Sano and Reiko knelt side by side before two small tables-he in black ceremonial robes stamped with his family’s gold flying-crane crest, his two swords at his waist; she in a white silk kimono and a long, white silk drape that completely covered her face and hair. They faced a flat porcelain dish containing a miniature pine and plum tree, a bamboo grove, the statues of a hare and a crane: symbols of longevity, pliancy, and fidelity. Behind them, Noguchi and his wife knelt at a table reserved for the go-between. As the priests stood and bowed to the altar, Sano’s heart pounded. His stoic dignity hid a turmoil of emotion.

The last two years had brought him continuous upheaval: the death of his beloved father; the move from his modest family home in the Nihonbashi merchant district to Edo Castle, Japan ’s seat of power; a dizzyingly rapid rise in status and all the associated challenges. At times he feared his mind and body couldn’t withstand the relentless onslaught of change. Now he was marrying a twenty-year-old girl he’d met exactly once before, more than a year ago, at the formal meeting between their two families. Her lineage was impeccable, her father one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Edo. But they’d never spoken; he knew nothing of her character. He barely remembered what she looked like, and wouldn’t see her face again until the end of the ceremony. To Sano, the tradition of arranged marriage now seemed like sheer madness-a potentially disastrous pairing of strangers. What perilous turn had his fate taken? Was it too late to escape?

From her tiny bedchamber in the Edo Castle women’s quarters, the shogun’s newest concubine heard hurrying footsteps, slamming doors, and shrill feminine voices. The dressing rooms would be littered with opulent silk kimonos and spilt face powder, the servants rushing to finish dressing the two hundred concubines and their attendants for the sōsakan-sama’s wedding feast. But Harume, weary of the suffocating presence of so many other women after only eight months at the castle, had decided to skip the celebration.