April 6th Castle Day [SS] The Invisible Castle

I select one anniversary from those set for each day and deliver a short-short story inspired by that anniversary. Today's chosen anniversary is here.

[What Day Is Today] -Castle Day

Established in 1990 (Heisei 2) by the Tourism Division of Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture.

The date was chosen based on a pun reading 'shi (4) ro (6)' (castle). The purpose was to promote the city's reconstruction centered on Himeji Castle, and for one week surrounding this day, cultural and tourist facilities around Himeji Castle are opened for free, and cherry blossom viewing parties are held. Also, Nagoya Castle, a symbol of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, designated April 6th as 'Castle Day' in 2002 (Heisei 14) using the same pun. During this period, the 'Nagoya Castle Cherry Blossom Festival' is held.

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[SS] The Invisible Castle

Going back over four hundred years, a castle was built on a small island in Nagasaki Prefecture. It was an unusual castle designed by combining Japanese unique culture with European castles as a model. They built high stone walls and constructed an eight-story castle on top, a height that was unthinkable at the time. The stone wall section looked almost like a pyramid. Because it was a castle built on an island, it was easy to defend from the surroundings as it overlooked the sea.

In a normal castle, the foot of the castle would flourish as a castle town. However, this castle had another area called the 'Foreigner's Quarter' between the castle town and the castle. The Foreigner's Quarter surrounded the castle, and the castle town flourished surrounding the Foreigner's Quarter. This was a trick to make it easier to spot Japanese people trying to approach the castle. It would be conspicuous if a Japanese person wearing a kimono entered the Foreigner's Quarter. Why were they so cautious?

The secret lay inside the castle's stone walls. The interior was dug to a depth of about four basement levels, and beyond that was a room partitioned by a large iron door. It was under such strict guard that ten soldiers were hiding and keeping watch in front of the door. The soldiers were not told what was in that room.

It became a custom for the lord, a foreigner, and a few attendants to enter this room on a fixed day every month. Once they entered this room, they would not come out for two full days. The soldiers kept the secret because they would be beheaded if they pried or talked about it elsewhere.

The lord who entered spoke to one of the foreigners.

"Today is a dinner party in Portugal. My heart races at the thought of being able to drink that delicious wine again."

"Yes, my lord. I believe they are eagerly awaiting your arrival at São Jorge Castle."

While having such a conversation, they proceeded to the back, and everyone walked toward the pitch-black space. The pitch-black space enveloped them as if swallowing them all, and it regained a silence as if no one had been there from the beginning. Everyone had suddenly vanished.

In the basement of São Jorge Castle in Portugal, the Lord of São Jorge Castle and his attendant soldiers were waiting in front of a pitch-black space. After a while, a Japanese person in a kimono, the foreigner who accompanied them, and their attendants appeared from that pitch-black space. This pitch-black space was an interdimensional space connecting the island in Nagasaki and Lisbon in the Netherlands. If this secret passage were known, it would cause panic in both countries. Therefore, strict security and a gag order were in place.

"Welcome, my lord from Japan."

"It has been a while, Lord of São Jorge Castle."

The fact that trade between Japan and Portugal had begun from here is not recorded in historical documents. As a result of keeping the secret, the secret never fully came to light because this interdimensional space naturally disappeared a hundred years later.

The castle actually played a major role in trading with foreign countries, not for fighting wars. Ideas, small furnishings, fruits, etc., were traded by the lords themselves via this interdimensional space, and after confirming the quality, they were distributed to some people in the castle town, leading to large-scale trade by ship.

The two lords who met at São Jorge Castle then drank wine at the dinner party, talked about their recent situations, and discussed the results of their trade. By the way, it is said that the Lord of São Jorge Castle enjoyed the sake brought from Japan in a wine glass and beamed with a smile. In their conversation, they also got excited about the topic of religion, exchanged stories about Japanese Buddhism and European Christianity, and agreed to try spreading them to each other. They then had to bring missionaries, but they decided it would be bad to take missionaries through the secret passage, so they decided to send them to Japan by ship. Of course, the plan was for the missionaries to also board the ship loaded with trade goods.

The banquet ended in about four hours. Both parties were busy, and creating too much of a gap in their schedules would arouse suspicion. Therefore, meetings were generally wrapped up in three to five hours at most. However, since they had to travel through distorted space-time, two days would pass for the people who entered. Consequently, the Japanese members would be away for two days. Because of this, they could not meet frequently. Perhaps, however, that allowed them to have more substantive discussions.

Although trade between Portugal and Japan began in this way, once the interdimensional space vanished, it became impossible to visit easily, and the freshness of the information dropped immediately. The Shogunate, suspicious of the spread of Christianity, began to place restrictions on trade in Nagasaki and even started considering the complete eradication of Christianity. Around this time, the castle that had originally stood on the island burned down in a fire, and a much smaller castle was built in its place. Rumors spread that the lord himself had set the fire, but the truth remains uncertain. At that time, the stacked stone walls and the rooms within them collapsed and were buried, so the area was neatly leveled, and all the rooms leading to the interdimensional space were completely filled in. Thus, all traces of it were erased.

Hidden secrets that do not remain in historical records sleep in the castle. Perhaps they are sleeping alongside treasures.

End

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