Weddings in ancient Japan were mainly divided into three types: weddings in front of gods, weddings in front of Buddha, and weddings in front of people.
These three types of weddings can be roughly inferred from their names just by looking at their names.
As the name suggests, a shrine-style wedding is a wedding held in a shrine. It is the most complicated of the three types of weddings.
The Buddha-style wedding is a wedding held in a Buddhist hall. It is the least popular wedding among the three types of weddings.
Whether it is a wedding before gods or a wedding before Buddha, the links are quite complicated.
Take the most complicated wedding before God as an example. If you want to hold a wedding before God, it may take half a day just to go through the complicated procedures.
The first is to participate in the ceremony.
With the accompaniment of Gagaku, the priest who presided over the ceremony and the shrine maiden guided the bride and others into the main hall of the shrine.
Under the guidance of the shrine maiden and the dowry, after entering the interior of the temple, the groom's relatives sit on the right side facing the god, while the bride herself sits on the left side facing the god. Relatives are arranged according to the closeness of their blood relationship.
Take your seats in order starting from the place closest to the deity being worshiped.
Next comes the purification ceremony. "Xiuzhen" means a cleansing ceremony to cleanse the body and mind. The groom, bride and all participants will be blessed by the host to purify the body and mind.
Then comes the adhan of the host, which starts the ceremony. All participants must follow the host and bow to the gods. Then the host begins the "congratulatory speech" ceremony and reports to the gods that the bridegroom and the bride are about to get married.
About getting married.
It is not until this time that the wedding officially begins. The bride and groom then have to perform three rituals, recite oaths, perform blessing dances by witches, and enshrine jade strings, etc. A series of complex activities.
When it comes to the complexity of weddings, weddings in front of Buddha are not far behind compared to weddings in front of gods.
Because there are many aspects of weddings before gods and weddings before Buddha, and the formations are quite large, only people with a little extra money in their families have the ability to hold weddings in shrines or Buddhist halls.
Therefore, the vast majority of civilians and some warriors hold weddings in front of people with simpler procedures and almost no cost.
In-person weddings are basically held at the groom's home.
The groom takes the bride to his home, then holds a three-part ceremony and reads the oaths in the presence of relatives and friends. After the oaths are recited, the wedding can be declared over.
If you find it too troublesome, you can even omit the three presentation ceremonies. After taking the bride to your home, you can read the oath in the presence of relatives and friends, and then declare the wedding to be over.
Because weddings in front of people are almost cost-free, most weddings held by common people are weddings in front of people.
No matter how poor you are, you can always have the ability to bring the bride into your home and invite all your relatives and friends, right?
Because there are so few links, it usually only takes 10-15 minutes to hold a wedding in front of people.
The wedding held by Ogata and Omachi today was a public wedding.
When getting married in Japan, good times and auspicious days are also important.
Although Ogata didn't pay much attention to this, after much consideration, he decided to follow the local customs and make the wedding as ceremonial as possible.
After deciding to hold the wedding in Edo before officially leaving for Ezochi, Ogata and Amachi began to look for a suitable date to get married.
Finally, they chose today, November 11th.
Because the wedding was held in the afternoon, after they got up this morning, they decided to take a walk outside while there was still time in the morning.
So, the two of them went to Ryogokuguro Trail this morning and listened to stories together.
The place where the two held their wedding was naturally the house they borrowed from Dongcheng House.
It was held in the most spacious room in the house.
At this moment, the relatives and friends invited by Ogata, Atachi and others have gathered.
Of course, Uncle Qing, the only relative of Atachi at present, and the Calabash House group headed by Lin and Genichi were also present.
In addition to Uncle Qing and the Calabash House group, Ogata also invited Kondo and Gua Sheng over.
Uncle Qing, the Calabash House group, Kondo, and Guao, a total of 9 people. These are all the guests attending the wedding of Ogata and Omachi.
They were all dressed in formal attire and sat on both sides of the room, quietly waiting for today's two protagonists to arrive.
Ogata has never directly told the group of people at Calabash House about his relationship with Atachi before.
But whether Ogata said it or not, it actually didn't matter.
Lin and the others are not stupid, they have long seen that the relationship between Ogata and Atachi is not ordinary.
Therefore, the fact that "Ogata and Atachi have a close relationship" has always been tacitly understood in the hearts of Gouraya and others.
Therefore, when Ogata and Omachi announced to the Gourdiya group a few days ago that they were planning to hold a wedding before leaving Edo, Rin and the others were not surprised at all.
Lin is quite generous.
After Ogata announced that he was going to hold a wedding with A-Machi, he directly allocated a sum of money to Mamiya and others and asked them to buy dresses immediately.
A few days ago, after receiving Ogata's invitation, Kondo and Gua Sheng said without hesitation that they must go.
Although Kondo is a bit honest and honest, he is also a rough and tumble person. He could not do such a thing by attending other people's weddings in a sloppy manner, and it was his own master's wedding.
Therefore, Kondo went around asking friends who lived in Edo in the past few days and successfully borrowed a set of formal clothes.
Guasheng has lived in Edo for so many years and has attended countless weddings of her friends, so she naturally has formal attire for formal occasions.
Although Lin, Makimura, and Asai's injuries are still far away from recovery, they can still put on formal clothes and sit down to attend the wedding.
Not long after everyone took their seats, the two protagonists finally arrived.
The first person to enter the room was Ogata.
The upper body is covered with a black haori with long sleeves and a long hem. The back of the haori is embroidered with platycodon patterns in 5 places. The base coat under the haori is also black. The lower body is wearing a black and white striped hakama, and the belt is tied in a cross knot.
, wearing white socks on his feet, this is Ogata's current attire.
Ogata's current outfit is a very standard "Haori hakama".
The so-called "monosuke haori hakama" was the highest-level male dress in the Edo period and was generally worn only on special and important occasions such as weddings.
Originally, the family crest could only be used by nobles and nobles. During the Warring States Period, the family crest began to be widely used by the martial arts disciples.
Now in the Edo period, even many common people have family crests.
Although Ogata came from a poor samurai family in the Hirose Domain, he was still a descendant of the samurai family, so Ogata naturally had a family crest.
The platycodon pattern is the family crest of the Ogata family.
As for why his family's family crest is the platycodon pattern, Ogata is not sure.
Perhaps just because his ancestors thought the platycodon pattern was very handsome, they chose the platycodon pattern as the family crest of the Ogata family.
Many families choose family crests so casually.
After family crests became popular, except for the chrysanthemum pattern representing the royal family and the sunflower pattern representing the shogun, which cannot be used indiscriminately, other family crests tend to be abused.
Many samurai and civilian families consider which family crest is more handsome, so they choose this family crest as their own family crest.
After deciding to hold a wedding with Ogata, Ogata immediately found a clothing store that could customize clothes and asked the store to help prepare a set of haori hakama embroidered with his Ogata family crest.
Ogata made the custom order on the same day and received the clothes the next day.
Because haori hakama with a pattern on it is very easy to prepare in advance a large number of haori hakama without a family pattern. If the customer requests any family pattern to be embroidered, just embroider it immediately.
If you're quick, you might be able to prepare a haori hakama that meets the customer's requirements in just 1 or 2 hours.
The clothing store Ogata ordered clothes from was very conscientious.
When Ogata came to pick up his clothes, he also gave Ogata a small gift, a fan with the Ogata family's platycodon pattern engraved on the handle.
In Ogata's impression, this seemed to be the first time he wore clothing embroidered with his family's crest.
The person who followed Ogata into the room was naturally Atachi.
Atachi lowered his head slightly, folded his hands in front of him, followed Ogata, and walked slowly into the room.
Her hair is combed into a Bunkin Takashimada bun. The kimono, robe, robe, belt, and stockings are all as white as snow. The sword on the chest, lace, Suehiro and other accessories are also all white, and she wears it on her head.
The famous "Kakugakure" headdress is what A-machi is wearing now.
The outfit A-Machi is wearing is naturally the white wedding dress that girls wear when they get married.
There are generally two types of headdresses for Bai Wujin: white cotton hats and horned hats.
A "white cotton hat" is a large oval hat. Wearing a "white cotton hat" means not letting anyone except the groom see the bride's face before the wedding is over. It also means not bringing the bride's hair to the groom's family.
The "spiritual power" hidden in it means to eliminate disasters.
As for "Jiaoyin", it is to surround the bride's bun with a circle of white silk and then wear a coral hairpin or silver hairpin for decoration. It means "tighten the edges and corners, be gentle and obedient", and contains a virtuous and kind attitude towards the bride.
The hope of virtue.
When he was shopping for Shiro Muzan, Omachi thought the "white cotton hat" was too ugly and looked like a helmet when he put it on, so he chose the "Kakugakure" as his headgear for Shiro Muzan.
The two people who finally arrived walked to the northernmost end of the room at a leisurely pace, and then sat down side by side.
Sitting on Ogata's right hand side are Genichi, Makimura, Kondo, and Guao.
On the left hand side of Omachi, sitting down in order are Qingshu, Lin, Makimura, Asai, and Shimada.
Generally speaking, those closest to the bride and groom are the parents of the bride and groom.
The parents of Ogata and A-Machi are no longer alive. Although Uncle Qing and A-Machi are not related by blood, they are as close as uncle and nephew. A-Machi has always regarded Uncle Qing as half of his father, so Uncle Qing
Sitting closest to Amachi, there was no problem at all.
But who should sit closest to Ogata? This is difficult.
After discussion by Lin and others, it was finally decided that Yuan Yi would take this position.
Genichi can also be regarded as Ogata's master.
A while ago, Ogata had just developed two new moves, "Dragon Tail·Dodge" and "Waterfall·Erren" under the guidance of Genichi.
So Yuan Yi is undoubtedly the most suitable person to sit in this position.
After the two protagonists, Ogata and Atachi, arrived, the wedding officially began.
The first is the three offering ceremony.
A small table was placed in front of Ogata and Omachi. On the table early in the morning, there were red shallow-bottomed wine glasses in three sizes: small, medium and large, as well as a pot of wine.
Ogata first picked up the smallest wine glass, poured almost half a glass of wine, and then passed the small wine glass to his lips.
There are regulations on how to drink these drinks.
Don’t drink it in one sip, you have to drink it in three batches first.
For the first two sips, you only let your lips sip the wine lightly, and it wasn't until the third sip that you drank the wine completely.
After drinking the wine in the glass, Ogata handed the small wine glass in his hand to Omachi beside him.
After refilling the small wine glass with half a glass of wine, Atachi repeated Ogata's steps just now and drank the wine in the glass three times.
After both of them drank from the small wine glass, Atachi put down the small wine glass in his hand and picked up the medium-sized wine glass.
This time it was Amachi who drank first.
After Omachi poured half a glass of wine into the medium-sized wine glass, he drank it three times as before, then handed the medium-sized wine glass to Ogata, and poured half a glass of wine into the medium-sized wine glass again, and then Ogata also drank it three times.
Drink the wine in the middle glass.
After drinking all the wine in the middle wine glass, Ogata put down the middle wine glass, picked up the largest wine glass, and then repeated the drinking steps just now.
He drank the wine in the wine glass in three sips first, and then handed the large wine glass to Amachi beside him to drink.
This is the "three offerings ceremony", which is also called "three three nine degrees", which is somewhat similar to the Chinese "cup of wine".
Three wine glasses of different sizes symbolize heaven, earth and man.
"Three" is an auspicious yang number in Japanese culture, so the drinks in these three glasses are worth drinking three times.
Each of the three wine glasses is drunk three times, so both the bridegroom and the bride have to drink nine sips of wine. In Japanese culture, "Nine" is the number of Yang, which represents supreme joy and good luck.
After the "Three Offerings Ceremony" is held, the next step is the "reading of the oath of devotion".
The groom is responsible for reciting the oath, and the bride only needs to recite her own name when reciting the name of the oath taker at the end.
By the way, Mamiya was responsible for writing Ogata's oath.
When Ogata was planning to find professionals to help him transcribe the oath, Mamiya, who happened to be beside Ogata at the time, said quietly:
"I've attended many people's weddings before, so I know how to write vows."
So Oubang asked Mamiya to help write the oath with the attitude of giving it a try.
And the oath written by Mamiya was actually very formal...
How formal is it?
It is so formal that the entire oath is written in the ancient Japanese language from thousands of years ago...
Of course Ogata can't read any ancient Japanese. It would be better to say that there are not many people who can read ancient Japanese. Only those who have received extremely high education can understand ancient Japanese.
Over the past few days, Ogata has been secretly practicing reciting this oath. His tongue was almost tied until he read it, and he finally managed to read the oath in ancient Japanese smoothly.
After holding the "Three Offerings Ceremony", Ogata took out the oath Mamiya had written for him early in the morning and began to read it loudly:
"Choose this auspicious day to hold the wedding."
"From now on, we must love each other, form a family, share joys and sorrows, and live forever."
"May the two of us be happy forever, and I would like to make this vow together."
"November 11th, the second year of Kanzheng."
"Husband: Ogata Yishi."
After Ogata finished speaking, Amachi followed closely and said loudly:
"Wife: Town."
Oaths are usually very short, but because this oath is written in complex ancient Japanese, Ogata took nearly half a minute to finish reciting this brief oath.
After Ogata and Atachi finished reading their vows, the wedding came to an end.
From the time Ogata and Omachi entered the venue to the completion of the wedding ceremony, it took less than 10 minutes to complete the ceremony. The wedding in front of everyone was so short.
Some poorer families may omit the "Three Presentations Ceremony" when holding in-person weddings. If the "Three Presentations Ceremony" is omitted, the time can be shorter, and only the oaths can be read, which is faster.
If it's fast enough, the wedding can be held in only 2 minutes.
The wedding is over, and the banquet naturally follows.
A-Machi temporarily stepped aside and changed out of his white clothes into a haori with red and yellow as the main colors.
The so-called "gown" is actually a dress for women, which is only worn on various formal occasions.
Bai Wujia is also known as "white coat".
And "color gown" is a colorful gown.
According to the rules, after the wedding ceremony and the banquet begins, the bride must change into a white gown and a colored gown.
The color coat must have the family pattern of the husband's family, which means that it is infected by the husband's family tradition and reborn in the new family.
The set of red and yellow tunics that Omachi is now wearing has the Ogata family's crest: platycodon pattern embroidered on it.
Naturally, Omachi's colored gown was newly purchased, and he asked someone from the clothing store to embroider Ogata's platycodon pattern on it.
After A-Machi changed his clothes, the banquet could officially begin, and the originally solemn room gradually became lively.
…
…
"Speaking of which, I didn't know that Mr. Ogata's family crest was platycodon flower until he went to get a haori hakama custom tattoo a few days ago." Makimura took a big gulp of wine and looked at the still sitting person.
Ogata said this in the main seat.
Makimura has the kind of body that recovers quickly from wounds. Although he is still far from being cured, he is still able to move around and drink heavily.
"After all, I've never said it before." Ogata continued while sipping the wine in his glass, "To be honest, I even forgot that the last time I wore clothes embroidered with the family crest, or used clothing embroidered with the family crest,
When did the utensils of the family pattern come into being?”
In Ogata's impression, this was the first time he wore clothes embroidered with the Ogata family's platycodon pattern after traveling to the Edo period.
In daily life, there are very few opportunities to wear clothes with your family's crest or use equipment engraved with your family's crest.
"Platycodon flower..." Mamiya said in a half-joking tone, "I didn't expect your family, Ogata-kun, to use the 'flower-shaped family crest' that is famous for its beauty."
"Is the 'Platycodon flower' a family crest given to you by your ancestors, or is it a family crest chosen by your ancestors themselves?"
As soon as Mamiya finished speaking, Ocona smiled bitterly and shrugged, saying:
"I don't know. I think my ancestors thought the platycodon pattern was very handsome, so they made it the family crest."
The indiscriminate use of family crests was actually very common in the Edo period. Many samurai and civilians would use the family crest as the family crest of their own family because they thought the family crest looked cool.
Due to the misuse of family crests, according to later Japanese statistics, there were more than 12,000 family crests in Japan during the Edo period.
"The platycodon pattern is quite pretty." Makimura carefully looked at the platycodon pattern that would be embroidered on Ogata's haori and grinned, "It looks very elegant. After Ogata put on the platycodon pattern, his whole body
People have become more refined."
"I think so too." Atachi, who was sitting next to Ogata, echoed with a smile.
Ogata still agrees with what Makimura just said, and he himself thinks the platycodon pattern is pretty good-looking.
It would be better to say that there is nothing ugly about "flower pattern".
Each of the "flower-shaped family patterns" has a very good appearance.
…
…
Makimura and Kondo are both living treasures.
Especially Kondo.
For this wedding, in addition to Uncle Qing and the Calabash House group, Ogata also invited Kondo and Gua Sheng.
Gua Sheng was okay. He and Uncle Qing had previously worked together to rescue the "Ku" in Shiranui, so he was very familiar with Uncle Qing. He had also briefly gotten along with the Calabash House group before.
As for Kondo, he didn't know anyone except Ogata and Omachi.
If it were someone else who is not very good at communicating with others, it would definitely be embarrassing to attend a wedding like this where they barely know anyone, and they would not know who to talk to.
But this does not happen with Kondo.
Kondo, who was already familiar with himself, became familiar with everyone present at a surprisingly fast speed...
While getting acquainted with everyone present, he also did not forget to promote Beifeng House, the place where he is currently working.
It was precisely thanks to Kondo, who was familiar with Jiraiya, and Makimura, who was also familiar with Jiraiya, that the banquet with a small number of people gradually became lively.
Originally, everyone was sitting in a polite manner.
As the atmosphere of the banquet gradually became more lively, everyone slowly stopped sitting in their original seats.
Ogata and Atachi walked down from the main seat and sat with Rin and the others, drinking and chatting.
Lin and the others no longer sat in two rows in a regular manner, and everyone sat where they wanted to sit.
Ogata and Atachi's wedding started at almost 15 o'clock.
It's autumn now, and it gets dark quickly, so before you know it, it's slowly getting dark.
Ogata couldn't remember how much he drank.
Today is his happy event, the happiest day since this year. In addition, his injuries have healed nearly 70%, so it doesn't matter if he drinks a little more, so Ogata indulges himself a little.
Ogata accepted everyone's toasts from Genichi, Makimura, and Kondo.
Genichi, Makimura and the others were also very rude and kept pouring wine on Ogata one after another.
Although Ogata's drinking capacity is not bad, drinking this way is really overwhelming.
By nightfall, Ogata felt that his head was starting to hurt.
On the other hand, Genichi, Makimura and the others are still very energetic.
They are all kind of drunkards, especially Genichi, who usually drinks wine like water and can drink for a whole day.
For them, such a small amount of wine is just enough to make them tipsy.
In order to cheer himself up a little, Ogata temporarily left the table in the name of going to the toilet, intending to go outside to enjoy some fresh air to boost his spirits.
There happens to be a window in a certain corridor of the house.
Ogata, who left the table temporarily, quickly walked to the corridor, opened the window of the corridor, and then stretched his head out of the window.
The cold night wind blew in my face.
Because he had drunk a lot of wine, Ogata's face was now a light red color and felt a little hot to the touch.
My slightly hot face felt indescribably comfortable when it came into contact with the cool night breeze.
It reminded Ogata of the feeling of returning to an air-conditioned room from the hot outdoors in the summer of his previous life.
The pain in my head was slightly relieved by the cool night wind.
Just when Ogata was silently enjoying the blowing of the night breeze and silently recovering his energy, a female voice with a hint of surprise in her tone sounded beside Ogata:
"Ogata-sama, are you here to have some fun too?"
It's the sound of melon growing.
Ogata turned around and saw Gua Sheng, whose face was also red, slowly walking towards him.
Guasheng got his life back on track some time ago.
Continue to work for Yoshiwara as always, and continue to protect Yoshiwara with the title of "Yoshiwara Community" given to her by the wandering girls.
In order to attend Ogata's wedding, Gua Sheng took a day off today.
"Yeah..." Ogata said with a bitter smile, "Genichi-san and the others drink too much, so I came out to take a breather."
"I also came out to rest." Gua Sheng also smiled bitterly, "My drinking capacity is not very good. I drank a little too much just now, so I don't feel very comfortable now, so I wanted to come out for some air..."
Ogata stood next to him and gave up part of his seat to melon.
Gua Sheng walked slowly to the part of the position Ogata had just given up, and stood side by side with Ogata by the open window.
After blowing a gust of night wind together in silence, a smile slowly appeared on Guasheng's face.
After this smile appeared, Gua Sheng broke the silence between the two:
"This period of time feels like a dream."
"Ittousai, whom I have always respected and admired, suddenly appeared in front of me."
"I worked in Yoshiwara for a while with Ittousai, who I admired."
"Then Ittousai avenged me and destroyed that abominable place in Shiranui."
Having said this, Guasheng paused.
Then he turned his head and turned his serious gaze towards Ogata.
"There are so many things I want to thank you for. Thank you very much."
"I want to thank you too." As soon as Gua Sheng finished speaking, Oufang smiled, "Thanks to you, I had a very happy time while working in Yoshiwara."
"I just did what I should do as a senior." Gua Sheng smiled and responded in a joking tone.
After another period of silence, Gua Sheng then asked:
"Now that the wedding to Miss Atachi is over, are you also preparing to leave for Ezo?"
"Yes." Ogata's expression became slightly more serious, "We are going to leave in a few days."
Guasheng's expression became more serious: "Although I don't know much about Ezo, I have heard how dangerous Ezo is."
"It is said that there was a riot in Ezo last year."
"So you must pay attention to safety."
"Yeah. Of course." At this point, Ogata's serious expression gradually disappeared, and then he joked, "I went to Ezo with the mood of going to the dragon's pond and the tiger's den."
"Whenever you finish taking care of your own affairs, you are welcome to return to Edo at any time."
The serious look on Guasheng's face also faded.
"Whenever you come back, you can come to me at any time. I will treat you as a host and treat you to a delicious meal."
"At that time, please tell me about your experiences in Ezochi."
The smile grew stronger on Gua Sheng's cheeks.
"Unless something happens, I will definitely be in Yoshiwara."
"Do you plan to continue working at Yoshiwara?" Ogata asked.
"Of course." Gua Sheng replied without hesitation, "Yoshihara is my home to me now."
"Besides, just like Ogata-sama, you have something you should do now."
"I also have... things I should accomplish."
Guasheng cast his sight out the window and looked into the distance.
"Although my power is quite weak."
"Although my help to the Yoshiwara girls is just treating the symptoms and not the root cause."
"But I still want to do my best to help these disadvantaged girls."
"After all, someone just told me a while ago."
Gua Sheng turned his smiling eyes back to Ogata.
"'Send as much light as you can. Even if the light is like a firefly, it can bring some light to the darkness. There is no need to wait for a torch to illuminate the darkness.'"
Gua Sheng recited the words Ogata told her before softly.
"I decided to stay in Yoshiwara."
"Shine as brightly as I can."
Ogata looked at the melon next to him, with a bit of surprise in his eyes.
This sentence was what he said to Gua Sheng when he and Gua Sheng were sent to support a certain tea house.
That night, I also encountered Takigawa who was causing trouble in the tea house, but this is all a story for another day.
At that time, Gua Sheng met a certain "Yoshihara Yoshihara" whom she had met before, and she was moved by the scene. She had doubts about the work she had been doing. She wondered whether her work was meaningful and whether it had helped the Yoshiwara Yoshihara girls.
At that time, looking at Gua Sheng who looked confused, Ogata took advantage of the situation and said this famous saying said by a great writer in his previous life.
The eyes of Gua Sheng now are completely different from those of Gua Sheng back then.
Now Gua Sheng's eyes are full of determination, without any confusion.
Looking at Gua Sheng, who looked completely different from before, a smile appeared uncontrollably in the depths of Ogata's eyes.
"It seems like you are no longer confused."
"Because I was inspired by someone."
Gua Sheng looked at Ogata.
"Whether it's the daimyo of a feudal clan, the powerful Shiranui Sato or the shogunate, that person never flinches in the face of these behemoths."
"I decided to learn from his courage."
"Keep going straight on the path you want to take."
Ogata's eyes were a little more surprised.
After looking straight at the melon for a while, Ogata slowly calmed down the surprise in his eyes.
Instead of "surprise", there is a touch of "relief".
"...Well said. Gua Sheng." Ogata nodded gently with a look of relief in his eyes, "When I am fighting hard in Ezo or other places, you must also work hard.
.”
When everything is settled in the future, I will return to Edo."
"At that time, you have to treat us to something delicious."
"It would be great if you take us to eat at a delicious restaurant that only Edo locals know."
"I will." Guasheng laughed, "When the time comes, you can eat with confidence. I still have a lot of savings."
Hearing Gua Sheng's joke, Ogata and Gua Sheng laughed softly at the same time.
…
…
After the night gets darker
Edo, Kitamachi Office
Because Edo implemented the "monthly transfer system", Minami and Hokucho followed the "month" as a unit and took turns to manage Kyoto.
Last month, in October, the Kitamachi Office was responsible for managing Edo.
Now that it is already November, the responsibility for managing Edo naturally falls on the Minamimachi Office.
However, although the Kitamachi Judicial Office is not busy this month, it does not mean that the Kitamachi Judicial Office is now empty.
There are still a small number of official officials staying at the Kitamachi Office to prevent outsiders from breaking into the office.
Converted to modern earth time units, it is almost 23 o'clock now.
In this era, it is quite late at night.
On the left and right sides of the gate of the Kitamachi Administrative Office, there are two officers holding swords and swords standing on each side.
Because it was already late at night, sleepiness was rising uncontrollably, causing the four officials to yawn frequently.
At the same time, because it was late at night, there were no pedestrians on the street in front of the four of them.
Apart from the "whooshing" sound of the night wind, there was no other sound.
This too quiet environment made the four of them even more sleepy.
Just as they were concentrating on fighting against the sleepiness in their minds and waiting hard for the shift change time, a burst of strange music suddenly came to their ears.
This strange music came from the end of the street on their left.
The music was getting louder and louder, and the music was approaching the four of them.
The four people frowned and looked towards the street on the left following the sound.
The humidity is heavier tonight and there is a thin mist everywhere.
A figure slowly emerged from the mist-filled street at an unhurried speed.
After seeing the appearance of this figure clearly, the frowns of the four officers deepened.
The figure's attire is quite strange.
Wearing a deep straw hat that can cover the entire head, this kind of deep straw hat is called "Tengai". Both hands are wearing gauntlets, a cassock is hung around the neck, and a pair of dirty white socks is worn on the feet.
He was tied with a hoop, and a katana without a tangent hung on his waist. He was holding a shakuhachi in both hands, and was playing the music.
This person is extremely tall and must be a man, and he is a particularly strong man.
Looking at this man's weird attire, an officer raised his eyebrows and muttered in a doubtful tone: "The Monk of Nothingness?"
There are many sects of Buddhism in Japan.
Among these many sects, there is one very famous sect: Puhua Sect.
People often refer to monks of Puhua Sect as "empty monks".
The Void Monk can be said to be the most special monk.
The nihilistic monks all wear a deep straw hat called a "canopy" that can cover the entire head. They wear gauntlets on their hands. They are not shaved or wear monk clothes. They only have cassocks hanging around their necks.
They spend far more time traveling around than staying in Buddhist temples.
The Void Monk basically spends most of the year wandering around.
When traveling around, he often carries a musical instrument called "Shakuhachi".
While playing the shakuhachi, he wandered aimlessly, basically relying on begging for food.
What makes the Void Monks special is not just because they dress very weirdly.
What's special about them is that the shogunate gave them quite a few privileges.
Puhua Sect is not a sect that everyone can convert to.
Only children of the Wu family can convert to Puhua Sect.
In other words, ordinary people cannot enter the Puhua Sect and become a monk of nothingness.
Because the Puhua Sect only accepts disciples of the martial arts family, every void monk is an "original warrior".
The shogunate gave the Nihility Monks of Puhua Sect two great privileges.
The first privilege is the right to carry a sword. Every void monk can carry a sword.
The second privilege is to be able to travel freely throughout Japan without any hindrance.
The reason why the shogunate gave these two great privileges to the Nihility Monks is that the shogunate and the Puhua Sect have a cooperative relationship.
Since the birth of Puhua Sect, it has always had a culture and atmosphere that encourages its monks to travel around.
So the Edo shogunate simply cooperated with the Puhua sect to give them these two privileges, so that they could travel around more conveniently.
Puhuazong only had to do one thing to repay the shogunate.
That is to serve as a secret agent of the shogunate, spying on the movements of the feudal lords and the sentiments of the people.
In other words, many nihilistic monks are actually secret agents of the Edo shogunate.
Traveling around in the name of spiritual practice is actually a spy.
The Edo shogunate also specially helped the Fuhua sect to build a new Buddhist temple, Suhoji Temple, located in Edo.
This nihilistic monk suddenly appeared at the mist-filled street corner, blowing on the shakuhachi in his hand, and walking slowly and unhurriedly towards the four officials guarding the door of the Kitamachi Administrative Office.
The strange musical sound heard by the officials came from the shakuhachi held by this void monk.
Looking at the nihilistic monk slowly walking towards them, the four officers' brows furrowed even deeper.
"Stop!" An officer pointed the thorn in his hand directly at the void monk, "If you are here to beg for food, please leave. We don't have any extra food on us now."
"Leave immediately!"
When the officer pointed the thorn in his hand at the void monk, the other three officers hurriedly followed, and as if facing a formidable enemy, they pointed the thorn in their hand at the void monk again.
.
There is a reason why these four officials are so nervous.
The reputation of the Void Monk has been getting worse and worse recently.
The reason is that there are many thieves pretending to be void monks, traveling around as void monks, and then committing crimes everywhere.
No one knows whether the void monk in front of them is a real monk.
It was late at night, and there were no dogs on the street at this time. It was really suspicious that this nihilistic monk suddenly walked toward them while playing the shakuhachi in such a late night.
When the official shouted "stop", the void monk had already stopped.
However, although he had stopped, the movements of his hands did not stop.
He stood there and continued to play the shakuhachi in his hand.
Because this void monk was wearing a "canopy" that could cover his head, the officials couldn't even see the face of this void monk clearly.
"Didn't you hear what we said?" The officer shouted again in an impatient tone, "Stop bragging! Leave quickly! If you don't leave, we will treat you as a suspicious person! We'll keep you hungry for a while.
Prison food!"
After the official finished speaking, the Void Monk finally stopped playing the shakuhachi in his hand.
Then……
bass!
The sound of a sharp blade being unsheathed exploded.
The void monk loosened his hands at an extremely fast speed, let go of the Shakuhachi in his hand, then reached behind his back and pulled out the sword without a blade hanging from his waist.
His grip is very strange, it's not an overhand grip, but an underhand grip.
At the same moment when he pulled out the knife from his waist with his backhand, the Void Monk turned into an afterimage and rushed towards the four officials in front of him.
The sword flashed.
The Void Monk swung the sword in his hand 4 times in a row, splashing out 4 handfuls of blood.
After swinging the fourth knife, the Void Monk quickly jumped far away to avoid the blood spurting from the bodies of the officials. At the same time, he swung the knife in his hand towards the ground, and the blood attached to the blade flowed smoothly.
The blade of the blade spilled out, dripping onto the ground, turning into a dark red arc on the ground.
Snapped.
The sound of the Shakuhachi falling to the ground was heard.
After the void monk spilled the blood on his blade, the shakuhachi he had just released just hit the ground.
When the Void Monk sheathed his sword, a praise sounded from the place where he just appeared:
"Lou Luo, your skills seem to be better."
As soon as this compliment fell, a young man slowly emerged from the mist-filled street.
This young man has a delicate face and wears an exquisite sword with a purple handle on his waist.
A strong man whose stature was not inferior to that of the void monk followed closely behind the young man.
After the young man appeared, the Void Monk immediately bowed and saluted the young man.
"Toyotomi-sama. Thank you for your compliment."
The young man, Toyotomi, smiled, and then continued with a somewhat helpless tone:
"But do you have to blow your shakuhachi first every time you kill someone?"
"This is my habit." The void monk, whom Toyotomi calls "Lulu", said in a calm tone, "If I don't play my own funeral music before killing people, then when I kill people, I will feel
Very unaccustomed to it.”
"Forget it, as long as you like it." After saying that, Toyotomi strode towards the gate of the North Administrative Office in front of him, "Gao Qing, Lou Luo, come with me, let's give the shogunate a surprise together."
"Yes!"*2
The strong man who appeared with Toyotomi was Takaharu.
After he and Lou Luo shouted "Yes" in unison, they followed Toyotomi and strode towards the gate of Kitamachi Prison, which was no longer guarded by anyone.
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I have posted pictures of haori hakama, white cotton hats, white cotton hats and other items in the comments of the corresponding paragraphs in this chapter. Those who are interested can click on them to take a look.