Session 9. (24/8/05)

This first sideline from a filler programme between episodes 1 and 2 of The Wood, begins as Haku (Paul Burton) travels to the magic school in Matsumae. He is riding along the coast, but poor weather has delayed him and as night falls there is nowhere to stay. However there is a large tree by the shore whose low, spreading branches provide good protection from the weather, so he camps there, unsaddling his horse and making them both as comfortable as possible.

In the middle of the night Haku is woken by a lot of horsemen who ride up nearby. One calls out, "Are you there, you old man under the tree?"

"Here I am!" answers a voice from beneath the tree.

"Hurry up then! Come with us!" the rider calls again.

The voice under the tree declines. "Not tonight, I'm afraid," it says. "My horse's legs are broken and I can't ride him. I'll have to fix him tomorrow or find another horse. And I'm just too old to walk, you know." The horsemen ride away.

Haku is too astonished to speak, but soon regains his wits and, in the pitch dark, casts a Light spell and looks for the speaker. However, all he finds is a small wooden figure - the crumbling image of a minor deity. Haku knows it should have both man and woman parts, but the woman part is missing, apparently just rotted away. In front of the wooden image is a votive plaque with a picture of a horse on it. The horse's legs are broken off and this reminds Haku of the conversation. He tries to wedge the legs in place but this doesn't work, so he takes some string from his clothing and ties the legs back on. Haku offers a prayer to the little god and, to his amazement, the god appears to him^* in the guise of an old man. The god says, "Kind sir, your curing my horse will allow me to do my duty. I owe you more than I can ever repay! I'm the Road God under this tree. All those riders were gods of disease. Normally I clear the way for them as they go through the land, and if I don't go with them they beat and abuse me cruelly. But now I'm sure that thanks to you I can cast off this poor shape of mine and be reborn in some far nobler form." He adds, "If you stay under this tree for three days, chanting the Lotus Sutra, I'll listen and by the power of the Sutra I'll leave this suffering body and be reborn into the Land of Bliss." The he vanishes.

Haku ponders this for a while then goes back to sleep. In the morning he rides back to a temple he had passed the previous afternoon and consults the priest. The priest says that to do as the god wished would be very good for Haku's karma. The disease gods travel with or without the road god - disease never leaves the land. Haku copies out the Lotus Sutra and donates a gold piece to the temple. He returns to the tree with a few days' extra provisions and starts reciting the sutra.

On the evening of the third day the old man appears again. "By you compassion I'm leaving this body forever and taking on a much better one. I'm going to be reborn far away to the south, on Mount Fudaraku where the blessed Kannon lives, as a follower of bodhisattva. This is because I've heard the Lotus." He goes on, "If you want proof that I speak the truth, make a little boat out of branches, put my wooden image in it, and launch the boat on the sea. The watch what happens." Again he vanishes.

Haku makes the boat as instructed, then as he places it into the calm water, to the words of a haiku he has composed for the occasion, the boat sails directly south despite there being not a breath of wind. Haku's karma benefits from a substantial gain of On.

One winter day, in a street in Hakodate, Mineo (Denzil Brown) is taking a stroll, having finished his day's studying, when he notices a beautiful young woman looking at him. She smiles. Mineo is entranced. She approaches Mineo and asks his name, then asks if he is one of the brave warriors that have been defending their lands up in the mountains. Mineo mumbles a modest response, still to smitten to think of any conversation. Finally he asks her name. "Suzaku!" she replies. She asks him to tell her a story of his exploits in the forested wilds. Mineo's first thought is of the run in with the kitsune, probably because this girl reminds him of one of them, and how a night of passion led to him losing all his clothing and possessions. Then he comes to his senses and tells her of a fight with a giant spider^**. Mineo starts to look at her more analytically and sees that she is modestly but richly dressed and has a look of infatuation on her face. He half looks for a kitsune's tail but chides himself for having such negative thoughts. Suzaku tells Mineo how handsome he is, and Mineo returns the compliment. She invites the Mineo to her house. It is on the corner of a temple precinct, near the residence of the Imagawa (second most important clan in the east of the region). They go in and immediately dispense with the small talk, which has been giving Mineo such difficulty, and proceed with kissing, which he finds much easier.

Soon she says, "Now that we've gotten this far I'd like so much to go all the way! But you see, if we do you'll die." This brings Mineo up with a start, but before he can work out the implications the couple start kissing again. Mineo racks his brains to think of a way out of the situation but fails and soon he becomes too enamoured to stop himself

She gives in, saying, "I really can't refuse you, since you insist so urgently. Very well then, I'll do whatever you wish and die in your place. If you want to show me gratitude, copy the Lotus Sutra and dedicate it for me." As she says this she blows out the lantern, leaving only the moonlight to pick out a painting on the wall. At dawn, after the night of passion, Suzaku gets up and picks up the Mineo's fan. She says, "I meant what I said you know. I'm going to die instead of you. If you want proof, go to the temple grounds and look around the Butoku Hall. You'll see." She leaves. Mineo hurriedly gets dressed and rushes to the Butoku Hall. There he finds a dead fox with his fan over its face. Distraught, he goes to the priest and tells him the whole story. The priest says that Mineo was deceived by the kitsune, but it is clear that as she gave her life for him she was obviously infatuated. He surmises that she was carrying a love curse. On the priest's advice, Mineo makes a copy of the Lotus Sutra and dedicates it to the fox's soul. For the next seven days he gives up his studies and recites the sutra seven times each day. After the seventh day he has a dream that Suzaku came to him, surrounded by angels, and tells him that thanks to the power of the Sutra she is to be born into the Tori Heaven. Mineo commissions a statuette and marks her grave with it.

During the winter study period, Miyoshi (Jim Loder) is called one evening to Lord Kono's mansion^*** (chief clan in the east of the region and second only to the Kakizaki). One of Lord Kono's courtiers tells Miyoshi that every night Lord Kono is oppressed by a mysterious agony which even the holiest monks, working with all their healing rites, seem unable to relieve. In the small hours a black cloud rises from a wood some way off and settle over the mansion. Then Lord Kono's ordeal begins. The court had held a council and recalled that something like this had happened to the Emperor many centuries ago. At that time General Yoshiie had stood guard and twanged his bow and roared out his name and titles just as a warrior does before fighting a human enemy. The emperor got better at once. The court has decided to post another guard, and Miyoshi has been chosen.

Miyoshi is amazed that such an honour be given to so low-ranking a samurai, and has some serious self-doubt that challenging the cloud will have the desired effect (or anything else he can think of for that matter), but he does not argue.

That night, when darkness falls, the black cloud rises and moves over the mansion. Miyoshi calls out, "I, Takeda Miyoshi, son of Takeda Sorin, level two bushi, samurai and leader of samurai, defender of Matsumae, defeater of mizu-kumo, mukade, serpents, wolves and assorted game, challenge you!" Miyoshi is unsurprised when he sees the cloud completely ignore him and settle over the mansion, but is surprised to see a strange shape inside the cloud. The only way to his it is with an arrow so he takes one and fires at the shape. There is no doubt about the hit. The shape suddenly flies at Miyoshi and slashes at him, leaving three parallel wounds. It retreats into the cloud so Miyoshi demands that it show itself. Lord Kono's screams can be heard in the distance. Miyoshi fires again and the thing crashes to the ground. Miyoshi draws his swords and attacks, though he almost runs in terror as he sees the horrible apparition clearly for the first time. It has a monkey's head, a badger's body, a snake's tail and a tiger's paws. It's moaning cry had sounded like a night thrush. It slashes at Miyoshi again the the claws do more damage. Then Miyoshi moves in, hitting it with his katana while fending it off with his +3 armour wakizashi. Two blows are enough to finish the thing.

In the morning, Lord Kono thanks Miyoshi personally and presents him with a sword, a well-balanced katana (+2 BCS).

The monster's body is stuffed into a hollow log and floated out to sea. Lord Kono is never bothered again.

While traveling back to Hakodate after spending the winter in Esashi training at his family's kabuki school, Katchamaru (Anthony Hummerston) is caught in poor weather near sundown far out in the fields with no promising house in sight, only a miserable hut for people who guard the fields in season. As there is no alternative, Kachamaru decides to spend the night in the hut.

Late at night Kachamaru hears the faint sound of bells to the west and a chorus of voices chanting the Buddha's name. The voices are coming his way.

Kachamaru goes out and peers round the corner of the hut. He can see a chanting crowd carrying torches and accompanied by priests ringing bells. They are carrying a coffin. The procession gets closer and closer until it stops close by, much to his surprise as there was no burial marker, as is the custom. Kachamaru has to retreat into the hut to avoid being seen. Besides which, it is unlucky to be near a dead person, and also the presence of a buke will probably ruin the ceremony (it being composed of peasants). The coffin is laid down and the funeral starts.

Through gaps in the primitive walls Kachamaru watches the ceremony. At the end of the funeral, a large force of labourers armed with mattocks and spades build a mound, on top of which they plant a grave-marker. Then the crowd disperses. Before Kachamaru realises, there is no-one around any more. Kachamaru settles back down to sleep, but soon the proximity of the grave begins to unsettle him. At first it is just an uneasy feeling, but soon this escalates into a real fear. When praying doesn't help he decides he must face his fear and investigate the burial mound. It is pitch black, but he casts a light spell and goes up to the mound. There is some writing on the grave marker but the symbols are beyond him. Then Kachamaru gets the feeling that something is moving in the mound. Scurrying back a short distance, he turns to see that something on the mound is moving. As he watches, something comes up little by little from the earth. At last a naked human form emerges and charges the hut, blowing and slapping at flames that dance over its body. In the darkness the figure appears ghastly and huge. Kachamaru scurries away further, terrified. He knows that where a funeral has taken place there is bound to be a demon. The demon is now rushing to eat him.

Kachamaru draws his sword and strikes at the figure. It seems little affected and it tries to grapple him. Kachamaru squirms free and swings his sword over its head. The demon grabs Kachamaru and squeezes him for some considerable damage. Kachamaru steps back and swings his sword again, doing a little more damage. Then he dances around the demons sumo-style attacks and hits again. Finally Kachamaru lands a decisive blow and cuts the demon in half from shoulder to waist.

Greatly shaken, Kachamaru decides not to stay in the hut but collects his belongings and heads off down the road, hoping to find a village. After a while he comes to a very poor village. He goes to the nearest house and wakes the occupants. Soon the village headman is summoned and he arranges for accommodation, food and drink (which is very poor fare). Kachamaru tells his tale; the headman is intrigued. He says that though this is the nearest village to the hut, there has been no funeral this night. Kachamaru draws the symbols from the grave marker to see if they mean anything but the headman says they are just nonsense characters.

In the morning Kachamaru leads a group of villagers to the hut, but they find no mound, grave-marker, torches or fire. There is nothing but the carcase of a huge boar, cut from shoulder to hip. The village headman surmises that the Boar Spirit saw Kachamaru go into the hut and decided to give him a scare. "What a dumb way to get yourself killed!" he murmers as they gaze at the corpse.

When Haku passes the temple on his way back to Hakodate, the priest tells him that an old man from the nearby village related a dream he had on the last night Haku had been chanting the sutra, in which he saw a road god, decked in glory, flying amid strains of heavenly music toward the south.

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