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"Tendoumaru! Tendoumaru, will you come in now? Your teacher is here."
A boy sprang out from behind a clump of melia trees, hair ruffled and escaping from the looped tresses over his ears. He sped towards the veranda.
"Sai! Sai! you're back. Sai, where have you been? Let's play Go." His mother stood there and looked troubled.
"No darling, it's not Sai. It's your Chinese teacher. It's time for your lesson now."
His most dreaded lesson and still no Sai: definitely not his night.
As Sai's youngest pupil, Tendoumaru hadn't cared much for Go when Sai had introduced him to it. Much as he'd loved his tutor, he preferred ball games to board games. But now that Sai had gone away, Tendoumaru missed him. And he started to wonder what the big deal was with Go anyway. Why did Sai think it was so important? And where was Sai anyway? No one ever told kids anything. If ever Sai returned, he promised himself they'd play Go. In the meantime, Tendoumaru asked to play Go with her majesty, his aunt. She had no children of her own and indulged him, though she too placed her stones like a child.
When a palace guard found a hat in the river, it really should have been a trivial thing and quickly forgotten. But few had forgotten the scene between the two Go tutors, least of all his majesty. Rumors travel quickly in places where little happens from day to day; minor gossip becomes insatiably interesting and details inflated and embellished. News spread that Fujiwara no Sai had drowned himself in the river: a logical explanation. There was hushed dismay but feverous debate. The women heard about the hat. The higher courtiers heard about the hat. His majesty heard about it, or rather he heard how Fujiwara no Sai had desperately thrown himself in the waters of the Kamo for the love of Go…because someone had written a poem about it. Far from being disgraced; in the eyes of the women of the court, Sai was a tragic hero. Sai would have many a lavishly decorated story dedicated to him for his act was one of love.
Sai's suicide was an outcome Sugawara no Akitada had not predicted; though Sai always had been such that a dramatic fool he should have known he would over-react. Now it seemed that everyone was more influenced by pathos than reason. Too many people were looking at him strangely and too few were asking for games.
His majesty retired for several days. He did not want to play Go.
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Kawa-jin's family were surprised that Sai did not want to wear his old clothes again, even though they'd carefully cleaned and dried them for him. For Sai, they went with a life that was gone, a life that truly had drowned in the river. Dressed like the men of the farm and with his hair in a simple ponytail, he felt he'd been though a metamorphosis.
He'd tried to die: sought that place none return from. It seemed impossible, like a terrifying dream. But the reality remained:
"I am banished. I can no longer serve the emperor. I can no longer play Go," he sobbed, burying his face in his hands. A arm came around his shoulders.
"What is Go?" someone asked.
"Tell us what happened." said another.
Sai couldn't keep the tension out of his voice, when, having first described his life and his love of Go, he told them of his strong but selfish rival and their final competition.
"I would never have suggested such a thing to the emperor." Sai shook his head. "Though I did not care for that man, until the moment he cheated against me I would never have wished that he leave. What is Go without strong opponents?"
It was difficult to describe the world he had come from to people who lived so differently. But Sai made it clear that he couldn't go back and that they shouldn't send word to the palace about him. It was silently understood that his bath in the river had been no accident.
Though he'd never thought about it, the cloth of his robes had a high value. Sai gave them away willingly to his hosts and they let him stay on at the shôen.
He drew a goban on the earth in front of the house and explained the rules of the game to anyone who would listen. But no one had enough time to play a proper game, and when Sai explained that Go could last several days, Kawa-jin shook his head and said it was truly a game of the nobles or the gods and he had the rice harvest to manage and would hear about such distractions later. Sai felt that he had fallen into darkness at the shôen but was sorrier still for these people who had never known the joy of Go.
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The empress was excited. His majesty had introduced her to a new game someone had brought to him from the continent. She showed the pieces to Tendoumaru. They were flat, five sided and decorated with delicate calligraphies.
Tendoumaru only wanted Sai to come back. Though he was only a child he couldn't help but find out that people now thought Sai was dead. But for him it couldn't be true, it just couldn't.
"And each player has one piece that for his highness and his servants, and pieces for horses and tigers! And you move the pieces around during the game…Isn't it delightful?" said her majesty. It was beautiful, that was true, as the empress liked everything to be. It was even fun, like stepping into an imaginary world, but it wasn't Go.
His majesty, far from being upset that a mere board game should represent him, ordered more Shougi boards and pieces to be made so that everyone could learn and play the new game. Go was no longer in favor at court.
Emperors do not make mistakes. There is only greatness and light in the capital. Though he would not believe that his Go tutors would cheat in front of him, he remembered it was Akitada who'd told him "You only need one Go tutor", and Akitada who had accused Sai first. His majesty questioned all of the men who had witnessed the game between Sai and Akitada but learned no more. The emperor was young but not stupid. He suspected something and that something tainted Go completely for him.
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Author notes:
The emperor in my story is a ficticious character, not intended to represent Emperor Ichijo or any other particular Heian emperor who actually lived (I'm not doing an RPF here folks!) .
We meet Tendoumaru in a side story in the 'Gorgeous character guide' where he must be aged 8-10 or so. He also has long hair but its elaborately braided, and he wears an outfit resembling a Pierrot costume. He has about as much affection for Go as Hikaru has at the start of the main series!
The side story, 'A thousand years of wandering' was translated into English recetly by Wingblossom on dreamwidth (wingblossom DOT dreamwidth DOT org SLASH 19212 DOT html)
Rice was introduced to Japan in around 1000 AD, i.e. in Sai's time. The earliest evidence of shougi also dates from this period. Its mentioned in some books and pieces of this age were found in an archaeological dig (source Wikipedia)
Disclaimer: Hikaru no go is the property of Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata. This is a nonprofit-making fanfiction.