killed Kira because it was Kira’s fault that he became a ronin.”

“Ukihashi.” Lady Asano said the name as if spitting out poison. Her head came up. “I’m not surprised at anything she does anymore.”

“It sounds as if the two of you have bad blood,” Reiko said, curious. “Why?”

“She was my chief lady-in-waiting. We were friends. Or so I thought.” Lady Asano’s gaze wouldn’t meet Reiko’s. “I’d rather not talk about her.”

Reiko dropped the matter, for now. “But there are other conflicting stories about the vendetta. My husband doesn’t know which to believe, and neither will the supreme court. If you have information that could help the forty-seven ronin, you’d better speak up.”