Black Arrow

HISTORICAL NOTE

In the eleventh century, Japan was ruled by court nobles under an emperor who was often a minor and retired by the time he reached his thirties. The government was centralized in Heian-Kyo(modern Kyoto) and kept an increasingly tenuous control over the various provinces by assigning court nobles to serve as provincial governors for four years at a time. The more unpleasant assignments were often filled by minor nobles while the actual appointees remained at court and collected part of the stipend.

Both Japanese culture and political structure were based on those of the Chinese T’ang dynasty, but many of these customs were only loosely followed by this time. Contemporary historical sources pertain mostly to the pursuits of the aristocracy in the capital, and for purposes of this novel considerable license was necessary to project what life was probably like in the more distant provinces.

The historical province Echigo is the modern Niigata prefecture, known as “Snow Country” because of its unusually long winters and heavy snowfalls. Little is known of its early history. Naoetsu (or Naoenotsu) was near the coast and is listed as the provincial government post in the twelfth century. By that time, Takata was a local stronghold, though the Uesugi family rose to power later. The descriptionof Takata manor is fictional. However, references to the continuous warfare against the Ezo (Ainu) people of the north, the existence of military garrisons in both Echigo and the adjoining Dewa province, and the ascendancy of local hereditary warlords over the appointed governors are all historical facts for the eleventh century.

References to outcasts require explanation, since Western readers rarely associate either caste or slavery with the Japanese. But from earliest times a separate group of people existed who were shunned by most Japanese and tolerated only for the most menial labors. These outcasts were probably descendants of slaves (taken during wars)or of exiled criminals. More than likely in the northern province of Echigosuch outcasts could have had mixed Ainu and Japanese blood by this time,partially because many exiles were sent there from other parts of the country.

The issue of exile brings up law enforcement as it was practiced in eleventh century Japan. Originally based on the Chinese system of local wardens, constables, tribunals, and judges, the harsh punishments meted out in China soon became unacceptable to the Japanese because Buddhism forbids the taking of life. Any crime which would have demanded the death penalty was therefore punished by exile with or without hard labor. Criminals were generally arrested either by local constables working under a headman, or by the police (kebiishi), under an officer.

The police system had been established early in the ninth century in the capital and gradually extended throughout the provinces. As in China, confessions were necessary for conviction, and these could be obtained through flogging.

Two religions coexisted in Japan: the native Shinto faith, an animistic belief tied to Japanese gods and agricultural matters, and Buddhism, which was imported from China via Korea and dominated the aristocracy and therefore the government. Occasionally the two faiths merge, as in the strange mountain priests, the yamabushi. They are Buddhist ascetics, or hermits, who grow their hair long, practice healing and shamanistic rituals like exorcism, and sometimes marry their female mediums. Shinto is responsible for the belief in spirit possession and many taboos,including those against contact with the dead and directional taboos. Buddhism brought faith in relics and miracles, the concepts of heaven and hell, and the belief in rebirth and karma. Monsters, ghosts, and demons abounded in popular superstitions, and the souls of the dead were thought to dwell among the living for forty-nine days, occasionally haunting their enemies.

The calendar of ancient Japan is complicated, being based on the Chinese hexagenary cycle. It has named eras,designated periodically and irregularly by the government. Greatly simplified,there were twelve months and four seasons as in the West, but the lunar year begins later (in early spring). A work week lasted six days, started at dawn,and was followed by a day of leisure. By the Chinese system, the day was divided into twelve two-hour segments. Time was kept by official water clocks and announced by guardsmen, watchmen, and temple bells.

Food and drink in the eleventh century differed little from later times, although tea drinking had not yetbecome a custom. (Tea was known but expensive and used primarily for medicinalpurposes.) The common drink was water or rice wine (sake).

Meat was not consumed because of Buddhist strictures against the killing of animals, though the nobles did eat the wild fowl they hunted, and everyone ate fish. Generally the wealthy atea diet of rice, fish, and fruit, while the poor and Buddhist monks consumed millet,beans, and vegetables.

Two plots, the story of the deserter and the murder of the innkeeper, are based on brief accounts in the ancient Chinese collection of famous criminal cases (T’ang-Yin-Pi-Shih,23 and 33). The collection was known in Japan at an early date.