Eleven stories about crime and detection in eleventh century Japan are arranged chronologically for Sugawara Akitada's career. They include diverse cases with clues from moon cakes and Chinese lutes to feral cats and incense competitions and feature traditional holidays of the period.
An accidental meeting between a recently dismissed clerk and a father searching for his daughter, starts the civil servant Sugawara Akitada on his life-long search for justice. It takes him from palaces to rice paddies of poor farmers. Evil, he discovers, is found everywhere and in unexpected places; it resides in learned men, beautiful women, humble servants, and devout monks. Death also arrives in many forms, during a go game, or while burning incense at an altar. It may even be the result of a tragic mistake.
Eleven stories about crime and detection in eleventh century Japan are arranged chronologically for Sugawara Akitada's career. They include diverse cases with clues from moon cakes and Chinese lutes to feral cats and incense competitions and feature traditional holidays of the period.
An accidental meeting between a recently dismissed clerk and a father searching for his daughter, starts the civil servant Sugawara Akitada on his life-long search for justice. It takes him from palaces to rice paddies of poor farmers. Evil, he discovers, is found everywhere and in unexpected places; it resides in learned men, beautiful women, humble servants, and devout monks. Death also arrives in many forms, during a go game, or while burning incense at an altar. It may even be the result of a tragic mistake.