The Harsh Cry of the Heron

Synopsis

Takeo and Kaede are now the prosperous rulers of the Three Countries. They have three daughters, Shigeko, and twins Miki and Maya. Shigeko, the eldest daughter and heir, has been trained as a boy as she will inherit the domain of Maruyama when she comes of age, and the Three Countries upon Takeo's death. Maya and Miki, on the other hand, are seen as cursed not only because of the superstitious beliefs concerning twins, but also because of their Tribe talents, indicated by the Kikuta lines on their palms. They are feared and ignored by many, including their mother, but are well loved by Takeo and Shigeko. Takeo's only fear is that the prophecy concerning his death will be realized - he can only be killed by his son. His first, illegitimate son, Hisao (by Yuki) has been raised among the Kikuta, to one day be used to assassinate him. Kaede soon gives birth to Takeo’s second son.

A new threat to Takeo has appeared. Arai Zenko and his wife Hana have allied with Saga Hideki, a warlord who has conquered most of the Eight Islands in the name of the powerless Emperor. Saga demands that Takeo submit himself to the Emperor and abdicate, leaving Zenko as Saga's figurehead. Meanwhile Kikuta Akio, the Master of the exiled Kikuta family and the Western foreigners (Portuguese), seeks to destroy Takeo. Muto Kenji, at the end of his years, attempts in vain to negotiate with the Akio and see his grandson, Hisao. As Kenji attempts to flee with him he realizes Hisao is a ghostmaster, capable of communicating with and controlling the souls of the dead. The soul of his mother, Yuki, is haunting him. Unable to escape Akio, Kenji commits suicide. With his death, the loyalty of the Muto family is divided between his niece Shizuka (the mother of Zenko and Taku, loyal to Takeo) and Zenko, who is secretly allied with Akio.

Maya, whose Tribe talents are rather volatile, absorbs the spirit of a cat and struggles to assert her control over it, becoming increasingly erratic and dangerous. She and Miki are separated, and Maya must train under Taku. Taku is soon killed on his brother Zenko’s orders and Maya is captured by Akio. Hisao, who exercises some control over Maya's cat spirit, is finally able to communicate with the spirit of his mother, but rejects Yuki's pleas to spare Takeo's life. Maya later escapes aided Miki, and they attempt to return to Hagi (the Otori capital) to warn their mother of Zenko's treachery. They are aided in their journey by Yuki's spirit.

Rather than battle Saga's forces, Takeo and his retinue travel to the capital to engage in a bowmanship contest: the victor will rule the Three Countries. Due to Takeo's crippled hand, Shigeko takes his place. The Otori win, and Takeo departs in glory, leaving behind an exotic animal, a Kirin (likely a giraffe or an okapi), as a gift for the Emperor. However, the Kirin breaks free and follows Takeo's entourage, which is seen as an omen and a slight on the Emperor. Saga takes the opportunity to pursues them. In the resulting battle, both sides enduring great losses until Shigeko shoots Saga in the eye, and he retreats.

Maya, influenced by Yuki, slips into her parents' house and accidentally kills her infant brother with the Kikuta gaze; horrified by her actions, she flees. Overcome with grief, Kaede slips into temporary insanity when Hana reveals the prophecy about Takeo's death- and the existence of his son by Yuki. Furious, Kaede orders their house (Shigeru's house) burned to the ground, and goes with Hana and her sons to the Arai capital of Kumamoto as Zenko's men destroy Hagi. Takeo finds her and tries to reason with her, but she calls the guards. Knowing he cannot fight his wife, he abdicates in favour of his daughter Shigeko, and retires to the temple at Terayama with Miki and his old friend Kubo Makoto. A few weeks later, Akio and Hisao come to kill him, but at the vital moment Hisao, armed with a handmade pistol, freezes and refuses to kill his father. Akio grabs the pistol, but it explodes in his hands, killing both him and Maya (who possessed the cat spirit at the time). Takeo, now believing it is his time, puts a knife in Hisao's hands and stabs himself with it, bringing the prophecy of his death to fulfillment. He is ritually beheaded by Makoto with Jato (the Otori sword) and is buried next to Shigeru.

In his abdication, Takeo made an alliance with General Saga, betrothing Shigeko to him in return for an alliance, and for Shigeko to be co-ruler with him in the Three Countries. The combined armies defeat Arai's. Zenko and Hana are forced to commit Seppuku, along with their youngest son, but at Kaede's request, Saga spares their other two sons as long as they renounce the Arai name. Kaede brings them to live at Terayama, where Makoto shows her his recorded account of Takeo's death. Overcome with guilt and grief, she prepares to commit suicide. Only Miki's appearance makes her decide to live on for her sake and for all of Takeo's children.

Characters

Otori Takeo was the protagonist of The Tales of the Otori. He is married to Shirakawa Kaede and is the wealthy ruler of the Three Countries. Takeo and Kaede practice benevolent and enlightened rule, rigidly controlling foreign trade and focusing on agriculture rather than conquest. Having been raised among the Hidden, the Tribe and the warrior class, Takeo is careful to follow no particular religion in order to prevent religious persecution. Although beloved by the commonfolk throughout his realm and well-liked by his retainers and many of the Muto family, he remains hated by the Kikuta family and Arai Zenko (one of his most powerful retainers). He has three daughters, Shigeko, Maya, and Miki, and one illegitimate son: Kikuta Hisao, conceived by Muto Yuki, a past lover. He perishes at the end of the book after abdicating in favour of Maruyama Shigeko.

Otori Kaede (formerly Shirakawa Kaede) is Takeo's wife. She had a reputation of bringing death to all men that desired her, but Takeo had evaded death for some time. Kaede, despite being a woman, is proficient with weapons and a sword. She loves Shigeko dearly, but she harbors mistrust for her twin daughters and can only love them from a distance. Since she was not able to bear Takeo any sons, she is overjoyed when she later gives birth to a boy. But when the child dies mysteriously, her sister Hana tells her about Takeo's brief liaison with Muto Yuki, the son that was conceived, and the prophecy which foretells Takeo's death can only occur at the hands of his own son. Kaede violently rejects Takeo thereafter, only to mourn his death when she regains her sanity and proves that she still indeed loves him.

Otori Shigeko (later Maruyama Shigeko) is the eldest daughter of Takeo and Kaede, a wise and reverent young woman. She had been trained as a boy as a child in hopes of her inheriting the Three Countries as she came of age. She is the heir and lady of the estates of Maruyama. Although she is much her mother's daughter, she loves her father and sisters dearly. Shigeko has always been fascinated by her sisters and always took their side of things. She is an expert archer and is in love with her senior retainer and teacher, Sugita Hiroshi. However, at the end of the novel, she becomes betrothed to Saga Hideki, the Emperor's commander, and inherits control the Three Countries and Takeo's sword, Jato.

Otori Maya is the daughter of Takeo and Kaede, and the twin of Miki. As a twin, she and her sister have been feared or frowned upon because of superstitious beliefs. She is very mischievous and possesses most, if not all, of Takeo's Tribe abilities. Because her mother fears Maya and Miki being together, one of them was always with the Tribe for training. As revenge for a man heartily welcoming Shigeko and blatantly ignoring the twins, Maya kills his cat with the Kikuta gaze and ends up taking the dead cat's spirit within her. After a great deal of practice, she eventually is able to take on the cat's form, but is continually haunted by cat's spirit threatening to take control of her. She accidentally kills her baby brother with the Kikuta gaze, which horrifies her so much she retreats permanently into the cat spirit. She is mortally wounded by Akio at the end of the book in an attempt to protect her father; Miki then mercy-kills her to prevent her being a cat spirit forever.

Otori Miki is the daughter of Takeo and Kaede, and the twin of Maya. She, being the younger of the two, was to be killed after she was born, but Takeo had forbidden it. Although she loves her mother, sisters, and father dearly, her mother is somewhat afraid of her. Miki had always been in the shadow of the more talented Maya, but had been quite comfortable with it. She is less mischievous and daring and more thoughtful and pragmatic than Maya; while she has a fiery temper, her twin is considered the colder and less forgiving twin. When together, they were inseparable. However, at the end of the novel, Miki was forced to kill her sister. Her mother finally accepts Miki at the end of the novel, when Kaede realizes that Miki still needs her.

Kikuta Hisao is the son of Takeo and Muto Yuki, and sixteen years old and, according to a prophecy, will be the one who kills Takeo. He had grown up believing he was the son of Akio, the Kikuta Master. Despite the talents of his mother and father, Hisao possesses no obvious talents like invisibility or the Kikuta hearing and was subjected to harsh training by Akio in hopes of compensating. He is by nature gentle and loves animals, which Akio cruelly punishes him for, and is innately talented at constructing tools, even if it is as complex as a gun. Muto Kenji, his maternal grandfather, discovers only as he dies in Hisao's presence that Hisao is a ghostmaster, a rare talent of the Tribe and that Yuki's spirit remains bound to him as a result. He is not able to hear his mother's pleas until his half-sister Maya aids him in her spirit form. Akio attempts to force him to shoot Takeo with a gun at the end of the novel, but it is Takeo who guides his son's hand with a dagger to kill Takeo and fulfill the prophecy. Hisao is later taken in by the monks at Terayama.

Madaren is the youngest half-sister of Takeo. She is an interpreter and lover of a visiting foreigner. After the Hidden were attacked, Madaren had been sold as a servant in one of the pleasure houses. She had learned to take advantage of them, and stole from them, eventually allowing a merchant to take her to Hofu. Returning to the pleasure houses to gain income, she was eventually bought by Don João, a Portuguese foreigner. Madaren got him to teach her their language, and she soon became fluent. She tried desperately to get her brother to convert back to the Hidden religion, with no success. She teaches Kaede the foreigners' language. As the foreigners and their religion were banished from the Three Countries by Shigeko and Saga at the end of the book, her fate is unknown.

Muto Shizuka is Takeo's cousin and the mother of Taku and Zenko, married to Dr. Ishida, Takeo's personal doctor. A skilled member of the Tribe, she is close friends with Kaede and a surrogate mother to Miki and Maya. When Muto Kenji is killed by Akio and the Kikuta clan, Takeo asks that she take on the role of the Master of the Muto clan. While she is respected by the Tribe, the decision is met with dislike from the Muto, Kuroda, and Imai clans, who feel that it is wrong for the new master to be chosen from outside the Tribe and it goes against tradition for a woman to lead, especially since Taku or Zenko would be eligible. When Taku is killed and Shizuka is betrayed by Zenko, she goes to mourn for Taku and fasts at a temple. Her suffering gains her much sympathy and causes many members of the Tribe to defect from Zenko.

Muto Taku is Shizuka's younger son and spymaster for the Muto, a close friend of Sugita Hiroshi. He is a talented member of the Tribe and well-trusted by Takeo. When Maya's abilities become too uncontrollable, she is entrusted to Taku and his companion (and lover) Sada, who train her to control the cat's spirit and take on its form. His relationship with Zenko is strained and the two do not get along well. Most members of the Tribe feel that Taku should have been the Muto Master instead of Shizuka and his death at the hands of Akio is a heavy loss for Takeo.

Arai Zenko is Shizuka's older son, Taku's older brother, and a retainer of Takeo and husband of Kaede's sister Hana. His relationship with his mother and brother are strained, though he still welcomes them as his family. As an outward gesture of loyalty, Zenko offers his sons Sunaomi and Chikara to be adopted by Takeo, knowing that they would be ineffective collateral against him because Takeo is unwilling to harm children. He is an ambitious and bitter man who still blames Takeo for the death of his father, Arai Daiichi. Zenko conspires to overthrow Takeo by several means: converting to Christianity in order to gain military support from foreign traders, allying with Akio, and declaring himself head of the Muto family after Kenji's death. While Takeo is busy fighting Saga Hideki, Zenko attacks the defenseless Otori lands, but he finally defeated by the combined armies of Saga and the Otori (who have formed an alliance). He eventually is forced to take his own life at the end of the novel.

Arai Hana (formerly Shirakawa Hana) is Kaede's youngest sister and wife of Arai Zenko, and mother of their three sons: Sunaomi, Chikara, and Hiromasa, who possesses Kikuta lines on his palms. After being rejected by Takeo in her youth, she married Zenko and came to love him and shared his ambition to overthrow Takeo and Kaede. Like her older sister, Hana is unusually beautiful, which resulted in a rivalry between Zenko, Taku, and Hiroshi as to who would marry her in their youth. She reveals to Kaede the secret of Takeo's son and the prophecy concerning Takeo's death in order to create a rift between the two and crush Takeo's spirit. Hana takes her life at the end of the book, along with her youngest son. Her two older sons are saved by Kaede and to be raised at the temple of Terayama.

Sugita Hiroshi is a loyal retainer of Takeo and Kaede, who has managed Maruyama in trust for Shigeko. He is in love with Shigeko, but does not pursue her hand in marriage because of his loyalty to Takeo and has not married any one else as a result. He and Taku have been close friends since childhood. When Hiroshi is badly injured in the battle against Saga Hideki, Shigeko attempts to kill Saga as revenge.

Kikuta Akio is the Kikuta Master, a cruel man who adheres too severely to the traditions of the Tribe and kills all who try to leave the Tribe. He is driven by fact he had to kill the only woman he ever loved, Muto Yuki, who did not love him in return, and his hatred of Takeo to the point of irrationality and demands all members of the Tribe refer to Takeo as the "Dog"; he kills any Tribe members who wish to negotiate with Takeo. While he has raised Hisao as his own son, Akio treats him harshly and with little kindness, brutally killing even a cat that Hisao befriended as an example. He molests Hisao habitually. He forms an alliance with Zenko, who claims mastery of the Muto family, in order to kill Takeo. Akio is ultimately cheated of his revenge when he and Hisao finally confront Takeo; he impatiently snatches a pistol away from Hisao to kill Takeo, but the gun misfires and explodes, blowing Akio's hands off and killing him.

Saga Hideki is a ruthless and pragmatic warlord from the lands beyond the Three Countries. Having been declared the Emperor's general, he has conquered nearly all the rest of the "Eight Islands" on behalf of his powerless overlord, effectively making him Shogun. Saga, prompted by Zenko and Fujiwara Kono, challenges the legitimacy of Takeo's rule, intending to either force Takeo to abdicate or to crush him in battle. This plan initially fails when Takeo wins the Emperor's favor and his daughter Shigeko wins the bowmanship contest on which the matter was to be decided). However, when the Kirin Takeo gifted to the Emperor escapes and follows him, Saga takes the opportunity to attack, claiming the Kirin's preference of Takeo is an insult to the Emperor. After a costly battle, Saga retreats after Shigeko shoots him in the eye. Impressed by both her and Takeo, he offers a marriage-alliance with Shigeko against the Arai clan; Takeo agrees and abdicates, on condition that Saga allow Shigeko to rule equally in the Three Countries.

Muto Yuki (Muto Yusetsu) is the deceased mother of Kikuta Hisao and the daughter of Muto Kenji. When she was forced to kill herself, her spirit was bound to her infant son by his latent abilities as a ghostmaster. Because she loved Takeo, she continually begs Hisao, who tries to ignore her, not to kill his father. Hisao is only able to communicate with his mother with the help of Maya, but ends up rejecting Yuki's claims and severs her spirit. Yuki later appears to Maya and Miki as "Yusetsu" and becomes a surrogate mother to them as they try to return to Kaede and warn her of Hana and Zenko's treachery. Miki is wary of Yuki's intentions while Maya readily accepts the ghost woman's help until it is revealed that Yuki was using Maya to take revenge on Kaede. Yuki influences Maya to use the Kikuta sleep on her infant brother and steals the baby's spirit away, leaving Maya to give into the cat's spirit, devastated by the weight of her actions.