(Part 1)

JUNE 5, 2006

A very long time ago on the island of Fukujima, in the Sea of Japan, there lived the great, great, great grandson of Hiroto the Dragon King of the Southern Sea. The name of this young man was Terumasa.

Well Terumasa had one incredibly large problem. He was, in a word, gigantic. Teru was after all, descended from a great dragon who ruled in the form of a man, or so legend would have it. In point of fact if one were to look closely at the stories of the time one will find that very few of his subjects actually ever saw the king, since he kept himself tucked away in his enormous palace at the centre of the island. Rumour has it that the king actually lived in a huge pool of of salty sea water, which as you might imagine is what any respectable sea dragon would like to live in. The stories also relate that one day, while on one of his rare sojourns on dry land, he caught sight amongst the throngs of his solemn subjects, standing with eyes averted, a very beautiful young girl from one of the local fishing families. Well the great king fell immediately in love and asked his chief attendant, the Honourable warlord, the Great Yoshio Masuda, to invite the girl to his palace for some tea, and of course to meet her father.

So it was that on the following day the girl, who was named Akiko, entered the Grand Palace, at a respectable distance behind her father.

Well to cut a long story short, Akiko was soon married to the Lord, amidst huge celebrations and the burning of offerings at the temple. As such stories go they lived happily for the rest of their rather long lives.

From this happy union came three sons and two daughters, and it is the youngest daughter who is of particular interest for our present story. This girl, who was called Mikiko, was married by arrangement to the great warlord of the Northern island of Tarajima, the Honourable Imamura Terumasa, the Terrible. Mikiko brought four strong boys into this world, all of whom brought the house of Imamura great battle honours, and earned the family much wealth and respect, and extended the Imamura Empire to the furthest horizons of the known world. These included the island of Fukujima which, some years earlier, had fallen into the hands of the Manchu warlord, the Lord Che Chin Hanku, the terrible lord who had for many moons pillaged and terrorised the lands that were within this area. This same lord had some decades earlier fought and killed a grandson of the great Dragon Lord and taken the island of Fukujima out of the hands of the family and made himself king and lord.

The Lord Che ruled over the island of Fukujima for twenty years, during which he managed to wipe out practically all the remainder of the Dynasty. All that is except for young Terumasa, the main hero of our tale. His mother had managed, with superhuman ingenuity to smuggle the rather conspicuously large lad off the island and hide him with his cousins on the island of Tarajima, keeping him safe from the agents of the Lord Che hunting far and wide for the remaining male members of the Dragon Line.

Anyhow now that Teru was himself a man, expert in the way of the warrior, and in possession of great cunning and courage, he was ready to gather the dispersed and disheartened forces of his family and face the Lord Che to take back the lost realm of his ancient and revered ancestors. The honour of all the Houses related to the House of the Dragon King, and the future of his own wife and family rested on his considerable shoulders.

So it was that on a stormy autumn morning, having gathered many warriors, old friends and new allies, about him the great and legendary Army of Liberation for Fukujima, began its equally legendary and hazardous march towards the fleet that was to transport them to their fates, and to glories that none had dared to hope for, but all had dreamt of.

For those of you who already know the story of the Great Battle of Fukujima, I need not go into too many long and bloody details. For those who do not then suffice it to say that after two long years of cruel fighting, the Lord Che’s forces were either decimated or ran away in disarray. Some even changed sides, since many among Che’s troops hated him for his cruelty and bloodthirstiness. The islanders in turn celebrated their liberation as village after village rose up to fight for the great and true returning lord of the island. The Dragon line had always been remembered for their just and honourable rule, and the people were only too glad to be rid of the Manchu’s cruelty. And so it was that lord Imamura Terumasa, the Dragon King, the Lord of the Northern Islands, son of the Kings of Tarajima, and great great great grandson of the Lord Hiroto, the Dragon King of the Southern Sea, Lord Trumasa II took his rightful place in the great palace of his ancestors. Terumasa finally put an end to the interminable squabbles of the minor warlords of all the surrounding islands and brought, for the first time in two decades, peace and calm to the area.

So much for the story up till then. Did everyone live happily ever after? Well, not quite.

(Part 2)

JUNE 5, 2006

At about this time, in the far off land of India, a prince was born who would change the world for such as Terumasa within the next few decades. This prince, who was known as Siddhartha Gautama, at a young age began to become bored with his rich and useless life. He became aware that the interminable orgies and drinking no longer held any flavour for him, and began to ponder the meaning of happiness and fulfilment.

Now some of you may be scratching your heads and asking ‘Why is this loon telling us this… What has this bored Indian prince to do with Lord Teru and Fukujima and all that? Be patient, you shall know this presently.

Siddhartha was soon to leave his palace and his rich life behind him and take up the life of the ascetic, walking into the wilderness, with only the bare minimum of possessions, to allow him to contemplate the world without these hindrances. He soon gained himself many followers and became known as the legendary Buddha. He taught people to love peace and to live in harmony with all living things, no matter how great or small. Well soon Buddhist disciples began to travel far and wide, and some found their way to Japan. One young monk reached the island of Fukujima and the court of Lord Terumasa. This young holy man was called Yuji by the Japanese and soon became part of the Dragon court and a great friend and advisor to Teru. But Yuji was not all that he seemed. Teru perhaps trusted him too much. Yuji had some very individual ideas about the future of the Dragon Throne. He planned to marry the Lord’s youngest and favourite daughter and gradually work his way up the ladder of heirs to the throne and endear himself to the King so that he may be given an island or two for himself and eventually take possession of all the realm of the Dragon.

Soon though his ambition became so great that his earlier, more modest ambitions, grew to take on a more sinister proportion.

One day, after making long and painstaking plans with some of the warlords whom Terumasa had subdued all those years ago, he and his accomplices, under the pretence of making gifts and petitions to the king, entered the throne room and made to attack their lord. With swords drawn and hatred in their hearts they went bearing down on the gigantic King.

Terumasa, though unprepared, was much too old and experienced a warrior to be easily disposed of. He fought bravely and ferociously, but against such a large number of equally hardened adversaries, he began to lose ground, and with a great shout of anguish he fled his assassins to the wild vastness of the Sea of Grass, that was the gently undulating central plain of Fukujima. There he wandered for many long days and gradually lost his sanity.

Meanwhile, aside from the conspirators, no one knew the fate of the king, for you see Yuji the cunning rascal, having achieved the highest position in the land, after the king of course, had told everyone that the king was in deepest contemplation at a secret retreat. He convinced everyone that the king had ordered that no one, but no one was to disturb him, on pain of flogging, until such time as he may see fit to return to his palace, not even his nearest kin were exempt from this ban. Yuji also announced that the Lord had appointed him as his regent for the duration of his absence.

In this way many years passed, and though the Kings wife and family were terribly suspicious, Yuji with his smooth tongue managed to quell their fears, and persuade them that all was fine. He even brought them loving and personal messages from the king, which of course were inventions concocted by him to allay their fears. Now those loyal to the king were aware that Terumasa had been contemplating conversion to Buddhism for sometime, and had Yuji himself not taught that a person seeking enlightenment must take the time he needs to find inner peace? So it was that the lies of Yuji and his cohorts rang true. If a suspicious courtier became too curious then Yuji simply resorted to admonishing him, by reminding him that he must not make so bold as to question the decisions of his Lord, who was wise beyond all, and that it was an intolerable impudence to question his motives.

I hear some of you asking, “Well what did become of Terumasa?” Forgive me, I assumed that everyone knew the story.

(Part 3)

JUNE 5, 2006

Where were we, ah yes. After fleeing to the Sea of Grass, in his anger and grief, his spirit became mad. But though he was at his wits end, his life was by no means nearing its end. At this time he was a mere sixty years of age, nowhere close to senility for one of the Dragon line. But in his madness he had forgotten his true identity.

So it was that on a fresh and sunny day in late summer, the local villagers caught their first sight of the creature that was to become known as the Terrible Giant of Fukujima. On that day was to begin four years of great terror for the inhabitants of the island. In no time at all the rumour spread far and wide, and as is the usual way of people, some began to think that in fact they remembered a prophecy, foreseeing the return of an ancient curse, that would one day unleash a great and destructive creature upon the island. It was not long before certain scholars took up the thread and legitimised these false legends, whether for their own glory or profit. Indeed one or two of the younger ones, in order to prove their wisdom and insight, went so far as to write lengthy thesis on the subject. The giant was given the name of Surifuraco. And so it was that people whether high or low, trembled with fear whenever noises were heard at night, and reports poured in from far and wide, of the atrocities that the giant had wrought. Noble and peasant alike petitioned Yuji to take action and save them from the creature. Many even prepared to leave the island. Almost every disaster great and small that befell the island was unjustly blamed on the poor Giant.

Teru meanwhile was blissfully oblivious of the disturbance his wanderings were causing in his kingdom, as he roamed restlessly from place to place, lost as he was in his unfathomable despair. If on a rarity he stumbled upon a settlement the people cowered or scattered, terrified before him. He himself though was impervious to the chaos his presence was causing.

Yuji and his co-conspirators, being shrewd men, fuelled the fires of speculation and rumour, to their advantage. with every report their own position became better consolidated. This state of affairs put Yuji on a firm footing towards his ultimate ambition to openly usurp the throne for himself. Having declared a state of emergency, he set about doing just that.

Now as fortune would have it, at about this time, prince Jiro the Second son of Terumasa, was out hunting with a small party of his companions in the Sea of Grass plain, one blustery day. Suddenly they were disturbed to hear a great wailing and tearing drawing toward their camp. As they watched, out of the tall grass there emerged a large and fearfully ragged creature. The young men were making ready to bolt in great disarray, when Jiro, shouting to be heard over the noise of his friends, ordered them to stand firm. Behind the splattered and filthy appearance of the giant, Jiro, as is natural, had recognised the beloved face of his father.

The hunting party, on Jiro’s order, gradually gained an uneasy composure, so that they too began to see the undeniable resemblance of the poor spectre to their lord. All this time the giant stood and stared at the young man who was obviously the leader. Slowly his eyes softened and soon melted into tears of recognition, as he identified his beloved son. For the first time in four long years he cried tears that were not the tears of anguish, but a joy that rekindled sanity in his heart and soul. Now the mood of the encounter shifted over to an explosive burst of joy as father and son ran to one another. Jiro, his heart filled with happiness stood close before his honourable father and bowed to him.

Terumasa, his madness of a sudden melted away, and a great weight lifted from his brow, was quickly washed and given more suitable robes. He then briefly related the now only too clearly remembered tale of Yuji’s treachery. Soon the party were riding hard, back to the palace to put matters right.

The rest my friends is legend. Everyone knows how Yuji the traitor was captured at the so called Second Great Battle of Fukujima, the first as you surely remember, being that against the Manchu lord Che. Yuji, along with the rest of the traitorous warlords, were suitably punished, and the island was given once more the gift of peace.

As for Surifuraco, the Terrible Giant of Fukujima, that foolish legend was put to rest for good, except in some now ancient songs that remain with us to this day, and which our children sing to entertain themselves.