Shinju Read Online Free PDF

of urine hung in the air, but no worse than near the backstreet privies of Edo. Thirty paces beyond rose a dingy wooden building with heavy bars over the windows. Entering through its plank door, he could see past the entryway to a room that might have been an office in the administrative district, except for the shabby appearance of the furnishings and workers. The guard led him down the outer corridor and knocked on a door.
    â€œEnter!”
    Bowing to someone within, the guard said, “Honorable Warden, I bring you a distinguished visitor.” He moved over to let Sano inside.
    The warden, a stout man at a desk piled with papers, greeted Sano’s request with a look of bewilderment. Then he shrugged and said to the guard, “Bring the
eta
.” He turned to Sano apologetically. “I must ask you to see them outside,
yoriki
. They aren’t allowed in this building.”
    â€œOf course.”
    Sano followed the guard back out to the courtyard, pondering this bit of jail protocol. The
eta
were society’s outcasts. Their hereditary link with such death-related occupations as butchering and leather tanning rendered them spiritually unclean. Consequently, other classes shunned them. They lived apart from the rest of the population in slums on the outskirts of town. They couldn’t marry outside their class, or otherwise escape from it. They performed the dirtiest and most menial of tasks: emptying cesspools, collecting garbage, clearing away bodies after floods, fires, and earthquakes—and staffing the jail and morgue. Sano had known that the
eta
acted as corpse handlers here. But he hadn’t realized that even within the jail, certain areas were off limits to them.
    â€œPlease wait here, sir.” The guard disappeared around the corner of the building. Presently he returned with three men, all wearing identical short, unbleached muslin kimonos.
    Two were still in their teens, the other a man of about fifty. Eyes wary, like those of trapped animals, they immediately dropped to their knees before him, foreheads touching the ground, arms extended. The two young ones were trembling, and Sano understood why: a samurai could kill them on a whim—to test a new sword, if he so desired—without fear of reprisal. But he had also heard horrifying stories about the suffering inflicted uponprisoners by
eta
jailers, torturers, and executioners. Now he addressed them with a mixture of pity and revulsion.
    â€œYou handled the bodies from the
shinjū
this morning,” he said. “Is that right?”
    Silence. Then the older man said, “Yes, master.” The others echoed him, faintly.
    â€œDid you see any signs that they were not suicides? Any wounds? Bruises?”
    â€œNo, master,” the older man said. The others, trembling violently now, didn’t answer.
    â€œDon’t be afraid. Think. Tell me what the bodies looked like.”
    â€œI’m sorry, master, I don’t know.”
    After several more attempts, Sano realized that he would get no useful information from these frightened, inarticulate men. “You may go now,” he said, disappointed.
    The two younger men hastily backed away, still kneeling, then rose and took off at a run. But the older one didn’t move.
    â€œHonorable master, I beg permission to try to help you,” he said.
    Sano’s hope stirred. “Stand,” he ordered, wanting a better look at this
eta
who had the courage to assert himself. “What is it you want to tell me?”
    The
eta
stood. He had gray hair, intelligent eyes set deeply in a square, stern face, and a dignified bearing.
    â€œI can say nothing myself, master,” he said, looking Sano straight in the eye. “But I can take you to someone who knows all there is to know.”
    Intrigued, Sano said, “Very well.”
    He followed the
eta
along the same path the guard had taken, around the building then through another courtyard. There he