Laura Joh Rowland
The Samurai’s Wife
The fifth book in the Sano Ichiro series, 2000
This book is dedicated to the independent booksellers who have supported my work, especially Britton Trice and Deb Wehmeier of Garden District Book Shop, Barbara Peters of The Poisoned Pen, Tom and Enid Schantz of The Rue Morgue, Patsy Asher of Remember the Alibi, and Dean James of Murder by the Book. My sincere thanks to you all.
JAPAN
Genroku Period, Year 4, Month 6
(July 1691)
Prologue
Nine hundred years ago, the city was Heian-kyō, Capital of Peace and Tranquillity, founded as seat of the emperors who ruled Japan. Now, long after the reigning power had passed to the Tokugawa shoguns and their stronghold in Edo far to the east, it is simply Miyako, or Kyotō -the capital. But the shadows of the past haunt the present. The Imperial Palace still dominates the city, as always, forever. There the current emperor and his court exist as though suspended in time, masters of no one, human relics of bygone splendor. After centuries of war and bloodshed, of fallen regimes and changing fortunes, the eternal antagonisms, forgotten secrets, and ancient dangers still survive…
In the imperial enclosure, the palace’s innermost private heart, a warm summer midnight enfolded the garden. Over flowerbeds and gravel paths, the foliage of maple, willow, cherry, and plum trees arched in dark, motionless canopies. The evening rain had ceased; a full moon glowed through vaporous cloud. The calm surface of the pond reflected the sky’s luminosity. On an island in the pond’s center, a rustic cottage stood amid twisted pines. Inside burned a lantern, its white globe crisscrossed by the window lattice.