Dragon Sword and Wind Child (41 page)
D
RAGON SWORD AND WIND CHILD
was my first work. I had never had anything published before and was completely ignorant of both the publishing industry and what it means to be an author. I simply devoted myself entirely to writing.
The editor in charge of this project was a friend from university where we belonged to the same children's literature group. It was through her that the opportunity to write this book arose. The publisher where she worked appointed her to launch their first children's literature series. Not knowing where to begin, she decided that her first step would be to find some new writers, and she contacted me. But neither of us really understood what this job offer meant. Being skilled in languages, my friend devoted most of her energy to finding exceptional works at international book fairs in Bologna and Frankfurt, and introducing them to Japan through good translations. This left me free to write at my own pace with very little pressure.
I, too, am a great fan of foreign literature. At the same time, however, I also love the Japanese language, especially classical Japanese. And my tastes are a bit peculiar. Although I am very fond of British children's literature and mysteries, I am quite content to read them in translation, and I enjoy Japanese medieval literature just as much. This unusual combination gave me an idea: noticing that fantasy writers in England and the United States used Celtic mythology as an important element in their work, I realized that I could use the
Kojiki
in the same way. The absorption of the Celtic gods by Christianity seemed very similar to the way Buddhism superseded the ancient gods of Japan.
At the time I wrote this book, many critics insisted that fantasy would never take root in Japan. Excluding works by a few famous writers such as Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese fantasy was dismissed contemptuously as fairy tales without citizenship, folklore lacking the legitimacy of nationality. My work should have fallen into that same category. After all, unlike the next two books in the series, it was clear in many places in
Dragon Sword and Wind Child
that I was not trying to restrict the setting to Japan or to a specific time period. Having recognized that mythology in the broad sense is always at the basis of fantasy, I did feel that it made sense for me to use an episode from Japanese mythology as the model for my story. But when I conceived the three sibling characters Princess Teruhi, Prince Tsukishiro, and Chihaya, I was not planning to mimic Japanese myths concerning the three Shinto deities Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susano'o. If those ancient tales had been foremost in my mind when I wrote this story, I doubt that the relationship between Teruhi and Tsukishiro, or the idea that Chihaya and the Dragon Sword were one, would have occurred to me.
The concept of presenting the story predominantly from the perspective of the people of Darkness through Saya, the heroine, was inspired by the
ôharai norito
1
which I read in the
Engi Shiki
.
2
This prayer is a litany of the various deities that carry away human corruptionâa river deity, a sea-current deity, and a wind deity. This corruption is finally passed on to a goddess who wanders aimlessly in her kingdom below the earth. It is a story that must strike a chord with Japanese people like myself, accustomed as we are to the Japanese expression for forgiveness:
mizu ni nagasu,
literally, “to wash away in water.” If this noble deity who deigns to shoulder the impurities of the human race were the Goddess of Darkness, then her only logical counterpart would have to be light, the God of Light. And that is how the story
Dragon Sword and Wind Child
took shape.
The Japanese take the purifying power of swift-flowing water and the ubiquity of murmuring brooks and thundering cascades for granted; I felt that this was an important factor we share at our very core. I doubt that someone born and raised along the banks of the Yellow River, for example, would develop this sentiment, even though we belong to the same human race. The waterfalls I came across in northern Wales, which are reputed to inspire poets, on the other hand, were just like the little waterfalls one finds close by in the hills of Japan.
Dragon Sword and Wind Child
was first published in 1988. When the original publisher subsequently shifted away from literature, my friend and I moved to Tokuma Shoten Publishing Company and it was republished under the Tokuma imprint in 1996. I am very grateful that the work has thrived for so long, despite its rather negative beginnings. In 2005, at the beginning of a new century, it was published for the first time in paperback in Japan. I hope that it will be even more accessible now that it is in paperback with the added pleasure of Miho Satake's poetic illustrations.
â
NORIKO OGIWARA
July 2005
1
. A Shinto prayer for purification used in a governmental capacity to cleanse the nation of offences against the gods and re-ratify the lord's right to rule.
2
. A fifty-volume collection of rules and regulations detailing court ceremonies, etiquette, punishments, and religious observations.
Ground Spiders.
Tsuchigumo
in Japanese. A people in ancient Japan thought to have lived in mountain caves until sometime around the fifth or seventh century. They are semi-mythical and share a name with the spider demons from folktales, who spin powerful illusions to catch their prey. The myth of the tsuchigumo is so popular that it has inspired a Noh play of the same name, and the tsuchigumo have appeared in various anime.
Mahoroba.
An ancient Japanese name for an idyllic and faraway country surrounded by mountains, similar to Arcadia or Shangrila. It is mentioned in a poem in the
Kojiki
(
Records of Ancient Matters
), a written account of Shinto history, and the oldest surviving book in Japan.
Palace of Light.
The Palace of Light is designed like a Chinese palace compound, arranged in a rectangle with the long edge running north to south, and the short edge running east to west.
Prince Tsukishiro.
The first character in his name means “moon.” The second character sounds like “white,” but the kanji used has a more ambiguous meaning. A Shinto shrine called
Tsukishiro no Miya
was built in Sashiki Castle on Okinawa in the thirteenth century.
Princess Teruhi.
Her name means “shining sun.” In medieval Japan, there was a shrine to a male sun god called
Teruhi Gongen
on the island Tsushima.
Togano no shika mo yume no mani mani.
An exorcism chant based on a story that appears in one of the
Fudoki
(a series of eighthcentury records about the culture and geography of the Japanese provinces), most likely the Hitachi Fudoki. A stag swims across a river to meet a doe and tells her of a dream he had where his back is covered with snow. The doe tells him that it means he will be killed and his meat covered with salt. Soon after, the stag is shot and his dream becomes reality. The chant translates as “even the stag of Togano is at the mercy of a dream,” and reminds you that if you take a bad dream seriously, it could become true.
Toyoashihara.
Also called
Toyoashihara no Mizuho no Kuni
(Land Where Abundant Rice Shoots Ripen Beautifully), it is another name for Japan. In ancient times, the earth was viewed as an imperfect world where salvation could be found through the protection and blessing of the gods. Such poetic names had a power in themselves to attract the beneficence of the gods.
Noriko Ogiwara was inspired to write by the classic Western children's books she read as she was growing up.
Dragon Sword and Wind Child
is her first book, which won the Japan Children's Literature Association's Award for New Writers, and which is part of the award-winning Magatama Trilogy. Her other books include
The Good Witch of the West
and
Fuujin Hisho
. Ms. Ogiwara makes her home in Japan.
About the Translator
Cathy Hirano was born in Canada and has lived in Japan since 1978. When she was growing up, her favorite books were
The Chronicles of
Narnia
,
The Wizard of Earthsea
series, and
The Lord of the Rings
. Also available in English are her award-winning translations of
The Friends
by Kazumi Yumoto, which won the Batchelder Award for children's literature in translation, and
Moribito I: Guardian of the Spirit
and
Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness
by Nahoko Uehashi.
HAIKASORU
THE FUTURE IS JAPANESE
SUMMER, FIREWORKS, AND MY CORPSE BY OTSUICHI
Two short novels by the Shirley Jackson Awardânominated author, including the title story and
Black Fairy Tale
, plus a bonus short story.
Summer
is a simple story of a nine-year-old girl who dies while on summer vacation. While her youthful killers try to hide her body, she tells us the storyâfrom the point of view of her dead bodyâof the children's attempt to get away with murder.
Black Fairy Tale
is classic J-horror: a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. Now she can see again, but what she sees out of her new left eye is the experiences and memories of its previous owner. Its previous
deceased
owner.
ROCKET GIRLS BY HOUSUKE NOJIRI
Yukari Morita is a high school girl on a quest to find her missing father. While searching for him in the Solomon Islands, she receives the offer of a lifetimeâshe'll get the help she needs to find her father, and all she need do in return is become the world's youngest, lightest astronaut. Yukari and her sister Matsuri, both petite, are the perfect crew for the Solomon Space Association's launches, or will be once they complete their rigorous and sometimes dangerous training.
DRAGON SWORD AND WIND CHILD BY NORIKO OGIWARA
The forces of the God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness have waged a ruthless war across the land of Toyoashihara for generations. But for fifteen-year-old Saya, the war is far away and unimportantâuntil the day she discovers that she is the reincarnation of the Water Maiden and a princess of the Children of the Dark. Raised to love the Light and detest the Dark, Saya must come to terms with her heritage even as she tumbles into the very heart of the conflict that is destroying her country. The armies of the Light and Dark both seek to claim her, for she is the only mortal who can awaken the legendary Dragon Sword, the fearsome weapon destined to bring an end to the war.
THE OUROBOROS WAVE BY JYOUJI HAYASHI
Ninety years from now, a satellite detects a nearby black hole scientists dub Kali for the Hindu goddess of destruction. As human society expands to Mars and beyond, the generations-long project to harness the power of the black hole pits the retrograde humans of Earth against the imminently rational men and women of the Artificial Accretion Disk Development association. While conflicts simmer, a mystery within Kali itself tests the limits of intelligenceâ that of both human and machine.