Interview with the Translator: The Twelve Kingdoms, Guilt, Soldiers & Shakespeare

Kate: At least two Twelve Kingdoms emperors who committed crimes against others react by retreating into themselves, including Asen in Hills of Silver Ruins. This is less of a common trope in Western literature. Usurping kings in Shakespeare are Pilate figures: constantly making performance art out of their sense of guilt. That is, they play out their guilt in front of people rather than retreating. Henry II reportedly crawled through snow after the murder of Thomas Becket.

Is the trope “I go hide because I’m so upset” common in Japanese literature? In Japanese politics? (One rather wishes Western politicians would do this—at least, hiding indicates a sense of shame, but of course, that type of response can be equally manufactured.)

Eugene: In A Thousand Leagues of Wind, Gekkei is a combination of Sir Thomas More and William Roper. When we first meet him, he has "Cut down every law in [Hou] to get after the Devil.” And now that the Devil is dead, he is asking himself, "If you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"

So at least Gekkei fully realizes what he has done and has an actual conscience to weigh on him.

Asen is more a Macbeth (and Rousan his Lady Macbeth) whose ambitions ran ahead of his common sense. He is smart enough to realize, though only well after the fact, that he has backed himself into a corner, and before long Birnam Wood will come to Dunsinane. To make matters worse, thanks to the magic unleashed during his coup, he's surrounded by zombies.

He has enough of a conscience left to not want the men whose opinions he respects to know how low he has sunk. So he went down the hikikomori route. Japanese business is particularly fond of the apologize and withdraw tactic (meaning early retirement or a transfer to a far-flung division).

Throughout Japanese history, when the going got tough, the tough hoped to leave with their heads still on their shoulders. It was not uncommon for defeated generals, or warlords who wanted to quit the game and tear the targets off their backs, to take vows and, if necessary, retire to Mt.Koya (usually not a first choice but a much better option than being exiled to Sado Island).

After the battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu exiled Sanada Masayuki and Sanada Yukimura to Kudoyama at the foot of Mt Koya (where Ryou ends up in Serpent of Time). Yukimura later led the anti-shogunate forces during the Siege of Osaka, so Ieyasu probably wished he'd had them both beheaded. (Yukimura's older brother, a high-ranking Tokugawa vassal, pled for leniency.)

The apologize and retreat approach to political and business failure continues to work well even today.

The whole Zen approach to life plays a part too. During the Warring States period, when faced with an upcoming battle or political dilemma, Uesugi Kagekatsu retreated to a literal cave to think things through.

You could even say it's part of the national character. The word Sakoku doesn't just describe the 265 years of Tokugawa rule, but is an extant mindset. So in Barakamon (a contemporary slice-of-life comedy), after the protagonist (a calligrapher) attacks a critic and causes a scandal, his father exiles him to a little island south of Kyushu to calm down and find his muse.

Kate: Based on the conflicting belief systems of Asen’s good retainers, how do you think they would respond to Henry V’s speech the eve of the Battle of Agincourt?

Retainer’s Argument: But if the cause be not good, the King/ himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all/ those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in/ battle, shall join together at the latter day, and cry/ all “We died at such a place,” ...Now, if these men do not die/ well, it will be a black matter for the king that led/ them to it, who to disobey were against all proportion/ of subjection.

King Henry: So, if a son that is by his father sent about/ merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea/ the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule/ should be imposed upon his father that sent him/ Or if a servant, under his master’s command transporting/ a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and/ die in many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the/ business of the master the author of the servant’s/ damnation. But this is not so. The King is not bound/ to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the/ father of his son, nor the master of his servant, for/ they purpose not their death when they purpose/ their services...Then, if they die unprovided/ no more is the King guilty of their damnation/ than he was before guilty of those impieties for the/ which they are now visited. Every subject’s duty is/ the King’s, but every subject’s soul is his own.

Eugene: Henry V’s debate with one of his own soldiers on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt almost perfectly sums up the moral foundations, not just of a UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice), but of the ideal code of conduct in any large organization. "Every subject's duty is the King's (or the CEO's), but every subject's soul is his own."

One realistic aspect of the Ono's world building in the Twelve Kingdoms is that guys like Rakushun are rare. Even high-ranking officials are not always clear about how the whole system works. The vast majority will have never met the emperor or the kirin. In that situation, situational rationalizations make the most sense: my guy is the right guy, especially if he's the guy in power.

The irony is that Shakespeare's Henry V is pretty much in the same position. In retrospect, it's hard to categorize the Hundred Year's War as a "good cause." It was ultimately one of those interminably stupid conflicts about where to draw the property lines. Likewise, Japan's Warring States period can be treated as a long Shakespearean drama because it didn't matter who won.

Of course, it mattered to them. But not like "City on the Edge of Forever" from the original Trek.

Given such a murky ethical environment, it's impressive that Keitou, for example, at last declares that his soul is indeed his own and allies himself with Taiki. Growing increasingly uncomfortable with being paired up with a nihilist like Ukou, Yuushou is headed in that direction too. Then again, Ukou even creeps out the Macbethian Asen.