Yeah, I know. Still looking for the right illustrator to help me flesh it out. Job’s yours if you want it.
And before I know it, I’m working on the comic with him, trading artwork across the sea featuring a character inspired by a girl who is no longer me. But I’m all right with it. I’m okay with becoming who I’m meant to be and leaving that girl behind. I’m okay with being me. And no one else.
THE END
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Reiko and Miyu’s story came to me out of nothingness—a night of fog and drums.
My husband Jason and I went to Japan for our honeymoon in late 2014, and after an exhausting few months of wedding preparation and deep, major edits to my third book, Dreamstrider, all I wanted to do was relax in the hot springs and eat some wonderful meals. “I know you too well. You’re going to come back with a book idea,” my editor, Katherine Jacobs, warned me. I assured her that writing was the furthest thing from my mind.
Of course she was right. (She never gets tired of hearing me say that.)
We’d started our honeymoon in gracefully chaotic Tokyo, but made our way south, to the historic town of Tsumago in the Kiso Valley, along the old Nakasendo Highway that connected Tokyo to Kyoto. Tsumago became the first village to lead historic conservation efforts in Japan, and fought hard to protect its Edo-period (1600s–1868) buildings and traditions. All electrical lines and cables had to be buried; the village forbade any electric lighting along the streets. Our ryokan, the Fujioto, was nestled right in the heart of Tsumago’s narrow streets along a winding mountainside with easy access to the historic highway, which we partially hiked on foot.
At nighttime, though, the village became something else entirely.
After a ten-course dinner of sashimi, boiled wasp larvae, shabu-shabu, green tea ice cream, and more, Jason and I decided to walk the foggy streets of Tsumago on Halloween night. Our only lighting was the dim halos of paper lanterns strung in front of the old houses. Each building loomed out of the mist like a secret. Even the moon stayed out of sight. The closer we drew to the town’s center, the more certain we became that we were hearing something.
Drums. In the distance, we heard drummers, steady as a heartbeat, practicing through the night.
“You need to write a book about this,” Jason said.
By the next morning when we toured the waki-honjin that served as Tsumago’s historical museum, and saw the secret room where the villagers gathered to conspire against the shogunate, I knew the story I wanted to write.
To understand the tumultuous Edo period and its fraught transition into the Meiji era of openness, I turned to Marius B. Jansen’s The Making of Modern Japan and Ryotara Shibu’s The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu. Donald Keene’s World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Premodern Era—1600–1867 also provided invaluable cultural context about how Edo-period Japan viewed literature, stories, romance, and more, and informed Jiro’s (and my) feeble attempts at Japanese-style poetry.
The Tokyo National Museum’s online resources and the Samurai Archives research group were invaluable for the detailed descriptions of clothing, costumes, and more, while Emily Kubo’s essays provided a fascinating and colorful history of Harajuku’s weekly fashion display. Motohiso Yamakage’s The Essence of Shinto, Japan’s Spiritual Heart informed Kenji’s interpretation of Shinto and the kami, though I acknowledge it is by no means authoritative. Finally, the heartbreaking and wonderful Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki offered a glimpse into modern Japanese culture, from aidoru to maid cafés and more, as well as further insight into the Buddhist mindset that underlies Japan in tandem with Shinto and many other traditions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Reiko and Miyu took a great deal out of me, and while this book was quick to draft, it was a real demon to whittle it down to its dark heart. I couldn’t have survived it without the help of some incredible souls.
Katherine Jacobs at Roaring Brook Press, my enthusiastic editor, for whom no book idea is too weird and no “what if…” conversation too improbable. Elizabeth Clark, for yet another unbelievably gorgeous book cover.
Ammi-Joan Paquette, my indefatigable literary agent, giving me hope no matter how much I despair and giving my voice its space in the world.
Dahlia Adler, the best accountabilibuddy a soul could ask for, never tiring of my stressed-out, anxiety-riddled emails and always offering me a place to stay and loads of macarons every time I’m in New York.
Ellen Goodlett, whose notes on the first train wreck of this draft saved me endless heartache and who patiently corrected my god-awful romaji.
Katherine Locke, for guiding me patiently to the finish line and exorcising my fears; Misa Sugiura and Alyssa Furukawa, for their thoughtful critiques and discussions on representation; Emmy Neal, for catching all my mistakes in modern Japanese culture. Any remaining errors are my own.
My husband, Jason, without whom this book truly could not exist. I love you for so many reasons, but not least because I spent part of our honeymoon babbling about this ridiculous book idea, and you only encouraged me and came up with some twists of your own.
And finally, to the people of the wonderful town of Tsumago and the Fujioto ryokan. Thank you so much for inspiring Kuramagi, while still being nothing like the townsfolk in this book. Your hospitality and generosity are unmatched.
Also by Lindsay Smith
Sekret
Skandal
Dreamstrider
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lindsay Smith is the author of Cold War era espionage novels Sekret and Skandal, fantasy novel Dreamstrider, and Japanese time travel novel A Darkly Beating Heart. She writes on foreign affairs and lives in Washington, D.C. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Also by Lindsay Smith
About the Author
Copyright
Text copyright © 2016 by Lindsay Smith
Illustrations copyright © 2016
Published by Roaring Brook Press
Roaring Brook Press is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
fiercereads.com
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016932186
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eISBN 9781626720459
First hardcover edition, 2016
eBook edition, October 2016
e.
A Darkly Beating Heart Page 19
