Tokyo Bay Read online

  On seeing how determinedly these boarding parties had been repulsed, the other guard-boats closing around the flagship slackened their pace. Their rowers fell into a steadier rhythm, designed to keep them on station around the Susquehanna, but warriors and oarsmen alike continued to shout ferociously as they kept up their pursuit.

  ‘Good work!’ boomed Lieutenant Rice from the bridge through his loudhailer. ‘But remain alert. They’ll come at us again when we anchor.’

  Glancing aft and to starboard, Eden saw that the bulwarks of the Mississippi and the two sloops-of-war Plymouth and Saratoga were also bristling with clusters of pikes. Guard-boats were manoeuvring in hostile fashion around all three vessels, and a single craft had already succeeded in attaching a 1in to the Saratoga. But, as Eden watched, the last of several loin-clothed Japanese invaders was hurled back into the sea, their boat was quickly cut adrift, and the Saratoga surged onward.

  As the US squadron continued up the narrowing bay, the crews and marine detachments on all four ships remained at action stations. Soundings were still being taken continually because they had moved to within a mile of the eastern shore. The flagship led the way along an uncharted channel of about twenty- five fathoms and gradually, through the distant haze, the outline of a craggy bluff came into view Along its heights, Eden saw that a string of forts had been built, and cannon emplacements had been set up on strategic headlands. But as the ships rounded the foot of the bluff and came within range of these same guns, to Eden’s relief they remained silent.

  Eventually a small township of traditional wood and paper houses became visible beneath the high wooded cliffs. Eden calculated that they must be approaching Uraga, where it was planned to anchor the four ships and bring their sixty powerful cannon to bear on the town and its protective forts. As the Susquehanna lost speed and began edging its black bulk closer to the shore, the late afternoon sun finally dispersed the last of the distant haze to reveal a range of low mountains in the distance. Noticing this, Eden raised his eyes to scan the heights, and in that same instant the spectacular snow-covered cone of Mount Fuji materialized silently in the empty sky directly above them. The sun, already beginning to dip towards the west, illuminated its snowcap suddenly with a flood of golden light, and its stark beauty again riveted Eden’s attention as he stood alone beside a gunport. Then, as the heavens were split by the roar of a gun firing from one of the hilltop forts, he ducked quickly behind the bulwark. A few seconds later another gun exploded, and a fresh cloud of smoke billowed above the heights, suggesting a signal rocket had been launched.

  All four American warships had been edging in line towards their anchorages, still taking careful soundings and moving with great caution, but the roar of the guns prompted an immediate order from the Susquehanna’s bridge for the whole squadron to heave to. In quick succession the massive iron anchors of the two steam frigates and the smaller sloops-of--war crashed from their mountings into the placid waters of the bay. The deafening noise of the huge anchor cables running out echoed alarmingly from the surrounding cliffs and Eden saw crowds of Japanese soldiers on the beaches and cliff tops begin to scurry back and forth in apparent panic.

  The sight of the great, smoke-belching ships being manoeuvred into line of battle, with their cannon muzzles jutting threateningly towards the shore, galvanized the oarsmen in the pursuing fleet of guard-boats. Redoubling their strokes, they spurted forward and began to swarm at close quarters around the now stationary US Navy squadron. Looking down through his gunport, Eden saw that each guard-boat contained boxes of provisions, water barrels and sleeping mats, which suggested that their crews were preparing to lay a siege around the foreign ships. He also saw a new flotilla of guard-boats put out from the shore in front of Uraga, and begin speeding towards the anchored squadron.

  A moment later the two steam frigates stopped their engines. As the paddle-wheels ceased to churn, Eden heard clearly for the first time the wild cacophony that was rising from the shore. Gangs were being beaten discordantly all along the cliff tops, and mobs of soldiers and civilians were shouting and chanting raggedly on the beaches. Temple bells could be heard tolling out insistent warnings, dogs were barking frenziedly and long lines of figures carrying bundles could be seen scurrying away up the steep cliff side footpaths that snaked away from Uraga and the threatened coastline.

  ‘It looks very bad, master,’ whispered a frightened voice at Eden’s side. ‘They are sounding the gongs of war now’

  Eden glanced down to see Sentaro kneeling in concealment beside the wheeled cannon. Taking care not to be seen by the crews of the Japanese guard- boats pressing all around the ship, he was peering fearfully out over the gun barrel towards the land. Remembering that he had been crouching in the hot darkness of the storage space beneath the fo’c’s’le for some hours, Eden bit back a reprimand.

  ‘You should stay in your berth, Sentaro,’ he said gently. ‘For your own sake you must remain out of sight until we see what happens.’

  ‘If they decide to fight, we may all be killed, master,’ moaned the castaway.

  Another gun exploded on the cliff top, and another ball of smoke drifted lazily skyward - but no shell or cannonball whistled overhead. Eden gazed grimly down at the guard-boats and their yelling crews, which were still closing in from all directions; then he looked up again towards the hilltop forts, where hundreds of tiny armed figures were now visibly gathering.

  ‘Perhaps - we will know soon. Go back now to your berth.’

  The Japanese castaway crept off obediently and Eden looked again towards the shore - but he found he could not decide whether the bedlam of sound all around them indicated that the Japanese were about to launch a desperate attack, or whether it was born out of fear and apprehension. Glancing sideways at his silent gun crews and the ranks of young marines drawn up along the deck in battle order, he saw that they too were watching the scene before them with taut and mystified expressions.

  As he waited with his hand resting on the pommel of his sword, Eden found his eyes were drawn again to the distant skyline, where the ethereal white cone of Fuji was now sharply visible. Under the daytime blue of the heavens its flanks also glowed like azure and, in striking contrast to the turmoil gripping the Bay of Yedo, the mountain remained, as always, a vision of serene tranquillity. All around him the noisy tumult continued to grow, but Eden found he could not entirely forget Fuji’s presence in the distance. Despite the imminent threat of danger to the flagship and its crew, part of his mind was still distracted by the prospect that one day he might climb to the volcano’s extraordinary summit.

  6

  WHEN SHE DREW aside her creaking shoji in a shabby village inn some twenty miles west of Yedo, Matsumura Tokiwa looked out at the same distant image of Mount Fuji. In the brightness of the late afternoon sun, the mountain’s pyramid-shaped flanks, previously shrouded in a heat haze, glowed with a deep reflected blueness from the sky. Beneath the summit of peerless white, grey lava gullies slashed downward with mathematical straightness, and the perfect symmetry of all its lines save the impression that the volcano, far from being real, was etched like a simple silk-screen painting on the clear backdrop of the sky.

  To Tokiwa, who had grown up in sight of Fuji and had loved its simple majesty all her life, the mountain seemed to have moved dramatically nearer since her last hazy glimpse of it a few hours earlier. Fuji, she well knew, was famous for creating such illusions, but on this occasion the impression was so striking that she murmured aloud in surprise and raised one hand to shade her eyes as she stared at the captivating sight.

  ‘Get back inside! It’s most unwise for you to be seen!’

  Tokiwa’s attention was brought sharply back to the courtyard below her balcony by the fiercely hissed words of the chief samurai guard who had been posted at the inn by Prince Tanaka for her protection. Dressed in bamboo and chainmail body armour and wearing a steel helmet with leather protective wings sloping to his shoulders, the stocky, beetle-browed guard
was glaring angrily up at her through narrowed eyes. His armour gave him an ominous appearance, but she noticed too that his eyes lingered hungrily on her as he barked his orders, with his right hand clasped pointedly around the hilt of his long sword.

  ‘You must remain in your room - and keep the screens closed at all times!’

  After speaking, the guard glanced quickly round at the seething activity in the yard of the modest inn, which had clearly been chosen for its anonymity. Travel-weary merchants and farmers, travelling on foot or on horseback, were scurrying in through the archways from the dusty tracks outside, anxious to secure early lodgings for the night. The professional messengers who habitually jogged between all such country inns were also hastening in and out, to hand over their lacquered despatch boxes to fresh runners. Long columns of gaudily dressed archers and pikemen hurried past on foot in all directions, while some of their samurai officers dismounted from sturdy ponies in search of refreshment. The evening air was filled with raised voices and, on catching sight of the slender female figure standing on one of the front balconies, many of the hurrying men cast quick, curious glances in her direction.

  ‘Please come in now!’

  A young peasant maidservant in a plain brown kimono appeared silently in the room behind Tokiwa and laid a hand on her shoulder to draw her inside. She closed the screens quickly, then turned and bowed once with an anxious expression on her face.

  ‘Gotaro-san, the chief of guards, says we will all be in danger if somebody recognizes you. He says it could provoke an attack!’

  Tokiwa drew in her breath sharply. The frantic night-time dash from Yedo had been long and uncomfortable. After a hurried parting from Prince Tanaka, she had been carried rapidly through the darkness in a curtained norimono travelling chair, with a mounted escort of three guards.. They had ordered her not to show her face, and had halted only briefly at wayside staging posts to change horses and coolie bearers. Whenever she had dared to peep out through her drawn curtains, the shadowy roads had been crowded with marching soldiers, and she had felt exhausted from the jolting journey when they arrived dusty and dishevelled at the shabby inn at around mid-morning. The maidservant, hired locally by the guards, had appeared wordlessly to help lay out a sleeping pallet in the small, austere room that was furnished only with scuffed tatami matting, a single low table and a rush-wick lamp. The same maid had been hovering discreetly in attendance when Tokiwa awoke a few hours later from fitful and troubled sleep, but until that moment she had not spoken except to enquire softly about her temporary mistress’s needs for food or bathing.

  ‘What do you know of all this?’ demanded Tokiwa in surprise. ‘What have the guards told you?’

  ‘Nothing except what I have said already replied the maidservant, bowing again. ‘Only that it is very important for you to remain hidden.’

  ‘What is the latest news in the courtyard about the smoking ships?’ asked Tokiwa. ‘Have they yet reached Yedo? Have they begun to attack the city?’

  The maidservant’s face grew anxious as she glanced towards the screens separating the small room from the corridor. She listened for a moment, wringing her hands in front of her, then spoke in a low whisper.

  ‘There are many rumours from the coast which say the ships of the foreign barbarians can move very swiftly without oars, wind or tide! They say that the barbarians are not at all like us. They are sorcerers, magicians, half-man and half-beast! They say they have the power to tame a volcano and transfer its power into their ships - controlling that power as they will... The temples in all the villages have been filled day and night with people praying to the gods for deliverance from these monsters.’

  ‘But has their attack begun?’ pleaded Tokiwa.

  The maid’s eyes grew round, and she shook her head in bewilderment. ‘I don’t know-’

  She broke off with a cry as the balcony shoji were slid open suddenly by the chief guard, who had made his way silently up the outside steps. He stepped quickly inside and stood glowering at them, his hand on his sword hilt.

  ‘You should know that an edict has been issued by the Shogun,’ he snapped. ‘All public discussion about the barbarian black ships is forbidden. You must remain absolutely silent on this subject.’ He paused and turned to Tokiwa. ‘And you must keep yourself hidden at all times. When you go to bathe, choose a quiet moment and shroud yourself fully!’

  He gestured peremptorily to the maidservant, and she hurried from the room, closing the screens quietly behind her.

  ‘How long will I be kept here, Gotaro-san?’ asked Tokiwa, lifting her chin defiantly in the guard’s direction. ‘How long must I be a prisoner?’

  ‘As long as is necessary for your safety!’ He paused, his eyes steady on her and she again noticed the disturbing lustfulness of his gaze. ‘My only orders, Tokiwa-san, are to protect you until Prince Tanaka returns. That I shall certainly do.’

  She studied the guard’s face anxiously, conscious that he had laid heavy emphasis on his last words. ‘When do you think Prince Tanaka will come back?’

  ‘At a time of war, Tokiwa-san, it’s impossible to make predictions with certainty.’

  Tokiwa caught her breath. ‘Has war already begun then?’

  Gotaro continued to regard her appraisingly. Wide-eyed with agitation, she looked strikingly beautiful in the suffused glow of the afternoon sun. Due to her weariness she had yet to dress her long, black tresses, and several locks tumbled about her uncovered neck. Her kimono was crumpled from the journey and lay askew, affording him a tantalizing glimpse of one slender shoulder and the shadowed cleft between her breasts.

  ‘I have heard that the kurufune are nearing Yedo,’ said the guard. ‘Many thousands of men are ready to shed their blood to defend Dai Nippon. And Prince Tanaka himself will not desert any battle He paused, still gazing directly at her. ‘But if lie fails to return, you need have no fear, Tokiwa-san. In his absence I will assume personal responsibility for your safety.’

  Tokiwa started. The full significance of his carefully chosen words made her aware suddenly of her unkempt appearance, and she hurriedly closed the front of her kimono and half turned her face from him as she did so. Seeing this, he smiled thinly and, after staring hard at her for a moment longer, inclined his head an inch in a farewell salute, turned abruptly on his heel, and slipped back out through the balcony shoji.

  After he had closed the screens behind him, Tokiwa continued to stand motionless in the centre of the room, listening to the hubbub rising from the courtyard and beyond. The scuffle of horses’ hoofs and human feet, the clink of steel weapons and the creaking of body armour were all overlaid with the throaty shouting of coolie bearers and the yelled commands of hurrying troop officers. Anxiety and unease were evident in every sound she could hear and, because this increased her own restlessness, she moved silently to the closed shoji alongside the balcony.

  After a moment’s indecision she deliberately jabbed the forefinger of her right hand sharply against one paper panel at eye level, producing the kind of small, jagged hole that a disobedient child might make, By pressing her eye to it, she was able to see the track along which armed soldiers were still streaming eastward towards Yedo. The human tide flowing in the opposite direction was composed mainly of peasants and civilian families who she guessed had fled from towns and villages along the way. Many were staggering under the weight of bundles of household belongings and essential possessions; children were clinging fearfully to their parents’ hands, and some groups were stopping from time to time to look back at the sky behind them, as though still expecting to be overtaken by some gigantic nemesis

  Beyond them, Mount Fuji towered above the surrounding landscape, and she was relieved to find that the reassuring sight of it helped soothe the apprehension that had grown during her headlong flight from Yedo. Although the sounds of panic were audible all around her and she was a virtual prisoner at the inn, she felt very glad to see the familiar bulk of Fuji-san at such a terrible time of crisis.


  Staring out through the torn waxed paper of the shoji, first with one eye then the other, she felt this sense of comfort gradually deepen. She continued to gaze at the sacred mountain for some minutes, then sank to her knees and bowed her head to offer a fervent prayer to Fuji-san’s all-powerfi.il gods. Murmuring her words very softly, she asked them to protect the Emperor and all the people of Nippon from the terror of the barbarian ships; she asked too that the lives of her family be preserved, and that Prince Tanaka should survive so that he might return to set her free. Lastly, in desperation, she begged the gods to preserve her from the attentions of Gotaro, the corpulent chief guard whom she feared might rape or even murder her in the confusion, if Tanaka did not return.

  ‘If the sacred kami of Fuji will look with favour on these secret requests,’ she whispered desperately at the close of her prayer, ‘I pledge to give dutiful and obedient love for ever to any man whom the kami shall deem worthy - and I will follow their wishes faithfully all the days of my life!’

  Still kneeling beside the screen, with closed eyes, she tried to imagine the scene at that moment in the Bay of Yedo. In her mind she saw many giant kurufune shaped like vast black pyramids; belching out great torrents of dark smoke, they surged along the coast amidst turbulent tidal waves. Strange giants with fur-covered bodies and long, tufted tails swarmed on their sides; the air was filled with the terrifyingly strange roar of foreign voices and the deafening boom of giant guns. Great plumes of white smoke rose on the shore, as exploding shot from the guns displayed their incredible destructive power. Phalanx after phalanx of courageous Nipponese pike- men and musketeers waded breast-deep into the waters of the bay, with their weapons held high above their heads; but the passing kurufune swamped and tossed them aside like chaff, drowning them in hundreds.