Sunset on the Twenty-fourth Day of the Tenth Month 'I conclude,' Yoshida Hayato, the still-youthful author of an erudite monograph on the true age of the Earth, surveys his audience of eighty or ninety scholars, 'this widely-held belief that Japan is an impregnable fortress is a pernicious delusion. Honourable Academicians, we are a ramshackle farmhouse with crumbling walls, a collapsing roof and covetous neighbours.' Yoshida is succumbing to a bone disease, and projecting his voice over the large sixty-mat hall drains him. 'To our north-west, a morning's voyage from Tsushima Island, live the vainglorious Koreans. Who shall forget those provocative banners their last embassy flaunted? "Inspectorate of Dominions" and "We Are Purity", implying, naturally, "You Are Not"!'

Some of the scholars grizzle in agreement.

'North-east lies the vast domain of Ezo, home to the savage Ainu, but also to Russians who map our coastlines and claim Karafuto. They call it Sakhalin. It is a mere twelve years since a Frenchman . . .' Yoshida prepares his lips '. . . La Perouse, named the straits between Ezo and Karafuto after himself! Would the French tolerate the Yoshida Straits off their coast?' The point is well made and well received. 'The recent incursions by Captain Benyowsky and Captain Laxman warn us of a near future when straying Europeans no longer request provisions, but demand trade, quays and warehouses, fortified ports, unequal treaties. Colonies shall take root like thistles and weeds. Then, we shall understand that our "impregnable fortress" was a placebo and nothing more; that our seas are no "impassable moat" but, as my far-sighted colleague Hayashi Shihei wrote, "an ocean-road without frontiers which links China, Holland and Edo's Nihonbashi Bridge".'

Some in the audience nod in agreement; others look concerned.

Hayashi Shihei, Ogawa Uzaemon remembers, died under house arrest for his writings died under house arrest for his writings.

'My lecture is finished.' Yoshida bows. 'I thank the Shirando for its gracious attention.'

Otsuki Monjuro, the Academy's bearded Director, hesitates to ask for questions, but Dr Maeno clears his well-respected throat and raises his fan. 'First, I wish to thank Yoshida-san for his stimulating thoughts. Second, I wish to ask how best the threats he enumerates can be countered?' for his stimulating thoughts. Second, I wish to ask how best the threats he enumerates can be countered?'

Yoshida takes a sip of warm water and a deep breath.

A vague and evasive answer, thinks Uzaemon, would be safest would be safest.

'By the creation of a Japanese Navy, by the foundation of two large shipyards, and by the establishment of an academy where foreign instructors would train Japanese shipwrights, armourers, gunsmiths, officers and sailors.'

The audience was unprepared for the audacity of Yoshida's vision.

Awatsu, an algebraist, is the first to recover. 'Is that all?'

Yoshida smiles at Awatsu's irony. 'Emphatically not. We need a national army based on the French model; an armoury to produce the newest Prussian rifles; and an overseas empire. To avoid becoming a European colony, we need colonies of our own.'

'But what Yoshida-san proposes,' objects Dr Maeno, 'would require . . .' proposes,' objects Dr Maeno, 'would require . . .'

A radical new government, thinks Uzaemon, and a radical new Japan and a radical new Japan.

A chemist unknown to Uzaemon suggests, 'A trade mission to Batavia?'

Yoshida shakes his head. 'Batavia is a ditch, and whatever the Dutch tell us, Holland is a pawn. France, England, Prussia or the energetic United States must be our teachers. Two hundred bright, able-bodied scholars - a criterion that,' he smiles sadly, 'excludes me me - must be sent to these countries to study the arts of industry. Upon their return, let them spread their knowledge, freely, to the ablest minds of all classes so we may set about constructing a - must be sent to these countries to study the arts of industry. Upon their return, let them spread their knowledge, freely, to the ablest minds of all classes so we may set about constructing a true true "Impregnable Fortress".' "Impregnable Fortress".'

'But,' Haga the ape-nosed druggist raises the obvious objection, 'the Separate Nation decree forbids any subject to leave Japan, on pain of death.'

Not even Yoshida Hayato dare suggest, thinks Uzaemon, the decree be annulled the decree be annulled.

'Hence the decree,' Yoshida Hayato is outwardly calm, 'must be annulled.'

The statement provokes fearful objections, and some nervous assent.

Should someone not save him, Interpreter Arashiyama glances at Uzaemon, from himself? from himself?

He's dying, the young interpreter thinks. The choice is his The choice is his.

'Yoshida-san,' calls out Haga the druggist, 'is naysaying the Third Shogun . . .'

'. . . who is not a debating partner,' the chemist agrees, 'but a deity!'

'Yoshida-sama,' counters Omori the Dutch-style painter, 'is a visionary patriot and he should be heard!'

'Our society of scholars,' Haga stands up, 'debates natural philosophy--'

'- and not matters of state,' agrees an Edo metallurgist, 'so--'

'Nothing is outside philosophy,' claims Omori, 'unless fear says it is.'

'So whoever disagrees with you,' asks Haga, 'is, therefore, a coward?'

'The Third Shogun closed the country to prevent Christian rebellions,' argues Aodo the historian, 'but its result was to pickle Japan in a specimen jar!'

Clamour breaks out, and Director Otsuki strikes two sticks together for order.

When relative quietness is re-established, Yoshida wins permission to address his detractors. 'The Separate Nation decree was a necessary measure, in the day of the Third Shogun. But new machines of power are shaping the world. What we learn from Dutch reports and and Chinese sources is a grave warning. Peoples who do not acquire these machines of power are, at best, subjugated, like the Indians. At worst, like the natives of Van Diemen's Land, they are exterminated.' Chinese sources is a grave warning. Peoples who do not acquire these machines of power are, at best, subjugated, like the Indians. At worst, like the natives of Van Diemen's Land, they are exterminated.'

'Yoshida-san's loyalty,' concedes Haga, 'is beyond question. What I doubt is the likelihood of an armada of European warships sailing into Edo or Nagasaki. You argue for revolutionary changes to our state, but why? To counter a phantom. To address a hypothetical "what if"?'

'The present is a battleground,' Yoshida straightens his spine as best he can, 'where rival what-ifs compete to become the future "what is". How does one what-if prevail over its adversaries? The answer -' the sick man coughs '- the answer, "Military and political power, of course!" is a postponement, for what is it that directs the minds of the powerful? The answer is "Belief". Beliefs that are ignoble or idealistic; democratic or Confucian; Occidental or Oriental; timid or bold; clear-sighted or delusional. Power is informed by Belief that this this path, and not another, must be followed. What, then, or where, is the womb of Belief? What, or where, is the crucible of ideology? Academicians of the Shirando, I put it to you that path, and not another, must be followed. What, then, or where, is the womb of Belief? What, or where, is the crucible of ideology? Academicians of the Shirando, I put it to you that we we are one such crucible. We are one such womb.' are one such crucible. We are one such womb.'

During the first interval the lanterns are lit, braziers are stoked against the cold and conversations stew and bubble. Interpreters Uzaemon, Arashiyama and Goto Shinpachi sit with five or six others. The algebraist Awatsu apologises for disturbing Uzaemon, 'but I hoped to hear news of an improvement in your father's health . . .'

'He is still bedbound,' replies Uzaemon, 'but finds ways to wield his will.'

Those who know Ogawa the Elder of the First Rank smile downwards.

'What ails the gentleman?' Yanaoka is a sake sake-blushed doctor from Kumamoto.

'Dr Maeno believes Father suffers from a cancer of the--'

'A notoriously difficult diagnosis! Let us hold a consultation tomorrow.'

'Dr Yanaoka is kind, but Father is particular about who--'

'Come, now, I have known your honourable father for twenty years.'

Yes, thinks Uzaemon, and he has despised you for forty and he has despised you for forty.

' "Too many captains," ' Awatsu quotes, ' "sail the ship up the mountain." Dr Maeno is no doubt doing an excellent job. I shall offer prayers for his swift recovery.'

The others promise to do the same, and Uzaemon expresses due gratitude.

'Another missing face,' Yanaoka mentions, 'is Dr Aibagawa's burnt daughter.'

'You didn't hear, then,' says Interpreter Arashiyama, 'about her happy ending? The late doctor's finances were found to be in so parlous a state, there was talk of the widow losing the house. When Lord Abbot Enomoto was apprised of the family's hardships, he not only paid every last sen sen of the debts - he found space for the daughter in his convent on Mount Shiranui.' of the debts - he found space for the daughter in his convent on Mount Shiranui.'

'Why is that a "happy ending"?' Uzaemon regrets opening his mouth already.

'A full rice bowl every day,' says Ozono, the squat chemist, 'for reciting a few sutras? For a woman with such an unmarriageable blemish this is a jubilant jubilant ending! Oh, I know her father encouraged her to play the scholar, but one must sympathise with the widow. What business has a samurai daughter to be dabbling with birth and mingling with sweaty Dutchmen?' ending! Oh, I know her father encouraged her to play the scholar, but one must sympathise with the widow. What business has a samurai daughter to be dabbling with birth and mingling with sweaty Dutchmen?'

Uzaemon orders himself to say nothing.

Banda is an earthy engineer from marshy Sendai. 'During my stay in Isahaya, I overheard some strange rumours about Abbot Enomoto's shrine.'

'Without you want,' Awatsu warns Banda cheerfully, 'to accuse a close friend of Matsudaira Sadanobu and senior Academician of the Shirando of impropriety, then you should ignore any rumours whatsoever about Lord Enomoto's Shrine. The monks live their lives as monks and the nuns live their lives as nuns.'

Uzaemon wants to hear Banda's rumours, but he doesn't want to hear.

'Where is is Abbot Enomoto tonight, anyway?' asks Yanaoka. Abbot Enomoto tonight, anyway?' asks Yanaoka.

'In Miyako,' says Awatsu, 'settling some abstruse clerical point.'

'At his court in Kashima,' says Arashiyama. 'Exercising justice, I heard.'

'I heard he went to the Isle of Tsu,' says Ozono, 'to meet Korean traders.'

The door slides opens: a welcoming hubbub sweeps through the hall.

Dr Marinus and Sugita Genpaku, one of the most celebrated living Dutch scholars, stand at the threshold. Half-lame Marinus leans on his stick; elderly Sugita leans on a house-boy. The pair enjoys a verbal tussle over who should enter first. They settle the matter by a game of Scissors, Paper, Stone. Marinus wins, but uses his victory to insist that Sugita takes precedence.

'But look look,' says Yanaoka, his neck craning, 'at that foreigner's hair hair!'

Ogawa Uzaemon sees Jacob de Zoet hit the crown of his head on the door-frame.

'Just thirty years ago,' Sugita Genpaku sits on the lecturer's low plinth, 'there were just three of us Dutch scholars in all Japan and a single book: this old man you see before you, Dr Nakagawa Jun'an and my dear friend Dr Maeno, whose more recent discoveries,' Sugita's fingers loop his stringy white beard, 'surely include the elixir of immortality, for he has aged not a day.'

Dr Maeno shakes his head with embarrassment and delight.

'The book,' Sugita tilts his head, 'was Kulmus's Tafel Anatomia Tafel Anatomia, printed in Holland. This I had encountered on my very first visit to Nagasaki. I desired it with my whole being, but I could no more pay the asking price than swim to the moon. My clan purchased it on my behalf and, in so doing, determined my fate.' Sugita pauses and listens with professional interest to Interpreter Shizuki translate his words for Marinus and de Zoet.

Uzaemon has avoided Dejima since the Shenandoah Shenandoah departed, and avoids de Zoet's eye now. His guilt about Orito is knotted up with the Dutchman in ways Uzaemon cannot disentangle. departed, and avoids de Zoet's eye now. His guilt about Orito is knotted up with the Dutchman in ways Uzaemon cannot disentangle.

'Maeno and I took the Tafel Anatomia Tafel Anatomia to Edo's execution ground,' continues Sugita, 'where a prisoner named Old Mother Tea had been sentenced to an hour-long strangulation for poisoning her husband.' Shizuki stumbles on 'strangulation': he mimes the action. 'We struck a bargain. In return for a painless beheading, she gave us permission to conduct the first medical dissection in the history of Japan on her body, and signed an oath not to haunt us in revenge . . . Upon comparing the subject's inner organs with the illustrations in the book, we saw, to our astonishment, the Chinese sources that dominated our learning were grossly inaccurate. There were no "ears of the lungs"; no "seven lobes of the kidneys", and the intestines differed markedly from the descriptions by the Ancient Sages . . .' to Edo's execution ground,' continues Sugita, 'where a prisoner named Old Mother Tea had been sentenced to an hour-long strangulation for poisoning her husband.' Shizuki stumbles on 'strangulation': he mimes the action. 'We struck a bargain. In return for a painless beheading, she gave us permission to conduct the first medical dissection in the history of Japan on her body, and signed an oath not to haunt us in revenge . . . Upon comparing the subject's inner organs with the illustrations in the book, we saw, to our astonishment, the Chinese sources that dominated our learning were grossly inaccurate. There were no "ears of the lungs"; no "seven lobes of the kidneys", and the intestines differed markedly from the descriptions by the Ancient Sages . . .'

Sugita waits for Shizuki's translation to catch up.

De Zoet looks gaunter, Uzaemon thinks, than he did in the autumn than he did in the autumn.

'My Tafel Anatomia Tafel Anatomia, however, corresponded with our dissected body so precisely that Drs Maeno, Nakagawa and myself were of one mind: European medicine surpasses the Chinese European medicine surpasses the Chinese. To say so nowadays, with Dutch medical schools in every city, is a self-evident truth. Thirty years ago, such an opinion was patricidal. Yet, with just a few hundred Dutch words between us, we resolved to translate Tafel Anatomia Tafel Anatomia into Japanese. A few of you may have heard of our into Japanese. A few of you may have heard of our Kaitai Shinsho Kaitai Shinsho?'

His audience savours the understatement.

Shizuki renders 'patricidal' into Dutch as 'great crime'.

'Our task was formidable.' Sugita Genpaku straightens his tufted white eyebrows. 'Hours were spent in pursuit of single words, often to discover that no Japanese equivalent existed. We created words that our race shall use,' the old man is not immune to vanity, 'for all eternity. By dint of example, I devised "shinkei" for the Dutch "nerve", over a dinner of oysters. We were, to quote the proverb, "The one dog who barks at nothing answered by a thousand dogs barking at something . . ." '

During the final interval, Uzaemon hides in the not-quite-winter garden Courtyard from a possible encounter with de Zoet. An unearthly wail from the Hall is accompanied by appalled laughter: Director Otsuki is demonstrating his bagpipes, acquired earlier this year from Arie Grote. Uzaemon sits under a giant magnolia. The sky is starless and the young man's mind recalls the afternoon a year and a half ago when he asked his father for his views on Aibagawa Orito as a possible bride. 'Dr Aibagawa's a notable scholar, but not so notable as his debts, I am informed. Worse yet, what if that singed face of his daughter is passed on to my grandsons? The answer must be no no. If you and the daughter have exchanged any sentiments sentiments,' his father's expression suggested a bad smell, 'disown them, without delay.' Uzaemon begged his father at least to consider an engagement a little longer, but Ogawa the Elder wrote an affronted letter to Orito's father. The servant returned with a short note from the doctor, apologising for the inconvenience his over-indulged daughter had caused, and assuring him that the matter was closed. That grimmest of days ended with Uzaemon receiving one last secret letter from Orito, and the shortest of their clandestine correspondence. 'I could never cause your father', it ended, 'to regret adopting you . . .'

Uzaemon's parents were prompted by the 'Aibagawa Incident' into finding their son a wife. A go-between knew of a low-ranking but wealthy family in Karatsu who had thriving business interests in dyes and was eager for a son-in-law with access to sappanwood entering Dejima. Omiai Omiai interviews were held and Uzaemon was informed by his father that the girl would be an acceptable Ogawa wife. They were married on New Year's Day, at an hour judged to be fortunate by the family's astrologer. interviews were held and Uzaemon was informed by his father that the girl would be an acceptable Ogawa wife. They were married on New Year's Day, at an hour judged to be fortunate by the family's astrologer. The good fortune The good fortune, Uzaemon thinks, is yet to reveal itself is yet to reveal itself. His wife endured a second miscarriage a few days ago, a misfortune attributed by his mother and father to 'wanton carelessness' and 'a laxness of spirit' respectively. Uzaemon's mother considers it her duty to make her daughter-in-law suffer in the same way she suffered as a young bride in the Ogawa Residence. I pity my wife I pity my wife, Uzaemon concedes, but the meaner part of me cannot forgive her for not being Orito but the meaner part of me cannot forgive her for not being Orito. What Orito must endure on Mount Shiranui, however, Uzaemon can only speculate: isolation, drudgery, cold, grief for her father and the life stolen from her and, surely, resentment at how the scholars of the Shirando Academy view her captor as a great benefactor. For Uzaemon to interrogate Enomoto, the Shirando's most eminent sponsor, about his Shrine's Newest Sister would be a near-scandalous breach of etiquette. It would imply an accusation of wrongdoing. Yet Mount Shiranui is as shut to enquiries from outside the domain as Japan is closed to the outside world. In the absence of facts about her well-being, Uzaemon's imagination torments him as much as his conscience. When Dr Aibagawa had seemed close to death, Uzaemon had hoped that by encouraging, or, at least, by not dis discouraging, Jacob de Zoet's proposal of temporary marriage to Orito, he might ensure that she would stay on Dejima. He anticipated, in the longer term, a time when de Zoet would leave Japan, or grow tired of his prize, as foreigners usually do, and she would be willing to accept Uzaemon's patronage as a second wife. 'Feeble-headed,' Uzaemon tells the magnolia tree, 'cock-headed, wrong wrong-headed . . .'

'Who's wrong-headed?' Arashiyama's feet crunch on the stones.

'Yoshida-sama's provocations. Those were dangerous words.'

Arashiyama hugs himself against the cold. 'Snow in the mountains, I hear.'

My guilt about Orito shall dog me, Uzaemon fears, for the rest of my life for the rest of my life.

'Otsuki-sama sent me to find you,' says Arashiyama. 'Dr Marinus is ready, and we are to sing for our supper.' sent me to find you,' says Arashiyama. 'Dr Marinus is ready, and we are to sing for our supper.'

'The Ancient Assyrians,' Marinus sits with his lame leg at an awkward angle, 'used rounded glass to start fires; Archimedes the Greek, we read, destroyed the Roman fleet of Marcus Aurelius with giant burning-glasses at Syracuse, and the Emperor Nero allegedly employed a lens to correct myopia.'

Uzaemon explains 'Assyrians' and inserts 'the island of' before 'Syracuse'.

'The Arab Ibn al-Haytham,' continues the doctor, 'whose Latin translators named Alhazen, wrote his Book of Optics Book of Optics eight centuries ago. The Italian Galileo and the Dutchman Lippershey used al-Haytham's discoveries to invent what we now call microscopes and telescopes.' eight centuries ago. The Italian Galileo and the Dutchman Lippershey used al-Haytham's discoveries to invent what we now call microscopes and telescopes.'

Arashiyama confirms the Arabic name and delivers a confident rendering.

'The lens and its cousin the polished mirror, and their mathematical principles, have evolved a long way through time and space. By virtue of successive advancements, astronomers may now gaze upon a newly discovered planet beyond Saturn, Georgium Sidium, invisible to the naked eye. Zoologists may admire the true portrait of man's most loyal companion . . .

. . . Pulex irritans Pulex irritans.' One of Marinus's seminarians exhibits the illustration from Hooke's Micrografia Micrografia in a slow arc whilst Goto works on the translation. The scholars do not notice his omission of 'successive advancements', which Uzaemon can make no sense of either. in a slow arc whilst Goto works on the translation. The scholars do not notice his omission of 'successive advancements', which Uzaemon can make no sense of either.

De Zoet is watching from the side, just a few paces away. When Uzaemon took his place on the stage, they exchanged a 'Good evening', but the tactful Dutchman has detected the interpreter's reticence and not imposed further. He may have been a worthy husband for Orito He may have been a worthy husband for Orito. Uzaemon's generous thought is stained by jealousy and regret.

Marinus peers through the lamp-lit smoke. Uzaemon wonders whether his discourses are prepared in advance or netted from the thick air extemporaneously. 'Microscopes and telescopes are begat by Science; their use, by Man and, where permitted, by Woman, begets further Science, and Creation's mysteries are unfolded in modes once undreamt of. In this manner Science broadens, deepens and disseminates itself - and via its invention of printing, its spores and seeds may germinate even within this Cloistered Empire.'

Uzaemon does his best to translate this, but it isn't easy: surely the Dutch word 'semen' cannot be related to this unknown verb 'disseminate'? Goto Shinpachi anticipates his colleague's difficulty and suggests 'distribute'. Uzaemon guesses 'germinate' means 'is accepted', but is warned by suspicious glances from the Shirando's audience: If we don't understand the speaker, we blame the interpreter If we don't understand the speaker, we blame the interpreter.

'Science moves,' Marinus scratches his thick neck, 'year by year, towards a new state of being. Where, in the past, Man was the subject and Science his object, I believe this relationship is reversing. Science itself, gentlemen, is in the early stages of becoming sentient.'

Goto takes a safe gamble on 'sentience' meaning 'watchfulness', like a sentry. His Japanese rendition is streaked with mysticism, but so is the original.

'Science, like a general, is identifying its enemies: received wisdom and untested assumption; superstition and quackery; the tyrants' fear of educated commoners; and, most pernicious of all, man's fondness for fooling himself. Bacon the Englishman says it well: "The Human Understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolours the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it." Our honourable colleague Mr Takaki may know the passage?'

Arashiyama deals with the word 'quackery' by omitting it, censors the line about tyrants and commoners, and turns to the straight-as-a-pole Takaki, a translator of Bacon, who translates the quotation in his querulous voice.

'Science is still learning how to talk and walk. But the days are coming when Science shall transform what it is to be a Human Being. Academies like the Shirando, gentlemen, are its nurseries, its schools. Some years ago, a wise American, Benjamin Franklin, marvelled at an air-balloon in flight over London. His companion dismissed the balloon as a bauble, a frivolity, and demanded of Franklin, "Yes, but what use use is it?" Franklin replied, "What use is a newborn child?" ' is it?" Franklin replied, "What use is a newborn child?" '

Uzaemon makes what he thinks is a fair translation until 'bauble' and 'frivolity': Goto and Arashiyama indicate with apologetic faces that they cannot help. The audience watch him, critically. In a low tone, Jacob de Zoet says, 'Toy of a child.' Using this substitute, the anecdote makes sense, and a hundred scholars nod in approval at the Franklin anecdote.

'Had a man fallen asleep two centuries ago,' Marinus speculates, 'and awoken this morning, he should recognise his world unchanged in essence. Ships are still wooden, disease is still rampant. No man may travel faster than a galloping horse, and no man may kill another out of eyeshot. But were the same fellow to fall asleep tonight and sleep for a hundred years, or eighty, or even sixty, on waking he shall not recognise the planet for the transformations wrought upon it by Science.'

Goto assumes 'rampant' is 'deadly' and must reconstruct the final clause.

Marinus's attention, meanwhile, has drifted away over the scholars' heads.