Demon Sword Dance
Book 2 of the Dororo Novel Series
Toriumi Jinzō
Part 1 - The Ruined Temple
Chapter 1
The mountain ridge was hazy in the mist of a gray morning. The mist made it difficult for Hyakkimaru to find his way. He had feeling of ill omen and stood completely still.
Hyakkimaru was surrounded on all sides by high mountains. Morning sun pierced through the mist, revealing the evergreen Chinese juniper trees on the sharp summit directly ahead. Hyakkimaru smiled a little as he got his bearings, then resumed his descent. He no longer felt any unease. No one would expect a monster or a demon to attack in broad daylight.
Hyakkimaru felt a strangely murderous aura from the mist as he climbed down the mountain. He adjusted his pack over his shoulder and walked faster.
What's happening here?
He was at the Arachi Mountain Pass, which he'd reached by taking the Hokiriku Road from Kyōto to the northwest. He was close to one of the Three Gates1 that protected Kyōto, though its status as an official gate had been repealed in the year 810. Hyakkimaru had read in war chronicles about a terrible battle that had happened here a long time ago. Signs of battle still remained, though these looked more recent. The road was an important one for marching and invading armies.
Almost three hundred years before, Minamoto no Yoshitsune had come down from the Ōu Mountains along this same mountain ridge. Yoshitsune had taken this route to avoid angering his brother Yoritomo. Hyakkimaru was taking it to avenge himself on his father, Daigo Kagemitsu. Both Yoshitsune and Hyakkimaru had been raised on Mount Kurama without their parents, but while Yoshitsune had been hidden in the mountains to protect him from those who wanted to kill him, Hyakkimaru had been deliberately abandoned by his parents at birth.
The distance between Kaizu, a village along the northern cliffs carved out by Lake Biwa, and the city of Tsuruga was seven and a half ri.2 For that reason, Arachi Pass was sometimes called "Seven and a Half Ri Pass." It was a strategic point for military and government officials, who could close the pass at the gate during times of war and trap their enemies at a choke point in the mountains.
It was a time of war now. Half the country had allied themselves with the Eastern Army, and the other half had allied themselves with the Western Army. Although there were inns and places to change horses in the mountains between here and the capital, Hyakkimaru encountered almost no other travelers during his journey. Most people considered it far too dangerous to travel.
The thin mist grew thicker as Hyakkimaru advanced. He should probably turn back so that he wouldn't lose his way, but he showed no sign of turning aside. He seemed to welcome the challenge of the mist.
A battle was currently in progress in the valley below Hyakkimaru. The pack horses in the supply train of the Western Army had been ambushed by the Eastern Army. That the Eastern Army had sprung their trap here was no surprise; Arachi Mountain Pass was a strategic location for a reason.
Hyakkimaru looked down at the battlefield from tree cover. He identified the clan banners of the Western Army's Togashi and Shiba Clans. The combined armies only had around two hundred soldiers between them, but the carnage that Hyakkimaru could see was gruesome.
Hyakkimaru didn't know this, but the border between Ezichen and Kaga was a favored battleground for Hatakeyama Yoshimoto of the Western Army and Togashi Masachika of the Eastern Army. Fighting was frequent and fierce there. Corpses lay thickly on the ground, making it harder for reinforcements to move.
There was a general on the battlefield near Hyakkimaru who was surrounded by enemy ashigaru. Hyakkimaru expected the general to be cut down, but he dispatched all of his attackers swiftly and easily.
The general noticed Hyakkimaru watching him and dashed up to him, expression murderous. His tense shoulders slackened when Hyakkimaru didn't attack him. With a puzzled frown, the general called out, "You there! Whose side are you on?"
Hyakkimaru wore no armor and carried his supplies in a simple cloth bundle strapped to his back. He gave no answer to the general. He simply stared.
"You're a suspicious one," the general spat. "Guess I'll kill you."
Hyakkimaru dodged the general's sword strike with quick footwork. The general's sword slashed nothing but air. His legs splayed out clumsily as he he caught his balance and tried to track Hyakkimaru's movement.
"I'm a traveler," Hyakkimaru said. "And I have a question."
"What?" the general asked, looking puzzled again.
"Have you heard of a samurai named Daigo Kagemitsu?" Hyakkimaru asked.
"Never heard of him," the general said. "You must be a spy for the Eastern Army." He raised his sword threateningly.
"I'm not part of the Eastern Army or the Western Army."
More ashigaru sprinted toward the general, but these ones appeared to be on his side. Hyakkimaru fled before they could reach the general.
"Kill him!" the general shouted. "He's an enemy spy!"
The ashigaru blocked Hyakkimaru's retreat, surrounding him and raising their spears. Hyakkimaru looked around and counted more than twenty of them.
Hyakkimaru was about to be run through by the spearmen when a man called out, "Outlaws! Marauding scum!"
The man who'd called out was wearing an ancient ceremonial court robe that was stained from travel and long use. His dirty, straggling hair escaped from the confines of his black-lacquered, pleated headgear. He looked like a lordless, wandering samurai. A sword rested in the red scabbard at his hip. He was around twenty-five years old, very pale and thin. His eyes shone bright with defiance.
"Is he your friend?" the general asked, nodding toward Hyakkimaru.
"You're harassing innocent travelers without cause," the man said. "I can't just sit by and watch such injustice." He smiled and lifted his sheathed sword to eye level. "Nihil, if you want blood, you'll get it," he said.
"Cut him down," the general ordered.
Two ashigaru approached the man and were killed where they stood. The man's sword moved so fast that Hyakkimaru hadn't even seen it come out of its scabbard.
Hyakkimaru had his Muramasa sword and he knew how to use it, but this man was on another level entirely. He killed the ashigaru grouped around the general as easily as breathing. The ground surrounding the man was stained red with blood as ashigaru after ashigaru fell dead.
Hyakkimaru watched in slack-jawed amazement.
The general was the last man standing. The expert swordsman slashed the general from navel to nose. The general dropped his sword and staggered backwards, onto his back. He didn't move.
The man fought like a mad dog. Hyakkimaru took a step back, watching him warily. The man cleaned his sword in the meadow grass a little way behind him, then addressed Hyakkimaru.
"Show me your sword," the man said.
Hyakkimaru unsheathed the Muramasa sword. The man brought his sword up to Hyakkimaru's. There was a metallic clang as the blades connected. Both blades shone brightly in the light of the sun. Hyakkimaru tightened his grip on his hilt. He had no desire to fight someone so far beyond his skill level. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination or not, but there appeared to be a subtle glowing light around the edge of the man's sword.
The man nodded as if in satisfaction, then sheathed his sword. "Another Muramasa sword, eh? They're good, don't you think?"
Hyakkimaru heard sounds of fighting nearby. Swords clashed and men screamed.
"We shouldn't stay here," the man said. "More trouble will come. Let's get out of here."
Hyakkimaru sheathed his sword and ran after the man away from the battlefield and into a forest grove.
Who is he? Hyakkimaru thought. He had referred to his sword as Nihil. Like Hyakkimaru, he seemed to have nothing to do with the Eastern and Western Armies. Maybe he was passing through the Arachi Mountain Pass just like Hyakkimaru was, looking for an inn or a place to stay.
Hyakkimaru and the man stopped running when they reached a side-road. The port city of Tsuruga was on the plain below them.
"I can tell that you're looking for something," the man said. "Kehi Shrine is near here. It has knowledge of and connections to several samurai houses. But who knows if those connections can be relied on these days..." The man faced Hyakkimaru, but he seemed to be muttering to himself.
"I..." Hyakkimaru began, but the man made a cutting motion with his hand.
"I don't need your name," the man said, "and you don't need mine. Maybe we'll meet again someday, stranger. Take care." He gave Hyakkimaru a hopeless-looking smile, then set out on the side-road toward the north.
Hyakkimaru bowed politely to see him off.
It's strange, but he has a very murderous aura around him, even when his sword is sheathed, Hyakkimaru thought as he watched the man's too-thin figure disappear into a bamboo grove.
Hyakkimaru backtracked a little and got on the road toward the city of Tsuruga. The Hokuriku Road had once gone by another name, Koshi, some six hundred and fifty-eight years before. At that time, the old Koshi Road split off in two separate directions: one road led to the province of Kaga and the other led to the province of Noto. Since the time of the road's splitting off, the land had never known peace.
In the late seventh century, the main Koshi Province split into three pieces: Ezichen, Ecchū and Echigo. In The year 692, the name Ezichen appeared for the the region that Hyakkimaru was currently traveling through for the first time, when the province was presented to its new regional governor.
Ezichen was bordered by the Sea of Japan in the north. Its economy depended heavily on sea trade. Tsuruga was an especially important port with a very long history. It was supposedly founded during the reign of the Japanese Emperor Sujin sometime in the first century BCE. The Korean prince Tsunuga Arashito had given the port city its name.3 Hyakkimaru knew a little about it, since he'd researched all of the provinces that lay along the Hokuriku Road before leaving Kurama so that he would be familiar with their general geography and history.
Hyakkimaru suddenly felt overwhelming pressure at the idea of the journey that lay ahead of him. He had only just crossed the Arachi Mountain Pass. His journey had scarcely begun. He still had such a long way to go. This place wasn't like Mount Kurama at all. The endless chain of mountain peaks was completely unfamiliar.
Will I even find what I'm looking for?
He remembered getting caught up in so many battles that were unrelated to his quest. He asked whoever he met if they'd ever heard of Kagemitsu Daigo, but he hadn't had much luck so far. He smiled self-deprecatingly.
The Ōnin War was raging all over Japan. The Hokuriku Road was an important one that connected to the capital, so many armies used it travel. There were only two sides: the Eastern Army or the Western Army. Neutrality was not an option. Friendship ties and even kinship ties had no meaning in this brutal environment. The fighting wasn't confined to just this road, or just to the Ezichen and Kaga Provinces, but it was the worst here. What Hyakkimaru was smiling at was his own foolishness at marching, brazenly and alone, into a warzone.
Finding Kagemitsu Daigo was like finding one specific needle on a mountain of needles, but he felt like he had to try.
When Hyakkimaru entered Tsuruga, it was past noon. The city was under the control of the regional governor, Shiba Yoshikado, and his chief retainer, Asakura Takakage. Both were military commanders in the Western Army. Lord Shiba had entrusted the protection and guarding of the city to the Kai Clan while he was away at war. Kai Clan soldiers gathered in the streets and at every waypoint and checking station. Hyakkimaru looked at them with wary eyes. They clutched their spears and swords tightly in their hands, but didn't spare a wanderer like Hyakkimaru more than a passing glance.
Hyakkimaru stopped on the street in front of an old man. The old man got up and nearly fled in alarm at being approached by a stranger, but when Hyakkimaru asked him politely where Kehi Shrine was, he relaxed and gave him directions.
Tsuruga was a lively sort of place despite the fact that the province was very much at war. Many merchants were lined up along the harbor and there were several taverns and places to eat. Outside a brothel, a group of women sized up the men who passed and whispered comments back and forth.
There were ships from Ezo in northern Japan, the Seto Inland Sea, Kyūshū and other places lined up at the harbor, so close that they crammed each other in. High-ranked sailors in charge of shipping supplies hurried their lower-ranked compatriots along as they unloaded cargo from the ships.
In times of peace, goods could travel more easily through the Arachi Mountain Pass rather than by sea. Carrying the goods overland to be ferried across Lake Biwa to the capital was the most efficient way to ship necessities to the capital from Tsuruga. Since the capital was currently tearing itself apart in the fires of war, it was unsafe for important goods to travel along the Arachi Mountain Pass, so everything was shipped to Kyōto via circuitous routes to minimize the chance of those goods being stolen en route.
Hyakkimaru had just witnessed the Eastern Army raiding a Western Army supply chain while traveling through the Arachi Mountain Pass. He recognized Tsuruga as an important shipping location for the Western Army. Without it, their main way of shipping food and medicine to the capital would be completely cut off.
Five exceptionally large ships in the harbor had been sent from Kyōto by Ōuchi Masahiro, a commander of the Western Army. They were full of food and medicine for the soldiers fighting here. To Hyakkimaru, the ships looked like a tempting prize for the Eastern Army.
Hyakkimaru knew that Genkai Namitarō, a pirate and a friend of his father, had often stopped in Tsuruga on his way to visit Jukai at his estate on Mount Kurama. Hyakkimaru had been raised on that estate and had spent almost his entire life there.
Hyakkimaru's hand went reflexively to his sword, which was concealed beneath his clothes. He had received it from Namitarō as a gift. He remembered the strange man who had whispered to his sword in its red scabbard.
He called it Nihil. The sword had a strange energy, like it was trying to goad mine into a fight. I wonder where he went...
Thoughts of the strange man refused to leave him alone. Many people had fled the fighting and violence in the capital. Members of the imperial court and lower-ranked officials had fled their estates around the city as it had burned. Samurai, too, had fled their homes when they came under threat. Perhaps the man with the strange sword was one of those.
Hyakkimaru looked up at the cape to the northwest of the harbor. An enormous fortress, Kanegasaki Castle, towered over the expanse of the Sea of Japan. Tsuruga had often been at war; consequently, there was an impregnable fortress in the heart of the city. In 1181, Minamoto no Yoshinaka holed up in the fortress against the Taira Clan during the Genpei War. During the reign of Emperor Go-Daigo 1n 1337, when the Southern Court was still in power, Nitta Yoshisada was attacked by the then-current Lord Shiba, Shiba Takatsune, at the fortress. Forces loyal to Nitta Yoshisada were trapped for three months straight. The defenders were reduced to eating horseflesh to survive, and almost resorted to cannibalism before surrendering. In 1351, the founder of the Ashikaga shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji, and his younger brother Tadayoshi defeated the rival Southern Court in battle there. In 1459, Shiba Yoshitoshi, the head of the Shiba Clan, was removed from his position as head of the clan by shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. In the power vacuum that followed, the Shiba Clan's retainer Kai Jōchi attacked his lord. Shiba Yoshitoshi fled to the fortress and defended himself from there.
It was likely that the Kai Clan was in control of the fortress now. The Matsubara Guest House, which was used to shelter Chinese envoys entering Japan from the Bohai Sea, was also occupied by the Kai Clan.
Hyakkimaru headed for Kehi Shrine, following the directions he'd received from the old man. The Matsubara Guest House was administered by officials from the shrine. Hyakkimaru didn't know how far he could trust the word of the stranger with the sword in a red scabbard, but he'd never been to Tsuruga before and had no other leads.
Kehi Shrine was to the southeast of the Kanagasaki Castle near the foot of Mount Tezutsu. Hyakkimaru came out of the trees and onto temple grounds, passing through an ancient gate. The atmosphere surrounding the temple shrine was gravely solemn. The temple was built in traditional Shinto style, so the main hall and worship hall shared one roof and were connected via an intermediate passageway. The temple's majestic style added to its aura of holiness.
The temple was built in the Heian Period and destroyed by a great storm during the time of the wars between Japan's Northern and Southern Courts. No sign of any destruction remained. It had been perfectly rebuilt. Seven gods were enshrined there, one of which was Zasawake No Mikoto, otherwise known as the semi-legendary Prince Tsunuga Arashito, who had traveled to Tsuruga during the reign of Emperor Sujin. The other enshrined gods were Emperor Chūai, a legendary Japanese Emperor, Empress Consort Jingū, consort of Emperor Chūai, Yamato Takeru, Tama-hime no Mikoto, the daughter of Empress Jingū, Emperor Ōjin, the fifteenth Emperor of Japan, and Takenōchi no Sukune, a legendary hero and statesman.4
Kehi Shrine had been of particular importance to the imperial court for a very long time. More than a hundred years before, Kehi Ujiharu, the head priest of the shrine, built Kanegasaki Castle and fought on the side of Nitta Yoshisada before his surrender. After the castle fell, the shrine lost much of its power and its properties, but it was still considered an important and powerful shrine in the region.
While saying his prayers, Hyakkimaru's eyes alighted on a book that kept track of donations to the temple. An old Shinto priest stood in front of it, making entries. Hyakkimaru asked him if a samurai lord named Kagemitsu Daigo had made any recent donations. There were many shrines and many temples, so Hyakkimaru didn't think he'd be so lucky as to find his name, but this was an important and prominent shrine, so there was, at least, a slight chance of locating the name in the donations book.
The old priest felt the intensity behind Hyakkimaru's question and scanned through the thick book with great speed. In times of glory, the priests of the shrine might not have been so easy to convince; this, too, was a sign of the shrine's weakening influence.
"I see no samurai lords in this book by that name," the Shinto priest said. "However, there are many prominent lords who use aliases and other names when donating to the temple."
Hyakkimaru was disappointed, but he had no proof that Kagemitsu Daigo had ever been here. Hyakkimaru had only just begun his journey on the Hokuriku Road. The Daigo Clan could be located anywhere along its length.
Seeing Hyakkimaru's crestfallen expression, the kindly old priest tried to cheer him up. "I can see that this is an important matter," he said. "You might inquire with the police and judicial leaders. If anyone has information on the man you're looking for, it'll be them."
The regional Judicial Office was in Takefu. Hyakkimaru would have to cross steep mountains to the north of Tsuruga in order to reach it. It was the central governing authority for the region. Because of its strong ties to the shogunate government in Kyōto, it was almost certain to have detailed records on samurai families.
The old Shinto priest's words gave Hyakkimaru a new goal: he would head to Takefu and the Judicial Office.
"Is this mountain called Tezutsu?" Hyakkimaru asked.
"Yes. Long ago, it's said that the earth god Dokō descended on the mountain. The god defends this area from all manner of evil beings. The mountain is a the home of a god, but it's currently being trampled over by the Western Army. Still, it is a sacred place. You should pray before your journey."
Hyakkimaru suddenly felt a strange sense of connection between Mount Tezutsu and the mountain of Hyōtankuzure, which was also the dwelling place of a god. He excused himself and left the shrine, then went to the foot of Mount Tezutsu to pray. He didn't climb up to the temple there; he had no desire to run into anyone from the Western Army.
Following the Hokuriku Road directly to the west would take Hyakkimaru into the heart of the Eastern Army in the province of Wakasa. The regional governor was Takeda Nobutada, who was away in Kyōto fighting the Western Army. One of the roads that forked from the Arachi Mountain Pass led directly to Wakasa. There was a lot of boat traffic between Tsuruga and port cities in Wakasa, since they both bordered the Sea of Japan.
Hyakkimaru had a choice to make: go west to Wakasa, or north to Takefu. He chose to believe the word of the old Shinto priest and decided to head north. He descended down a gentle slope with budding trees all around until he reached the Hokuriku Road again. The road rose into a steep incline as Hyakkimaru entered the Kinome Mountain Pass. Many people had traveled this way in the course of history, from the armies in the Genpei War to the famous monk Dōgen5 to Nitta Yoshisada. The original name of this province, Kosu,6 came from this part of the road's name, which meant "Pass Through Land."
Hyakkimaru could clearly see Mount Hachibuse rising into the sky to the west, but Hyakkimaru's desired path would lead him to the mountain range to the northeast. Hyakkimaru caught his breath as he took in the vastness of the range. He had already crossed one mountain on the Hokuriku Road; it seemed that he would have to cross another.
The road plunged into a valley before climbing sharply upward again. A tributary of the Hino River called the Kahiru River had been diverted to cut through the mountains near this place in the year 830. The tributary was an important landscape feature in Kinome Pass. After traveling along the Kahiru River for a while, Hyakkimaru passed two buildings along the side of the road. One seemed to be a resting place for horses. Hyakkimaru took a break there.
The next morning, Hyakkimaru set out early and climbed down into the Kahiru River valley. The village of lay along the route, but when Hyakkimaru reached it at sunset, he saw no sign of man or beast.
Has the village been abandoned? Hyakkimaru thought. He stood at the edge of a deserted rice field and looked around. There was still unharvested rice growing in some places.
There were peasant uprisings going on all over the country, so seeing an empty village wasn't very unusual. Perhaps the villagers had decided to oppose paying land taxes, left their homes and joined together in resistance against tax officials or the shōgun. Hyakkimaru had seen the ruin of the capital with his own eyes. Disease and starvation were as common as violence and war these days. The common people could choose to stay in their villages and be taxed into oblivion while waiting for a famine or a plague to take their lives, or they could rise up against their oppressors and die that way. It was better to be dead than poor for a common person.
Hyakkimaru checked the village over thoroughly and encountered no one. One building had a sinister look to it. When Hyakkimaru came closer to it, the wind picked up. Hyakkimaru's nostrils flared at the unpleasant smell carried by the wind. When he looked up, he saw a huge murder of crows perched on the building's roof. More crows sat on the other roofs in the village, staring down at Hyakkimaru as if they were deliberately tracking and spying on his movements.
All at once, the crows took flight from the roofs and sped toward the mountain range to the north, cawing loudly all the while.
Hyakkimaru stood in the doorway of a farmhouse and peeked inside. The floor was an absolute mess; anything of any value had been stolen. His guess at what had happened to the people here seemed to be correct: the corpses of a family were rotting on the floor of their home. Blood had soaked into the floor. There were probably so many crows in the village because of all the corpses to peck at and eat. There were more bodies in other rooms of the house. Hyakkimaru stood as still as a statue, looking down at the dead with an expression that conveyed equal parts rage and pity. Hyakkimaru knew that he shouldn't be surprised at such a sight; he'd seen worse in the capital.
The bodies he saw were fairly decomposed, but he could tell that a man had died shielding a little boy, and that a woman had died with her arms around a young girl. They had chosen to protect their children at the cost of their own lives.
How cruel, Hyakkimaru thought. This is...
Hyakkimaru bowed his head and clasped his hands together in prayer. The backs of his eyes felt hot with unshed tears.
Hyakkimaru looked in all the other buildings in the village and found nothing but more corpses. Even the farmers' dogs had been killed. Many of their bodies lay scattered in the street. Some homes had been burned to the ground. There was nothing left of them but ash.
Hyakkimaru revised his guess as to what had happened here. The people hadn't risen up against their feudal lord, They'd been preyed upon by bandits or an advancing army that had stripped their village of supplies and killed everyone who resisted. Some people from the village might have survived the attack by fleeing. Hyakkimaru doubted that they would ever return. No one would want to live in a village cursed with such tragedy.
Pale moonlight illuminated the silent village. The suffering of the common people was endemic everywhere, not just in the capital. There was nothing left of this particular village but carnage and signs of an old battle. The air was so foul that it made Hyakkimaru cough.
Hyakkimaru threw himself down inside an empty house, feeling like he'd fallen into the pit of hell. He felt strongly that he was part of a much larger population of people that were forced to live in this hellish world. There was no safe place to belong anywhere.
He saw the faces of the parents who had died protecting their children in his mind's eye clearly, as if in a dream.
"Maybe they hoped the attackers would spare the children. Maybe they wanted to run, but missed their chance. Or they decided to risk their lives to defend their home. They must have loved their children, to die that way. But I..."
Hyakkimaru knew that his birth parents had no love for him at all. He let his tears fall to the floor and made no move to wipe his eyes. The muscles around his heart clenched so strongly that they ached. He thought about the life he could have had if he'd been raised by his birth parents.
"Mother..." he choked out reflexively. Hyakkimaru had never seen her. His mind conjured a kind image of a beautiful woman with a compassionate expression.
"You," Hyakkimaru said. "Why..."
A demon had shown up at the estate on Mount Kurama, pretending to be his mother. He'd fought another demon who'd claimed to have his mother's face at the Unryū Temple Complex in the burned-out ruin of the Hall of Hell. The woman he imagined wasn't like either of those. Her eyes were overflowing with love. His image of her blurred with the demons he'd fought. He felt their cold hatred radiating at him in waves.
Would a kind mother really have tossed me away? Daigo Kagemitsu must have been the one to throw me out. My mother would never... She would have sacrificed herself to save me, if she could. She must have had a reason for letting me go. I want to know the truth.
The image of his mother's face faded, replaced by the image of the unfortunate woman he'd seen clasping her daughter to her chest.
I'm eighteen. I might have a younger brother or sister. He wondered where his family was and what they were doing. He felt the pain of terrible separation from them. His loneliness gradually changed to envy.
If not for Daigo Kagemitsu's blind ambition, I might have had a normal life with a loving family. If the land weren't constantly at war, the people in this village might have continued to live in peace.
Hyakkimaru felt terror at the fragility of human happiness.
In this world, people throw away their children and kill strangers for no reason. Does everyone only live for their own desires? Is everyone just greedy and selfish?
Hyakkimaru was all alone, tormented by doubt. The wind wailed through the cracks of the house he sat in while he cried.
Translator's Notes:
1 Three Gates: In ancient times, three barriers were set up to defend Japan's capital city of Nagaoka. One was near Suzuka, one was near Fuwa, and one was near Shinchi . When the capital moved to Kyōto, Arachi no Seki (the gate in Arachi Mountain Pass) was removed and the Osaka gate was added.↩
2 A ri is a Japanese unit of measurement that corresponds to about two and a half miles (four kilometers).↩
3 According to legends, Prince Tsunuga Arashito had horns coming from his head; the area was named "Tsunuga," written, literally, "horn-deer," and over time it became "Tsuruga."↩
4 For more information on all of the historical figures at Kehi Shrine, some of them legendary, refer to the Glossary.↩
5 Dōgen Zenji (19 January 1200 – 22 September 1253), also known as Dōgen Kigen, was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. He promoted the practice of zazen (sitting meditation).↩
6 In Japanese, kosu ( 越す) means "to go across" or "to cross over." Koshi is derived from the same kanji.↩
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