A temporary lean-to had been erected in one corner of the garden. It had a neat raised floor and was furnished with clean futons and a little vase with a flower arrangement. Omi was waiting for him and in attendance was a toothless, hard-faced old woman.
"Please sit down, Anjin-san," Omi said.
"Thank you, and thanks for the clothes," he replied in halting Japanese.
"Please don't mention it. Would you like cha or sake?"
"Cha," Blackthorne decided, thinking that he had better keep his head clear for his interview with Toranaga. "Thank you."
"This is my mother," Omi said formally, clearly idolizing her.
Blackthorne bowed. The old woman simpered and sucked in her breath.
"It's my honor, Anjin-san," she said.
"Thank you, but I'm honored." Blackthorne repeated automatically the succession of formal politenesses that Mariko had taught him.
"Anjin-san, we were so sorry to see your house in flames."
"What could one do? That's karma, neh?"
"Yes, karma." The old woman looked away and scowled. "Hurry up! The Anjin-san wants his cha warm!"
The girl standing beside the maid who carried the tray took Blackthome's breath away. Then he remembered her. Wasn't this the girl he'd seen with Omi, the first time, when he was passing through the village square on his way to the galley?
"This is my wife," Omi said tersely.
"I'm honored," Blackthorne said as she took her place, knelt, and bowed.
"You must forgive her slowness," Omi's mother said. "Is the cha warm enough for you?"
"Thank you, it's very good." Blackthorne had noted that the old woman had not used the wife's name as she should have. But then, he was not surprised because Mariko had told him already about the dominating position of a girl's mother-in-law in Japanese society.
"Thank God it's not the same in Europe," he had told her.
"A wife's mother-in-law can do no wrong - after all, Anjin-san, the parents choose the wife in the first place and what father would choose without first consulting his own wife? Of course, the daughter-in-law has to obey, and the son always does what his mother and father want."
"Always?"
"Always."
"What if the son refuses?"
"That's not possible. Everyone has to obey the head of the house. A son's first duty is to his parents. Of course. Sons are given everything by their mothers - life, food, tenderness, protection. She succors them all their lives. So of course it's right that a son should heed his mother's wishes. The daughter-in-law-she has to obey. That's her duty. "
"It's not the same with us."
"It's hard to be a good daughter-in-law, very hard. You just have to hope that you live long enough to have sons to become one yourself."
"And your mother-in-law?"
"Ah, she's dead, Anjin-san. She died many years ago. I never knew her. Lord Hiro-matsu, in his wisdom, never took another wife. "
"Buntaro-san's his only son?"
"Yes. My husband has five living sisters, but no brothers." She had joked, "In a way we're related. now, Anjin-san. Fujiko's my husband's niece. What's the matter?"
"I'm surprised you never told me, that's all."
"Well, it's complicated, Anjin-san." Then Mariko had explained that Fujiko was actually an adopted daughter of Numata Akinori, who had married Buntaro's youngest sister, and that Fujiko's real father was a grandson of the Dictator Goroda by his eighth consort, that Fujiko had been adopted by Numata when an infant at the Taiko's orders because the Taiko wanted closer ties between the descendants of Hiro-matsu and Goroda....
"What?"
Mariko had laughed, telling him that, yes, Japanese family relationships were very complicated because adoption was normal, that families exchanged sons and daughters often, and divorced and remarried and intermarried all the time. With so many legal consorts and the ease of divorce - particularly if at the order of a liege lord - all families soon become incredibly tangled.
"To unravel Lord Toranaga's family links accurately would take days, Anjin-san. Just think of the complications: Presently he has seven official consorts living, who have given him five sons and three daughters. Some of the consorts were widows or previously married with other sons and daughters - some of these Toranaga adopted, some he did not. In Japan you don't ask if a person is adopted or natural. Truly, what does it matter? Inheritance is always at the whim of the head of the house, so adopted or not it is the same, neh? Even Toranaga's mother was divorced. Later she remarried and had three more sons and two daughters by her second husband, all of whom are also now married! Her eldest son from her second marriage is Zataki, Lord of Shinano."
Blackthorne had mulled that. Then he had said, "Divorce isn't possible for us. Not possible."
"So the Holy Fathers tell us. So sorry, but that's not very sensible, Anjin-san. Mistakes happen, people change, that's karma, neh? Why should a man have to bear a foul wife, or a wife a foul man? Foolish to be stuck forever, man or woman, neh?"
"Yes."
