My brand new story is a direction from my usual fare, and I was inspired by the oldest romance novel in Japan as well as the rest of the world, "Genji Monogatari". The 1987 animated movie version as well as the anime "Genji Monogatari Sennenki" are main inspirations, along with Akira Kurosawa's acclaimed "Rashomon" (bits, at least). No love triangles - directly, at least - but one man has relations with three different women which is far more complex than you'd think.
What I love more than anything is cultural history rather than economics or politics, because it embraces the human imagination at our core. These are also the words of the presenter of the Crash Course YouTube video "Japan in the Heian Period and Cultural History". Feel free to check that out if you wish to get started on learning about the timeframe. :)
Disclaimer: Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto, Rashomon is Akira Kurosawa's baby, and "The Tale of Genji" belongs to Murasaki Shikibu.
Chapter One
Land of the Rising Sun
The rainfall was murderous today, after what transpired in the afternoon.
Now they found themselves stranded here, underneath this old temple to hide out until the storm ended, because of the copious amounts as well as the heavy flooding that trailed after them...and cut them off from the one they had left behind, who was now going off in the other direction for a new life.
The couple could only hope that she would seek the peace they, too, were hoping for after all this time.
They had been riding on his horse, but the ride could only do so much. Plus, the stallion needed to be fed and watered, needed rest as much as they did. So, a couple attendants came out to take care of his prized ride, bringing him into the nearby shed which was empty at the present.
The priest of the temple was coming out from one of the main rooms unaffected by the disaster; he was a kind, elderly face with a bald head and dressed in black over white. He saw the pair, drenched like a pair of drowned rats, rushing up the stairs and ducking under the extended rooftop. If only prayers were answered that the heavens would stop weeping, but the young man of the couple knew that the skies cried because of what transpired not too long ago.
She has gone out of our lives for good this time, though half of me is guilty as I am responsible. Therefore, today is a balanced shed of tears in ourselves and above our heads.
"My goodness, what is an attractive pair like yourself doing out in this weather?!" the priest exclaimed, helping them inside, after giving them time to wring themselves out the best they could on the porch. Indoors provided enough warmth as possible because there were torches and a bonfire lit. "Though it's not my place to say you should have stayed out."
"No, but it was not like either of us foresaw this," the young man answered, taking his knee-length dark hair out of its tie, taking some strands with and making him wince. It was going to take a miracle to get it back to its original form, and the same could be said for his beloved who had gone into the other room where there were shrine maidens. He watched as her heavy white kimono awashed with pastel blossoms vanished around the doorway.
His body stirred but went no further to the level of the roaring fire.
When he was dried to the body and garbed in a simple white yukata rather than many layers, hair combed out and let down his back, he came back out and found himself before the priest, and there was the woman he was going to take as his wife as soon as they returned home to the capital.
"...I see," the old man said, admiring what he recognized as his sword in its ebony hilt, gilded with gold and a dragon. "I recognize you, sir. As I recognize this crest: the fan of the Uchiha royal family. Forgive me for not doing so at first." He bowed his head, giving the great katana back to its owner, but the formality wasn't needed under these circumstances.
"No, there is no need for ceremony. In fact, I could make do without that as long as I am away from the capital." He took his sword back and laid it down beside him. "My betrothed and I are returning home after recently meeting her family for the first time. We have been through...unfortunate circumstances as of late."
He found himself looking at the woman whom he said would be his wife as soon as they returned home, who was also in a pure garment. He'd been through enough trouble to get her to come back to Konoha. They lost loved ones; now they needed each other, as did certain others waiting for them.
And one whom he regretted hurting immensely had taken one person from them.
But based on the hard lines of his future second wife's face, it was going to need more work on her part to forgive this woman he thought of. Even if she had every right to have hard feelings.
He found himself drawn to the way she combed her long, palette hair by the bonfire they sat before with the priest who asked if they would like anything to fast on while the storm raged on outside. That magnificent work of art had been his previous wife's passed onto her by his hand: butterflies and flowers combed into the fair wood, inlaid with pristine pearl.
When she thanked the attendants that came with the hot tea and rice cakes, her voice was as sweet as everything in the springtime. Then she chose to speak to the priest. "You wish to hear the tale which led us to this point?"
"Of course, my lady - if your future husband wishes to share, as well."
Since the rain wouldn't stop anytime soon, why not?
The story they were about to tell the priest was of fierce and stormy passion, of short-lived harmony, and the cycle of joy and sorrow constantly evolving from one to the other.
~o~
Some years ago...
Japan was called the "land of the rising sun" because of the long-held belief that it was the first to be awakened when the sun rose in the east.
On this morning, the sun rose red as blood, not meant to indicate malice but to fill with life. The rays casted across maple trees, tall susuki grass, and various flora of the late spring. Now it came to rest upon a brightly painted red spiritual gate which marked the entrance to one of the greatest houses in the land of Konoha, surrounded by endless forestry.
The royal house of the Uchiha.
In Konoha as well as the rest of the country, the emperor was merely a figurehead whilst a great clan held the entirety in its grasp. The Oosutsuki, one of the oldest since eight generations ago, was the real power behind the crown. Thus gave the royal princes the privilege to certain special posts...but one was revered more than the others.
It was this particular man the sun found its way to shine upon this morning, casting red and gold upon a canvas of ivory as it was covered with clear streaks that came from a bucket of refreshing water that the attendant brought in just for him. He valued his privacy for such matters, so no one was witness to his morning ritual.
He was a beautiful specimen of the species. He was glorious to behold as he dropped his sleeping robe, displaying muscles carved by the gods and a rump so perfect it could be a pair of hilltops in harmony. Long hair, black as a raven's wing, touched the backs of his knees; it was sleek the way it was because of hours spent combing it.
He was Itachi Uchiha, imperial prince and grandson of the current living emperor.
Naked flesh bathed and then dried, he pulled the underlying garment given to him to place over his body and then called for help in dressing for the day, then heading out to the grounds where the plum blossoms were about to be in bloom in time for the festival, but after that...
Then the cherry blossoms.
He used to not look forward to the festival or even the viewing of the majestic flora, because of a terrible tragedy in his life, though time healed his wounds - much of them. Sometimes he would remember THAT day like it was yesterday, because it affected him moreso than the loss of his parents before then.
The heavy layers of his kimono were placed over his body, the final on the outside being black as his hair, lined with fiery red, and then the tall black hat was placed over his head with his raven hair loose down his back, until that was tied low below his neck.
Other men in the land were the same in beauty tips - thin mustache and goatee - but Itachi Uchiha was not a sight to be seen every day, which marked him as a living god. Made him desirable, especially his long hair and nearly feminine features.
The reaction of the ladies of the court was living proof of that.
And now was the finishing touch, when his cousin, best friend and personal guard in one gave him the one thing that provided the minor but equally main difference: the hand-held fan inscribed by another's personal hand - that someone close to his heart - which was that cream-colored paper painted with the red-and-white fan of his family and scrawled elegantly with the writing: 夜にカラスのように飛ぶ、朝顔で日光浴をするために上がる赤い太陽で休む
"Fly like the raven into the night, rest at the red sun rising to bask in morning glory," he breathed, keeping it open for a few more seconds before closing it and then leading the way for the cart waiting for him and the party.
~o~
Many more years ago...
The story of Prince Itachi Uchiha began many generations after the decades of upheaval came to an end under the Oosutsuki clan when the royal family relocated from the bloody Ame to the more peaceful Konoha. From never-ending rainstorms and civil wars to all-seasoned forests was peace established, and the Uchiha made a truce with the influential but slowly diminishing Oosutsuki.
Since then, there were no external military threats, but security and armed forces struggled to increase. In the meantime, the country would enjoy the sought-after golden age that came.
Besides Konoha, its neighbors followed suit and established alliances to thrive, but it wasn't purely economics that mattered.
Under Madara Uchiha, who was once a great warrior in his time, did stability nourish, and the ordinary people as well as the nobility worshipped him as though he were a god, but the truth was he had no absolution. His younger brother, Izuna, became a government official but eventually succumbed to death by the time of the birth of his nephew, Madara's son who became known as Crown Prince Fugaku.
Rumored as it was to many, it was the truth amongst the Uchiha that sometimes marrying distant cousins increased bonds and sanctions, and such was the case when the prince chose Mikoto, a beautiful concubine of the highest rank. It was unheard of to take the daughter of a lesser-ranked family as a wife, but it was clear the intimidating Fugaku loved her dearly and showed it by showering her with gifts and praises; she excelled in many fields despite low birth and scorn from peers - and bore two healthy sons. Both born in the summer but at different times.
The eldest was Itachi, who arrived in early June - following a severe flood which cleared away the drought which lasted a year prior. Thus his childhood was difficult, in the beginning, and wracked with reconstruction and learning the ways of the court ahead of time...
...and the second son was born half a decade later, when there were no difficult times. Aside from natural disasters every so often, the days continued to be devoid of warfare and major skirmishes.
Unfortunately, Mikoto died soon after the newborn was barely taken from her arms to be washed and swaddled. Her death devastated Crown Prince Fugaku that he shut himself away, mostly out of his sons' lives. Therefore, the boys grew up without a proper maternal figure, but their grandfather appointed none other than his son's newest concubine, who was known as Hikaru. She was unusually kind, like their mother Mikoto, which must have been why their father chose her: she reminded him so much of his late wife, and she presented herself in the lives of Itachi and Sasuke more than Fugaku ever would.
Their grandfather, the emperor, was said to have had the boys at court more often than at their own abode near the palace grounds. He would be present when Hikaru would teach his grandsons how to master calligraphy, poetry, music and art - even read illustrated scrolls when night fell.
It would soon be when Itachi found the will to start reading ancient stories to his younger brother, strengthening their bond as the years would go by.
In these days, the coming of age for a youth reaching adulthood was twelve, so when Itachi Uchiha stood before all - including his father's concubine Hikaru who was the mother he'd lost - and let himself be declared a man, the one whose approval mattered most was Sasuke, his younger brother who wanted to be like him even if he wouldn't be sitting where their grandfather was.
That day, Itachi became the pride of the Uchiha and the entirety of Konoha. Not just for his ethereal beauty, but his skills in archery, horsemanship, and his famous handwriting. There never seemed to be one flaw in his character.
The court ladies wrote of him in their poems and short stories - always seemingly about him and no one else...not even about his younger brother who was still only a child, but apparently would one day reach the standard of Uchiha attraction.
Soon after Itachi's ascension to manhood, his relationship with Sasuke began to deteriorate, and the brothers began to become isolated. Once had the princes been so utterly close that the elder swore to protect him from anything and anyone - but even he couldn't protect him from the epidemic that plagued the country in the monstrous autumn that followed well into the middle of spring.
This was a purge which happened only once every many decades.
Their father, the prince, perished months prior, having been caught up with his fragile heart even years after losing his wife that not even the comfort of Hikaru could mend it.
Itachi was stricken down with the illness, but miraculously, he recovered within weeks...but the same could not be said for his younger brother. For Prince Sasuke succumbed at the age of only eight years old.
At this time, the cherry blossoms were in late bloom.
Inconsolable for a long time after his beloved brother's death, thirteen-year-old Itachi spent many times at the small resting place, spending the entire day until his grandfather, the emperor, had to order the women of the household to take him away so that Lady Hikaru, now named head of them all, would tend to him. The loss of Sasuke was too great, moreso than it had been when their mother passed on - and even more than when their distant father died, thus naming Itachi the Crown Prince.
Shisui Uchiha, a cousin and his closest friend, would be the one to notice the same look in the prince's eye from then on for many years: as if he were seeing something before him, yet nothing at all -
- until those unseeing black irises would rest themselves on a very interesting specimen standing over the grave of his brother with a small bouquet of greens and wildflowers in her tiny hands.
Instantly, something in his frozen, preserved and protected heart began to warm in the core, but that was only the beginning of fate's mysterious hand to play.
Hikaru the concubine was named after Prince Genji himself, whose first name is Hikaru, meaning "radiance". Think of it as an honorable nod, if that is such a phrase. XD
The beginning scene is in thanks to "Rashomon", where a priest, a commoner and a woodcutter are stuck at an old temple during a rainstorm and regale each other with three different versions of a rape/murder in ninth-century Japan (during the Heian period, possibly). We also begin the way it did - in the present - and then go back to the beginning, so I hope no one is confused.
Why Japan is called the Land of the Rising Sun, from Yahoo Answers: "Japan is an archipelago, or a group of islands, about 100 miles east of the Asian mainland. The ancient Japanese knew about China and Korea, but they did not know of any land east of their islands. They believed theirs was the first land awakened by the rising sun. The Japanese call their land Nippon, meaning Land of the Rising Sun. The Europeans learned of Japan from the Chinese, who mispronounced the name as Zipango. That word eventually evolved into Japan."
In the past, I've combined Naruto with feudal times, but now comes the HEIAN period which flourished with the culture: art, literature, and physical beauty even. These were the primary focuses of everything else. Which meant things were easygoing, but difficult at the same time. The people of the time and their views on the "transience of life", which is what the cherry blossom symbolizes.
The Japanese people in this time really had a strange sense of beauty besides how they looked, and blackening their teeth was one of them, though the process (termed ohaguro) was to preserve the teeth into old age as well as prevent decay like modern dental sealants do. Men and women in the Heian era first do this when they reach puberty.
So, to keep a long story short before I present the next chapter coming up, we are focusing on relationships and beauty, rather than politics and economics, since that was - as I said - the focus of Japan in the time.
Review please, in good old detail! :D