A Tale of False Fortunes (21 page)

The regent’s words were interrupted by the nurse’s piercing voice. “There! The evil spirit again!” From among a group of ladies-in-waiting near the curtained dais of the main hall, one slipped out as if gliding and grasped the emperor’s hand through a part in the curtains.

Chapter Six
c
135

The emperor was startled and turned to see a lady-in-waiting, her face half covered by her hair, suddenly drawing up to him. She took his hand between both of hers and rubbed her cheek against it.

That gesture was exactly what Teishi did whenever she tried to placate the emperor or ask for something. His majesty was taken aback. It was as if he could sense Teishi’s breathing with his own hand grasped between those two cold hands.

The possessed lady-in-waiting, her face buried in the emperor’s lap, drew up her long hair and appeared to be weeping bitterly.

Michinaga stopped the attendants as they were about to usher the empress outside the curtained dais, commanding loudly,

“Leave her alone! It appears that the evil spirit wants to say something. It’s different from other evil spirits. Everyone, withdraw outside the curtains. I am here, and I will not allow any harm to come to the emperor.” The nurse and two or three senior ladies-in-waiting prostrated themselves before the empress and, tripping over one another’s robes, hurriedly stumbled out into the main hall, where they kept their ears pricked and listened breathlessly for signs of anything occurring within the curtains.

The high-pitched voices of chanting resumed, and along with the swirling dark smoke of the cedar sticks was the heavy odor of burning poppy.

The lamp had gone out, as if absorbed by the darkness, and with only the red blaze from the cedar stick altar as illumina-tion, the emperor was unable to make out the face of the lady-in-waiting possessed by Teishi’s spirit. He clearly perceived, however, that Teishi’s living ghost had stolen its way into the body of a different woman and was trying to communicate something to him.

“What do you wish to say to me? Please, speak your mind freely. I am satisfied just to hear your voice, even if only for a moment.” Forgetting that Michinaga was right there beside him watching, the emperor spoke as he gently shook the back of the lady-in-waiting whose face was buried in his lap. A warm
136
c
A Tale of False Fortunes
feeling enveloped his whole being, just like the times he had been alone behind the curtains with Teishi.

“Please, listen carefully to what I have to say. While I have continued to pine for your majesty, to this day I have never seen the Fujitsubo empress’ face, nor have I been able to visit your majesty. All of the evil spirits up to this point that are said to have been my living ghost were not genuine. Now is the first time I have wandered here, and I shall never again come.

“Your majesty, I have longed for you day and night, but I have never once thought to curse the Fujitsubo empress, who is yet a child. No matter how the Fujitsubo Pavilion flourishes, mine is a happiness unknown to anyone else. I shall feel relieved if your majesty understands just this. Please, do not trouble yourself about me. After I have departed this life, please remember this poem as a keepsake of me. I think that only your majesty knows its meaning.”

Upon finishing her declamation, the possessed woman suddenly lifted her face from the emperor’s lap and recited twice in a clear and beautiful voice:

Yomosugara

If you do not forget

Chigirishi koto o

What we pledged to each other

Wasurezuba

All through that night,

Koin namida no

Then should I like to know the color

Iro zo yukashiki

Of tears born of your longing.*

Thereupon, her feet and hands shook as if they had been doused with water, and she fell prostrate on the spot.

To the emperor, the voice reciting the poem was Teishi’s very own: full and splendid but tinged with sorrow. He was absorbed by the poem; reciting it to himself over and over, he once again spread his sleeves like the wings of a great bird, thinking to take her again in his embrace. By then, however, the medium’s trem-

*It was believed in Heian times that a grieving person might shed tears of
blood.

Chapter Six
c
137

bling body had already been shoved outside the curtained dais, where waiting priests were rubbing their rosaries madly against her bowed head as they chanted incantations of exorcism.

“Your majesty, let your mind be at peace. It was nothing but a groundless rumor that the empress consort’s spirit has been pronouncing curses on the Fujitsubo empress. I perceived that to be the case and have not brought your majesty here until now. But the possession we have just witnessed might really have been the living ghost of the Sanjò empress. I know more than anyone that her heart is as beautifully clear as a jewel.

Knowing that has been an honor.” As he spoke, Michinaga pulled the sleeve of his undergarment out of his overgarment and dabbed his eyes. When the emperor saw that, his tears could no longer be restrained, and his weeping continued until it sub-sided in sobs.

The emperor’s tears were brimming with a supremely pleasant and refreshing sorrow. It appeared to him that Teishi was grieved by his doubts and had sent her living ghost to appear before him.

As if to reawaken that same refreshing sorrow and longing, the next morning a letter to the emperor arrived from Teishi in which the same poem was written in a beautiful, flowing hand.

The emperor clasped it to his chest and again melted in tears. It was as if Teishi had softly placed her gentle, thin hand on his convulsing chest, stroking him to calm his heart. “Teishi!” The cry echoed within the emperor’s mouth as he grasped her hand in the air before him.

Michinaga’s plan had ended up with contrary results. The emperor realized all the more clearly the purity of Teishi’s heart, and his loving attachment to her only grew stronger.

The moment the shrewd regent saw that Kureha’s acting had failed, he pretended to have seen through her from the very beginning and succeeded in gaining the emperor’s trust. Nevertheless, he was deeply angered by the failure of his scheme, and because of his highly obstinate nature, his feelings of indigna-tion only mounted.

138
c
A Tale of False Fortunes
Michinaga thought he had been taken in by Kureha. This upstart of a lady-in-waiting had held in contempt the authority of Michinaga, regent and head of the Fujiwara clan. He seethed with anger at her testimony that the heart of the empress consort, a flower shaded from the sun, should be as pure and untainted as a white lotus. His feeling was not merely opposition and hatred toward those who had the nerve to confront him; it was more like the displeasure one must feel at the impertinence of, for example, what one had considered only a harmless worm turning into a snake and biting one’s leg, or at the same time at one’s own negligence for allowing it to happen.

That same night, Kureha was handed over to the imperial police and was imprisoned for the crime of falsely imitating the living ghost of a person of royal blood and of deceiving the emperor and regent. Her elder sister Ayame was also accused of complicity and was expelled from the empress’ palace. About three months later, in the middle of winter, Ayame met Kureha, who had been released from prison in a very wretched state: filthy and with her hair cut short. By that time Empress Consort Teishi, the subject of the false spirit possessions that had controlled Kureha’s fate, was no longer in this world.

Death came to Teishi soon after she was delivered of Princess Bishi, the emperor’s third child. The first half of the sorrowful passage describing her death is almost the same in both
A Tale
of False Fortunes
and
A Tale of Flowering Fortunes.

The empress consort had grown thinner with the passing months and, not having eaten properly, had gradually grown weaker. Before her delivery her color had turned pale, almost transparent to the bone, much like a silkworm before it spins its cocoon. It was a relatively easy delivery, and on the evening of the fifteenth day of the twelfth month she gave birth to a perfect little princess. Korechika and Takaie were hoping for a second prince and were not entirely satisfied. Before they could celebrate the conclusion of her safe delivery, however, the afterbirth was delayed, her breathing gradually became labored and thinner, and soon stopped altogether.

Chapter Six
c
139

They had brought hot water, but she would not drink it, and everyone was confused over what to do. They were in a state of panic, and it was particularly worrisome because [the afterbirth]

was taking a long time. They brought the lamp closer, and as Korechika looked at her face, he could see no sign of life. Sens-ing the worst, he touched her only to find that she was cold. In the panic and commotion that followed, the priests wandered about aimlessly, still intent on chanting sutras. Both inside and outside everyone prostrated themselves, wailing loudly, but to no avail. She was gone. Korechika gathered her into his arms and wailed without restraint.

This passage is almost the same in the two accounts, but the part describing the emperor’s deep sorrow upon hearing of Teishi’s death is much fuller in
A Tale of False Fortunes,
relating in detail feelings of grief and longing not found in
A Tale of
Flowering Fortunes.

From the time he heard that the empress consort’s labor had started, his majesty was restless and his mind seemed to be elsewhere. He continually dispatched messengers to the house in Sanjò. At length he was ordering the next one to go before the previous one had returned and was in such a state that by evening he had scarcely eaten anything.

He was relieved to hear of the safe delivery, but somehow remained apprehensive. It was as if a bird of suspicion were still fluttering in his breast. Soon the most sorrowful news arrived.

Before even hearing it out, he buried his face in his sleeve and sank onto his armrest, which collapsed underneath him.

“Your majesty! Pull yourself together!” “Please don’t let this drive you to distraction!” Tò Sanmi, Ukon no Naishi, and others helped him up, but he only tilted his head limply and made no answer. They summoned the chief court physician and priests to perform incantations. He finally regained his senses after being made to clutch an image of Buddha to his chest and having medicinal tea poured into his mouth. His first words were a moan. “Ah, why could I not have died with her? I hate life!” Then, in a state of utter lethargy, tears welled up from his
140
c
A Tale of False Fortunes
vacant eyes. Tò Sanmi and Myòbu were sobbing as they wiped his tears.

Before long Michinaga came to pay his respects. Having heard of the empress consort’s demise, in spite of the late hour he hurried to the palace to see what state the emperor was in.

“Your majesty, you have my deepest sympathies in your grief.” Michinaga put his mouth near the emperor’s ear and spoke in a firm voice. He brushed aside Tò Sanmi and the chamberlains, who had been supporting the emperor. His majesty was about to fall over, but Michinaga firmly held him up from behind and grasped his hand.

“Regent, I despise life.”

“You mustn’t say things so unworthy of your station. The late empress consort would certainly not be pleased to see you so crushed by grief.”

“I know . . . but I can never again touch that soft skin, or have her look at me with those gentle, beautiful eyes . . . or wrap that long, cool black hair around me.” As the emperor spoke, he stood up totteringly and tried to walk.

Michinaga stepped on the hem of his train and restrained him about the waist, then asked, “Your majesty, what is wrong?” The emperor twisted to free himself from Michinaga’s hands and said in a half-demented voice, “I’m going to Sanjò while her remains are still there. . . . Just once . . . just once I want to touch her face and her hair.”

“Your majesty, I sympathize with you! I sympathize with you in your grief, but even when your father passed away, your majesty was not allowed to meet with him. You are the lord of all under heaven, and such rash imperial visits cannot be permitted. That is the uncompromising fate prescribed by your high estate. Otherwise, you cannot maintain your position.” After so saying in a forceful voice, Michinaga whispered in the emperor’s ear, “I will make sure that your majesty sees the late empress consort’s face, but as long as servants are present, please maintain your usual composure.” With that, he took the emperor inside the curtained dais, almost carrying him.

“His majesty’s grief is such that his face has lost its color. I shall summon priests and have them begin incantations. And
Chapter Six
c
141

tonight I’ll remain by his side. Everyone, please, put your minds at ease.” With that as a final remark, he entered the curtained dais. Soon he summoned his confidant, a secretary in the min-istry of ceremonial, and whispered some command or other to him.

Sometime past midnight, the Lord Regent withdrew and
boarded a cart that had drawn up close to the steps of the
covered corridor. Pretending he was one of the young
nobles attending the Regent, the Emperor was ushered
into the cart. He hardly seemed alive as he sat inside, hug-ging his knees to his chest. They made their way to Imperial Steward Narimasa’s house in Sanjò. Michinaga had
sent someone ahead with instructions, and the Lord Middle Counselor [Takaie] had managed to keep everything
quiet and had not made the Empress Consort’s demise
public. He arranged it to appear as only a condolence visit
by the Regent. His lordship’s coming in the middle of the
night had been planned in great secrecy, and the ladies-in-waiting continued to weep though they had no more tears;
their voices were exhausted, their eyes dimmed, and they
were staring straight ahead. All appeared quite dispirited.

Only the Empress Consort’s younger sister [Mikushigedono, later concubine to Ichijò] and the Lord Governor-General [Korechika] were within the curtains; the Middle
Counselor [Takaie] kept watch outside. At length, the
Lord Governor-General said as he prostrated himself with
grief, “How gracious of you to come! Just seeing such
unprecedented love makes me regret that I cannot trade
my own life to bring her back.” Michinaga said, “This is
certainly unheard of. I was so awed by His Majesty’s great
love for her that I broke with decorum and brought him
here. It is absolutely imperative that you never mention
this to anyone. Just arrange for him to see the remains. No
matter how strongly he might protest, you should not let
him stay long.” Thereupon, they brought a lamp and
pulled back a section of the curtains for the Emperor to see
the remains of the Empress Consort.