PART ONE THE UNKNOWN I have no parents I make the heaven and earth my mother and father I have no home I make awareness my dwelling I have no life and death I make the tides of breathing my life and death from the Samurai Creed Bird Island as drawn by John Mung
1 THE STORM January 1841 12th Year of Tempō Year of the Ox off the coast of Shikoku Japan Manjiro squinted across the expanse of glittering sea at the line of dark clouds forming on the horizon What lies there he wondered aloud across the sea Nothing you want to know about Denzo said hurrying to hoist the sail Barbarians live there Demons with hairy faces big noses and blue eyes As Jusuke steered the boat toward home the fishermen fell silent In three days they had not caught a single fish Their families would go hungry Manjiro swallowed hard when he thought of the empty rice bin at home He took one last glance behind them and noticed something strange Dark streaks ran like ribbons through the water Excuse me please he said What is that in the water Goemon a boy not much older than Manjiro said Fish Mackerel the others cried Denzo quickly steered the boat into waters black with fish as the others baited their hooks The fishermen hurried to cast their lines into the water then pulled them in each time hauling in a fat mackerel It was Manjiro’s job to pluck the fish off the hooks His hands bled but he smiled to see the bottom of the boat swimming with plump flopping mackerel Wasn’t it lucky he had looked back one more time Now they would all be dreaming of dinners of steaming fish and maybe even a little rice None of them noticed that dark clouds had swallowed the sky They didn’t notice the waves lapping at the boat They
didn’t notice the wind until the sail ruffled then snapped Is the sail supposed to snap like that Manjiro asked forgetting to apologize for his intrusion as he had been taught Boy Jusuke said stick to your work Does the wind often howl so Manjiro squeaked He knew he should not ask so many questions but he couldn’t help himself Quiet boy said Toraemon one of the older fishermen You are a pest I don’t know why Denzo agreed to bring you along Can’t you see there are still fish to catch But no sooner had he said this than the wind began to roar like a dragon The sail filled with air and yanked the boat on its side until Denzo released the line Freed the sail whipped about flapping like a wounded bird Toraemon grabbed the oars and pulled while Jusuke tried to lower the sail But the wind beat it against the mast until it was torn into shreds The wind pushed the sea into great mountains of water it tore the oars from the men’s hands and flung them into the sea and finally it snapped the mast then ripped the rudder away from the boat Without a sail without oars without a rudder the boat tossed about on the heaving sea Then a cold rain came that turned to ice The fishermen huddled in the bottom of the boat the rain freezing in sheets to the boat their clothes their hair Days passed At first they ate the raw flesh of the fish they had caught but soon the waves that sloshed over the side of the boat had swept away most of their catch Once they came within sight of land They shouted and hollered but the wind snatched their voices away Manjiro’s heart sank when he realized that the boat was not drifting toward the island but away Kuroshio Denzo said The Black Current His voice was as dark as the water that surrounded them Everyone stared at the wide stripe of indigo water which usually flowed north
toward home This year for reasons they did not understand the current flowed southeast With no sails no rudder no oars they were at Kuroshio’s mercy steadily dragged toward the vast unknown How long until they came to the end of the ocean and fell off its edge Would they encounter the frightening creatures and foreign devils that were said to live and sail in the far reaches of the sea Everybody knew about the foreign devils the barbarians Did they really exist Manjiro wondered or were they just the inventions of adults to get children to behave Even he had told his younger sisters Go to sleep or the barbarians will come and get you But now in the dark of night the wind screaming as he bailed bucket after bucket of freezing water out of the boat images of monsters crowded his imagination Fanged monsters with long slashing tails dagger-sharp horns and icy blue eyes By the eighth day of drifting all the food and water were gone The cold had penetrated their bones and the fishermen huddled together prepared to die For a long time no one spoke They waited for Denzo the eldest and the leader to speak first At last he said I was going to buy my own boat when we got home Everyone nodded It was a pity The boat to which they clung was a borrowed boat Next Toraemon spoke I was thinking of getting married Everyone nodded again It was a shame he would never marry Then Jusuke said through chattering teeth I was just looking forward to a hot bath and a fish dinner With pickled turnips added Goemon Presented with the thought of food their stomachs ached more fiercely Finally Manjiro at age fourteen the youngest and so the last to speak said I had hoped to become a samurai
