Cursed Land Chapter 4 Yukako 1

Yukako stood in the Buddhist altar room, staring at a soaking wet, naked woman. The woman was holding a baby in her arms, and her lower abdomen was split wide open. One could see the baby's umbilical cord, stained with dark red blood, connected deep into the woman's entrails. The woman pointed one hand toward the ground. While pointing beneath the tatami mats in front of the Buddhist altar, she was vomiting up thick, bloody bubbles from her mouth. Blood that had turned black pooled at the woman's feet, gradually eroding the tatami mats. Just as the blood was about to reach Yukako's feet, she gasped and woke up.

She sat up, breathing heavily. Her mouth felt incredibly dry. Her forehead was damp with cold sweat. Her husband was sleeping beside her before she knew it. Looking at the clock on her smartphone, it showed three in the morning. The woman who always appears in her dreams points to the tatami mats in the Buddhist altar room, but what could it mean?

Yukako quietly got up, left the bedroom, and opened the sliding door to the Buddhist altar room. Several dolls had fallen from the alcove and were rolling on the tatami. When she turned on the light in the room, the situation became clear. One of them was an old wooden doll that should have been at the very back. There was a dark red liquid on the doll's kimono. A bloody handprint, as if it had been held, stood out clearly on the fabric. Was this the doll the woman in the dream was holding? Was her body asleep while her soul was confronting the woman in the altar room? She couldn't tell, but she was finally convinced that there was a connection between the woman and the doll.

With the forty-ninth day memorial service only a few days away, Yukako had contacted them in advance and headed to the family temple, Ryoun-ji, in the morning. She went to discuss the arrangements for the forty-ninth day and to ask to see the Ino family's death register and family tree.

There was a parking lot within the grounds of Ryoun-ji in the middle of town, and Yukako parked her car there. The gravel path ended, and from the boundary of the paving stones, it turned into crushed stone. As she walked along the large square paving stones, there was the main hall, and behind it was a charnel house that looked about four stories high. The chief priest's residence was further back. While the main hall was magnificent, the residence was spacious and old, but it was well-maintained, and there was not a hint of the gloominess found in the Yachi house.

Ryoun-ji belongs to the Nichiren sect, and the main image, Shakyamuni Buddha, is enshrined in the open main hall. The gentle, compassionate expression on its face is impressive, and the folds of its robe, like flowing water, look as if they would flutter lightly if the wind blew.

Yukako walked straight to the residence and rang the intercom at the entrance. An elderly woman greeted her immediately.

"Welcome, you didn't get lost, did you? Come on in, come on in."

"I had a car navigation system, so I was fine. Well then, excuse me."

Urged by the priest's wife, she took off her shoes and changed into the slippers lined up at the entrance step. The entrance foyer was wide enough that they wouldn't have any trouble even if a large number of parishioners came at once. A hallway extended immediately after entering, branching to the right and left. The chief priest poked his head out from the hallway on the right.

Chief Priest Itsuki of Ryoun-ji is an elderly man with a refined face and a gentle demeanor. Since he had been more than helpful during the wake and funeral, Yukako had a very good impression of him. She was shown into the parlor of the house, which also served as a residence, and was served tea.

"How is it? Have you gotten used to life here?"

The chief priest asked gently. She had managed to get used to life there, but the house was still scary. Since the chief priest was someone who dealt with Buddha on a daily basis, if she consulted him about the strange occurrences at the Ino house, he might give her some advice.

"Somehow."

Thinking this, Yukako smiled as if to hide her inner turmoil.

When the conversation ended and the chief priest was about to stand up, Yukako stopped him and asked about the death register.

"The Ino family's death register? I have that kept safely. It seems it was entrusted to us when the Ino family sold off their storehouse. We also have the family tree. Both are quite old, so please be careful when looking at them."

She wondered how old they were, but the death register and the scroll containing the family tree that the priest brought out were yellowed enough to make one feel the passage of time, yet she could see they were well-preserved without any insect damage. Both had old Japanese paper pasted on the front with characters that looked like squirming earthworms written in ink. The chief priest lined them up on the low table and opened them. The death register became somewhat easier to read from around where the era names were written, but even so, Yukako could not understand what was written.

"What is this name?"

"The Ino family is an old lineage, and this death register alone is likely valuable. After all, the era name Keicho can be seen, so it is a death register from before the Edo period."

"From the Azuchi-Momoyama period?"

"That's right. Even counting roughly, your father-in-law is the 44th head of the family, so it has been a considerable number of years."

The number 44 struck a chord with Yukako. There are 40 dolls. If that wood-carved doll with the bloody handprint is the oldest, perhaps the first head of the family crafted the dolls.

"Who is the first head of the Ino family?"

"The name at the very top of the family tree is Kahei. But he did not take a wife and adopted Isuke instead. So, Kahei never married in the end."

"Then, is Isuke the direct descendant of the Ino family?"

"Kahei is the first generation. Isuke is the second. I suppose you could say the bloodline starts from Isuke."

The chief priest said while flipping through the death register.

"Counting from Kahei, what generation would it be by the Meiji period?"

Wait a moment, the chief priest said, pressing his finger on the family tree and counting.

"Let's see, would it be the 40th generation?"

It matched the number of dolls after all. My husband also said that the ones from the Meiji period were the newest Japanese dolls. If the head of the family had been making one in each of their generations, there should be 44 dolls by my father-in-law's generation. Why did they suddenly stop making dolls from the Meiji period onwards?

"Um... Chief Priest, do you know anything about the Yachi family?"

She dared to refer to the Ino family that way. She felt there was some connection to Kahei, who had gone out of his way to settle on land where corpses had been discarded.

"Ah, there is a note written about the Ino family here. It seems Kahei reclaimed the marshland and made it his own property. Since it was a wetland, there probably wasn't an owner. After he turned that land into a manor and became the landlord of the entire Yachi area, Isuke inherited that manor and it flourished even more."

Yukako, who had gradually become accustomed to reading the death register and family tree, discovered that for generations, the firstborn child had passed away at a young age. Not only that, but several heads of the family had lost their firstborn child along with their legal wife, and subsequently took a mistress as their second wife.

"In that case, the Ino family isn't a direct bloodline in the true sense, is it?"

"That's right. The Ino family always loses their firstborn, and the second child inherits the house. Toshimasa also lost his older brother who had just been born."

Yukako was surprised by the information she was hearing for the first time.

Did the master have an older brother?

Toshia-san's father also lost an older sister, didn't he?

Are you sure they really always die? Could it not be a mistake in the records?

The family register is recorded by the head of the family and the successive chief priests of the family temple, so if it were a mistake, why would they do such a thing?

The chief priest raised a simple question.

Even though they stopped making dolls in the Meiji era, the phenomenon of the firstborn child dying continued. Yukako felt that this too was tied to the karma entangled with the Yachi family. She unconsciously placed her hand on her stomach. If it were true that the head of the family's firstborn child always dies...

The chief priest sensed Yukako's state and said worriedly.

You don't need to be so anxious. It could just be a coincidence.

Is it possible for the first baby to always die by mere coincidence?

Even so, the Yachi family, which had been so prosperous, suddenly declined after entering the Meiji era. They sold off their land piece by piece, and now they are left with only the current plot.

They declined after they stopped making dolls; this also seems to have some connection.

I see...

The chief priest closed the family register.

Has your anxiety been resolved?

Is it a grudge related to death that is nesting in the Yachi family? Or is that completely unrelated?

Um... Chief Priest, do you believe in mysterious phenomena?

The chief priest looked puzzled.

What do you mean by that?

Strange things happen in the house all the time. Dolls I haven't even touched rolling in the hallway, or hearing footsteps, are everyday occurrences.

Were there dolls in Ino-san's house? But wouldn't it be fine if you just treated them with care?

The chief priest answered while tilting his head in thought.

I should have come to the Yachi house for my parents-in-law's wake, so could I have overlooked them? It is unthinkable that such conspicuous and eerie dolls would not have caught my eye.

If I treat them with care, will the strange occurrences stop?

That is hard to say.

The chief priest gave a troubled, bitter smile.

Perhaps the chief priest cannot see spirits. When I asked him to perform an exorcism on the house, he refused, saying he could only chant sutras. Yukako felt disappointed, thinking he would not be of much help.

Then, I would appreciate your help with my mother-in-law's forty-ninth day memorial service.

Indeed, since it is also your father-in-law's seventeenth memorial service, let us hold them together. Shall I visit your home?

Would that be alright? Please, I would appreciate it.

All I learned from looking at the family register was that the firstborn of the head of the family always dies, and that there were several legal wives who likely died from complications after childbirth.

After finishing my shopping and returning home, I went to the kitchen, feeling weary from the oppressive humidity. Having seen the female spirit pointing at the Buddhist altar room, I guessed that there must be something in there. If so, I thought I might capture that something in a photo, so Yukako took her smartphone and slid open the sliding door to the Buddhist altar room. The light from the hallway shone into the darkness, making the Buddhist altar appear faintly. The woman had been standing in front of the altar. I held up my smartphone and clicked the shutter several times.

Among the many identical photos I took, I found one strange image.

It showed a shadow that looked as if something black and round was welling up from the tatami mats. The photos before and after it showed the Buddhist altar blurred in gray due to the flash. The image was grainy, so I thought it might just be my imagination, but I felt that if I showed this to Ichio, he might be able to tell me more, so Yukako closed the sliding door, returned to the living room, and sent the image to Ichio's email address.

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