The Ghost In The Tokaido Inn

After accidentally dozing off, footsteps awaken Seikei. When he pursues the sound, someone attacks him, and he strikes out with his wooden sword. It is Tomomi, dressed as a geisha. He asks Seikei if he has seen the “spirits.” Tonight, Tomomi says, spirits return to earth to see if their descendants honor them. He asks if Seikei remembers the line Tomomi taught him, and Seikei repeats it.

Tomomi addresses his parents, as if they are swirling in the air around him, and vows to keep his promise to them. Tomomi tells Seikei they have one day to practice his new play before performing it for Hakuseki and the shogun. The shogun cannot go to the theater, even in disguise, so the performance will take place at Hakuseki’s home.

There will be Kirishitans in the play. The religion arrived in Japan 200 years before, but when the shogun feared rebellion, it was outlawed. The play focuses on Tomomi’s own family, with Seikei playing the young Genji. Tomomi will play Nanaho, Genji’s mother, a noble samurai woman. Another actor will play Lord Shakuheki, a thinly-veiled Lord Hakuseki, who loves Nanaho, though she rejects him in favor of Takezaki Kita, a Kirishitan, and secretly converts to his religion.

When Shakuheki discovers this, he offers to spare Nanaho and Genji if she renounces the Kirishitan religion. Nanaho tells her husband about Shakuheki’s threat, and the Takezakis prepare to fight. There is a battle between the Shakuhekis and Takezakis, and Genji’s father is killed. Nanaho takes his sword—the one from Tomomi’s trunk—and she and Genji flee. She gives Genji the sword, then “choos[es] the honorable death of seppuku” (175). When Shakuheki finds them, the daimyo slashes Genji’s cheek, and Genji vows to disgrace him. There is another final scene, but Tomomi and the actor playing Shakuheki will rehearse it in secret.

Seikei tries to tell Kazuo about the play’s resemblance to Tomomi’s real life and how much it will offend Hakuseki, but Kazuo dismisses the idea. Seikei feels he is honor-bound to see this through, though he knows it could cost him his life.

Seikei is too nervous to eat. He considers Tomomi’s choice to live as an actor despite being a samurai. He recalls the sword, which he held but never unsheathed, and thinks of how “It remained hidden, like the secrets that Tomomi had yet to reveal” (180). He realizes the actor’s trunk is the perfect hiding place for a weapon because no one bothers to look inside the troupe’s trunks.

Arriving at Hakuseki’s home, Seikei notes the differences between his garden and Ooka’s. Hakuseki’s is gorgeous, inviting the viewer to contemplate the greatness of its lord, while Ooka’s encourages the viewer to look within and contemplate him- or herself. Inside, the audience sits behind screens because they are too high in rank to be looked upon by the actors. If the audience enjoys the play, Kazuo tells Seikei, they will widen the slits in the screens.

During the performance, Tomomi seems like “a goddess come to earth” (184). Seikei notes the widening of the slits in the screens. When Tomomi, dressed as Nanaho, sings about the two men who love her, Seikei hears Hakuseki gasp. Seikei realizes that Tomomi knows the daimyo cannot interrupt the play; Hakuseki must control his anger because samurai cannot draw their swords in the shogun’s presence. Seikei feels himself transformed into Genji, and he finally understands the reasons for Tomomi’s years-long pursuit of vengeance.

In the final scene, Nanaho’s ghost hurls insults at a sleeping Shakuheki, accusing him of stealing her family’s ruby and how she will prevent him from giving it to the shogun. At this, Hakuseki crashes through the screen in a rage. Tomomi taunts him, asserting his own real identity as the son of Takezaki Kita, the samurai from whom Hakuseki stole the jewel.

Under the kimono, Tomomi carries his Kirishitan sword. Hakuseki raises his weapon, but Tomomi—who is nimbler and more graceful—slashes the man’s cheek, striking him again and again. Seikei understands that Tomomi avoids killing Hakuseki because this would be an honorable death. As samurai wearing the shogun’s crest surround Tomomi, the shogun reveals himself and nods his approval. Tomomi uncovers his neck and drops to his knees. He is beheaded, with a huge smile on his face. Ooka steps forward and closes Tomomi’s eyes.

Bunzo wakes Seikei, telling him to ready himself for a tea ceremony. He is not permitted to wear his sword because there, symbolically, all people are equals. Bunzo accompanies Seikei to the shogun’s palace. When Seikei enters the teahouse, he sees Ooka and the shogun, and he thinks the shogun looks like other merchants from Osaka.

The shogun makes tea, sharing it with Ooka, who passes it to Seikei. Seikei identifies the rare tea and where it was grown. When the shogun asks how Seikei knows so much, Seikei admits that he is the son of a tea merchant. At this, the shogun smiles widely, and Ooka declares that Seikei has many commendable talents. The shogun wishes to hear how Ooka solved the crime.

Ooka credits Seikei for his bravery in sharing what he saw at the inn. He recounts how the discovery of the tunnel implicated the innkeeper. Ooka did not torture the man but, rather, left him alone with the instruments of torture; this led the innkeeper to commit death by seppuku. Ooka realized that the innkeeper wouldn’t die by suicide to protect an actor unless that man was his lord.

When Ooka learned the troupe was performing The Forty-Seven Ronin, Ooka recalled the ronin who made people think they’d lost honor so they could plot revenge in secret, just like Tomomi did. Seikei’s interactions with Tomomi gave the judge crucial information about Tomomi’s family. The shogun calls Hakuseki a “dishonorable man” who could not commit death by seppuku. Seikei realizes that Tomomi condemned Hakuseki to death by forcing the daimyo to draw his sword in the shogun’s presence.

The shogun wonders why Tomomi did not commit death by seppuku, and Ooka says this is because Kirishitans do not die by suicide. To the shogun, this demonstrates the danger of Kirishitan ideas, which would erode samurai traditions if allowed to spread. In the interest of maintaining tradition, Ooka refers to the practice whereby childless samurai adopt sons to carry on their names, and he asks the shogun to grant him guardianship of Seikei if Seikei’s father agrees. The shogun cautions Seikei not to disgrace him and gives his consent to this plan.