20. The Sorrowful Song
The departures of both his servant Kimiharu
and wife Sachiko had left Yorinaga weary and heart-breaking. He spent the
following forty-nine days in mourn praying day and night, his sleeves were
never dried…
While in mourn, he had enclosed himself in a
small chapel, excluded from the outside world, totally unaware of the turmoil
in the court.
In the mid summer, the young Emperor Konoe had
gone to the other world leaving no successor. Thus, initiates the breakage of
the court unity. The court was now separated into two; the abdicated Emperor
Sudoku and the Emperor Goshirakawa group. Sudoku and Goshirakawa are rival
brothers, with Goshirakawa sided by the Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi, the
Empress Dowager Bifukumon, and her brother Fujiwara no Ienari; while Yorinaga
sided with Sudoku.
The Sudoku
group couldn’t acknowledge Emperor Goshirakawa’s sovereign and insisted to make
his own son the new emperor instead. Both parties gathered troops, funds,
warriors secretly conspire to overthrown each other, in a short future…
***
Yuiko
couldn’t get into sleep ever since knowing the death of Yorinaga’s wife
Sachiko. Part of her felt sorry for him, for he had lost two of his beloved
ones at the same time. Although, Kimiharu was the culprit who murdered
Norikiyo, but she wasn’t glad when receiving his death news. Now only would she
know revenge is merely a never ending sorrowful song…
The night of
a mid-summer where the weather is hot and humidity is high, crickets song can
be heard everywhere around the palace. In this sleepless night, Yuiko took out
her koto and play a lachrymose tune, a requiem to the death, so much so sad
that her face was covered with tears. Not far from her quarter, the sound of
flute joins in and immediately she knew that was the Regent Fujiwara no
Tadamichi…
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