The Toyotomi Blades

17

On the return train trip to Tokyo, I had a lot to think about. My growing curiosity about the blades was now inflamed by Sonoda-san’s talk of treasure, and I mused about the possibility of solving the mystery. I had access to images of five of the six blades, but it wasn’t clear sailing.

First, one blade was still missing, and I didn’t have too many ideas about how I could find it. Next the clarity of the faxes of the Rotterdam and New York blades would present a challenge in seeing what was on those blades. The meaning of the long line on my blade still puzzled me. All the other patterns were pretty clear, in terms of identifying forest and temples and mountains, but the wandering line was a puzzle. Finally, I was still scared about the Yakuza catching me before I could leave Japan. Oh, and I had miscounted the number of socks to pack and I realized I was going to run out of clean socks before it was time to return home.

That last problem, at least, had solutions. I could fly home in dirty socks or have the hotel wash a couple of pair for me. The rest of the problems, however, stumped me, worried me, or just plain made me nervous.

During these musings I stared absently out the train window, trying to come up with some answers. Mariko sat next to me, and sensing my mood, silently read a book on kabuki in preparation for seeing a play in Tokyo’s Kabukiza Theater. As we sat together in silence it occurred to me that a good friend is someone you can stay with for hours without the compulsion to fill the voids with conversation. Mariko was more than a lover, she was a good friend, and in this life it’s often easier to find a lover than a true friend.

When we got back to Tokyo I sent a couple of pairs of socks down to the hotel laundry. One problem solved. Then I took out the faxes Junko had given me and studied them for several minutes. Although I’ve never done it myself, I thought the faxes might be candidates for computer enhancement. Of course, in Japan I didn’t even have a laptop computer, but I figured that when I returned to Los Angeles I might be able to hunt up someone who had the software and equipment to help me. If that didn’t look good, maybe I could get better copies of the originals by writing New York and Rotterdam.

The show sent a car for me three hours before airtime. Mariko was going to do some shopping and join me later at the studio, so I stopped at the hotel concierge and had him write down the studio name and address in Japanese for her. I didn’t want her ending up at some weird place like the guy in the match story.

When I got to the studio the first order of business was to sit down with Junko and tell her what I had learned about the blades from Sonoda-san. “Did Professor Hirota return my blade?” I asked when I finished.

“Just as he promised.”

“Did he also give us a rubbing of the blade?”

“He did.”

“Is there a number on the tang of my blade?”

“Yes there is. A six.”

“I knew it!”

“What are you excited about?”

I told her my theories about the blades forming a map. She seemed very interested, especially when I talked about the possibility of unraveling the mystery.

“Do you think that’s possible?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it ever since I got back from Kyoto and if the mystery can’t be solved completely, at least we can uncover a good deal more information about it in a rather short period of time.”

“How can that be true? The mystery is over four hundred years old. Why do you think more information can be developed now?”

“I think somebody else has done just that, that’s why the swords are being stolen. I can’t believe it’s a coincidence that these swords are being stolen within a relatively short period of time. One of the swords is missing, but I’ve also got my sword. If somebody is stealing the blades, they haven’t got mine yet. They’re probably also missing at least one other blade.

“If they’ve got the New York and Rotterdam blades, though, they do have a big advantage. The fax quality will make it difficult to bring out the patterns on the blades. I was thinking of contacting Rotterdam and New York to see if I could get them to mail me clearer copies, but that still might not help. I think the pictures have to be made a lot bigger and a lot clearer.”

“What are you talking about?”

“These fax pictures would be good candidates for computer enhancing to bring out the detail in the patterns on the blades. I haven’t done it myself, but I’m generally familiar with how computer enhancing works, and I think it can be done. Do you do that kind of work here at the station?”

“No, we don’t, but one of our sponsors is Nissan, and they have a research project going that uses that sort of technique. We’ve done a couple of pieces on it. The pieces were a combination of puff piece and genuine news story, but they were both well received. Nissan is developing a navigational system for cars, so they are putting together a digitized map of Japan from computerized satellite photographs. They’ve developed all sorts of software to analyze and enhance the photos and ways to turn pictures into digital images. It’s all high-tech stuff and Japanese tend to love high technology.”

“You also tend to love tradition. It’s a strange combination.”

“It is, but Japanese culture is full of strange combinations. That’s one thing that always seems to fascinate visitors.”

“I think it’s possible that high technology could be applied to this old mystery. I don’t have the resources myself, but maybe I could interest someone when I get back to Los Angeles.”

“How long do you think it would take to solve the mystery?”

“I didn’t say I could solve the mystery. I just said I could come up with a lot more information about it. There are often mysteries that can’t be solved. This might turn out to be one of them.”

“Would you mind if they asked you some questions about all this on tonight’s show?”

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“Great. What I’d like you to do now is review the lead-in clip. This is what we’ll show before the live interview with you. It runs about three minutes.” Junko popped a tape into a machine. I sat there watching the piece she’d put together to introduce my segment of the show as she translated the narrative. She had done a nice job combining stock footage of L.A. with newsreel clips to explain the murder case I’d solved.

When the tape was over she asked me, “Well, what do you think?”

“I think you did a great job. That’ll be a good introduction to the interview.”

“Are you nervous about the interview?”

“A little bit. I’ve never been on TV before, much less live TV.”

“Would you like some hints?” Junko asked.

“I’d love some hints.”

“Well, before the show you’ll be taken to makeup. A lot of people feel foolish having makeup put on them, but just relax and let the technicians do their job.”

“What happens after I’m beautiful?”

She smiled. “Then you’ll wait for your interview. It might seem forever, but the interviews are only a few minutes long, and Nagahara-san and Yukiko-chan will actually fill up a lot of that time just chatting between themselves and reacting to things you say. I’ll be translating from Japanese to English and you’ll have an earpiece so you can hear me. Buzz Sugimoto will translate your answers from English to Japanese.

“Sugimoto-san is doing the translation from English to Japanese so that viewers will hear a man’s voice when you speak. I’m actually a much better translator,” she said proudly, “but viewers sometimes find it jarring when they hear a woman’s voice when a man is speaking.

“When you get on the set, sit on the edge of your chair and lean forward slightly. That comes across on camera like you’re alert and full of energy. Also turn your body about fifteen degrees so your head is at a slight angle to your shoulders. That also looks much better on camera. Smile and relax and just try to be natural. Television is a very intimate medium, and if you just talk to Nagahara-san and Yukiko-chan the way you talk to me, you’ll come across great.

“On News Pop we don’t practice any of the Sixty Minutes-style journalism and we won’t ask you embarrassing questions. Nagahara-san and Yukiko-chan have some scripted questions that they use to kick off the interview. I’ll give you a copy of those in English so you can formulate some answers, but try to answer them as naturally as possible on camera. Don’t work out a speech or anything.

“Nagahara-san will take the lead after the first few questions. I know he looks like an old fuddy-duddy, but he’s actually an excellent journalist. He started his career right after the Korean War and did a lot of coverage of the Vietnam War for Japanese television. He’s an old pro and if you get in any sort of trouble he’ll be able to step in and carry you until the end of the interview. I know you’ll do a great job on tonight’s show. There was quite a bit of interest in Japan about the case you were involved in and this new material you’ve given me on the Toyotomi blades is also very interesting. Remember, just talk to them like you talk to me and the results will be fantastic.”

With that pep talk Junko left me to watch TV or read until it was time to go into makeup. They took me to makeup, and even though I did feel foolish wearing it, I took Junko’s advice and tried to relax. After makeup they put me in the greenroom (which in this case was light blue) where you wait to appear on the TV show. There were only two segments on the show, and I was to be the last segment. Mariko was waiting for me in the greenroom, and I stopped her before she could give me a kiss of greeting.

“You’ll mess up my makeup,” I told her.

“You haven’t even been on TV yet and you’re already turning into a temperamental star.”

Junko had told me that the first segment was on a housewife from Osaka who had organized a group of other housewives to stop fraud from door-to-door vendors. She, her daughter, and her husband were also in the greenroom with me. They were all polite when I came in, but since they didn’t speak any English and we didn’t speak any Japanese, we really couldn’t have any conversation.

It seemed like the time just crawled until the News Pop show started. Right before the start of the show, the housewife was taken from the greenroom to the set. Her husband and daughter waved good-bye to her like she was being taken off to be shipped to a penal colony on Mars.

The opening credits of News Pop are computer graphics that take a fireworks display and swirl the exploding bursts until they form a couple of kanji that I assume mean News Pop. The kanji dissolve and reform over a map of the world. The segment on the Osaka housewife started with a video clip just as mine would and then they cut to the live interview.

I can’t say I understood what the story of the Osaka housewife was all about. Mariko was as baffled as me. It had something to do with very aggressive street vendors who apparently sell Japanese futons, or quilts, door-to-door. It showed a clip of some kind of scientific lab taking a futon apart and measuring it and its contents, so I guess maybe people were being swindled and not getting the quality of quilt they thought they were buying.

The housewife was not very lively during the interview. She sat at the desk with her hands folded demurely in her lap answering the questions with a hai, or yes, and occasionally giggling and putting her hands up to her mouth when Nagahara-san or Yukiko-chan cracked some kind of joke. It didn’t seem like much of a performance to me, but her husband and child seemed delighted. They were understandably glued to the television set in the greenroom, laughing when a joke was made and even clapping their hands together in a sort of applause to her hai’s, as if they were the most eloquent statements in the world.

It’s great to have support and I appreciated Mariko being there. With the simultaneous translation, however, Mariko wouldn’t understand my interview. I’d be opening my mouth but Sugimoto’s voice speaking Japanese would be what was broadcast.

I was pretty nervous when it was my time to go on the show. An aide came to get me out of the greenroom, and Mariko blew me a kiss. The show was in the midst of a commercial and Nagahara-san and Yukiko-chan both bowed politely as I sat down in my seat. I sort of dipped my head. The whole question of bowing is a really involved one, with all sorts of rules about how far you bow, who bows first, and what all the different kinds of bows mean. I realized that the three of us sitting at the desk looked Japanese, but with me the Japanese veneer was literally only skin deep and there were all sorts of things I didn’t know.

The sword I’d brought with me was put on the counter in front of me as a prop. I took a look at it and it looked great. The handle had been rewrapped with glossy black silk cords.

Technicians hooked me up with a mike to my lapel and fitted an earpiece to my left ear, which would be away from the camera. As soon as the piece was in my ear I heard Junko’s voice.

“Are you nervous? Just nod ‘cause they’re not ready to do a sound check on your mike yet.”

I nodded the affirmative.

“Well you look good,” she said in my earpiece. “You shouldn’t be too nervous. You know what questions they’re going to start with, but I want you to know that I did talk to Nagahara-san about all the information you’ve dug up on the Toyotomi blades and he’s very interested in it. It’s likely that he’ll ask you some questions about it. He’s an old-time newshound, and if he senses a story he’s always interested in pursuing it.”

There was a pause, and Junko said, “Why don’t you say something to me so we can get a sound check.”

“Do you think he’ll ask many questions about the Toyotomi blades?”

“I don’t know. We’re doing live interviews and one of the exciting things about live interviews is you can’t predict what will happen. Why don’t you say something else because we want to double check the sound levels.”

“Okay. Testing one, two, three. Testing.”

“Not very original.”

“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York.”

“Still not original, but certainly classy.”

Yukiko-chan, who evidently spoke some English, looked at me a little surprised and said, “Shakespeare.”

I laughed and nodded. She laughed too. It was just what I needed to put me at ease. On one of the monitors, set in front of the desk, I could see that the piece about the murder was coming to a conclusion. I started to settle down, but then remembering what Junko told me, I slid to the edge of my seat, turned my body slightly, and tried to look bright and charming.

Nagahara-sun started speaking and Junko starting translating simultaneously in English. It was sort of a weird experience and I learned that I could follow things much better if I tried to ignore what Nagahara-san was saying and just listened to the translation in my ear.

We went through the prepared questions rather quickly and I tried to give what I thought were complete and interesting responses. It’s hard to know how successful I was, but I was determined that I wasn’t going to just sit there and say “yes” like the housewife.

It seemed like I had been answering questions forever, but during a short pause when Nagahara-san was talking to Yukikochan, Junko said, “We still have several minutes to fill. Nagahara-san is telling Yukiko-chan a little bit about the Toyotomi blades mystery you’re now involved in.”

Nagahara-san turned back to me and, through Junko’s translation, said, “I understand that you’ve been working on another mystery in the time you’ve been in Japan.”

“Yes I have. It’s kind of a strange mystery that’s tied into Japanese history.” I launched into the story of the Toyotomi blades, adding what Junko had found out about the robberies and murder in New York as well as the robberies in Rotterdam and in Tokyo.

I picked up the sword in front of me and slid it from its scabbard, showing Nagahara-san and Yukiko-chan the pattern on the blades. Throughout my dissertation, Nagahara-san and Yukiko-chan had been making encouraging comments, such as “Is that so,” “How interesting,” and “Really.” This is a speech pattern in Japanese that they often use on the telephone to encourage the speaker. Even though I knew this was just a polite convention, I actually found it comforting that they were murmuring these encouragements.

When I finished recounting what I knew about the history of the blades as well as the current goings on, Nagahara-san said, “You found all this out in less than a week here in Tokyo?”

“Yes. I got help from Sonoda-san in Kyoto as well as the News Pop research staff. When I get back to Los Angeles, I intend to work on the mystery a bit more because I find it a fascinating one.”

“I think it is extremely interesting, too,” Nagahara-san said. “But wouldn’t it be easier to work on the mystery in Tokyo instead of Los Angeles?”

“Yes it would, but unfortunately I’m scheduled to return to Los Angeles tomorrow.”

“If News Pop paid your expenses and perhaps got you some additional research help, could you stay in Tokyo another week and spend some more time investigating the mystery of the Toyotomi blades?” Nagahara-san said to me.

That took me by surprise, but I figured what the hell, I was unemployed and had no pressing engagements in Los Angeles. My girlfriend was here in Tokyo, anyway, and I’d gotten used to maid service, laundry service, limos, and restaurant-cooked meals paid for by someone else during my stay in Tokyo.

“I think I can stay,” I said. “And with the help of the News Pop staff I also think that we can unravel a bit more of this particular mystery. I can’t promise to solve it in a week, but I’m sure that with a little bit more time we can uncover more information about the Toyotomi blades and the treasure that they’re supposed to be the key to.”

“All right then,” Nagahara-san said. “Please consider that we’ve given you an invitation to stay another week in Tokyo at our expense, and please come back on the show next week and tell about how much progress you’ve made.”

“That’s a generous offer,” I stammered. “I’ll certainly do my best.”