Session 22. (1/6/12)

It is Spring of the Year of the Dragon (1484). Hidasue's boss, Nanbu Masayasu is something of a scholar, and reads many books. He has found an obscure reference to a Legend of Nine Gates, concerning villages in Mutsu province. As he lives in Sannohe (Third Gate) and knows of Ninohe, Gonohe and Hachinohe (Second, Fifth and Eighth Gates) nearby, he is intrigued as to whether the legend could be true. As he is too busy himself, he asks Hidasue and his team to go out and find what is the connection between these town names and the legend. When Hidasue relays the news to the five ex-Ainu (Onuma is away, hiking in mountains to the southeast), he tells them he is under instruction to return with a definitive answer.

Deep thinkers to a man, the five immediately start discussing possible solutions to the puzzle of the nine gates; terms like "metaphysical manifestation" are bandied about until someone tells Sahpo to shut up. He readjusts his language. "It's mebbe like the gates to heaven, innit?" he suggests.

"Or hell," points out Emishi, understanding at last.

"Speak for yourself," retorts Yoshi Yeesu. "I haven't been cavorting with kitsune."

"Shhhh!" hisses Emishi, making sure his girlfriend isn't listening.

"Can we find out what towns exist?" asks Ishan Ashte.

"I'll get a map," says Tomtare.

"They could be on the tax records," suggests Sahpo, and goes to fetch them from Onuma's study.

Sahpo and Yoshi Yeesu scan the names of the towns and villages in Mutsu. They quickly find tax records for Ichinohe (Gate 1, 一戸), Rokunohe (Gate 6, 六戸) and Shichinohe (Gate 7, 七戸).

Meanwhile, Tomtare, Ishan Ashte and Emishi pore over a provincial map. To the south of Sannohe (Gate 3, 三戸) they find Ninohe (Gate 2, 二戸) and Kunohe (Gate 9, 九戸), and to the north Gonohe (Gate 5, 五戸), Rokunohe, Shichinohe and Hachinohe (Gate 8, 八戸). Further study finds Ichinohe near Ninohe.

"What are we missing?" queries Emishi.

"Gate Four," replies Ishan Ashte who has been paying attention.

"Does that say Shinohe?" asks Tomtare, squinting at the map.

"No, it's Shimoda," says Sahpo, coming over to check.

"What about this place, Shingo?" pesters Tomtare.

"What about it?" Sahpo says flatly.

"I don't know, it just sort of seems significant."

"Well the kanji are completely different and the name is nothing like 'something-no-he'"

Tomtare lapses into a sullen silence.

"What if you link the places on the map with strokes of kanji, does it make a symbol?" asks Ishan Ashte hopefully.

Sahpo instead makes a symbol of haughty derision on his face.

Ishan Ashte lapses into a sullen silence.

"Well this isn't getting us anywhere," announces Yoshi Yeesu. "The only way we'll find anything out is by visiting these places and asking. I vote that we go to them in numerical order." And with that, he goes to look for a priest (in Sannohe, the third gate) to ask about a legend of Nine Gates.

Ishan Ashte has an idea. "Sahpo, don't these Wajin have a superstition about the number four?"

"Yes, they think it's unlucky because it has the same sound as 'shi', the word for death."

"Then maybe there is no Shinohe."

"That's a good thought. They might use the alternative reading, 'yon'."

Try as they might, the intellectuals and Emishi can't find 'Yonnohe' on the map.

A little later, Yoshi Yeesu returns. "It was funny, I went into the temple and asked the priest if he knew about a legend of nine gates, but he wouldn't talk to me. So I apologised for interrupting his ceremony, made an offering and was half way out of the temple when he beckons me back in, gives me a blessing and tells me a story. He says, 'The Nine Gates legend is that the Nanbu clan founder, Mitsuyuki, won the right to govern the region from his grandfather, a Minamoto, in a famous maajan game where his winning hand was the rare Nine Gates hand. In its honour, he renamed nine towns and villages after each of the tiles in the hand.' Then he told me I should learn maajan and enter a contest in the town next week."

"That sounds fun! We should all learn, and enter this contest," says Sahpo enthusiastically. The others look at him scornfully. Then Emishi smiles.

"I'm game for a game. I'll enter. I can win it." The others are shamed into capitulating - all except Yoshi Yeesu. Sahpo asks Petennouk, Hidasue's handyman, if he knows the game.

"No, but the master does. People used to visit him to play, back in the old country."

So the next day, all five tax collectors learn the rudiments of maajan from Hidasue, and by the end of the day they are able to play the game without knocking tiles over or losing the dice. The day after, Tomtare, Sahpo, Emishi and Ishan Ashte go and enter the weekly contest, held in a large inn. They take their places at tables and play a wide variety of opponents over the course of several hours, moving from table to table as the tournament dictates. The game combines skill, wit and luck: none has much skill yet (though all improve greatly during the day); Sahpo and (surprisingly) Emishi are the cleverest; and Sahpo and Tomtare have moderate luck. When the results are announced, Ishan Ashte has come last, Tomtare finishes just below half way while Sahpo is just above half, and Emishi finishes well into the top half, the best of the ex-Ainu contingent.

"See, I told you I'd do well," he crows.

They rejoin Yoshi Yeesu, who has been watching the contest to see if any of the players look suspicious. "There were a lot of nerds," he tells them with an air of profundity.

The next day the five prepare to set off for Ichinohe, the First Gate. Hidasue wishes his charges well, and advises them to travel incognito. "If they think you're samurai, most people won't talk to you, or open up about local legends," he says.

"We could pretend to be Ainu," says Emishi. This is greeted with a stony silence.

"Let's go," says Tomtare. "We'll stay in Ninohe tonight and travel on to Ichinohe tomorrow."

Ninohe is a small town 2½ ri south of Sannohe (the capital of Mutsu province), SE across a mountain pass then up the valley. Ichinohe is a small village 1 ri south of Ninohe. That night the five travellers, dressed in an assortment of peasant-style clothes, stay in Ninohe. By chance, there are a few locals playing maajan in the inn, and the newcomers join in for a few games. In the morning, as the five prepare to set off for Ichinohe, they are met outside the inn by a small crowd of locals challenging them to a maajan match.

"Oh no," mutters Yoshi Yeesu, "we're under attack by maajan-playing nerds."

"Please, we don't see many travellers, so we don't get to play against new opponents," pleads the nerds' spokesman. "If we could just have a few games against you fine... traders...? porters...? ...err,"

Seeing no alternative, the pretend-peasants agree - all except Yoshi Yeesu. They go back into the inn and tables are set up. Sahpo and Emishi fare badly at the skill, Tomtare performs adequately but Ishan Ashte criticals his grasp of the game. As for wits, Tomtare fails miserably, Sahpo and (surprisingly) Emishi do well, but Ishan Ashte criticals his thought processes. To top it off, Ishan Ashte is the only one of the four to have anything like decent luck. While the others end up just in the negative part of the score sheet, Ishan Ashte trounces all his opponents. He is king of the nerds, for one day at least.

During the contest, Emishi asks one of the spotty youths if they know about a legend of nine gates.

"Dunno," replies the youth. "You should talk to my mum."

"Thank you," says Emishi. "Now put that four bamboo back or you'll feel the back of my hand!"

Despite the late start, the five arrive in Ichinohe by midday. Emishi has brought a scrap of paper with a grid of nine boxes to mark their progress. He crosses off boxes one and two. Sahpo argues that they are doing the towns in order, and therefore they haven't done number two yet. Emishi sulks.

Sahpo looks around the village to see if there is anything unusual about it - buildings, statues, architecture - but finds nothing. Ishan Ashte suggests that they find an old person and ask them. Emishi is first to spot one, and addresses the old woman in the simple peasant language which he is most comfortable with. The old lady seems comfortable with it too and tells him about a local legend.

"The Nine Gates legend is that there are nine gates between heaven and hell," she says. "Pass through all nine in order and you will arrive in hell! So it is said that Ichinohe is close to heaven. Some say it is up the mountain pass to the east by Ogura-dake (Little Storehouse Peak, 小倉)."

Emishi thanks her (no, not that way!) and they decide to investigate the mountain pass. They set off up a track, but soon it fades out, and only the wit and tracking skills of Tomtare, Ishan Ashte and Sahpo keep relocating it. But finally they lose it altogether. With mountains all around them, no direction looks better than any other. Sahpo, Tomtare and Ishan Ashte scour the surrounding slopes, leaving Emishi and Yoshi Yeesu waiting at the last known site of the track.

"Perhaps we could ask those ugly men approaching us with big clubs," suggests Emishi.

"What ugly m... bakemono!" shouts Yoshi Yeesu and draws his sword. In his haste he cracks his head with the hilt of his sword and stuns himself for a few moments. Emishi gulps and faces the two ogres on his own. The first ogre hits him for 7 damage; the second swings at the passive Yoshi Yeesu but misses. Emishi's sword dances, hitting the first bakemono for nine, twelve and another nine before the slow-witted (even by Emishi's standards) monster can reply, and by this time it is too late - the monster falls, dead. The second ogre hits Yoshi Yeesu for 12 damage, but Emishi has his back and scores a critical 22, killing the monster and, incidentally, taking him to level 4.

Sahpo, Tomtare and Ishan Ashte return. "We've searched thoroughly. There's no heaven here. Why are there two dead o-bakemono on the ground?"

They head back down the track into Ichinohe, Yoshi Yeesu still feeling a little bemused. There is just enough time to return to Ninohe before nightfall. On the way, Sahpo writes a few notes about their findings. It is quite late when they reach Ninohe, but Sahpo nevertheless goes to look for an old woman to ask about the legend. He finds one, but she is reluctant.

"I'm tired of talking to strangers," she tells him.

Emishi is on hand. "We're not strangers. We were here this morning."

"That's why I'm tired."

Settling in at the inn, Yoshi Yeesu buys a drink for the innkeeper and asks about the legend. The innkeeper is much more forthcoming.

"Legend is that whoever visits each of the nine gates, which are at secret locations in each town or village, shall receive great good fortune."

"Has anyone tried recently?" inquires Yoshi Yeesu.

"Every so often someone tries. I don't know anyone that succeeded. Maybe if they get lucky they never return to this miserable little town," he concludes with feeling.

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