Session 9. (12/9/01)
Episode 4. Crime and Punishment.
Episode 4 begins with a montage of images from the recent upsurge in Yakuza activity. We see new gambling houses, Kimori witnessing a street brawl, Emiko being mugged, Hisamatsu the locksmith and Sanada the dance teacher being beaten, a late night disturbance, the body of Marubashi of the Bears yakuza gang. It is Week 20 of the Year of the Tiger, and Sugiyama, the new Chief of Police, has his work cut out.
The first action comes as reports arrive of a "hit" on a gambling house. The four troubleshooters (Mariko is at home waiting for her baby) go to investigate. On the way a friend of Komako's says to him, "Are you going off to fight for Lord Chozo? Who is it this time? I heard that our army is heading north. Are we going to Honshu? Take on the Shogun himself?" Komako has no answer, but several eyebrows are raised. At the gambling house they find that the building has been bashed about, doors ripped off, walls damaged and furniture smashed. The troubleshooters decide to lie in wait for whoever turns up, beat them up, let one escape and trail them back to their base. This they do. Three yakuza turn up and pick through the wreckage. At Kimori's challenge they draw coshes and say, "Push off, Granddad!" At this challenge Kimori draws his big chopper and as the yakuza are struggling to change weapons, Kimori downs the leader with two flashy blows. Komako punches the second yakuza and receives a minor sword wound. Emiko swings at the third with her staff, misses and is coshed on the head. Kimori turns on Komako's opponent and connects with another flashy blow which Komako follows up with a knockout punch. Emiko meanwhile lands a critical hit on her opponent, and with Kimori's show of sword control he makes a run for it. Then the second part of the plan comes into operation. Sugiyama is concealed nearby and sets off in pursuit, unseen by the yakuza. Unfortunately, the yakuza has run in the opposite direction to Sugiyama's location because Sugiyama failed to get the information readily available among the doshin that the gambling house was run by the Bulls and their headquarters are south of Shindate bridge. However, Sugiyama runs very quickly and soon discovers this information for himself. The Bulls' headquarters are in a large house in a large compound surrounded by a high wall and several smaller houses. It is into one of these houses that the yakuza disappears. Sugiyama scouts the area then returns to the doshin house.
Late in the evening, Kimori sees a massive brawl involving at least 30 men, presumably yakuza. A huddle of five doshin are watching from one side of the street. Kimori joins them and watches until the fighting dies down and two sides break off and run away. One side takes its fallen, but some of the others are left. Kimori and the doshin arrest two unconscious yakuza and take them to the cells.
In a flash-forward to events in Awaji province (though not flashing forward as far forward as we flashed a week back), we see Mariko attending the rite of dedication for the shrine she set up for the apparition that apparently saved her from drowning.
Flashing back to Matsuyama in week 20, Kimori wakes to find that the School of the Blade has been hit during the night. Kimori's memory flashes back to a violent dream that woke him up in the middle of the night and realises it must have been caused by noises in the school. The damage is relatively light, and artisans should be able to repair it and remove the slogans daubed on the walls ("Keep your nose out, Granddad") in a few days. Sugiyama starts the day by asking doshin about the location of the Bears' headquarters. Getting inconsistent answers, he has the idea that the accuracy of the answers might give him a lead as to which doshin are trustworthy and which are corrupt. He questions the officers and has some suspicions, but word soon gets round and the rest of the doshin are clearly just watching their backs. Meanwhile the magistrate has tried the two captured yakuza, found them guilty of affray and ordered them to be flogged. This is carried out immediately, in the public square outside the court. Meanwhile, with the information gained about the Bears, Sugiyama goes to scout their headquarters. It turns out to be a warren of buildings on the banks of the Ishite river, a real mixture of sizes and styles, residences and shops, yakuza and civilian homes. There is even a doshin post. Sugiyama asks if any doshin regularly volunteer to work there, but there is little pattern.
When Sugiyama returns he finds a visitor waiting for him. Hisamatsu, the locksmith who was beaten, has seen the yakuza being flogged and decided to tell Sugiyama about the protection racket the yakuza are running. He identifies Okabe Kuronushi, the right-hand man of the Bull yakuza gang as the person running it. The troubleshooters start a heated discussion about taking out the yakuza gangs and how difficult this will be, but Sugiyama decides that first Kuronushi must be arrested. Komako goes to stake out the dance studio (perhaps hoping to learn more sacred dance, "picture-frame-jutsu" or other marital arts from Sanada, the pretty teacher). Realising that they will need reliable doshin to help take on the rest of the yakuza gangs, Sugiyama and Emiko question more doshin, utilising Emiko's mystical skills to help, or give the appearance of helping, to identify when the doshin is lying. They demonstrate on two doshin, one of whom they appear to trust and one they say is lying, to convince the rest*. At the end of the exercise they have made up their minds on some of them. However, it is discovered that while the interrogation was going on, the two yakuza that were captured and flogged have escaped.
Flashing back forward to Mariko's missing map problem (that is, the same place we flashed forward to last week and forward from where we flashed to back in the middle of this episode), Mariko at last has a lead. She makes some progress but can't figure out how the intruder got in. She has a nagging feeling that there's more to the house guard, Akaikusa, than meets the eye.
Next week: "What's in a name?"
* Observant viewers will have noted that Sugiyama made just about the most inappropriate choices possible.