Chapter 3.3

"Ah, it's the Junior Monk." Mutou saw off the passing white sedan. "He was out of uniform. The bedside sutras are already over."

Yuuki stared in befuddlement as Mutou murmured.

Mutou had come a calling to him that morning, saying that there was a burial. Villagers came to help out when there were funeral services. It seemed there was an organization called the Mourning Crew made for those in the neighborhoods to help each other out. He knew there was an organization like that but until then Yuuki had never been a part of that Mourning Crew. It was the first time he'd been invited like this, at those words "You coming?" he sensed deep in his heart as he set out that at last he, too, was being entered into the village's society of neighborly graces.

Yet all the same, being lead out of the home by Mutou who had invited him, the surroundings utterly lacked the air of a funeral, and Mutou was headed through Naka-Sotoba to Kami-Sotoba. Yuuki followed after quietly, certain that the services must have been at the temple, yet there they were heading not to the temple, but Kami-Sotoba. Wasn't it a key point that there was a neighborhood association style system in place? Then why must they go to the far and away Kami-Sotoba? Yuuki couldn't make sense of it.

"Mutou-san," Yuuki came to a stop and called to Mutou. "We've come to Kami-Sotoba. Aren't we heading to the temple?"

"We're going to Gotouda's house. We're the Mourning Crew."

"So why---" Just as Yuuki was about to try to ask just what this Mourning Crew was to do, he saw a man coming up from the paths between the rice fields. "Hirosawa-san!"

"Ah, hello," Hirosawa said with his usual gentle smile. "Is that right, Mutou-san and Yuuki-san are also a part of this Mourning Crew?"

"Saying it like that means Hirosawa-san is, too?" Yuuki blinked. This was another thing he couldn't grasp. Yuuki and Mutou were from Naka-Sotoba's third squad, and while he didn't know which squad number Hirosawa was a part of, at the very least he knew he wasn't from squad three. And why were they meeting up at a funeral in Kami-Sotoba?

Hirosawa must have noticed the perplexed look on Yuuki's face, smiling as he rose up to the same level of the road from the fields. "I'm in the same Mourning Crew. Naka-Sotoba Third."

"But…"

"I live in the sixth squad though. However, as the Mourning Crew and the squads are separate things..."

Haa, Yuuki gave with a vague nod.

"Yuuki-san is in the third squad of Naka-Sotoba. I am the sixth squad. That's an administrative division. Sotoba has administrative distinctions, district divisions, with Sotoba itself split into six districts. Each named community is a district. These are further separated into squads, based on where your house is located."

"The Mourning Crew isn't like that?"

"Correct. This is because the village has head families and branch families. The Mourning Crew is fundamentally based on squads but there's also the connection between the branch families not located where the head family is. Auspicious and inauspicious occasions ultimately can't exist separate from consanguinity."

"Ah, is that how it is? Be it auspicious or inauspicious, in the end, those with blood ties will be there either way."

"That's how it is, yes? In the past---until my father's time, there was what was called a Celebratory Crew who got together to offer congratulations but nowadays there aren't any who have weddings in the main family's tatami room, anymore."

"Were the Celebratory Crew and the Mourning Crew the same thing?"

"There is a subtle distinction. The Mourning Crew is in the temple's dominion, but the Celebratory Crew is in the shrine's dominion. The Mourning Crew's management was heavily tied to the temple parishioner's organizations, and the Celebratory Crew was heavily tied to the village's official shrine parish organization. So, though they were the same houses, the Mourning Crew and the Celebratory Crew had a few different members."

[TL/N:- Village Administration (Murakata) and Parish Guilds (Miyaza)

The bakufu are the shogun's government. Shoguns were military generals who were supposed to be a representative of the Holy (under Shintoism) Emperor over the territories they maintained, but in practice the Shoguns truly did run things until the Meiji Restoration, which was the restoration of the Emperor to true power

Under the the bakufu there were those assigned to govern each village. These leaders were the

Village Administration

. The shogunate were strong supporters of and strongly supported by Buddhism, due to varying reasons for each end of the partnership. The Village Administrators assigned their roles were often Buddhist intellectuals of high social status (not priests or the like, though many Buddhist priests also had political status). Assignment varied throughout the ages from being bakufu appointed to village elections.

Buddhist temples were often co-opted as government institutions before the Meiji Restoration. When the Emperor was returned to power (as opposed to being mostly ceremonial while military generals and shoguns were the true rulers) it was with the help of powerful Shintoists and Shintoist intellectuals, whom viewed the Emperor's line as sacred and his rule divine right. Thus Shintoism was instated as the national religion again and the Village Administrations' leaders who were previously in charge of Buddhist religious matters were superseded by Shintoists, called the

Parish Guild

or the Miyaza. They were the ones privileged to engage in Shrine rituals directly;at times,if there were no Shinto priest, they would be the ones to handle the holy relics or go into the areas lay people were not allowed in. Different roles were open to different people, by birth, by election, by status, etc. here as well. In some areas, the Village Administration's government control remained more or less unchanged beyond this, being more or at least as much a government institution as a Buddhist one. In some areas, the Parish Guilds took on more political power, owning land and businesses whose proceeds went to the temple, or to the Parish Guild in the name of the temple. The degree of coexistence, blending, or contest betwixt the groups varied as well as which prevailed.]

"I see," interrupted Mutou. "You didn't get that, so that's why you've been tilting your head like you were confused for a while now."

Yuuki forced a smile. "Right. I was thinking 'what, this is the way to Kami-Sotoba isn't it?' But I see, blood ties, is it."

"That is what it comes down to. I live in the sixth squad but my main family is in the third squad, so I'm affiliated with the Naka-Sotoba's Mourning Crew's third division. Gotouda is the same. Her house is in Kami-Sotoba but her Mourning Crew is the Naka-Sotoba third division."

"I see. Speaking of Hirosawa, they're next to my house. That must be your main family's place, then."

Hirosawa smiled. "It isn't the house next to yours; it's the furthest south in the third squad. They're also Hirosawas, they're the main branch. The Hirosawas that are your neighbors may have long ago been related to ours but as for the present, there is no connection."

"Ah, come to think of it, there were Hirosawas down there too, huh---Now that I think of it, there are a lot of Hirosawa households, aren't there?"

Indeed, Hirosawa nodded.

"There are four distinct family lines in the village. Takemura, Tamo, Yasumori and Murasako are the four houses. Those four appear to have been the families that established the village. There are some who add the Hirosawas and count it as five families, as well. That's how many Hirosawas there are. Lately the Tamo and Murasakos are dwindling too, so I wonder... There may in fact be more Hirosawas, after all. "

Yuuki's eyes widened. "The village was established in-----"

"It seems to have been in the early days of the Edo period."

"Were they here that long? The four families, too? And they're still carrying on right here to this day?"

For someone born and raised in the city like

Yuuki that was at least a bit shocking. Yuuki himself was born in the city but his father was from Touhoku in northern Honshu and his mother was from the Toukai regions in mid-southern Honshu. And you couldn't say they had taken root anywhere; in fact he didn't have any idea where his grandparents' parents' generation may have been or come from.

"Seems to be the case. As for the temple being built, that was about a hundred years after the fact but, by the time the temple was built, the four families and the Hirosawas were already in place. Of course, back then they didn't quite have last names, but."

"That is amazing," Yuuki said with a breath half full of wonder. "That must be what they mean by taking root someplace."

Hirosawa smiled. Looking at it from Yuuki's viewpoint, that was seen as the smile, the composure of one who was firm, resolute from having taken root someplace.

[TL/N:- Of course, back then they didn't quite have last names, but...

- Hirosawa mentioned that there were no last names in the

Edo period (1600s - late 1868)

. In the

Meiji Restoration

(1868) commoners were ordered to take on last names written with an approved set of kanji, but before that, they were the prerogative of samurai and aristocracy. Commoners were referred to with a descriptor of where they were from or what they did instead of their last names, with the particle "no" for "of", for example Maeda no Motoko, (Mae - before, da - field) would be "The Motoko who lives in front of the fields." Even with nobles, referring to them with their last name, the possessive no particle, and then their first name was common, coming out as "Taira no Munemori" to use the example of our previously mentioned Saitou Sanemori's master, which would be "Taira's Munemori." This is used in Shiki on occasion due to there being so many head families and branch families that it's simple to refer to people by their household, and it's translated in that style. Later you'll notice characters referring to Toshio as "Doctor of the Ozaki's." He's being called Ozaki no Sensei there, rather than Ozaki Sensei as usual.]