Rebel Against the Forbidden Crest 4

*Only for use by E-G.

tl by molokidan

128)
REBEL AGAINST THE FORBIDDEN CREST

129)
1: Family crests...in this day in age, there are Japanese families who do not even know the true meaning of the word "family crest" -- but in almost every family, there exists one.
In modern times, these "family crests" have completely lost their utility, but in the olden days, they were looked at with severity and horror, and were images tied to the life of the family line.
When the famous period drama TV show character, Mito Koumon shows his family crest to a daimyo or a government official, they all get shocked and cower on the ground. That Tokugawa crest has been lost since the period in which it was used, and the only crest that holds equal power and still exists today is the Emperor's crysanthemum crest.

2: In this tale, "Rebel Against the Forbidden Crest," a family of rural samurai is found to have the same crest as the family in power. That is how the incident begins.

130)
sign: Yamauchi
1: Gengo-samaaa!

131)
1: Your wife!
2: What is it?!
3: You're being so loud!
4: The master, your father,
5: he was cut down as a traitor!!
6: What?!

132)
1: "Traitor" is not a title that is thrown around easily.
2: Here it is. The family crest.
3: Family crest?
4: Exactly. Why did your father not change his family crest, and insist on wearing clothes that bore the same crest as our lord?
5: He should have already known that it would be construed as a criminal act.
6: Not only was he wearing this, but he was wearing it on the 50th memorial day of our lord's ancestor...to have a mere commoner prance out wearing this crest at such a time...
7: The lord had no other choice but to assume the man was simply rebelling.
8: And so he was sentenced with death...
9: Muu!

133)
1: You mean he wasn't even allowed to commit seppuku like a proper warrior?
2: Uuuu
3: They tortured and sliced him up?!

134)
1: The family crest for the 240,000-koku Yamauchi family in Kouchi, Tosa, is a circle with three oak leaves in it as shown,
2: and is exactly identical to the crest of the vassal Yamauchi Gengo's family, which comes from his ancestors.
3: If they had received the crest-emblazoned clothing as a gift from Lord Yamauchi, it would have been a different matter.
4: But in all other situations, no one was to ever wear such an outfit.
5: In fact, it was a necessity for all other vassals to hurry and change their own crests if a discrepancy arose.
6: In every house, there exists a crest from the mother's side and a crest from the father's side.
7: The mother's crest is made the "frontal crest," and the official crest for the new family.
8: Regardless, Gengo could see how his father was sentenced with death for wearing that crest on his clothes during the 50th anniversary of the lord's ancestor.
9: But why not seppuku?!
10: Did the man choose death on his own? Gengo could not understand his father's actions.

135)
1: Still, they overdid it!
2: They treated him no different than a dog or a cat!
3: They must have done this to try and teach a lesson to us, men of the Chousogabe line of vassals!
4: That's it! Master Genta must have been unable to take it, and talked back to them!
5: It must be a frightening form of discrimination to us rural samurai! They must have been waiting to do this for a long time.
6: Please stop!
7: I am truly thankful for your visits on my father's passing night,
8: but if you are going to keep grumbling on like that, then I would rather you leave!

136)
1: The worst one here is my father for being so careless! Expressing one's hatred to the lord makes absolutely no sense!
2: If you're truly thinking about how we, his surviving family, are going to go on living, then you may grumble, but please keep it to that!
3: You coward!
4: Are you saying you will not even cry after seeing your father meet such an end?!
5: Yes! Exactly!
6: My family's security comes first!

137)
1: You bastard! So you're saying that you won't even cry after seeing your father treated so harshly?!
2: Have you lost your pride as a Chousogabe vassal?!
3: Chousogabe lost to Yamauchi! I've long since forgotten about them!
4: Now leave!
5: Bastard!
6: What a pathetic son Sir Genta bore!
7: I misjudged you! Coward!

138)
1: Don't you think you were a little too rude to those men? They came all the way out here for your father tonight, Gengo.
2: Not at all!
3(2b): Them going on and on about wanting to do something about the treatment my father received is practically like them wishing destruction on our household! They're the rude ones! They just went on and on about whatever they wanted, never giving a real thought to our family!
4: My father's death is my father's death, and nothing more! I, nor my wife and child, have any reason to die as well! Even if some kind of retort to the discrimination of my father appears, that belongs solely to my father! It has nothing to do with us!!
5: Now I want you to all clear your hearts, and keep living out your lives just like we always have!

139)
1: When the funeral service was finished, and things had just started to calm down -- his mother brought all the clothing and equipment that bore the crest out into the garden.
2: Mother, what are you doing?!
3: I am going to burn these for the security of our family.
4: Keeping things with the lord's crest on them will only bring further disaster to us...
5: Good idea! We should hurry to cut off all possible disasters!

140)
1: Burn! Burn! Burn all the crests away! These are dangerous items that couldn't even fetch a penny! All family crests that harbor calamity in their figures -- turn to ash and disappear!
Grandfather's proud armor, the weapons, horse equipment, clothing, and documents we inherited! Everything with a crest on it! It must all turn to smoke and be gone!
Rise up to heaven, to the side of our ancestors! Turn to ash, to soil! Go to the bones of our dead ancestors!
We will now change our crest! We will now change our crest! We will abandon this hateful crest! This horrible crest!

141)
1: What's that, a fire?
2: Over there! Hurry!
3: Three days later, Yamauchi Gengo was called out by a local inspector.
4: It was in a corridor on the north side of the castle, through which the sun could not pierce.
5: I heard you burned all the items you owned that bore your family crest. I would like to ask why.
6: Depending on the answer as to why you burned items bearing the same crest as your lord, you and all of your family may end up in a very unpleasant situation!

142)
1: The answer is simple. Since continuing to possess any items that bore the same crest of my lord would be seen as blasphemous, I burned them all.
2: So you say that your loyalty has not changed.
3: Of course.
4: Then lick this.
5: This is an oak leaf, just like in the crest.

143)
1: Please do not toy with me.
2: Licking that will do nothing to prove my loyalty.
3: Whether you throw it in fire, water, shit, or urine, it doesn't matter! Loyalty is loyalty!
4: Fine then, please show me how by licking it yourself.
5: You little...!
6: I come from a line of hereditary vassals who have served Lord Yamauchi since his family first entered Tosa! We are completely different from you Chousogabe brigands, who fought against the Yamauchi's initial entrance like the broad-faced traitors you are!
7: If you do not lick it, then you will simply be labeled as a traitor just like your father was, and I will cut you down where you stand!
8: Well, what are you going to do?! Do you want your entire family to lose their lives?!
9: Answer me!

144)
1: Please allow me to lick it so that you can ascertain my loyalty...
2: And he licked...the oak leaf, drenched in rotting feces and urine--
3: OK, you're loyal! You can go now!
4: Look at him, sticking his chest out with that stupid Chousogabe pride of his,
5: when he's actually just the descendant of a bunch of losers.
6: hahahaha

145)
1: News of the leaf incident spread, until it reached the ears of the retired Chousogabe retainers.
2: What?! Gentazaemon's son did what?!
3: Hearing this, the stubborn old Chousogabe men who had protected the pride and honor of the family for their whole lives became especially furious!
4: Exactly!
5(3b): Rip him limb from limb! If that Gengo intends on trampling our pride this much, we can no longer excuse him for being young or green! We need to show those Yamauchi bastards that we aren't soft-hearted enough to turn our eyes away from something like this!

146)
1: And so they ran to Gengo's house!
2: Within the Yamauchi sphere of influence, there existed many hereditary vassals who called themselves "elite samurai," and differentiated themselves from commoners like the Chousogabe family, who ruled Tosa before it was taken over.
3: The discrimination between the groups was so great that if, for example, a common samurai was to hurt a single elite samurai, the elite samurai would have the right to to outright kill the assailant's family, or perhaps at least three people involved with the incident.
4: It was the rage born from incidents like these that pushed the old men's legs to Gengo's house!
5: Prepare yourself, Gengo!

147)
1: Please wait! Please wait!
2: The reason I swallowed my grief and burned our ancestor's things was so that my son Gengo could safely start a new life! I never thought it would turn out like this! Please! Please! Forgive this foolish woman!
3: Mother!
4: You devils!

148)
1: After that, it became an unbridled bloodbath...

149)
1: Then, they picked up Gengo's blade along with the dead bodies and left...
2: It stunk of human blood.
3: And only silence remained.
words: We may have been made into commoners, but we will not be underestimated!

150)
1: No one ever found out where Gengo had escaped to.
2: And then, just as the crest incident
3: had disappeared from people's minds...
4: Curious eyes gathered in front of the gate to Kouchi Castle.
5: What, what's going on?

151)
1: The one drawing all the attention was a man with the oak leaf crest tattooed on his chest.
2: My body is inherently filthy, so I'll pay anyone who tramples me. Hear that, beggars? All you need to do is step on me to earn money!
3: Give me money! I'll step on you, I'll step on you!
4: Here!
5: Wait, wait!
6: I'll step on you too!
7: Of course, the samurai could not ignore this, and trouble soon began!
8: Waaaah!

152)
1: Skin him!

153)
1(2b): I am a man who has lost any reason to go on living! I have long since determined that this will be the place where I die! I simply have one request: I want old vassals of the Chousogabe clan to take a good look at the pride I have as a fellow vassal! That is all!
2: Absolutely not! We will not allow you to commit seppuku as long as you still wear that skin!
3: This skin is exactly what I desire to carve and mangle!
4: You bastard!
5: Go ahead, try it!
6: We'll rip it off before you can even pierce it!
7: Interesting!

154)
1: Ryaaaaah
2: As Yamauchi Gengo struggled to slice through the crest, Ootsubo Bei tried his hardest to rip the crest off in its entirety. And so, like lunatics, the two of them clashed.

155)
1: Unable to do anything about the fierce struggle, the surrounding men could do nothing but watch.
2: And Bei was actually able to rip off Gengo's skin while leaving the crest in tact.
3: But the crest on Gengo's back was carved up horribly by his blade, and when he died, he was gripping Bei's head in his left hand.
THE END