SHIGEKO'S DOSSIER: The wife of Ide Baranato lacks the charms The of the Crane or the subtlety of the Scorpion, but I feel a great affection for her - an affection that is, I think, shared by many in Ryoko Owari. She is a cheerful matron to the Unicorn clan - many of them call her "mother" to show their respect and love. An example may illuminate; when I first arrived, Shosuro Hyobu gave me the gift of a fine saddle, and Kitsu Senshi gave me a new horse bow. These gifts were appropriate, courteously offered to the new magistrate. Shikibu visited me personally, and her gift was a tree for the garden of the magistrate's residence. It was a strange, foreign tree - she told me that it needs little water but much sun, and that the blossoms can be dried and brewed for tea. (It is planted in the northeast corner of the magistrate garden.) She brought her own servants to plant it and as we watched them work she told me many things about the city - who sold the freshest fish, which heimin families were dependable servants, which merchants gave good value. She left with the same wide smile she wore when she arrived, and I was greatly cheered. I felt that while others saw me come and gave gifts to my office, only she had concern for the woman who holds the office.
'MEMOIRS OF AN OPIUM EATER: Twentieth Year in the Reign
of Hantei XXXVIII, Seventeenth Day, Month of the Snake
That pointy-nosed little rodent Nobuko today told a piece
of gossip to me - it was a bald attempt to gain my confidence. If
I weren't so sad I could almost find it in my heart to pity Nobuko.
Certainly she has few friends, but she has only her own odious
habits to blame.
In any event she told me that she saw Ide Shikibu at the grave
of her son, sobbing and pouring something from a bowl
onto the ground. After Shikibu left Nobuko went to see and said
it looked like there had been blood mixed in with water and
some other things.
I asked Uncle Kinto if he had heard anything about it -
I'll admit the story sounded like black magic to me - and he was
concerned enough to visit the grave. When he saw whose grave it
was, he nodded and told me he had heard of something similar.
It seems that in the northlands, when a child dies before its
parent the parent makes a soup that contains the parent's own blood, and pours it on the grave to feed the child's ghost and settle
it. It is supposed to apologize to the child for not dying first.
When I thought of cheerful Shikibu piercing her skin to make
soup for Michikane's ghost. I started weeping and could not stop
until I got to my instrument. Since her son died, I have not
seen her in public at all.