In Heian-kyo, the imperial residence (dairi) was part of the greater imperial city (daidairi) which encompassed all the government buildings and offices. It was walled and gated, as was the larger enclosure, the various ministries, and many of the noble mansions that surrounded the imperial city

Shishinden, part of imperial residence

The city itself, however, was merely enclosed by a moat and ramparts. Its main southern gate, Rashomon, means “rampart gate.” From the huge, two-storied Rashomon, Suzaku Avenue (80 yards wide, with a central canal and lined with willows) led north to Suzakumon, the gate into the imperial city. To the right and left of Rashomon stood two Buddhist temples, To-ji and Sai-ji, with five-storied pagodas. About halfway to the palace, to the east and west, two enormous market places served the people of Heian Kyo.

Closer to the palace were the east and west administrations of the capital, the university, and a large park. The quarters on either side of the imperial city were originally reserved for the ranking nobles, but the western quarter declined early.

Akitada works inside the imperial city in the Ministry of Justice, more than likely a large hall with wings that stood inside its own walled and gated courtyard. His residence is in the north-eastern quarter, a typical nobleman’s house in a walled enclosure, with separate pavilions, covered galleries, and outbuildings, such as stable and kitchen. Though large and in a good neighborhood, it is in constant poor repair and sadly under-staffed because the family has fallen on ill times.

In spite of the careful planning along the lines of Chinese ideals, the real world and the character of the Japanese people soon asserted themselves in Heian Kyo. In the precise plan of the capital all sorts of charming irregularities appeared. Small rivers and canals crossed the city in odd places, bisecting quarters and avenues as they were diverted into manmade landscape gardens and ponds.

Capital from the East

People also resisted an orderly building program and preferred to settle on land east of the Kamo River, which led to the decline of the western half of the city. Great nobles, who built enormous estates surrounded by landscape gardens, instantly attracted clusters of more modest buildings around their walls. Parts of the city became rural, with vegetable plots, chickens, and life stock. Less charmingly, frequent fires destroyed the wooden buildings, creating empty land that was settled by squatters. Crime flourished in these quarters and spread even into the imperial enclosure. Great buildings collapsed in storms and were not always rebuilt. This eventually even eliminated the famous southern gate, Rashomon. The emperors themselves moved constantly from the imperial residence to various noble houses because of fires in the palace. Storms, fires, and epidemics periodically decimated the population. Population figures for Heian Kyo vary wildly between 100,000 and 200,000. Life in the city was characterized by uncertainty and flux.

The Novel s

  TheDragonScroll

The Dragon Scroll is the first novel in the Akitada series. Akitada is twenty-five years old, an impoverished nobleman and earnest government official on his first major assignment. His whole future career rides on this performance.

He has been sent to Kazusa province in Eastern Japan to discover the whereabouts of missing taxes before the provincial governor can leave his office and return to court. Eager and naïve about political intrigues, Akitada blunders instantly into a dangerous conspiracy when the suspicious death of the previous governor attracts his attention. This signals a sequence of shocking and bloody violence in the provincial capital. As two beautiful women play on his sympathies, Akitada is distracted from a duty which becomes less and less palatable. In the end, both his official and his private persona are tested.

Among the characters, new readers will meet two regulars, the elderly family servant, Seimei, and the impudent womanizer Tora. The meeting between Akitada and Tora in this novel begins the strong bond between master and servant that characterizes the later novels.

The other characters represent a cross section of Japanese society in the eleventh century; they include noblemen-scholars, Buddhist clerics, minor officials in the provincial administration, soldiers, artisans, wrestlers, peddlers, prostitutes, gangs, and one very unusual young woman who matches her fighting skills against any man.

Rashomon Gate

Sugawara Akitada serves as a minor official in the Ministry of Justice. Though born into a noble family, his family's estate is sadly diminished, forcing Akitada to toil fruitlessly at an unsuccessful career. So when an old friend, Professor Hirata, calls upon Akitada for help, he welcomes the opportunity to escape from his dull assignments.

One of the professor's colleagues is being blackmailed, and to save the Imperial University from scandal, Hirata asks his former pupil to investigate the situation. After taking a leave of absence from the Ministry, Akitada joins the staff of the university as a visiting lecturer, and finds himself drawn into a web of gossip and petty rivalries.

Nearly everyone he encounters is suspect, but Akitada's attentions are soon sidetracked by the murder of a young woman, and the mysterious disappearance of a student's grandfather. The emperor himself has declared the case a miracle, but Lord Minamoto refuses to believe the pious tale of his grandfather's transfiguration. Though there is no evidence of foul play, it is clear to Akitada that Minamoto's life has also become endangered as he plunges into a dangerous investigation of conspiracy among high-ranking nobles.

Black Arrow

In this, the third of the novels, Akitada begins his official assignment as provisional governor in one of the nation’s northernmost provinces. Since the government does not provide him with adequate funds, he and his pregnant young wife are accompanied only by his elderly secretary and three assistants, a pitiful force to contend with a lawless and hostile population, a treacherous warlord, empty granaries, and understaffed and dilapidated headquarters. The situation becomes more ominous when he learns that recent governors have either been killed or have fled for their lives. Although the heavy snows of winter are about to cut them off from outside help, Akitada faces these odds, risking their lives as he tries to bring the province back under imperial control and to clear three innocent men who await execution in his jail.

Soon the situation deteriorates. His tribunal staff rebels, one of his assistants is nearly killed, an increase in murder is laid at his door, and the warlord mounts a military attack on the tribunal. In the end, the peaceable Akitada must take up arms and go to war against his enemies.

Island of the Exiles

The fourth adventure of Sugawara Akitada begins when two senior officials of the court order him to nearby Sado Island to investigate the death of an imperial prince in exile. Remote Sado Island is noteworthy only for its penal colony and gold mine. When its most illustrious prisoner, Prince Okisada, is murdered and the governor’s son is arrested, the court sends Akitada from neighboring Echigo to investigate.

In a covert mission as a prisoner, Akitada clears the accused and discovers a deadly conspiracy but at the cost of falling into the hands of brutal guards and disappearing into the bowels of the earth. Though there seems no hope, Tora, his loyal friend and assistant, begins his own dangerous search of the island. Only endurance and determination ultimately free Akitada to join with Tora and complete his mission successfully and with surprising results.