How amusing to arrange for such a mistake!  (I refer, of course, to my younger years, though I am by no means past such adventures.  In the dark, all bodies are soft and yielding, and the scent of cherry blossoms carries even into the farthest corners.)

This sort of behavior is, of course, not permitted to someone who attends His Majesty’s bedchamber.  How truly shocking, if Lady Toshiko were to have an unexpected visitor!  No doubt, she would submit quietly, hoping the visitor would leave unnoticed and “silent as a grebe on a winter marsh.”

The thought of it makes me quite warm.

On another note: I have finally decided to do without the plums when I see His Majesty.  They interfere with my speech, and the last time he did not seem pleased with my appearance.  In fact, the day he paid us that unexpected visit in Her Majesty’s quarters, he saw me without them and seemed more taken with me than ever.  He paid me the most flattering attention after I ventured to ask him to explain something in a book he had brought.  (A reminder: Men like to be consulted).  Perhaps there is no need to improve on what I am.  A certain maturity can enhance a woman’s natural beauty.  As soon as he can be brought to see what sort of person the girl is, he will surely come to his senses.

Ah, spring!  And, “Oh, to lose my way among the falling cherry blossoms!”

The Waning of the Moon

The Emperor was convinced that his sexual prowess, albeit aided by Doctor Yamada’s wonderful pills, was proof of his continued youth and good health.  In fact, he reassured himself repeatedly that first night — until he detected a certain listlessness in his partner and let her go.

The experience suggested also that a man may indeed draw new life force from the body of a virgin.  Yet in the midst of his sense of well-being, he felt a twinge of guilt for having so ruthlessly imbibed at this fountain of youth, and he sent her several expensive silk gowns and the illustrated book of the Bamboo Cutter.  The more personal next-morning letter he dispensed with in view of the women’s gossip and his consort’s presence in the palace.

When he analyzed the night’s events over his morning rice gruel, he decided that the girl was hardly a Moon Princess after all.  In fact, she had been in no way different as a bed partner from other virgins he had bedded.  Her eagerness to come to him had momentarily touched his heart, but subsequent developments proved her to be as passive as the rest.  Shigeko was a far more responsive partner than this girl.  He decided to visit his consort that very night to prove the matter to himself.

Since a small fear yet lingered that his weakness might return when he was with the consort, he took a double dose of the doctor’s pills and went to his wife’s quarters flushed with desire.

Shigeko had heard the gossip and welcomed him coldly.  “People are talking,” she said.

Impatient to bed her, he would have none of it.  “Come, my dear,” he said firmly, “you know quite well that there is a great difference between you and a young serving-woman from the provinces.  Never doubt that I treat you very differently.”

She turned her face away.  “You acted as if you did not like me the last time,” she accused him.  “And when you then sent for the girl the very next night and kept her with you until dawn, I felt abandoned ‘like the reeds on the lonely shore when the crane flies to the southern sea.’”

Her poetic image was unwelcome because it reminded him of Toshiko racing the wild geese along the river reeds.  He felt a pang of remorse about both women, but this was his official consort and the mother of the next emperor, and the situation was a first for both of them.  He had never had the rudeness to bed another female practically under her nose.  So he took her hand and leaned closer.  “Remember,” he murmured in her ear, “that a crane always returns to his mate.  He is a faithful bird.”

“Pah!”  She lifted a shoulder and gave him a scornful look. “Faithful?  When he keeps company with any low marsh bird?”

He sighed.  “Truly, my dear, you need not be concerned.”  He took a resolute breath and added, “There was a reason.  You see, not wishing to disappoint you again, I consulted my physician.”

She frowned.  “I do not understand.”

A little embarrassed, he muttered, “We discussed, er, virgins.”  She still did not grasp his meaning, and he plunged into his excuse.  “Purely as a cure.  It is said to help the performance.”

Her eyes widened with interest.  “Oh.  I see.  And the doctor recommended it?  Was he right?”

“Yes.”  Suddenly triumphant and, thanks to the medicine, entirely sure of himself, he reached for her sash.  “That is why I came.  Let us find out together.”

The experiment proved a complete success.  He made love to her more passionately than he had in years.  She, for her part, was convinced of his love and flattered by his devotion.  Disappointed by Toshiko’s lack of ardor, he appreciated the warm response.

*

Subsequent relations between the imperial couple improved to an amazing degree.  The very next day, the emperor sent a gold bar to the doctor’s house.  He also sent Shigeko a charming “next-morning” poem.  For the duration of her visit, he remained faithful to her, visiting her rooms frequently and spending time with her during the day.  In fact, he was mildly smitten with his spouse again, and even after the installation of the new crown prince took Shigeko away to the Sanjo Palace, he abstained from Toshiko.

But then a disastrous fire destroyed the Sanjo Palace for the second time in his memory.  The flames lit up the night sky as if the entire capital had turned into a landscape of hell.  The consort and the crown prince escaped to safety.  The emperor expected Shigeko to return to him, but she ignored his invitation and moved to other quarters in the capital.

And so he was alone again and bitterly disappointed.  After a few days of building up his resentment toward Shigeko, he sent for Toshiko.

Though she arrived promptly and looked charming in one of her new gowns, their night together did nothing for his wounded pride.  When he took the time to observe her, he was filled with new doubts.  She obeyed, she smiled, she responded pleasantly to his attempts at flirtation, but he felt a new distance between them.  More importantly, he noted again the lack of passion in her love-making.

Where there is no love, it is impossible to pretend it for long, and the emperor had been disappointed too often to be duped in this case.  Not only did this girl not love him, she did not even feign desire and submitted to his embraces unwillingly.  This sort of thing made a man feel worthless and brutish.

The emperor never sank to brutality, but his silent anger affected his treatment of Toshiko in many subtle ways, some of them physical, others mental.  To his irritation, she did not complain but only seemed to withdraw further into herself.

Togoro

A strange period of peace and contentment descended on the Yamada household during the New Year’s holidays.  Otori cooked for weeks, and the kitchen was filled with good smells and endless supplies of delicacies.  Every meal consisted of a staggering number of courses.

The doctor’s sons wore their new finery after having thrown themselves with great zeal into decking the house with branches, sacred ropes, and all sorts of decorations of their own design.

Yamada himself felt generous.  The emperor’s lavish gift of gold had filled him with uneasiness, and since he was not sure he deserved it, he spent his riches freely.  Everyone received gifts.  The holiday came only once a year, he reasoned, and they had all added another year to their lives, cause enough to celebrate.  Hachiro was sixteen now at least that was the age he had chosen), and Sadamu six.  Yamada himself was twenty-six and the head of his own small family.  Otori refused to reveal her age, and Togoro – Togoro remained absent, the only nagging worry in his contentment.