Introduction

This is an attempt at archiving, contributing and eventually finishing the unfinished Kurotokage project. A Delta Green scenario set in Japan.

The Kurotokage sourcebook was a project by several Delta Green fans to write and publish a physical book about the Kurotokage. The project lead and webmaster, Edward Lipsett, announced that the material was becoming public domain in 2003, relinquishing the original copyright over a failed commission from a published author.

The Kurotokage website no longer exists. The most recent snapshot of its front page on archive.org dates from December 2006. A Fairfield Project team rescued the material from the Wayback Machine to this site in 2012.

In the process of importing the material, a decision was made by Oliver Graf and Viktor Eikman to maintain an archive of unmodified texts in the archive category of the wiki, as well as a set of living documents here in the default category. The archive equivalent to this page resides here (notice the link is to archive:kurotokage-index).

The material planned for the sourcebook remains in the public domain, and is still somewhat fragmentary. When you find that information is missing, please consider contributing to this and other living documents. The goal is to complete the work here.

Overview to keep track of what’s going on

Amaterasu

Sometime between 1000 and 2000 BC, a woman named Ashi (reed) became a shamaness for a tribe of native Japanese living in the Miyazaki, Kyushu region (called Hyuga). She was a skilled Dreamer, and used her skill to help propel her tribe to dominance of the extended region, eliminating/absorbing various other tribes.

While facing a Mythos threat to her people, or perhaps Japan as a whole, she went to a secret underground palace under Mt. Fuji, which was also (maybe?) a gateway to DL. She captured a piece of Azathoth in a “bottle” successfully. She did it because her normal Dreaming power couldn’t handle the situation, so she turned to the very forces she hated. She won, but she was changed by the summoning and POW-boost from the Azathoth fragment. This is what allowed her to Dream the RW, for a limited time, defeating a Mythos god, maybe. But when she died, she ended up in the DLs, and was drawn to more Mythos contact, resulting in her insanity, and her desire (obsession) to turn the RW into Dreamlands.

The POW leakage from bottled Azathoth attracted Byakhee to around Mt. Fuji; they became established in Japanese folklore as tengu, and many of them indeed took on various human traits due to massive infusions of human genetic material over the centuries. By present-day times, essentially all of them are gone, because there is no more POW left from the Azathoth bottle.

She died, but continued to survive in DL. She later discovered that she was capable of exchanging information with, controlling and sometimes taking over the bodies of her descendents. She tried this a number of times, always expanding her kingdom’s region and power, and in the process establishing her own origins as sacred, creating the Sun Goddess religion. Her descendents had demonstrated power, and were recognized as, in fact, a sacred bloodline.

As her power in both DL and the real world grew, she not only wanted more and more power, but also (1) started to go insane due to contact with the Mythos, and (2) discovered that, on rare occasions, she could control events in the real world from DL - in a sense, dreaming reality. This defined her long-term plan, which was to return to the real world as the Ultimate God, twisting reality there as she could Dream “reality” in the DL. Her tool would be the imperial bloodline, driven by the power of Azathoth.

Amaterasu’s plan, which she has been carefully trying to guide to fruition for centuries, is to infuse the Real World with the essence of the Dreamlands. This would allow her to reenter the RW as a powerful god, and use it’s new DLs “plasticity” to defeat Cthulhu and other Mythos powers, kicking them out of the Solar System and staking it out as her territory. She would thus be saving Earth from the Great Old Ones - except she’d be one of them herself, and humans (whatﾍs left of them after the God War) would be her servitors.

In order to pull this off, she needs a suitable candidate in the RW: one of her descendants, with a powerful Dreaming ability and incredible will. Due to the inbreeding over the centuries, and the way the people surrounding the Emperor have always done their best to stamp out any signs of willfulness in the young Imperial heirs (to make them easier to manipulate), such candidates are hard to find. She has tried and failed several times (witness WW2). At present, she seems not to be trying with the current Emperor or his eldest son. And this son is having no luck in producing an heir, male or female. But that is no guarantee of safety – it might be that she needs a female vessel (which might be why the Imperial line long ago went from placing females on the throne to placing males there). And there is talk lately of putting a woman on the Chrysanthemum Throne if no male heirs are born.

Also, the process of infusing the RW with the essence of the DLs will almost certainly destroy the DLs, or at least change them profoundly (as described in Davide Mana’s “Dream Reaper”). This could mean the deaths of millions and the destruction of the repository of humanity’s collective unconscious.

The Taira Emperor and the Emperor of Japan

1. At the conclusion of the Gempei Wars (1185), the Emperor Antoku jumped from a ship at Shimonoseki, carrying the Sword (one of the three sacred imperial regalia) with him to his (presumed) death. The Minamoto took power, and Taira were hunted down and killed. In fact, Antoku did not die, and was the founder of the Emperor in Exile bloodline. That bloodline is still alive, in secret. (We refer to this guy as The Taira Emperor.) His goals are to (1) free the imperial family from Mythotic connections, (2) protect the common people, (3) become Emperor, in that order. The Taira Emperor, or The Taira, wields the real anti-Mythos power.

New: Two possibilities here, namely (1) Antoku (or his brain trust) formed an organization to keep an eye on the doings of the Emperor. At some later time (we need to figure out when and why), the group was taken over by the Emperor. (2) The group was created by the Emperor, and later penetrated by The Taira.

1. Go-Daigo was very unhappy with the pro-Mythos leanings of the emperor, and made an effort to wrest control back, with the idea of returning it to the Taira Emperor. He failed, and his line was relegated to poverty forever. That bloodline still exists, in public (reference) Nobody bothers to kill him because he is so obviously unimportant. In Wakeworld he is in fact unaware of his identity as The Taira, and lives a normal life, in fact a bit embarrassed about his ancestors because of the publicity. All activities related to The Taira are handled in Dreamlands, often when The Taira is brought there by the Taininhodo. As a result, there are no communications in Wakeworld to be tapped by conventional police means available to the Kurotokage or Kuromaku.

Organizations and drives

1. Taininhodo monks. In 1185, the Emperor was protected by these guys. These monks are not especially “for” the Invisible pretender and “against” the Mythos, but they are basically The Taira’s bodyguards and hands. They are the only continuing support that The Taira has, since most operatives are recruited and wasted. The monastery serves as a kind of base, and the monks providing spiritual help (which can be as mundane as counseling and teaching meditation techniques to help recover lost SAN, or perhaps the monks actually know some magic).

Also, since most other operatives are in Kurotokage and therefore suspect (ie, tainted with the possibility that they belong to the Emperor), the single most important task of the Taininhodo is to protect The Taira. They isolate him from contact with outsiders by the simple but effective means of keeping all matters related to The Taira in Dreamlands, including the fully-aware consciousness of The Taira. They may require some method of being able to detect spies.

These guys are Buddhists. Their goals are for everybody to live in peace. As long as the Mythos nasties keep eating people, they will keep fighting the Mythos. They have no especial gripe against Mythotic creatures who DON’T eat people - this is a crucial difference. They also dislike people who hurt people, remember. They have, on occasion, fed ghouls dead bodies because they felt bad about “living” creatures (ghouls) suffering. If the IP moved to hurt lots of people, they would might well stop supporting him (ordering agents to certain death doesn’t count!)

1. Kurotokage, the Emperor’s anti-mythos organization. This organization, a semi-secret within the Japanese government, officially fights mythos creatures, drawing on people and resources from JSDF, National Police, etc, etc. It is directed by the Emperor, who is in fact using it to (1) waste potential Mythos opposition, (2) gain Mythotic information that could be of use, and (3) lay the groundwork for making himself a god. The organization itself, obviously, is not supposed to know about (2) and (3). Since this organization has the active backing of the Emperor, it has access to considerable resources. In addition, it enjoys strong ties with both corporate Japan and the yakuza.

Within Kurotokage there are three groups that matter. These are (1) the general gophers, who basically do everything that Kurotokage is supposed to be doing. (2) The Kuromaku, a high-echelon group which knows about his ultimate goals, and is actively working to assist him (these guys are REALLY nasty; see below), and (3) the poor good guys, usually people who have discovered that Kurotokage is bad, and are working to do something about it. This totally secret group is within the government, run by The Taira. They have essentially zero organizational resources other than what they personally can scrape up, or what the Invisible pretender provides (he has plenty of cash, since he had access to imperial funds over the centuries, one way or another…). The good guys have few resources, because while the Invisible pretender does have cash, it is very difficult to spend it on anything without being noticed (remember, the yakuza and corporate Japan belong to the Emperor’s organization [However, those same organizations can be counter-controlled by The Taira, as Mark showed in his essay on the virtues of disorganization]). As a result, deniable operations where operatives are lost in action are common, and operatives accept the fact that they are expendable. The group needs all the help it can get, and non-Japanese operatives are not uncommon. It is more a group of people working toward a common goal (or perhaps, away from a common fear…) than an organization. They lack dg’s ability to cover things up, because they are mostly individuals or very small groups, and not an organization. And they can never know whether the person next to them is working for the good guys or the bad guys.

The primary goal of the “Good guys” (3) is to prevent the Emperor from becoming a god, their secondary goal to protect the common people, and their least important goal to restore the Invisible pretender to the throne. They have few resources, face an enemy with the official strength of Japan at his fingertips (their fellow Kurotokage operatives and the rest of the government), and recognize that they are probably expendable.

The primary goal of the Kurotokage bad guys, on the other hand, is to protect the common people, but they are being used by the Emperor, and a few of them have realized the truth. This leads to conflict as they try to balance their loyalty for the Emperor with their genuine desire to protect people. They have extensive organizational resources to draw on, but a few of them realize they may be supporting the wrong people. If they are willing to try to do something about it, they become Good guys within Kurotokage.

The Kuromaku

This “group” is responsible for carrying out Amaterasu’s plan, although they usually have their own agendas instead of hers. They are also the ones who fill in a new Emperor on what’s happening, in the event that Amaterasu doesn’t (which is common; getting straight info from a crazy shamaness who died maybe 4000 years ago and is communicating through dreams, is not an easy task). As a result, individual members of the Kuromaku may know considerably more about what’s going on than the Emperor himself.

The Kuromaku is the name generally used to describe the group of men (this is Japan; probably no women in this group [although women may play important, but unofficial roles, and Dave Farnell has promised us some info on the remains of the pre-Meiji concubine intel network]) who often decide the course of the Japanese nation. There is no formal organization, and the members rarely meet. The Kuromaku itself, as a group, has no resources, no people, no buildings, no funds. It is not an organization in any Western sense of the word, but rather a nickname used to refer to the way that the “makers and shakers” behind the scenes cooperate with each other to move Japan. The last full meeting took place on August 13, 1945, after the Hiroshima bombing. Members were called to the hospital room of Tamasaburo Imasaki, the real head of the Mitsuboshi group, who was dying of old age, and by the time they had arrived the second bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki. They had little to discuss; the Emperor was informed in no uncertain terms that Japan would surrender (Japan accepted unconditional surrender on August 14 1945).

Since it is not an organization in a true sense, it is difficult to determine precisely when the Kuromaku came into existence. Its origins definitely trace back to the earliest periods of recorded Japanese history, when the Emperor in power would “retire,” turning apparent political power over to his son but in fact retaining all control. As the power of the warriors increased over the years, control of the nation gradually slipped from the hands of the Emperor, and the heads of military-political groups would meet with each other to discuss key issues, settling things quietly (when they could agree on a course of action - as often as not, the result was warfare).

As the merchant class emerged in the middle ages, the sheer power of money fueled the entry of several people into this select group, which, by this time, recognized itself as the actual power of Japan. As today, they almost never met, primarily because they knew they could never trust any of the other members, but also because they had little to talk about - almost by definition, members combined vast economic strength and a lust for power with an almost total lack of ethics. As a result, they could often accurately predict what other members would think of a situation, and act appropriately on major issues such as national policy. And when a problem flared between two members, they usually settled it themselves, and the other members wisely kept their noses out of the affair.

At the present there are seven (maybe) members, although new members can enter the group at any time by basically forcing the other members to accept them through sheer power (economic, military, political), successful blackmail of other group member or members (thus proving their fitness), or by achieving control of an existing member. It is also possible for existing members to be destroyed (for example, if the head of Hidachi, who would probably NOT be the president or chairman of the board, or even an officer, dies without arranging for a suitable replacement, Hidachi as a corporation continues business as usual, and is unaware that anything has happened. But the Hidachi group would no longer have any say in the Kuromaku, which would mean major advantages to Mitsue and Mitsuboshi.)

The current members are (in no particular order):

1. Head of Mitsuboshi zaibatsu Imura Koujin; 井邑晧人. For background info, see: Information on Mitsubishi 1945 president
2. Head of Mitsue zaibatsu Utano Ikichi (歌野亥吉)
3. Head of Hidachi zaibatsu (possible conflict with Adam’s ideas for Green Dragons).
4. Aozora-kai (Blue Sky Association), a group of strategic planners within MITI who have been working to achieve their own aims since the end of World War Two, including the Vice-Minister. Their aims are basically endless growth and development for “Japan Inc” as a nation, with little consideration for the individual Japanese citizen. No particular Mythos connections; sheer power grubbers.
5. Head of Black Ocean Society or Green Dragons (need input from Adam)
6. Head of the yakuza (possible conflict with Adam’s ideas for Green Dragons)
7. Some group within the Imperial Palace, possibly the traditional heads of Shinto and related traditional rite and ritual, who would also be the guys grooming the new Emperor-to-be for his night out with Amaterasu. Another possibility is the Imperial Household Agency, Archives and Mausolea Department, Mausolea and Tombs Division (see: Imperial Household Agency (in Japanese)).

Of the kuromaku, the head of group 7 is always one of the shoka (see chapter on Amaterasu), and other kuromaku members have also been shoka in the past.

During the Edo Era (1603-1868), when the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled, the kuromaku consisted of:

1. Head of Black Ocean Society or Green Dragons (need input from Adam)
2. Head of the yakuza (possible conflict with Adam’s ideas for Green Dragons)
3. Some group within the Imperial Palace, possibly the traditional heads of Shinto and related traditional rite and ritual, who would also be the guys grooming the new Emperor-to-be for his night out with Amaterasu.
4. The Shogun himself in the early years, but only until 1709 when the Shogun Tokugawa Tsuneyoshi died. From that time he was basically a tool of one group or another, usually the kuromaku.
5. Imagawa Shimbei, the head of the Silk Merchants’ Guild, centered in the major trading cities of Sakai, Kyoto and Nagasaki. This was founded as a secret cartel of silk merchants during the 16th century, and in 1604 received a monopoly on the import and distribution of Chinese silk, which represented enormous wealth. Imagawa scrabbled his way to the top in 1596 and remained there until 1638; his son Imagawa Takataro took over both the Guild and the kuromaku membership at his death and remained in power until he died in 1673 and the kuromaku membership was lost. The Guild itself remained rich and powerful until early Meiji.
6. I’m sure there are others we need to add… any ideas?

Confused explanations of relationships between Amaterasu, Emperor, Kurotokage and Kuromaku

Amaterasu sometimes controls the Emperor, sometimes another person in the Imperial bloodline. Sometimes she is missing, and the Emperor does what he wants.

When the Emperor has been filled in by Amaterasu on the situation (infected?), he works to make himself or his descendents a god. Kurotokage is a tool he uses to wipe out Mythotic competition, and collect info and power for his own use. He works with selected groups in the Kuromaku and Kurotokage to do nasty things, too.

He uses and is used by the Kuromaku, who have their own motivations. Some of the Kuromaku are Mythotic (Green Dragons, for example); others are merely after money. Most are neither anti- nor pro-Mythos, but may use it if it suits their needs (remember, the key factor for becoming a member of the Kuromaku is a lack of ethics).

The Emperor that the Green Dragons want is not the same Emperor that Amaterasu wants, because each of them wants to CONTROL the Emperor. And, not surprisingly, the Emperor often wants to control himself, too.

General information on Japan

• Modern Japanese society in brief (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• Being a gaijin in modern Japan (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• Japanese names (TO-DO)
• Transportation in Japan (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• Prices in Japan (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• Law enforcement (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• The American military presence in Japan (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• Crime, yakuza, availability of guns etc in Japan (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• Brief outline of religion in Japan (Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam) (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)
• Note on romanization of Japanese and name conventions (PDF file)

Japanese history and timeline (real and Mythos)

• Early myths and legends (most history only covered in timeline)

Meiji history

The modern emperors of Japan, from Meiji to Naruhito, have played pivotal roles in the country’s history. This series explores their lives, beginning with Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito).

Emperor Meiji - Early Years (1852-1867):

• Born as Mutsuhito in 1852, Emperor Meiji ascended to the throne during the Meiji Era (1867-1911).
• At eight months old, Admiral Perry’s arrival marked a significant moment in Japanese history.
• His father, Emperor Komei, was a relatively powerless figure, and the Imperial Family had been secluded and weakened for centuries.
• The Imperial Family faced challenges, including high infant mortality rates and political isolation.
• Raised by his grandfather, Lord Nakayama, Mutsuhito, later known as Prince Sachi, was a delicate child prone to tantrums.
• The concubines surrounding him, part of his intelligence force, controlled information and had connections across Japan and Asia.
• These concubines, forming an Amaterasu Cult, held secrets vital during the period when the Emperors were kept powerless by the Shoguns.

Political Turmoil and Shogunate Decline (1867-1868):

• Emperor Komei strongly opposed opening up to the West, advocating for isolationist policies.
• The Tokugawa Shogunate signed unequal treaties with the West, leading to public unrest and the “Sonno Joi” movement, urging the expulsion of foreigners.
• The Choshu and Satsuma Clans, initially allied against foreign influence, faced internal conflicts due to differing goals.
• Choshu attacked the Imperial Palace in 1864, aiming to capture the Emperor, but was repelled, causing chaos in Kyoto.
• Emperor Komei supported the Shogunate against the conspirators, surprising them and leading to internal strife among the clans.
• The Emperor, powerless but a symbol of unity, played a role in shaping the events of this tumultuous period.

End of Shogunate and Emperor Meiji’s Rise (1868-1872):

• Choshu and Satsuma secretly collaborated, leading to the downfall of the Shogunate.
• In 1868, Emperor Komei died, and Prince Mutsuhiro became Emperor Meiji.
• Despite being declared the restored Emperor, Meiji’s power remained limited, as real political influence rested elsewhere.
• Internal power struggles and external threats marked this period, with the Green Dragons and Kuromaku potentially playing significant roles.

Emperor Meiji’s early years set the stage for Japan’s transformation, as the country navigated internal conflicts and external pressures. The next parts of this series will delve into the significant events and policies during the Meiji Era.

Amaterasu’s birth, death and plots

Sometime between 1000 and 2000 BC, a woman named Ashi (reed) became a shamaness for a tribe of native Japanese living in the Miyazaki, Kyushu region (called Hyuga). She was a skilled Dreamer, and used her skill to help propel her tribe to dominance of the extended region, eliminating/absorbing various other tribes.

When she faced a Mythos threat to her people, she discovered an underground series of caverns (mostly tunnels formed by ancient lava tubes) in and around Mt. Fuji, which had an enormous reserve of natural POW. Much of this POW derived from connections to the Dreamlands. She had visited DL many times through conventional means, but now she had an easier route, and she used it to rapidly improve her mastery of DL-related magic. She captured a piece of Azathoth in a “bottle” successfully. She did it because her normal Dreaming power couldn’t handle the situation, so she turned to the very forces she hated. She won, but she was changed by the summoning and POW-boost from the Azathoth fragment. This is what allowed her to Dream Wakeworld, for a limited time, defeating the Mythos threat but also dying in the process.

The POW leakage from bottled Azathoth attracted Byakhee to around Mt. Fuji; they became established in Japanese folklore as tengu, and many of them indeed took on various human traits due to massive infusions of human genetic material over the centuries. By present-day times, essentially all of them are gone, because there is no more POW left from the Azathoth bottle.

She was dead for an unknown period of time, and when she became conscious again, she discovered that she was in her own DL (named “Takama-no-Hara”, or 高天原), where she indeed ruled supreme as the center of the universe. She spent an unknown period of time there, recovering, working to recall memories from her former life in Wakeworld (mostly successful), and building up new POW and skills. As she developed, so did Takama-no-Hara.

She discovered that she was capable of exchanging information with, controlling and sometimes taking over the bodies of her descendents. She tried this a number of times, always expanding her kingdom’s region and power, and in the process establishing her own origins as sacred, creating the Sun Goddess religion. Her descendents had demonstrated power, and were recognized as, in fact, a sacred bloodline.

Queen Himiko

Her first successful conquest in Wakeworld was Himiko (卑弥呼; born c. 154). Himiko was of the bloodline of Amaterasu, born into the So family (宗), a hereditary line dedicated to the worship of the gods of Japan (including Amaterasu), and because of her extremely strong dreaming power was recognized as the leading oracle. The name Himiko, in fact, was a corruption of the name Himuka, which Amaterasu had used centuries earlier when the Hyuga tribe was just beginning to expand in present-day Miyazaki. Her kingdom (Yamatai; 邪馬台國) was one of several major kingdoms in the region around present-day Kyoto and Nara, each ruled by a King. The Yamatai were recognized as the religious leaders of a loose confederation, due to the strength of their So oracle group. Amaterasu happened on the scene in about 182, sharing Himiko’s mind and body, and shortly thereafter the Yamatai king died (c. 184). He had not designated a successor, and had no sons, so that a civil war seemed likely, but suddenly the heads of the two opposing camps suddenly announced their support to make a neutral third party, namely Himiko, Queen. (It was noted that the hair of one of them had turned pure white the prior night, while the other had apparently suffered a minor stroke, often drooling or bursting into tears. Both died within a week.)

Queen Himiko was generally acclaimed by the people, as she was already well known as the leading oracle. Yamatai immediately began a period of astonishing development and expansion. First, her kingdom suddenly made the transition from the late stone age directly into the iron age, providing quantum leaps in agricultural production and armament. Within a short period Yamatai was recognized as the overlord of 28 protectorates (formerly independent kingdoms) throughout Japan (Kyushu, Shikoku and all of Honshu except the northern tip) and most of the Korean Peninsula. With her power base established, she sent emissaries to the court of the Northern Gi (魏) Emperor of China, and was recognized as an affiliated state nominally under the control of China. This was the first step in her plan to control not only all of Japan, but indeed China, Asia and the world. Along the way, she also the name of her growing empire to Yamato (?).

According to the Chinese histories, Himiko lived in a heavily fortified palace complex, surrounded by walls and guard towers, and was attended by a thousand maidens. She never married, and apparently never toNashime visited the Chinese coTo assist her in her plans, she had four lieutenants, who used the names of their positions in the older agricultural Yamatai, namely the Lord of Horses (umaka, 馬加), the Lord of Oxen (ushika, 牛加), the Lord of Dogs (inuka, 狗加) and the Lord of Swine (inoka, 猪加), collectively kFrom about 243 rebellions broke out as local protectorates became unable to stand her continuing depredations on their population for unspeakable rites. She was known to practice black magic (kido, 鬼道), as well documented in a number if Chinese histories. The knowledge of iron-working had spread, reducing the edge that her own military had formerly enjoyed, and she requested aid from China in 244 to assist her in defeating her major threat, Kuna (狗奴國). In 245 China dispatched a large group of military advisors under Zhang Zheng (張政), who brought with them a strange yellow battle standard (huang-chuang, 黄幢) that struck fear into the enemy troops. They entrusted the standard to Nashime, who was in Taiho at that time. The northern Korean kingdom of Koguryo (高句麗), at that time revolting against Northern Gi rule, suddenly attacked Taiho as well, killing the governor there, named Gong Sun (弓遵 or 公孫). Nashime took command, and used the standard to destroy Koguryo opposition, later being appointed governor of Taiho. He went on to use it successfully to destroy all remaining opposition to the Yamato Kingdom in Japan as well.

Unfortunately, Empress Himiko’s magic and forbidden knowledge did not include medicine, and she died of liver disfunction due to malaria in 248, without an heir. While her personal guidance of the growing Yamato Kingdom had ended for a time, new rulers continued to carry out her plan for the eventual domination of the world. With her death, the nation quieted down as strictly political rulers took the reins of government, and the shoka dropped out of sight for a time. In 255 another woman assumed the Yamato throne, Queen Toyo (台与), but Amaterasu was not involved, and she proved a lackluster if adequate ruler.

Amaterasu’s Plan

Amaterasu’s plan, which she has been carefully trying to guide to fruition for centuries, is to infuse the Real World with the essence of the Dreamlands. This would allow her to reenter the RW as a powerful god, and use it’s new DLs “plasticity” to defeat Cthulhu and other Mythos powers, kicking them out of the Solar System and staking it out as her territory. She would thus be saving Earth from the Great Old Ones… except she’d be one of them herself, and humans (what’s left of them after the God War) would be her servitors.

In order to pull this off, she needs a suitable candidate in the RW: one of her descendants, with a powerful Dreaming ability and incredible will. Due to the inbreeding over the centuries, and the way the people surrounding the Emperor have always done their best to stamp out any signs of willfulness in the young Imperial heirs (to make them easier to manipulate), such candidates are hard to find. She has tried and failed several times (witness WW2). At present, she seems not to be trying with the current Emperor or his eldest son. And this son is having no luck in producing an heir, male or female. But that is no guarantee of safety — it might be that she needs a female vessel (which might be why the Imperial line long ago went from placing females on the throne to placing males there). And there is talk lately of putting a woman on the Chrysanthemum Throne if no male heirs are born. (This sequence needs to be extensively developed.)

Also, the process of infusing the RW with the essence of the DLs will almost certainly destroy the DLs, or at least change them profoundly (as described in Davide Mana’s “Dream Reaper”). This could mean the deaths of millions and the destruction of the repository of humanity’s collective unconscious.

Note: Other female rulers of Japan

Queen Toyo

Queen Iitoyo 飯豊

Regent Jingu　神功皇后 reigned 201-269

Empress Suiko 554-628 reigned 592-628

Empress Kogyoku 594-661 reigned 642-645

Empress Saimei (different name for Kogyoku) reigned 645-661

Empress Jito 645-702 reigned 686-697

Empress Genmei 661-721 reigned 707-715

Empress Gensho 680-748 reigned 715-724

Empress Kogen 718-770 reigned 749-758

Empress Shotoku (different name for Kogen) reigned 764-770

Empress Meisho reigned 1629-43

Empress Atosakumachi reigned 1762-70

Excerpt from the Scroll of Himiko

From David Farnell, April 2004

Sit there. Record every word I speak. I will review your work personally…yes, I read your foreign writing, Han scribe. And if there is one error, you will suffer.

These records are for my own reference. I have lived long, I suspect longer than you can imagine. My memory, while still sharp, becomes overfull, bloated. There are things I must not forget.

When I was born, my people were a mere village. We farmed millet, hunted, sometimes fought others. We had our own stories of the Sun and her brother, the Wind, and at my birth I was declared a Child of the Sun. This was no surprise. My grandmother had been one as well.

And so I was dressed in finery, and the men carried me through the village at festival time on a 乗輿 mikoshi, letting me play in the mud of the fields to bring good crops, and the women pressed my infant hand against their bellies to bring healthy babes. I grew up like this, having no reason to doubt that I was holy and a conduit for great powers. It made me different, which I sometimes resented. But I knew it would all end when my body began to enter womanhood; after that I would be like the other girls. I did not know which life I preferred more.

I never had a chance to find out. For as I grew taller and the blood of life began to flow…ho! Do I shock you, foolish man? Do the vaunted heights to which your people climb cause you to have so little regard for your earthly origins? Like so many men in recent generations, do you regard the blood of the womb with horror? I see the answer is yes, though you fear to say so. And well you should regard the mysteries of woman with horror, little man. They are not for your kind.

When I began to grow into a woman, my duties as the Sun’s Child ended, but then the dreams began. I had always had intense dreams, but now they became something more. I was able to learn through them things that only the gods could know, things happening far away, or in the future, or the past. I was able to visit other lands, and enter others’ dreams, and speak with spirits and demons. Sorcerers in these dream lands taught me secrets, and I was a good student.

Some of my people feared me, saying I was possessed by a fox, but after I became shaman, they depended on me more than ever, and I was regarded highly. Still only a girl, not yet a woman, I was the most powerful person in my village. My powers in the waking world were nothing compared to those of dream, but I could foresee the best time for planting, the coming of the summer inasa storms, the most propitious days for marriage and for hunting. To a tiny village, these are not minor powers.

And so we prospered, and my people loved me. I became their leader in name as well as deed?barely old enough to marry and already I was their chief. Our numbers grew, and then a wondering tribe of fierce warriors asked to join us; I foresaw that they would benefit us, and so our strength increased further.

And then I foresaw disaster.

From the north they were coming. They worshipped an alien god, one that actively walked in this world, thriving in the northernmost lands where the ground was always hidden beneath ice and the wind flensed flesh like iron knives. This god of ice and wind was not the brother of the Sun, but many called him by that name, for they could not say his true name, and they did not want to believe that they followed evil. Their leader was a man from a far-off land of giant deer and white bears; he wore the shaggy coat of an animal long since extinct, and animal larger than a house, a beast he had slain himself. He had seen generations of men pass like leaves on a tree, budding, growing, thriving for a season, then shriveling and dropping to the ground, to be crushed underfoot without a thought. How could he live so long, you may ask? I could say it was because he commanded great magics, but while true, that was not the reason.

This man, this priest of an otherworldly god, was dead.

He had died in the heart of a winter storm, after slaying his own family and devouring them. Yet he walked, he spoke, and he led the living. His act of desecration pleased the demon-god he followed. And now he conquered in the name of his god, and he spread winter over the lands of the north. With sacrifice and ritual, he changed to flow of the rivers of warmth and cold in the sky and ocean. Already in the south, winter came earlier every year, and it was more bitter. I could see that long before the hordes arrived, we would begin to starve. And even unweakened, we could not withstand his army, composed as it was of the pitiful remnants of hundreds of villages, those who agreed to fight so as not to die, who were forced to devour their own, less cooperative kinfolk. Many of them had undergone a change similar to their leader’s, and they were also walking dead, with skin was hard as boiled leather, and teeth like obsidian shards.

I saw that we would be destroyed by them. We could band together all the tribes and villages of the south, and we would still lose. Worse, this priest was not the only one—there were others, all over the north, in other lands, marching south, bringing winter, bringing a new age of ice behind them. They would freeze the world if they could.

In my dream wanderings, I had learned of powerful magics that could warp the waking world as easily as the world of dream, but these magics came with a terrible price. I decided that I must pay the price, for my people. And so I approached one who could be called a wizard, or a god, one who wore robes of yellow and a pallid mask, who was served by the things we now call tengu. I learned from him, and I took the Oath, and bound myself to an unclean power.

On my return, my people looked on me in fear. But I paid them no mind, and journeyed north, across the inland sea, ever northwards. I was alone, for I needed no companions, nor did I wish to have any. For I had become a changed being.

You can feel it, can you not? Even now, so many lives later, it clings to my spirit. No matter how many times I am reborn…do you feel the worms crawling into your thoughts yet? The itch in your skull? The sensation of rot in your flesh? Keep writing! Worry not, little scribe?it will fade after you leave my presence. Imagine for a moment what it is like for me, feeling all that, my nose always full of rancid perfumes, my food tasting only of dust, my ears flinching at the endless whispered chittering, glimpses of diseased corpses dancing in the corners of my eyes. All that and a thousand times worse, every moment since I took the Oath, a young girl with no thought but to save her people.

So. I had the ability to do what needed to be done. But I lacked the raw power. So I journeyed north and east, to大倭豊秋津島 Ouyamato Toyoaki Tsushima. And I came upon our sacred mountain, 八神峰 Yahashira no Ookami no Mine, the greatest place of power in these islands. And there I searched, and found, the entrance to an ancient city beneath the mountain, a city designed for calling down power, for the benefit of a race that inhabited these lands long ago. There I found what is now one of the Imperial Treasures, the stone. And I, a Daughter of the Sun, I called upon the power of Amaterasu…no, let me speak truthfully. It is a power beyond hers, at the heart of the sun, the stars, the universe. I called it down through myself and bottled it like a fiery liquor in that stone. And then I waited.

The calling of such power is never a quiet affair. It spilled over the landscape, devastating the forests around the mountain, slaying the animals and not a few people. Because of my connection with the Yellow Sorcerer, the flow of power through me called flocks of tengu to Yahashira no Ookami no Mine, so many they blackened the sky with their obscene, humming bodies. Oh, they are not winged, red-faced men, nor are they manlike crows. Those are stories people in the days since have told to comfort themselves after seeing something that drove them half mad with terror. Yes, I am responsible for bringing those mountain demons to these islands. Most have left by now, but a few remain, these tengu, these bya-gii, for reasons known only to themselves.

As I said, calling such power is not quiet, and my enemy knew of it the moment it happened. He knew that he could never hope to conquer the southwest without defeating me first, so he led his army to Yahashira no Ookami no Mine. He came on swiftly, his weaker warriors falling on the journey, providing fodder for the stronger. He took no time to recruit more along the way, simply letting his warriors devour all in their path.

Still, there were many thousands behind him when he arrived. I remember how he laughed when he saw me descending the slope to meet him. He called me a skinny girl, a mere reed, and I smiled, because that had been my childhood name.

“I am the Daughter of the Sun,” I said. “And you, the Son of the Wind. Today, you and I will take on the mantle of our parents?we will be the Sun and the Wind. And as the sun drives the wind at dawn and dusk, so shall I drive you from this world.”

He laughed again, but I only smiled, for I knew what the wind does to reeds. And I knew what it does to fire, also.

He called upon his god, and sent freezing winds against me. I fell battered and bloody, but I called on my power and stood again. Like a reed, I bent, but did not break. So he called upon his horde to rip me apart. As they touched me, their icy hearts melted, and I drank their souls to fuel my power. So like a flame fanned by the wind, I blazed brighter.

Enraged, he called upon his god, and his alien god entered him, and the priest became his god. He grew until he towered over me, higher than any tree, the winter winds howling around him, his face a thing of horror. Again, I smiled, even as he snatched me up in his freezing grip. He crushed me, dashed me to the ground, breaking my bones. Then lifting me again, he tossed me into his mouth. He chewed me, grinding me, ripping me in his iron teeth. And he swallowed me.

Yes. He ate me.

I died.

But I had known that would happen. He was a cannibal god, after all. And within his frozen, earthly body, the Daughter of the Sun became the Sun Herself.

Oh, how I blazed! I burned through him, destroying him utterly. And I continued to burn, blackening the already-destroyed landscape, cooking the last remnants of his army, and the sacred mountain erupted in sympathy. I rose, burning, into the sky, and around me circled the chittering flocks of bya-gii.

Did I really destroy a god? No, I was not quite that powerful. But I did banish him from this world for many lifetimes. Lately, I have heard tales in the far north…but that is not part of this tale. But by banishing the god, I also banished the power of the other priests, and so they were defeated in their distant lands.

I tell you this tale, and command you to write it, because it is true. The story has changed with time. There are those who say I am Amaterasu, and perhaps they are right. There are those who say my enemy was Susanoo, and perhaps, in a way, they are right. It is difficult to say, after so many lives.

And now I am the Empress Himiko. They say I am mad. They say I am cruel. They say I am a witch. They are right. But everything I did, I did for my people. With time, my people have expanded to cover the whole of the southwest. In the future, I am sure they will cover all these islands. I have come back again and again, never content to rest between lives, because I knew I could lead my people to power—and with power comes safety.

But soon I will leave, not to return for a thousand years or more. The corruption of the Oath grows worse. I tried to flee it by death and rebirth, but it infects my spirit. If I stay, it will consume me completely, and I will be but a slave, a servant of alien gods, like my long-ago enemy. I will not allow that to happen. I go to seek release from this curse…but not relief, not rest. I go also to seek power. And when I have it, I shall return, and my people shall expand over the face of the Earth and beyond, and no alien god will be allowed to remain. This world shall be made pure, and safe.

The stories change, and even my memory grows confused. So I have this record made for my return. One day long hence there shall be another Empress, and I shall be born into her, and I shall need this to remind me of who I am and what I have done and shall do.

And then all will be well.

— From the Shosoin Himiko Makimono (Scroll of Himiko, Shosoin), found in the Shosoin Imperial Repository in Nara and now in the Imperial Household Agency Library. The author is unknown, and is reputed to have been put to death after the scroll was finished and sealed.

The Imperial lines (real and IP/VP)

• Content

• 1. The difference between the emperor and the real power (shogun).
• 1. There was only one Imperial line until Antoku (1183), where we say a split occurred. All of Antoku’s descendents are created, and we have positioned them as the IP (The Taira). Assuming an average rule of 40 years (since many of them are unaware of reality, except in DLs, 40 may even be short…), that gives us about 20 people. Is there any point in listing them up? Since nobody knows about them, including themselves most of the time, maybe nobody bothered. There may have been multiple “The Taira” as a number of people in the bloodline reached the right age. Were any of them female?
• 1. The historical split occurred with the Northern Dynasty (1332-1390), and resulted in the creation of the Kumazawa family line, who we have positioned as the VP. They are apparently hiding their history and just living normal lives now.
• 1. Empresses: Especially avatars of Amaterasu (see Amaterasu/Himiko). Or maybe these should be covered under Amaterasu?
• Need a good chart of emperor names, reign names, dates and bloodline.

The Origins of the Imperial Line

The Japanese imperial line is said to have the longest continued lineage of any royal bloodline in the world, tracing its history back to at least AD 600, and according to legend for a considerable time before that. According to the Nihongi (The Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to AD 697), which was written in AD720, Japan was created and ruled by the gods for 1,792,470 years until 667 BCE. In 667 BCE the first Emperor Jimmu reached the age of 45 and launched an aggressive program of conquest, bringing the Osaka-Kyoto region of Japan under his control. This region has remained the center of Imperial Japan until the present day.

The official genealogies of Japan trace all emperors (and empresses) back to this figure, although the succession has not always been direct. For over a thousand years, the Emperor was revered by the people of Japan as a literal god, and a thousand years of tradition does not die easily regardless of what radio broadcasts were made at the end of World War II.

For most of this time, the Emperor was a political pawn used by the most powerful families of the era, and isolated by them from the general populace. Time and time again the balance of political power shifted and a new government arose, but the Imperial family remained secure, sacred, and almost invincible in the Imperial City. The Imperial City itself was shifted with the centuries, but the traditions remained unchanged. The real power was almost always in the hand of the shogun, the supreme commander of the armies. Many of them respected the Emperor, more often they kept the Emperor imprisoned and impoverished, utilizing him merely as a controlled rubber stamp to give “official” backing to their arbitrary decrees. Theoretically, however, all power rested in the hands of the Emperor, and the shogun was merely his hired underling.

The Fall of the Taira

The Taira, the family which held essentially all the power between 1160 and 1185 after the fall of the Fujiwara, was exceedingly corrupt. They spent the majority of their time in the Imperial City, Kyoto, and largely ignored the rest of the country except as a means of providing them with tax monies. The Minamoto clan, on the other hand, had been for generations the warriors of the Fujiwara, and had defeated their enemies, steadily expanding Japan to include the entire island of Honshu. Yoritomo and Yoshitsune were an excellent pair, with Yoritomo one of the best strategists of his time, and Toshitsune an unparalleled tactician and warrior. They felt it was time for the Minamoto to control the power in Japan, and together moved to topple the Taira, replacing it with their own line. They were successful.

A series of battles spearheaded by Minamoto Yoritomo and his younger brother Yoshitsune, a brilliant tactician and warrior, ended with the climactic battle of Shimonoseki, in the narrow channel separating Kyushu from Honshu, in 1185. At the battle the Taira were shattered, fleeing in disorder and vanishing from history forever. The young Emperor Antoku, only eight at the time, was also lost there, according to legend jumping into the waves with Niidono, his aunt, still gripping the sacred sword Kusanagi, one of the three Imperial regalia.

An attempt was made to toss the sacred mirror into the water by the wife of Lord Shigehira. Just as she was about to jump, an arror pinned her clothing the boat, holding her. Several Genji soldiers snatched the casket and key, and as they were holding it were suddenly blinded and blood rushed from their noses. One of the heiki still alive said it contained one of the imperial treasures, and no commoner dare open it. Needless to say, Yoritomo took control of the mirror.

Yoritomo, now effective head of power in Japan, quickly exterminated all traces of the Taira, and then moved to eliminate the only remaining possible threat to his power: Yoshitsune. Yoshitsune was finally cornered and committed suicide rather than be captured in 1189, in Koromogawa, Iwate Prefecture.

At least, that’s what the history books say.

The reality is a bit different.

The Amperor Antoku was a Dreamer, and was recognized at an early age as an extremely powerful one. This did not escape the notice of the Shoka, of course, who were successful in awakening Amaterasu. As it happened, this fit in quite well with Yoromoto’s plans, because he was already committed to using Mythos assistance in toppling the Taira. Through the assistance of the shoka, he was able to reach an agreement with Amaterasu, whereby he would receive assistance in battle in return for the young Emperor. Yoromoto jumped at the chance: he wanted power, not the Emperor. And if Amaterasu wanted the boy Antoku, she was welcome to him… there were any number of other people with Imperial blood who could be made Emperor at the “request” of the man who controlled, on a practical level, all of Japan.

Yoshitsune, however, was little interested in political power. He was a warrior (and a lover), and he was into “the noble fight” and the thrill of victory. He was also, unfortunately for Yoritomo, loyal to his Emperor. Yoshitsune discovered his brother’s foul plot quite by accident, and swore to assist the Emperor. He was assisted in this by the Tainin Hodo, who did not, however, reveal themselves to him. Yoshitsune, until his death, believed that he had been assisted merely by a monk who happened to agree with him. He never discovered that Benkei, his trusted companion in his last battles and flight, was actually a Tainin Hodo monk.

As a Minamoto, however, Yoshitsune also recognized that his brother did have a point: the Taira were corrupt, and in spite of Yorotomi’s evil, the Minamoto as a whole represented a relatively clean and simple warrior ethic that he felt better. It was, in fact, one of the sources of the samurai ethic that would shape Japan so much in later centuries. He agreed with his brother that the Taira must be destroyed, and the Minamoto were the only power bloc that could replace them. He secretly determined that the Emperor Antoku, however, would escape alive.

The war swept the entire nation, and Yoritomo’s armies were almost always victorious. The final battle was in Shimonoseki, at the northern edge of Kyushu, in the narrow strait separating it from Honshu. After a massive sea battle, which Yoshitsune won handily enough, the Emperor Antoku and his nurse were seen to slip under waves forever. What happened then, however, was a bit different that the histories: they were spirited away with the assistance of the Tainin Hodo.

The shattered remnants of the Taira, believing their Emperor dead, fled in disarray. A large contingent of them ended up in Shiina, a deep valley hidden in the almost inpenetrable mountains in the center of Kyushu. They lived in fear of retribution for generations, discovering only much later that the Minamoto themselves had also fallen to yet another contender for power.

The young Emperor travelled north to stay with the Tainin Hodo at Ryuzoji for about 20 years, and then moved yet further north to the growing trading port of Tosa, at the northeast tip of Honshu. He lived here, with a growing family, as a merchant trading with China, until his death at a ripe old age. The family remained here in secret for quite some time.

Yoshitsune, meanwhile, had made a decision to lead the pursuers (of which there were many - Yoritomo had put a healthy price on his head) on a wild goose chase, and raced the length and breadth of Japan. In 1189, he was supposed to have been trapped at Koromogawa, Iwate Prefecture, and to have committed suicide rather than be captured. In fact, they continued to flee north, bypassing the nearby Ryuzoji Temple and then into Hokkaido. Benkei worked with Yoshitsune, together constructing a plan to return the Emperor Antoku to power and (more importantly) to topple Yoritomo because of the potential for Mythos evil he represented. Several dozen tons of gold sand were collected in Hokkaido, to be used for military men and materiel. His plan never came to fuitition, however, as they began to be pursued by Mythos creatures. The gold was buried in “Kuma-no-sawa”, a swamp in Hokkaido, and the pair of them vanished, some say moving on to the Chinese continent where Yoshitsune became Genghiz Khan, and went on to carve out his own empire there.

This gold was later used by Ryuzoji Temple and the Tainin Hodo as required. In addition to being in an unknown place in relatively-unpopulated Hokkaido, the entire region has been since designated as a JSDF bombardment practice range, providing an excellent reason for keeping everyone away from the area. It is located somewhere in the region around Shikotsu-Toya National Park and the JSDF Shimamatsu Range, north of Lake Shikotsuko.

What happened to Amaterasu? She was quite unhappy to lose Emperor Antoku. She was little interested in taking revenge on petty human beings, though, and merely fell back asleep. The shoka, however, suspected that Antoku still existed, and spurred on the pursuit of Yoshitsune in an effort to recapture the Emperor. The shoka continued their search for centuries, and still continue it today, convinced that the line of Emperor Antoku must still exist, and could still be the key that they need to fulfill Amaterasu’s plan.

Hiding, and the Ultimate Hiding Place

With the combined powers of the shoka and the shogunate after him, The Taira and the Taininhodo had no choice but to flee. The Taininhodo had never been revealed, and so were able to operate relatively freely without fear of capture - in fact, Taininhodo almost always had a number of monks in the Imperial Court in Kyoto, collecting information, as well as a number of information sources in the shogun’s headquarters, whether Kamakura, Osaka or Edo (Tokyo). The Taininhodo had no idea at this time exactly why Amaterasu wanted the Emperor back, but it was clear that she was not the “good” goddess described in so many Japanese myths and legends. Fewer and fewer people were told the truth of his identity, until only about a half a dozen knew. One of them was, of course, The Taira himself, and the rest were Taininhodo monks.

In 1333, The Taira made his move in a carefully-plotted scheme designed to win back control of the Imperial Throne. He controlled Go-Daigo, who launched an effort to dislodge the existing Emperor and return to the glorious days of Imperial rule. For a period of about 60 years, there were two Imperial courts, each claiming to be the sole ruler of Japan. Ultimately, Go-Daigo failed, and was exiled, leaving Amaterasu and the shoka in uncontested control, but escaping with full knowledge of Amaterasu’s plan to rebirth herself in a child of the Imperial bloodline, rulilng Japan and eventually the world. The shoka never knew that he was, in fact, The Taira, and this proved a fortuitous circumstance… for over six centuries, the line of Go-Daigo continued to exist, living in poverty under the lay name “Kuma-no-sawa” (later shortened to merely Kumazawa), watched but largely ignored by the shoka and their minions. At last, The Taira had found a safe hiding place, directly under the watching eyes of his dearest enemies.

Even so, over the centuries The Taira was often a strong Dreamer, and Amaterasu sometimes caught his scent in the Dreamlands, although being unable to track it back to its source on earth. The efforts of the shoka continued, although varying with the changing times due to the changing situation in Japan, the actions of the reigning Emperor, and above all whether or not Amaterasu was awake and could be communicated with at the time. A number of times they approached the Kumazawa line, but never stumbled on the secret. It was clear, however, that it was only a matter of time before they did. The Taininhodo and The Taira met sometime in the late 16th century and agreed that the best place to hide The Taira would be in the Dreamlands… while his physical body and consciousness continued to live a normal life as the merchant family Kumazawa, his Dreamland self led quite a different existence. At times he was a monk at the Taininhodo temple in the Dreamlands, at times a merchant, at times a silversmith. There he retained his knowledge, and met with the monks in times of need to discuss happenings back in Japan. On one occasion he actually visited Amaterasu’s Dreamlands, with a small bodyguard, but stayed only long enough to get the general atmosphere. (The Taininhodo have hired other explorers to keep track of goings-on there, through trading ships and other means.)

Additional information from Holtom’s “Japanese Enthronement Ceremonies”

On the night before the formal enthronement of a new Emperor the Chinkon Sai (spirit purification ceremony) is held. The primary purpose of this service is to tranquilize the spirit of the Emperor. The ancient Japanese belief was that a person was inhabited by multiple spirits, such as a “gentle spirit, a rough spirit, a luck spirit and a wondrous spirit.” These spirits might wander from the body and thus be separated from the body in time of crisis. The Chinkon Sai is designed to ensure that the Emperor is “all there” for the enthronement.

The ceremony consists of setting up a temporary shrine, with eight ancient Shinto gods on enshrined on the right, and Onaobi-no-Kami on the left (this god “rectifies all errors and sets all wrongs, right”). A variety of offerings are placed, along with the Eight Imperial Treasures. Originally there were 10 treasures, all brought by Ninigi-no-Mikoto when he descended from heaven: The Mirror of the Office, the Mirror of the Shore, the Yata Sword, the Life-Inspiring Jewel, the Jewel of Perfect Health and Strength, the Jewel for Resuscitating the Dead, the Jewel for Warding Off Evil from Roads, the Serpent-Preventing Scarf, the Bee-Preventing Scarf and the Scarf of Various Materials and Efficacies. All were magical objects related to the protection and preservation of life. If these objects were shaken and the user counted from one to ten out loud, “such mighty power would be released from them as would recall even the dead to life.” It is unclear what has happened to the original treasures, and they are represented by eight replicas instead.

The Imperial Regalia (Jewels, Mirror, Sword)

Jewels, Mirror, Sword

The three Imperial Regalia are one of the oldest stories of Japan: they are a myth, a legend and a reality at once. They are the three treasures of Japan, consisting of the sword Kusanagi, the yatakagami mirror and the yasaka jewels.

The regalia are closely tied to the Japanese Shinto belief in kami. While the word kami is often translated into English as god or spirit, perhaps it is closer to a localized spiritual force, of either natural or human origin. Kami were generally thought to have limited powers within their specific realm, where physical (a region) or spiritual (for example, a human activity such as war). Certain kami would serve as the protectors for family groups or lineages, other as protectors for a village or region, while some (like the Inari rice kami) were worshipped nationwide. The kami manifested themselves in shintai (literally, kami body), which could be natural objects such as rocks, trees, mountains or waterfalls, or manmade items like mirrors or jewels.

The necklace is the most obvious shintai of the three regalia, and is passed directly from Amaterasu to each successive head of the Imperial line. The jewels within it (tama) represented the soul or Amaterasu herself, and enabled her to enter the body of the possessor and make him a “living god” in full communion with her. While the mirror was enshrined at the Grand Shrine in Ise, and the sword in Atsuta Shrine, the necklace was kept in the direct possession of the Emperor.

According to legend, their origins are quite different.

The sword was discovered by Susanowo, the impetuous Storm God and younger brother of Amaterasu. The story goes that once Susanowo was traveling near the headwaters of the River Hi, in Izumo province. He heard weeping, and when he went to discover the cause he found an old couple weeping over a beautiful girl, their daughter. He inquired the cause, and they said that they had once had eight beautiful daughters, and each year an eight-headed serpent came and ate one of them. The last daughter was finally to be eaten, and they grieved. Susanowo asked if he might marry the girl if he saved here, and they agreed. He directed them to brew strong sake (rice wine), and make eight large wooden tubs, each filled with sake. When the serpent appeared, with eight heads and eight tails, and large enough that it had trees growing on its back, it found the sake, and drank it all, one tub per head. After it fell asleep, Susanowo drew his 10-hand long sword and chopped it into pieces. As he was cutting the tail, his own sword was notched, so he split open the tail and found kusanagi-no-tsurugi (grass-cutter).

Note on grass-cutter: In a bronze-age culture, metal tools and cutting edges are still relatively soft. While a sword cuts better than a wooden implement, certainly, it is still not as sharp or as durable as iron or steel. For a sword to be able to cut through grass easily, slicing through the stalks cleanly instead of merely toppling them, it would have to be unusually sharp - hence the name, “grass-cutter.”

The other two treasures, the jewels and the mirror, were created slightly later by the gods.

Susanowo was quite a trouble-maker, and seemed to be especially talented at infuriating Amaterasu. After one remarkably bad sequence of trouble-making, including flaying a colt and flinging it into her hall, she became so infuriated that she left the palace, fleeing to the Rock-cave of heaven, and shutting the door behind her. The other gods, naturally, were grieved, and decided at once to entice her out with merrymaking and beautiful things. Along with food and drink, and sacred plants in her honor, they also had an eight-hand bronze mirror made, and a string of beautiful Yasaka curved jewels. They sang in her honor, and when she opened the door to see why, she was delighted by all the beautiful things, and stepped out. The other gods pulled her out of the cave, bringing the light of the sun back once again to the earth. The mirror and the jewels have remained sacred treasures of the Imperial family ever since, joining the sword to form the Imperial Regalia.

Note on jewels: These are the curved, teardrop-shaped jewels often called “magatama” in Japanese. Large numbers have been found in mounds and elsewhere, made of materials including chalcedony, jasper, nephrite, chrysophrase, serpentine, steatite, and crystal, a number of which are not found in Japan. Again, photos or at least drawings are essential.

The Imperial Regalia remained the property of the Imperial line ever since, although in different ways. The mirror and jewels are worshipped even today. The sword Kusanagi, however, was carried into the ocean at the Battle of Shimonoseki by the Emperor Antoku, the last emperor of the Taira, at the end of the Gempei War. The new emperor, supported by the victorious Minamoto, was forced to make do with only the mirror and jewels.

Note: Eight-hand could also mean it acts as a portal between eight planes of existence (Wakeworld, DL, JapanDL, anything else?) Mirror [Nihongi, Aston, Tuttle; p83]

The mirror is known as an “8-handed mirror” which may mean the size (8 hands across), or merely that it is octagonal as opposed to being circular, like most bronze mirrors of the period. But the Nihongi also states [p83] “Amaterasu took in her hand the precious mirror, and gave it to her child, saying ‘My child, when though lookest upon this mirror, let it be as if thou wert looking on me. Let it be with thee on thy couch and in thy hall, and let it be to thee a holy mirror’ “

In other words, it seems to be a window for Amaterasu to see what is happening in Wakeworld from Dreamlands, if not an actual portal to transfer through. And since the Emperors even today spend a night locked away for communion with Amaterasu, to assume the “godhood”, it seems pretty clear that she can reach through it into their heads somehow.

So maybe it isn’t a shield as I first suggested. If it is only a gateway (mental, physical or both), then is it needed for her Grand Magic? Or is it merely a tool to be used along the way?

This is essentially a direct quote from “Japan: Prehistory to Modern Times” by John Whitney Hall, Dell paperback, page 33:

• The regalia are closely tied to the Japanese Shinto belief in kami. While the word kami is often translated into English as god or spirit, perhaps it is closer to a localized spiritual force, of either natural or human origin. Kami were generally thought to have limited powers within their specific realm, where physical (a region) or spiritual (for example, a human activity such as war). Certain kami would serve as the protectors for family groups or lineages, other as protectors for a village or region, while some (like the Inari rice kami) were worshipped nationwide. The kami manifested themselves in shintai (literally, kami body), which could be natural objects such as rocks, trees, mountains or waterfalls, or manmade items like mirrors or jewels. The necklace is the most obvious shintai of the three regalia, and is passed directly from Amaterasu to each successive head of the Imperial line. The jewels within it (tama) represented the soul or Amaterasu herself, and enabled her to enter the body of the possessor and make him a “living god” in full communion with her. While the mirror was enshrined at the Grand Shrine in Ise, and the sword in Atsuta Shrine, the necklace was kept in the direct possession of the Emperor.

Additional information from Holtom’s “Japanese Enthronement Ceremonies”

The Imperial Regalia, generally called the “sanshu no shinki” and more properly the “mikusa no kandakara,” consist of the Yata Mirror, the Yasakani Curved Jewels and the Kusanagi Sword. They are said to have been first used in the Enthronement Ceremonies for the Emperor Jimmu, in 660 BC, according to the ancient Japanese histories.

Originally, they are said to have been presented to the grandson of Amaterasu, named Ninigi-ni-Mikoto, with instructions to conquer and rule the “Reed Plains” (Japan), which was promised to him and his descendents.

The mirror is made of “hakudo” (literally, white copper), which is actually an alloy of copper and tin with traces of lead. The name “yata” means eight-sided, and it is about ten sun (or one foot) in diameter, according to Japanese expert Kenji Takahashi, in his book “Kagami to Tsurugi to Tama” (The Mirror, The Sword and The Jewels.”

Amaterasu was able to project her soul out of her body and make it available to her descendents as a protecting genius, according to Holtom. The Take of the Heike states that the mirror was given to the Imperial family “so that the reflection of Amaterasu’s features might be preserved therein, and when her descendents look upon them they might see as it were herself.” At Ise Shrine in modern-day Japan, Amaterasu is believed to enter the Yata Mirror when summoned by the proper rites. The Mirror is not merely the symbol of the sun, but in fact a vehicle to carry the soul of the sun.

This also ties in with a belief common to many cultures, that the mirror is capable of revealing the true nature of any man or demon, regardless of outward appearance.

Replicas of the Imperial Regalia were made at the command of the Emperor Sujin (97 to 30 BC, according to Japanese chronicles), and henceforth functioned in the same way as the real items. At a later point in history, when the Mirror is buried in the ground by the Imperial Princess Takuhata, the Virgin Priestess of Ise Shrine, it revealed its presence by a bright rainbow that appeared above its place of concealment. At the battle of Dan-no-Ura, when the Taira fell to the Minamoto forces at the end of the Gempei War, Minamoto soldiers attempted to peep into the chest holding the replica mirror, and “were overpowered by a dazzling light and driven made” (Tale of Heike).

The mirror has been enshrined in the Holy of Holies of the Dai Jungu of Ise as the most sacred material object in all Japan, since 29 BC. The replica, kept in the “kenji no ma” (room of mirror and sword) in the Imperial Palace together with the replica of the sword, was slightly damaged in fires in 960 AD and 1005 AD, and almost entirely destroyed in another in 1040 AD. In spite of only a portion of it being left, it has never been replaced or repaired, being too sacred to manipulate.

The Jewels are crescent-shaped, and represent the phases of the moon. They played an important part in luring Amaterasu back out of her cave in the ancient myths. The moon jewels are also an important myth in the form of the jewels of the ebbing and flowing tide, mentioned elsewhere. All these jewels are the same shape, and are called “magatama” (literally, bent jewels). The proper name Yasakani would translate as something like “Ever-bright multitudinous curved jewels.”

At Dannoura the young Emperor Antoku leapt into the sea with both the jewels and the sword, but the jewels, in a wooden casket, floated back to the surface and were recovered. The sword was lost forever, and the replica is used today.

In 1443, under the leadership of Kusunoki Masahide, the southern branch of the court stole the sword and the jewels, and narrowly missed stealing the mirror. The sword was recovered promptly, but Kusunoki fled to the Mt. Hiei along with Imperial Prince Takahide. Both were pursued and killed, and the jewels passed to members of the Kusunoki family at Yoshino, which served as guardians for two other Imperial princes. These two princes, Kitayama-no-Miya and Tadayoshi-o, were regarded as being in de jure possession of the jewels. They were later handed over to Imperial Prince Takamasa at Yoshino, and when Takamasa was assassinated in 1458 finally returned to the legitimate Emperor Gohanazono. They never left the possession of the Imperial family again.

Taininhodo

Tainin Hodo (Japanese: 大忍保道), approximately The Preserving Path of Great Endurance, is a fan-created religious sect in Japan. The name could also be transcribed as Tainin Hōdō to show where the vowel sounds are long.

The sect’s main temple is named Ryuzoji (龍造寺), which literally means “dragon-making temple” (the name Ryuzoji is fairly common in Japan, as a name for temples, places and people, and has no particular meaning that anyone knows of). While the name of the Tainin Hodo is almost never encountered in public (although it is mentioned as the name of a minor sect), Ryuzoji is a famous Shingon temple and attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.

Unbeknownst to the majority of the Japanese, and indeed to the world, this small Buddhist sect has played a major — although invisible — part in the affairs of Japan for over a thousand years. Along with knowledge of Zen Buddhism, the founder of the sect, a monk named Nakahara Hidesato, brought back from China a partial knowledge of the Mythos, and founded the esoteric sect to help protect his homeland.

While their capabilities and duties have changed over the centuries, they have remained true to their original goal, and continue to work to protect Japan.

Background

Abbott Senryu knelt in his room facing the blank stone wall, holding a rough pottery cup in both hands and sipping occasionally. His eyes traced over the cracks and strata of the rock, but didn’t see them. Another slurp echoed faintly off the walls, mouth moving automatically to swallow the already-cool green tea as his mind whirled.

He was, in fact, engaged in a fierce argument with none other but himself…

But they are foul creatures from the very pits of Hell! he raged, but his compassionate self responding quietly, yes, but they are living creatures created by the same ultimate authority which created all things, and as such are they not as deserving of the chance to gain enlightenment and salvation as Man?

They eat human flesh!

Yes, but Man eats animal flesh, and wolves eat us. Who are we to say that this is foul, or that, because this is their way, they should be deprived life? They do not kill, merely eat the cast-off husks of those who no longer need them.

The bodies are defiled, unable to gain a proper Buddhist burial!

Surely this is little different from animals and plants of the field which turn the flesh and bones of the dead into rich soil to nurture yet new life. Buddhism is properly concerned with the spirit, not the body. The body is merely a tool, a temporary domicile while we are in this world. Once our time here is ended, what better use can be made of them than nourishment for the living?

But are these gaki the living? Are they not things of death and evil?

They may be creatures that eat the dead, yes, but they do not kill. At least, no more than Man himself, and almost certainly less. They live, they love, they have their own hopes and aspirations and dreams… Evil? I think not. Merely different, and perhaps not to be placed in the same balance as Man when it comes to judging them.

The Buddha taught compassion for all living things… and indeed, our Shinto teaches us reverence for the genius loci of rock and tree, of sky and earth, of all of the myriad of objects that constitute this universe.

Who are we to make judgment? By judging, are we not ourselves placed in the balance?

Yes, compassion is the fundamental core of our teaching. Perhaps we still have too much of Man in us.

Perhaps…

But they are, nonetheless, starving… the introduction of cremation in accordance with the teaching of Buddha is not, in itself, a bad idea, as it minimizes corruption, but without bodies to feed on as in the past, the gaki are dying.

But the cast-off husks of flesh are of no use once the spirit has fled… why could the corpses not be given to the gaki first, and then cremated? Either way, the flesh returns to the earth which gave it life.

Indeed, why not?

The following morning, the body of Abbot Senryu was found shattered at the foot of the mountain. His face was at peace, and in his right hand he gripped a sheet of paper with his instructions that his body be fed to the ghouls before cremation of the remains, and in his left hand he gripped a sheet of paper with a single character written large: 慈.

Compassion.

Foundation

Tainin Hodo was founded by Nakahara Hidesato (Buddhist name Shingan Osho: 眞眼和尚; Shingan means “true eye”, and Osho merely means monk). Shingan Osho traveled to China in 804 under Kobo Daishi (Kukai) to study Shingon Buddhism in the capital city of Ch’ang-an together with him.

Kukai returned to Japan in 806, but Shingan remained to study Zen under Tsung-Mi, the last patriarch of the Ho-Tse school of the Southern School of Ch’an (Zen). He also studied more exotic texts, such as Black Sutra of U Pao (the Burmese scholar of c. 700 AD), and apparently learned a great deal more than Buddhism, including a number of ancient languages. When he returned to Japan in 812, bringing with him hundreds of Buddhist scrolls and copies of various items predating humanity, he established the secret Tainin Hodo sect at its present location, under the name of Ryuzoji Temple, synthesizing Shingon and Zen, with the secret cooperation of Kukai.

Ryuzoji Temple is located in the mountains to the northwest of present-day Akita City (see map), at the foot of Mt. Iwate, a live volcano, on the north side. When it was established in 812 it was a simple hut, but gradually grew over the years to serve the nearby lords of northeastern Japan. Dispatched by the central government, these local lords erected various castles to govern their regions. The closest castle was Shiwa (志波) Castle, built at the site of present-day Morioka City in 803. On the other side of the central mountain range was Ogachi (雄勝) Castle, built in 758 in Nagamori, Akita Prefecture, and the large Akita (秋田) Castle, built in 733 overlooking the mouth of the Omonogawa River north of present-day Akita City. Ryuzoji Temple remained totally aloof from politics, unlike other Buddhist monasteries in Japan, and was therefore relatively unaffected by the various wars of the medieval period, and untouched by the tsunami of 1341. Northern Japan remained quite unaffected by the tumultuous combat of medieval Japan, although there were major changes in power as the masters of the Imperial City changed over the centuries.

At the same time, though, the temple became a key center of religious and cultural activity for Northern Japan, accumulating significant amounts of wealth and power. The wealth was usually returned to the community, in an unusually astute political move which not only endeared them to the populace, but also literally saved the order from being exterminated by Oda Nobunaga in 1582, opening up a host of new possibilities to the sect.

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Kukai (774-835) is recognized as the most important individual in the history of Heian Buddhism. Kukai was a native Japanese, born into an aristocratic family. A brilliant and creative person, as a young man he began studying Confucianism, but soon turned to master Taoism and Buddhism as well.

The Emperor Kammu sent Kukai to China along with Saicho (founder of Tendai Buddhism) in 804. At Chang-an, the capital of T’ang China, Kukai became a disciple of Hui-kuo (746-805) of the Green Dragon Temple (青龍寺), one of the most significant Buddhist teachers in China at the time. When he returned to Japan, he established a monastery on Mount Koya and thus began the history of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. (Saicho, on the other hand, studied under the tantric master Shun-hsia of the Lung-hsing Temple at Mount T’ien-t’ai, later founding Tendai Buddhism.)

Shingon means True Words (Mantrayana in Sanskrit), and the name itself indicates the importance of Speech as one of the Three Mysteries (Body, Mind and Speech). All people possess these, but they all have secrets and through them one can attain enlightenment. The mysteries of the Body include various ways of holding the hands (mudra), postures of meditation, handling of ritual items such as the Tibetan thunderbolt (vajra), and extraordinary physical powers. The mysteries of Speech include “true words” (known as true names in many cultures) and the ability to utilize spoken spells. The mysteries of the Mind primary refer to the “five wisdoms”, methods of perceiving truth, which can be implemented as extraordinary mental powers.

In Shingon, these mysteries are transmitted orally from master to disciple, and are not written down for public consumption (Shingon Buddhism is esoteric and only for the initiated, as opposed to exoteric, which means for the public).

The reason for this is that while most Buddhism is based on the doctrines of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, esoteric Buddhism was a discourse by Vairochana, the cosmic Buddha, for his own pleasure. The truths of esoteric teachings are considered to be absolute, independent of time or place, and uniting within themselves all truths and schools of thought. They apply equally well to this world as to Dreamlands.

Kukai, under Imperial order issued by the Emperor Junna in 830, described Shingon in his “Ten Stages of Religious Consciousness,” positioning Confucianism and Taoism as two of the stages, followed by various types of Buddhist thought, ending with Tendai (eighth), Kegon (ninth) and Shingon as the penultimate.

Unlike other Buddhist schools, Shingon does not consider the world to be mind only, but rather a duality of mind and matter. The cosmos was held to exist of six elements: earth, water, fire, air, space and consciousness, and the addition of the last element made Shingon different from the traditional Chinese “Five Elements.”

In Shingon, the original Sanskrit texts are thought essential to a proper understanding, and as a result all monks are required to be fluent in reading (at least) Sanskrit. This applies to Taininhodo monks as well.

Shingon Buddhism became a driving force for Japanese culture. Kukai believed that the True Words transcended speech, and encouraged the cultivation of artistic skills as a result: painting, music, and gesture. He felt that beauty in every form revealed the truth of the Buddha, and the resulting artistic bent of the Hiei monks made the religion popular at the Heian court, deeply influencing the development of Japanese culture and establishing esoteric Shingon Buddhism as the most important religion of the Heian and early feudal periods.

Ch’an (Zen)

While Kukai mastered Shingon and introduced it to Japan (transplanted it, actually, since it became extinct in China thereafter), Shingan stayed to study Zen under Tsung-Mi (宗密). Tsung-Mi was not only the fifth and last patriarch of the Ho-Tse school of the Southern School of Zen, but also of the Hua-Yen school of Kegon Buddhism. He had developed a union of the two disciplines, and while Kukai absorbed much of Kegon Buddhism, he was primarily interested in Zen as a vehicle for realizing the three Mysteries of Shingon Buddhism: Mind, Body and Speech.

Tsung-Mi also introduced Shingan to the Dreamlands and the Black Sutra, and started him on the path that would eventually lead to the establishment of Taininhodo. It is not clear where Tsung-Mi himself acquired his lore, but it is clear that he enjoyed close relations with Shingan’s original teacher, Hui-kuo, since Hui-kuo introduced them and suggested that Shingan go on to study there even though it was a different Buddhist sect. Zen Buddhism was totally unknown in Japan at this time, as was most Buddhism, and Shingan found that it appealed very strongly to his sensibilities. In addition to being able to appreciate fully the environment surrounding one at any time with a sense of detachment, it also made it possible to see a fraction of the underpinnings of reality — as much, that it, as the viewer’s sanity could withstand. At the same time, it made possible the introduction of Zen into Japan several centuries before it has been traditionally thought to have been imported.

Tsung-Mi recognized other planes of existence, specifically the Dreamlands but possibly other planes as well. Through the mysteries of speech, body and mind, it is possible for monks to enter the Dreamlands at will, and wield magic there. It is much more difficult, although not impossible, for them to wield magic in this world as well. By the time a monk has reached that level of skill, however, he is also a compassionate Buddhist to the core, and as a result the skills remained hidden, mostly unused, and have gradually withered and died over the centuries. (The Taininhodo library, especially the library in the Dreamlands, contains a large number of tomes with all particulars on their magic, along with extensive information on the Mythos as well.)

In Zen, or Ch’an as it is called in China and by the Taininhodo, the goal is to overcome the limitations and artificial restrictions imposed by society, culture, language, and even reality to receive the truth of the cosmos. In the Japanese tradition, this is accomplished by either language (seemingly meaningless questions, such as ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping’) or action (an unexpected slap), which serve to ‘derail’ the rational mind and open it to perceive a more fundamental reality. While Zen itself is now practiced the world over, and formed a crucial philosophical element of Japan’s culture in the last half-century, only the Taininhodo seems able to combine physical and spiritual training regimens with certain drugs to achieve not only satori (recognized as the state of enlightenment by modern Zen sects), but also the ability to see a bit beyond the facade of reality as Man understands it.

Philosophy

Taininhodo Ch’an, however, was brought to Japan well before Japanese Zen developed under Eisai and others from the end of the 12th century. Through a synthesis of Ch’an and Shingon Buddhism, Shingan Osho formed his own roadmap to ultimate understanding. The process is generally broken down into the following stages, although individual monks might actually develop in a different sequence, skip stages, or be working on multiple stages at the same time.

First, to understand Man. This is basically physical fitness training, with some martial arts training. A key concept in teaching motion and martial arts is to know where you stand, to grasp your position and potential actions within a gestalt of the immediate environment. Along with physical fitness are training in many worldly skills, including things like stone-carving, farming, blacksmithery and fishing. Also in this stage, monks are required to teach, although there are no restrictions on what they teach, or to whom. Emphasis is again placed on understanding the role of the monk within society, as both taught and teacher, producer and consumer.

Second, to understand Self. This is intensive psychological training, normally on a 1:1 basis from a master monk at Ryuzoji Temple. This is quite similar to conventional Zen training of Japan. Again, key emphasis is placed on understanding one’s position with respect to the universe, knowing where one is.

Third, to understand the Cosmos. This is a mystical stage that is not reached by most members of the Taininhodo. It does not always include access to the Dreamlands, and those with access to the Dreamlands are not necessarily at this stage, but usually the two are found together. In this stage, monks learn to perceive the reality around them, to sense other planes of existence, to use senses other than the five conventional human senses, and, rarely, to travel to other planes of existence (like Dreamlands). The key to this stage is understanding that the universe resolves around the individual, and that a firm belief that, for example, you are in Dreamlands, can actually realize you in Dreamlands. A firm belief that you are underwater, for example, could drown you as you materialize at the bottom of the Cerenarian Sea. Needless to say, concentration and a strong sense of where you are, where your feet are placed, how you stand with respect to the universe around you, is absolutely essential. Conviction and sheer stubbornness are remarkably useful. (Note that the monks cannot teleport themselves to various places on the earth; perhaps stronger entities could, though.) Monks at this stage are capable of utilizing a range of magic with low cost, and they are capable of sensing Mythos entities (or other “abnormal” beings or happenings) at a distance. It imparts no particular physical prowess, however, other than perhaps an ability to sense objects (“eyes in the back of his head”).

Fourth is to understand Man and Self, again. This stage is also very rare, and stage three is not required to reach it, but most monks who reach this stage also have stage three. This is basically the traditional ideal of Buddhism, enlightenment or satori, where the monk understands reality, but also realizes his need to return to this earth and this reality, and assist others trapped in ignorance and want to escape to attain happiness. At this stage, the monk does not gain any particular capabilities, understandings or powers, but rather undergoes a shift in awareness. This can be the achievement of true enlightenment, the development of almost superhuman capabilities, or evolution into something that is no longer mentally human at all. It can result in his “resigning” from the Taininhodo, becoming a wandering monk and helping people, and merely disappearing to some place where people need assistance, whether on this earth or somewhere else. Needless to say, having skilled monks disappear can be a bit of an inconvenience to the group trying to manage the monastery.

For game purposes, the vast majority of monks are at stage one or two, and a few are at stage three. Tosui would be working at stage 3, and Nyogen probably at stage 4.

Brief chronology

804 Nakahara Hidesato (Buddhist name Shingan Osho) travels to China with Kobo Daishi (Kukai), and studies Shingon Buddhism in the capital city of Ch’ang-an with Kukai, under Hui-Kuo. 806 Shingan studies Zen under Tsung-Mi, the last patriarch of the Ho-Tse school of the Southern School of Ch’an (Zen), as well as the more exotic Black Sutra of U Pao (the Burmese scholar of c. 700 AD). 812 Shingan returns to Japan and establishes the secret Tainin Hodo sect at its present location, under the name of Ryuzoji Temple, synthesizing Shingon and Zen. At roughly the same time, the Temple in Dreamlands is discovered to have existed. 1180 Requested by head Taira noble to raise the young Emperor Antoku. They train and educate him, and enable his escape from Dannoura and the Minamoto forces. The Taira forces at this time are largely corrupt, but the Emperor and several of the inner circle are not. 1185 Emperor Antoku and remaining loyal forces, including Taininhodo monks, flee to Shiiba Town in Miyazaki Prefecture. Community formed there, and they are very quiet for several generations. Antoku’s descendents brought out of the community to various other places throughout Japan for protection. 1341 Tsunami destroys the Northern Realm in an attempt to destroy The Taira. It succeeds, and also kills many of his family, but fails to kill a second son who had already been instructed in the truth. Tsunami was triggered by Amaterasu. 1426 The Taira goes insane from studying the Mythos too deeply, and must be stopped to prevent him from destroying himself or revealing himself to the shoka. He, along with his bodyguards, is killed by Taininhodo Abbot Wogyu, who is also killed in the process. From this time The Taira is unconscious in Wakeworld, and all meetings are held in Dreamlands. 1582 Oda Nobunaga pacifies Shinano, Ueno and neighboring territories. He hears tales that Ryuzoji Temple works for the good of the local people, and with a small band of trusted followers, goes to see for himself. He is willing to destroy the temple if they prove a threat to him (too militant, too independent, too greedy), but discovers that in fact they do give to the people: food, help, teaching (little money). He also discovers that the temple itself owns very few rice paddies, and that the monks till their own. Announcing himself at the gate, he demands a meeting with the Abbot, and is promptly given one. The Abbot is honest, discerning, and willing to deal: he admits they have no money, and says Oda is free to look around if he wishes, but urges him not to destroy precious Buddhist scrolls (many written in eerie characters, not Sanskrit or Chinese, which make Oda vaguely nauseous). There is no gold. That night he meets with the Abbot privately, and promises to protect Ryuzoji Temple, and the Abbot asks in return for what? Oda says nothing, he likes the Abbot. The Abbot, however, realizes that Oda is not a man to give favors for free. That night Oda visits Dreamlands temple, and reveals his true heart, which is unification and peace for Japan, under Oda of course. The Taininhodo decide to support Oda, providing him with useful information via dreams from that point. They know nothing about the thoughts or goals of Toyotomi Hideyoshi or Tokugawa Ieyasu, however, and can only provide information on things such as troop concentrations, etc, gained through DL magic and ghouls scouting. 1732 Yakibashiri lava flow destroys East Dormitory, killing 82 monks. Immediately after the monks die, the eruption subsides. A monk prays at the site of the East Dormitory, still partially visible under the solidified lava, twice a day (sunrise and sunset), even today. 1893 Taininhodo monk accompanies Shaku Soen, abbot of the Engakuji Branch of Rinzai Zen, to the World Parliament of Religions, held as part of the Chicago World Fair. While there he meets with representative from Order of the Sword of St. Jerome. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Kurotokage/message/796 for details.

Ryuzoji Temple

This section includes a map, with info and pictures on each building.

How many monks are there? Horyuji had 220 or so, so about a hundred would be good. Of these, only maybe a dozen or two know what’s going on.

Local region, nearby cities, role of the monks in local society, relationship to Shingon

Each building should be described, with picture, photo and/or text, especially the 1732 incident.

The Tainin Hodo today

Ryuzoji is a Buddhist temple in Japan, a leading industrialized nation, and as such is unable to survive in merely its traditional role. The vast majority of the monks work to alleviate suffering in the world, specifically in their local area, through assistance and aid to the disabled and poor; teaching of various classes, including Buddhism, kendo (Japanese swordsmanship), archery, and calligraphy. Within the total group of monks, about a hundred in all, there are only about a dozen who know the truth, and work to root out Mythos evil. Another dozen or so are aware that strange things happen, and may have cooperated at one time or another, but are largely unaware of exactly what is going on. As a Buddhist group, the Tainin Hodo are extremely unlikely to take direct, physical action, and instead try to arrange for the problem to be exposed to normal authorities for handling. There are times when urgency or the type of the problem, however, make this approach impossible, forcing them to take action themselves.

Their primary goal is to achieve peace and happiness in Japan, and they believe a major part of this is eliminating all taints of Amaterasu’s plans and dreams. They do believe in the sacred nature of the Japanese Imperial family, but feel that it has been often controlled and misused by Amaterasu and her factions over the centuries. Eliminating her influence would return it to its full glory and capability. They believe the most direct way of accomplishing this is returning the “untainted” Taira line to the throne, and as a result, protection of The Taira is a key function. Since The Taira is only conscious in the DLs, and most of the monks don’t know he exists anyway, though, he can get out into the real world easily enough and is not required to be under lock and key all day every day.

In 1185, the Tainin Hodo were partially responsible for protecting the Emperor, but that changed when Emperor Shotoku vanished at the close of the Gempei War. It is important to remember that the monks are not especially “for” The Taira and “against” the Mythos, but they are basically The Taira’s bodyguards and hands. They are the only continuing support that The Taira has, since a large number of his operatives are recruited and used up in various ops. The monastery serves as a kind of base, with the Tainin Hodo monks providing spiritual help (which can be as mundane as counseling and teaching meditation techniques to help recover lost SAN), and in some cases actual magical assistance.

Also, since most other operatives are in Kurotokage and therefore suspect (ie, tainted with the possibility that they belong to Amaterasu’s faction), the single most important task of the Taininhodo is to protect The Taira. They isolate him from contact with outsiders by the simple but effective means of keeping all matters related to The Taira in Dreamlands, including the fully-aware consciousness of The Taira. They may require some method of being able to detect spies.

These guys are Buddhists. Their goals are for everybody to live in peace. As long as the Mythos nasties keep eating people, they will keep fighting the Mythos. They have no especial gripe against Mythos creatures who DON’T eat people - this is a crucial difference. They also dislike people who hurt people, remember. They have, on occasion, fed ghouls dead bodies because they felt bad about “living” creatures (ghouls) suffering. If The Taira, for example, moved to hurt lots of people, they might well stop supporting him (ordering agents to certain death doesn’t count…).

Need description of an average day, their training, inter-relationship with local community, etc.

Also, have to work in mention of how they feed and care for the tanuki… players who look will notice that they care unusually for the tanuki (significantly more so that for your random animal), and may wonder why.

In the Dreamlands

The Dreamlands Temple

Includes basically the same info as the section on Ryuzoji Temple: map, with pictures and desctiptions of each building. The temple in the DLs is located on Mt. Lerion, quite close to the Enchanted Wood and the standard entrance. It is known to people in the area, and is not especially secret elsewhere in the DLs, but also not especially noteworthy. People just basically ignore it as another random temple off on a mountain somewhere. The Tainin Hodo do not have a formal temple in Amaterasu’s DLs because there she is the only god, in one form or another, but they do (very rarely) visit her DLs for one reason or another, or sent people to do their bidding there.

The temple in the DLs is unique for several reasons, namely (1) it holds the sword Kusanagi, something that Amaterasu and many other groups want badly, (2) it holds an extensive collection of Buddhist scrolls and Mythos tomes, some of which no longer exist in the real world, (3) it is home to The Taira, most of the time, (4) there are many monks here who never “wake up” and spend decades of DL-time at the temple without ever leaving.

The role of the sect in the Dreamlands

Nominally, they are an extension of Buddhist monks in the real world, and continue to seek enlightenment through recital of Buddhist scripture. They are not interested in proselytizing, although will turn away interested people. They provide for the poor and injured that find their way to the temple, but do not go in search of them. Basically, they try to act as nice hermits, and avoid interacting with the surrounding DLs as much as possible.

Kusanagi

Kusanagi is one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (天叢雲剣, “Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven”) but its name was later changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (草薙の剣, “Grass-Cutting Sword”).

When they got it, where it is, what they do with it.

Magic

The magic of the Taininhodo is based on the Dreamlands, but includes the following spells from CoC v5.5:

• Brew Dream Drug (page 194)
• Cloud Memory (page 197)
• Contact Ghoul (page 199)
• Dream Vision (page 204)
• Heal (page 209)
• Healing (page 209)
• Implant Suggestion (page 209)
• Journey to the Other Side (page 210)
• Pose Mundane (page 212)
• Send Dreams (page 213)

New spells

• Sword Taia (see “Without Intent”, by Davide Mana)
• Summon to Dream (used to call The Taira to meetings in Dreamlands)

NPCs

Nyogen, the Abbot

Nyogen, the Abbot, was born in Shanghai in 1920 as Hirata Shotaro, into a middle-class merchant family. He grew up speaking Chinese and Japanese with a smattering of other languages, following in his father’s footsteps. In 1940 he was inducted into the Japanese Army (Fifteenth Army), participating in the conquest of Indochina. In June 1942, while his squad was moving to an alternate post during operations in Burma, they were attacked and the majority killed by Tcho-Tcho. One of only three survivors, he was later returned to Japan with a permanent hip injury that made it difficult to walk, and a need to understand what he had encountered. Tortured by nightmares, he became an alcoholic, gradually slipping into oblivion in the back streets of Osaka. A Buddhist monk who discovered him in the gutter one day gave him his own rice, which astonished Hirata in the rationed world of World War II Japan, and he began to show an interest in compassionate Buddhism. As he gradually stopped drinking, he drifted northward to escape the crowds and militarism of central Japan. He was accepted as a novice at Ryuzoji Temple, asking for admission on the spur of the moment because he “thought the temple silhouetted against fuming Mt. Iwate was beautiful,” on August 7, 1945, unaware that the atomic bomb had been dropped the previous day. He had a number of encounters with the Mythos, and discovered that either naturally or perhaps because of his exposure to the Tcho-Tcho he was unusually capable of entering and utilizing the Dreamlands. Over the years, he came to understand the truth of what happened in Burma, and was initiated into the mysteries of the Tainin Hodo. He became Abbot of the temple in 1986.

Race: Human Gender: Male Nationality: Japanese STR CON SIZ INT POW DEX APP EDU SAN HP Damage bonus: Education: Skills:

Languages: Japanese 99%, classical Japanese 75%, Chinese 75%, classical Chinese 60%, Sanskrit 75%, English 65%, French 20%

Attacks:

Spells: Brew Dream Drug, Cloud Memory, Contact Ghoul, Dream Vision, Heal, Healing, Implant Suggestion, Journey to the Other Side, Pose Mundane , Send Dreams, Summon to Dream

Enchanted items: None.

Physical description: Nyogen is your average old man. He walks slowly, usually with a limp which is apparently painful in his left hip, and usually with an 8-sided staff as a cane. He is almost totally bald, except for wisps of hair above his ears which stick out quite absurdly. His eyes are narrow slits, but when they can be seen they are bright and lively. He is missing most of his teeth on the left side of his jaw, and when he speaks, eats or drinks usually holds his left hand in front of his mouth to hide it. His voice is quiet and low, and not at all weak, although he seldom raises it. There are three wide, parallel scars running down the length of his right arm from the shoulder to shortly below the elbow, but these are rarely visible. He usually wears dark blue robes, and Buddhist rosary of wooden beads on his left wrist; when deep in thought he runs the beads through his left hand, endlessly cycling it between his fingers one bead at a time.

Note on the staff: He bought the staff when he climbed Mt. Fuji (it is a “kongou-zue” available as a tourist item), and the different stages of the climb are branded into the staff. He is extremely proud of it, and will not discuss where he got it, but in fact he climbed Mt. Fuji with The Taira on New Year’s Day, to greet the rising sun.

Tosui, Master of Taia

Knows Dreamlands, does not know the truth about the Taira.

Race: Human Gender: Male Nationality: Japanese STR CON SIZ INT POW DEX APP EDU SAN HP Damage bonus: Education: Skills: Languages: Attacks:

Spells:

Enchanted items:

Physical description: Other characters to be fleshed out

Kyogan (巨岩; literally “giant boulder”), also just as “iwa”. He is officially the head of the Temple’s external operations, including interacting with local government and the community, but in fact he wanders around Japan keeping his eyes on all sorts of things and is in charge of protecting The Taira. He is built like a tank but is extremely fast as well. Probably the most dangerous of the monks in combat, with extensive experience. He is by no means a slow or stupid person, but cannot sense the DLs or use magic. He knows the truth about The Taira.

Ho (穂; literally means “ear of rice”). The Keeper of the Tanuki. He is responsible for general upkeep of temple buildings, but more importantly takes care of the tanuki, and watches them to see what they are up to. He has warned the temple of various POW-related events in the past, including leaks from the DLs, magic usage and Cthonian activity. He can also drain any POW charges from a tanuki, usually. He is incapable of using violence, and will not kill a bee stinging him.

Mokko (木鼓; literally means “wooden drum”). Usually found on the road somewhere in Japan, and most usually near The Taira. A very tall, thin monk, who rarely speaks at all. He is committed to the protection of The Taira, and would cheerfully give his life to protect him. While he works under Kyogan, he has considerable leeway in carrying out his mission. He may be insane, and spends a great deal of time in the DLs.

The Taininhodo in the Dreamlands

The Dreamlands Temple

Role of the Taininhodo in Dreamlands

The Sacred Sword Kusanagi

From: Davide Mana doctor.dee@libero.it Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 14:09:13 +0100 Subject: RE: [Kurotokage] Horrid pointless gibberish…

Ed wrote….

• That looks astonishingly silly at first glance, and exceeding attractive on second… Can you amplify what you’re thinking of?

OK, I’ll try.

Mark wrote that

• Swords and dragons go together like carnage and mayhem

My mind made a weird jump and I thought that a sword or blade is also quite often used as a metaphor for the mind. Two minutes after that I was writing about one of the Imperial Relics. It’s a weird world.

So - Lloigor are made of energy. They have terrific psychokinetic powers and can assume a physical form in some circumstances. They tend to favour snake or lizard-like shapes (the “Dragons” of legend) but other forms are also possible. We can postulate that the Yamato dragon was such a form.

In their energy form, the lloigor seem to be formed of a “core charge” (around 4d6 MPs) - which we can compare to the mind and soul of the critter; as per rulesbook, the critter possesses only INT, POW and DEX. This “core charge” is surrounded (or otherwise complemented) by a cloud of energy (amount variable depending on the environmental availability) - this secondary energy pool is what the Lloigor uses to make up its body (1MP=1SIZ), or to fuel its powers.

We are told (see again CoC rulesbook) that when the dragon form of the Lloigor is slain, the Lloigor dies. From the same source, we are also told that the Lloigor can dissolve its physical body at will. It does not take a critical Idea roll to see the obvious consequence - a Lloigor dragon reduced to 1 HP can dissolve its body, crawl away to lick its wounds (i.e., gather more MPs) and live to extract its revenge on its enemy. Ergo - kicking dragon ass is not enough.

But, back to the Yamato dragon and Susanowo. In brief - the Yamato Dragon causes some nuisances (Lloigor will - there’s an endangered girl in the story, right? Lloigor are suckers for hentai angles) and Susanowo - god of thunder and general badass troublemaker, possibly a champion of those lowest animal traits we share with our primate ancestors - decides to tackle the monster.

Cue to very graphical fight - the stuff of legends, as they say. According to the legend, Susanowo wins and as a bonus finds his sword inside the Dragon.

Who or what is Susanowo? In all honesty, I do not give a damn. Ok, you know what I’d do - I’d leave it open, offering a number of different options, like the Pagans did for Alsiz. He’s the Wind Walker, he’s a lone quantum jump in Human Evolution, he’s a rogue K’n Yanni warlock-warrior, he’s Nyarlathotep in its most sympathetic form to date, he’s A Figure of Speech… He’s the badassed and beautiful incarnation of all that’s vital in being an upstart ape in a world made for lizards.

Back to the dragon fight…. Try and see this as a huge magic energy dissipation tournament. Susanowo does not only kick dragon butt - we know that would not be a permanent solution. He knows too. So he effectively consumes the accessory energy of the critter, progressively depriving it of its physical form and powers, till there’s just a hard core of raging, self-aware, intelligent (4d6+6 INT) energy with nowhere to go.

Pulling the matter-energy thing again, the Thunder Hero turns this steel-hard core of fury into a sword (or, as Mark noted, something we perceive as a sword with our for-dimensionally-bound senses). Susanowo knows his enemy, and he wants not only to defeat it permanently, but to humiliate it (imagine the rage of the nazistoid Lloigor, turned into a tool of his enemy!) Check out the sources - Susanowo was a bad winner. Or maybe Susanowo just hates wastes.

So, the sword goes down in the records and after the Thundering guy is gone, gets filed as an Imperial treasure. No wonder it has no end of “potential” powers. No wonder it’s more at home in the Dreamlands (where Mind is Matter) than in the wakeworld. The sword concentrates the know-how of a aeon-old, evil, sadistic critter - but does not have energy to fuel it. The energy is provided by the wielder - which means a blockbuster of a charge when Susanowo held it, quite less when it’s a puny human doing the trick (if he knows how).

So, all in all, I’d say the Sword is a dormant Lloigor intelligence (sleeping and dreaming itself as a sword in the Dreamlands? Did Susanowo’s power actually cause a Slumberland/Wakeworld loop?) - cut out from its environmental energy supply, bent to serve the will of the wielder by the feat of an ancient god.

Notice that a few Kusanagi tricks - like the corner-cutting so neat that the two pieces stick back on their own - are actually matter/energy thingees - Kusanagi slices through atom-atom bonds, denying Heisemberg’s Indetermination Principle. No wonder it can split light, space and time, and (if the wielder knows how) cut open a path to the Dreamlands, Lamp-of-Alhazred-like.

Maybe the emperor (or the Emperor’s Champion) has to awaken the sword to be able to wield it. And/Or he has to dominate it - otherwise the thing is just an old chunk of weird steel. Without going the whole Elric way (it would be stupid and unoriginal) you can guess grabbing the sword’s hilt is not a very pleasant experience - it’s still a Lloigor, after all. So that’s another test for the Emperor - be able to find and wield the sword, maybe? The Real One will pull it.

From: “Mark McFadden”lizardrex@charter.net Subject: [Kurotokage] Sun Wu-Kung and Hanuman

I was thinking about the identity of Susanowa and went to the Encyclopedia Mythica.

Here is the entry for Sun Wu-Kung, the Monkey King. That was definitely the plot of the movie I saw as a child. I can remember the iron crown on his head and the magic staff (which might be another defeated Lloigor) and the imprisonment under the mountain.

“The Japanese Shinto god of the winds, the storms, and the ocean, also the god of snakes. He was born from the nose of Izanagi, and was given dominion over the seas. His sister, the sun goddess Amaterasu, is also his consort. Susanowa is the personification of evil, but also a brave, if lawless and impetuous, god. His outrages are not limited to the ocean; he also ravages the land with his storms and he darkens the sky, thus angering the ‘eight million deities (the kami).

His little pesterings, especially against his sister, proved his undoing: he looses his beard, his fingernails, and all his possessions, and is banished. He wanders the earth and has many adventures, such as the slaying of the eight-headed snake Koshi and by defeating this monster he obtained a powerful sword, called Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi (“grass cutting sword”). Some other feats were conquering Korea and wiping out the plague. Okuni-Nushi, his son, eventually tricked him out of the sword.”

Okuni-Nushi:

“The Japanese Shinto god of magic and medicine, son of the storm god Susanowo. He died twice and was resurrected both times, and as such he is the symbol of the dying and budding nature. He was the ruler of the earth until the sun goddess Amaterasu sent her grandson Ninigi to rule in his place. In compensation he was made ruler of the unseen world of spirits and magic. Okuninushi descended to the underworld and, after many tests, managed to disarm his father and took his sword.”

And a note on Hanuman:

“Hanuman is the son of Vayu, the Hindu god of Wind. It is also considered to be a bodhisattva, representing the figure of the ideal hero, humble yet brave. It is known from Sri Lanka to Northern India, being depicted as a monkey, in some places as a white monkey (in Sri Lanka). Hanuman was one of the leaders of the people of Vanara.”

The entry on Sun Wu-Kung is chockful o’ hooks:

“Sun Wu-Kung was born of primal chaos, hatching from a stone egg impregnated by the sky. He ruled over a kingdom of monkeys on a remote island, naming himself Handsome Monkey King. One day an elderly monkey passed away, and the Handsome Monkey King decided to leave the island to learn how to become immortal.

He traveled through the lands of humans, and finally he found a mountain where a Taoist priest took him on as a student. Monkey proved a very adept student at martial arts, magical transformations, and cloud dancing, an art that enabled him to leap thousands of miles with one jump. But Handsome Monkey King was mischievous, and was finally expelled for showing off.”

“He returned back to his island, destroyed monsters that had taken up residence there, and soon turned his eyes towards heaven, believing himself as powerful as the gods. He named himself The Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, and demanded that the Jade Emperor recognize him as such.”

“Monkey fled back to his island, and established defenses as the gods pursued him. Embattled, he and his army of monkeys held off the heavenly host, who several times had to flee for reinforcements. Finally, Lao Tsu, the Boddhisattva Kuan Shi-Yin, and the Deveraja family were able to subdue him. Jade Emperor tried to have him executed, but Monkey’s magic was too strong. He was placed in Lao Tsu’s cauldron to be exterminated, but it only refined him, and he leapt out to cause havoc in heaven once more.”

“He also possessed a magic weapon, which he won from the Dragon Kings of the ocean. He called it his Compliant Rod, a shape-shifting stave of metal which was reported to weigh more than 13,000 pounds. He usually wore it behind his ear, the shape and size of a toothpick, but when called to battle the rod could become thicker than a battle staff, and even produce multiples of itself at his command.”

There are a few recurrent themes here.

Sun Wu-Kung and Susanowa are both immaculate conceptions, like Athena and Aphrodite. Test tube babies?

Hanuman/Sun Wu-Kung and Okuni-Nushi seem to be a better match-up than Hanuman and Susanowa, at least in being sons of the wind god. Also notice the similarities to Hermes in personality, patronage, powers and connections to the Underworld and magic.

Sun Wu-Kung’s major adventure is the Journey to the West. The West is the best. Get in, and we’ll do the rest. There’s a feeling I get when I look to the West…. shades of Tim Leary.

Sun Wu-Kung has a few encounters with the Dragon Kings. He gains a magic weapon and “At the height of his power, he wore a suit of golden armor that he bullied out of the Dragon Kings.” Or maybe he made a suit of armor out of a dragon, as he did with his weapon. Susanowa is “also the god of snakes”, defeats dragons and the eight-headed snake Koshi. In other words, no shortage of connections to reptiles.

Possibilities for Susano, by Davide:

1. S. as another name for the Wind Walker
2. S. as avatar of Nyarlathotep (another!)
3. S. as Elder God (like Nodens, Hypnos and pals)
4. rogue K’n Yanni
5. Dreamlands wizard/Powerful Dreamer in a time in which the Wall of Sleep was thinner
6. a fluke of evolution (a precursor of what man will be in a million years)

Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 16:39:08 -0800 From: Gil Trevizo furrylogic@mindspring.com

Ever since I read a short paragraph on the rivalry between Susano and Amaterasu in children’s book Japanese mythology, I’ve been wondering about the relationship between Susano and the Kurotokage and tantalized by the idea that the Kurotokage affiliate themselves with Susano.

They are both a tool for Amaterasu’s schemes, yet in some sense are her rival. They are both seen as hero and then villain and then hero. They are both outcasts.

If Susano was the original tool by which Amaterasu had the Lloigor captured into the sword, then the Kurotokage, by their investigation and Mythos-hunting, are there to find the way for her to release Susano from the sword and win the sword for herself.

And perhaps it is Susano that is truly directing the Kurotokage to free him from the sword, by coming to them in their dreams. This is either because Susano wants out and to get payback on the Amaterasu bitch, or Amaterasu already knows this and is playing Susano to play Kurotokage, and all for her.

The sword was also named Ama no Mura-Kumo no tsurugi, which translates literally as the “sword of the gathering clouds of heaven”. Perhaps constant mist? Be nice if we could work it in nicely, though.

NPCs

• Nyogen, the Abbot
• Tosui, Master of Taia
• Other characters

Kurotokage

History

The Formative Years: 1524 to 1868

The Kurotokage trace their origins back to Nakahara Takatoshi, born in Kyoto in 1502. He spent his early years as a samurai in the service of the Lord of Tanba (near Kyoto), and in 1523 was dispatched for special training to an unknown and never-disclosed destination, thought to have been one of the ninja communities. He took the secret of his training with him to his grave (it is not included in the Nakahara Diary).

He did mention that his lord had expected him to continue to serve him for undercover missions after his training, but events intervened: in 1524 his training group encountered a byakhee, and the majority was killed. [When we actually write it up, we’ll probably want to avoid specifically identifying it as a Byakhee, describing it instead to let the reader figure it out.] Nakahara himself was severely wounded, and was nursed back to health and sanity by a passing monk (name and sect unknown; probably Tainin Hodo). From that time, he devoted himself entirely to eradicating the byakhee (and related Mythos creatures) from Japan, gradually attracting a number of like souls to his side.

The first and foremost of these assistants was Momooka Shintaro, a wandering rowdy from Higo (present-day Saga, Kyushu). Momooka’s experiences had been a bit different: he had been exiled from his homeland after various escapades involving gambling and less savory activities: he was given a choice of exile or death. In spite of his rather coarse nature and violent attitude, however, he genuinely cared for the peasants, and as he wandered Japan, deliberately evading all attempts to prevent free passage, he also helped the lower classes in many ways. One of these was his single-handed extermination of a community of *** (some kind of baddies) [Best would be to tie it in with something else, like the DO community, a nest of Ithaqua worshippers, etc, to provide foreshadowing.] on the island of Nashijima, in the Seto Inland Sea. He is thought to have been about ten years older than Nakahara.

By that time, Nakahara had a pass issued by the Ashikaga authorities, which was sufficient to allow him free passage almost anywhere in Japan. This was a delightful change for Momooka, of course.

Over the next two decades, the pair of them successfully cleansed many groups of “devil worshippers” from Japan, earning the private thanks of both the Emperor and the Ashikaga Shogunate. The Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, was especially appreciative, and after Nakahara lost an arm in battle and was forced to retire in 1543, offered him a position as the leader of a group of warriors trained to carry on his battle. This group had no official name, and was generally referred to as the “kasumi gundan,” which could be translated as “mist corps,” recognizing their somewhat hidden and transient existence. While mentioned in various historical records of the time in passing, it is generally thought to have been a bodyguard group.

With the death of Ashikaga Yoshiharu in 1546, the kasumi gundan moved even farther into the shadows as Nakahara’s sons, recognizing the potential for conflict with the Shogunate itself, began accumulating and applying some of the various treasures gained from their adventures. The kasumi gundan became, in other words, a secret society which funded itself outside of government channels. Perhaps because of their need for a “good god” to stand against all the evil they fought, the Imperial family of Japan was worshipped, and there was often communication between the two groups. The Emperor, however, was extremely poor and powerless during much of this period, making it difficult for the Imperial family to have much effect on the activities of the kasumi gundan.

This transformation into a secret society had two immediate effects on the group. The first was that it became possible to disassociate itself from the Shogunate, thereby assuring the survival of the secret group even when the Ashikaga Shogunate fell, and again in future years as the government changed numerous times. The other effect was that the kasumi gundan began to adopt a philosophy that what they took by force was theirs, “for the good of Japan.”

The kasumi gundan continued until the late 16th century as a combination of secret police and robbers. While most of their members were still actively anti-Mythos, a large number were merely armed ruffians, who often used the accusation of witchcraft as an excuse to rape and pillage. They continued to enjoy a channel of communication with the highest levels of government, however, always to the Emperor and usually to the Shogun or ranking officials, which made it possible for them to avoid scattered, regional efforts by police forces to capture or kill them. Since the entire nation was engaged in a succession of wars as power blocs vied to unify Japan and take the reins as Shogun, in fact they were rarely noticed.

This state of affairs changed abruptly in 1587, when Tokugawa Ieyasu boldly strode into a secret meeting of the highest echelons of the kasumi gundan and said he had come to talk. Appreciating his boldness, and perhaps the mention that the entire meeting place was surrounded by Ieyasu’s trusted retainers, they talked for several hours. The agreement boiled down to the provision of intelligence and magical assistance, in return for official support and protection, along with plenty of cash. They agreed, in short, to actively support Ieyasu’s bid for power, which finally ended in 1600 with him destroying all remaining opposition and unifying Japan under himself as Shogun.

This had established a new precedent, however… while the upper echelons of the kasumi gundan were aware of the relationship with the Shogun, no-one else was… including the majority of the personnel in the kasumi gundan itself. Under pressure from the Shogunate, the general robbers and cut-throats were gradually weeded out, while those with a genuine mission to protect Japan were supported. Ieyasu was making sincere efforts to ensure peace and stability in Japan, and part of that program included eliminating undesirable elements. He was, however, all in favor of having a group of men who would continue wiping out Mythos creatures and worshippers. A schism had been created between the upper echelons, which were aware of their relationship with the government, and the lower echelons, who knew only of their commitment to protect the people. And the upper echelons had agreed to provide Ieyasu with magical assistance as needed, which it was…

One of Ieyasu’s sidekicks, ***, mentions in his diary that the Shogun once described the kasumi gundan as being “like little black lizards, scurrying to do my bidding.” This is thought to be the first mention of the name “Kurotokage.”

The ties with the Emperor remained active throughout this period, and the Amaterasu-Emperor noticed the potential usefulness of the kasumi gundan sometime around the mid-17th century [anytime from Ieyasu to Meiji, inclusive, actually…] when they acquired a set of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. The Books had been recognized and held by the head of the kasumi gundan, and she promptly arranged to have them transferred to her control… in the process turning the leader of the kasumi gundan into a gibbering idiot. From this time, while Ieyasu tightened the screws on his control of Japan, the Emperor moved to gain complete control of the kasumi gundan, which was most easily achieved by controlling the top echelons, as they had already been turned by Ieyasu from their original “pure” motivations.

New Challenges: 1868 to 1926

The Meiji Restoration is commonly viewed as a revolution that swept the Shogunate from power and reestablished the Emperor. However, it is more accurate to portray it as an internal reorganization of the Kuromaku, the shadowy cabal that truly rules Japan.

At the beginning of the Tokugawa Period, the newly established Shogunate did indeed have a great deal of control within the Kuromaku, and as such was easily able to establish itself as both the visible and invisible ruler of Japan. As time went on, however, other forces, some that had long been players within the Kuromaku, others new to the scene, were able to expand their power bases at the expense of the Shogunate, until after two and a half centuries the visible government was just a shell of its former self, ready to collapse with the right push. That push, the coming of Perry’s Black Ships, was not an unforeseen, fortuitous event–the more successful members of the Kuromaku had kept their lines of communication to the outside world open, and knew very well what was going on.

Kurotokage had also suffered during the Tokugawa Period. While it had pledged its loyalty to the Shogun, it had remained secretly loyal to the Imperial Line, a dilemma that forced more than one suicide to avoid disobeying either master. Knowing that Kurotokage could not always be relied upon, the Shoguns choked off their funding more and more, making sure that the Emperors could get little use out of them, either. However, there were occasional missions that were so much in Kurotokage’s line of expertise that they still saw some action, often in conjunction with the Shogun’s secret police, who served both as support and as spies on Kurotokage. It was during this period that Kurotokage began to develop its system of contacts

throughout other intelligence services, like the secret police, so that it could learn about diabolic events even when the Shogun chose not to pass on the information. Thus, Kurotokage was able to carry out a number of missions that were secret from the Shogun, and even at times secret from the Emperor.

Or so it seemed to the rank-and-file agents of Kurotokage. In actuality, their highest commanders had long been aware of the Kuromaku, and were serving them, essentially pledging loyalty to whomever was in power at the time. For a long time, that was the Shogunate, but as time went on, it shifted among several key players, even though the Shogunate was the visible ruler. Kurotokage would then carry out missions to put down supernatural threats that could weaken their current master. To avoid letting the lower-level agents know that they weren’t being steadfast and true servants of the Emperor, information about these threats would be “leaked” to the agents through roundabout paths, so they agents would think they’d gotten the information on their own, clandestinely.

When the Black Ships arrived, the leaders of Kurotokage were ready. It had already been decided decades before that it was time for the tottering Shogunate to go, and that the Emperor would be elevated to apparent power again. Kurotokage would be instrumental in that plan, and in return would become far more powerful and well-funded than it had ever been. But there was a price to pay. The Emperor Komei, father of Prince Mutsuhiro, perversely clung to the status quo, and refused to play the role being prepared for him. He wanted no part of the plot, and indeed preferred to keep the Shogunate in power. He was highly xenophobic, and wanted no opening up to the outside world. He was not the right man to sit on a restored Chrysanthemum Throne.

He had to go.

The leaders of Kurotokage had, over the centuries, learned their own dark arts, at first to fight fire with fire, but later to gain power of their own. Infecting him with a deadly, supernatural disease that resembled smallpox was a simple matter, especially as Amaterasu, the guardian spirit of the Imperial Line, had apparently been asleep for centuries, ignoring her progeny. Komei died, and Mutsuhiro was quickly confirmed as the Emperor Meiji as the Shogunate collapsed.

But a strange thing happened during Meiji’s investment ceremonies. For the first time in generations, Amaterasu spoke to a new Emperor.

It was not a spiritual merging, as she had done with Himiko and a very few other Emperors and rulers over the millennia. Meiji did not become a God, despite the propaganda. But the child-Emperor was contacted by her, and she whispered to him in his dreams, testing him, trying to see how well she could control him, if he could contain her. Perhaps it was the transitional period Japan was going through–perhaps that had awakened her. In any case, the boy suffered terribly, reporting awful nightmares to his uncle and mother. With time, he learned not to speak of them, and as he grew older, he drank heavily. Amaterasu soon realized that she could not merge with him, but she never entirely abandoned him, and haunted him all his life, eroding his sanity and turning him into a dissolute, nervous wreck. This suited the reorganized Kuromaku just fine, as it made him easier to control, although some of them (the ones with more knowledge of the Mythos) became aware that something strange was up.

In the meantime, it was a golden era for the Kurotokage. Suddenly they had (comparatively) massive funding, and they expanded their tiny membership by recruiting from the best of the Shogun’s now-jobless secret police. In the chaos of the transition, they carried out several missions, all of which were secretly in service to the new rulers of the Kuromaku. Three of the leaders of Kurotokage were even powerful enough to form a minor faction in the Kuromaku itself. But one of those leaders, General Saigo, who was also the head of the armed forces and one of the “Three Heroes”, became aware of the Emperor’s extraordinary contact with the Sun Goddess. Saigo had become Meiji’s confidant, and while he served the Kuromaku first, he held the Emperor in great affection, and longed for the early, “pure” days of Kurotokage serving the Emperor and freely battling evil wherever it reared its head. When he learned that Meiji was a truly “holy” Emperor, he carefully passed on the information to the ranks, so as to engender an even fiercer loyalty to the Emperor. He was hoping to be able to purge Kurotokage of some of its more corrupt leaders and take it back to “the old days.” However, he was foiled in this by the Kuromaku, which caught wind of his plans and arranged to have him embarrassed and forced to resign.

Saigo’s samurai rebellion was hopeless from the start, but Saigo went ahead for two reasons: it would allow him and the many disaffected samurai who didn’t fit into the modern world to die with honor, and it gave him a shot at taking down a couple of his enemies in the process. But one night, sleeping on the battlefield, he had a strange dream. In that dream, he entered a Buddhist temple, and spoke with the priests there. Then he was introduced to the Taira, the true, untainted heir of the throne. He was shown things that left him convinced of the dangerous nature of Amaterasu, and he awoke bathed in sweat, his entire worldview shaken to pieces.

Several of the samurai who had flocked to his banner were also Kurotokage agents who had remained loyal to him. He ordered them to desert him and return to the service of Kurotokage, to beg forgiveness and hope that they would be accepted back. Three of them, the ones he most trusted, received a special benediction from him. Dipping his finger in a cup of sake, Saigo drew on their foreheads a complex Buddhist symbol, as he had been instructed to do by the priests of the dream-temple. Then he bade them farewell.

The next day, Saigo made his last stand. Mortally wounded, he had his lieutenant behead him, and his head was sent to the opposing general. Saigo’s civil war was over, but the secret civil war within Kurotokage was just beginning.

Most of the Kurotokage agents sent back by Saigo were re-accepted into the ranks, for despite his rebellion, Saigo was well-liked and his final gesture had won him great respect. However, some of the Kuromaku suspected that something was up, and nearly all of those returnees were weeded out through being sent on hopeless, rigged missions as quickly as possible. But the three who had been marked by Saigo received their own visits from the dream-priests, although they were brought in on the secrets more slowly than Saigo had been, so that they would not suffer too great a blow to their sanity, and so they could not reveal too much if they betrayed the priests or were tortured. And although all three of those men soon died in the line of duty, they had been able to tell the priests of those who would make good candidates for contact. Thus was born the conspiracy within Kurotokage, one that sought to serve the Taira.

By this time, the other two of the Three Heroes were dead, and they had been replaced in the Kuromaku by the Genro. The two primary members, Generals Ito and Yamagata, both knew of the Kuromaku and played a role as leaders, although usually very indirectly. Ito was not really temperamentally suited to all this “secret agent business,” however, and soon, Yamagata had muscled Ito aside. Yamagata, the same general who had defeated Saigo, was a master of creating and running secret societies, and while he kept his management of Kurotokage indirect, he was soon in almost complete control. He also expanded the Genro’s power base and influence in the Kuromaku, sometimes using Kurotokage, among other agencies, as weapons. He even created the Black Dragon Society as a sort of parody of one of the Kuromaku’s most ancient members, and used it against them at times in delicious irony.

Yamagata’s power derived not only from his conspiratorial dealings, but also from more overt actions. He had considerable control over the military, and was largely behind the invasion and annexation of Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan. He arranged for his old rival Ito to become Viceroy of Korea, and then set him up for assassination by the Korean resistance, with the help of his Black Dragons.

The death of Ito, who had taken the place of Saigo as the Emperor’s closest companion, affected Meiji badly, and he declined rapidly, dying three years later.

Their Darkest Hour: 1926 to 1945

Obviously, the Kurotokage was involved in a number of two-edged activities: eliminating Mythos activities (while at the same time either stepping on Allied toes, or just picking up tomes and items for Amaterasu/Emperor), and toward the end, probably under pressure to apply Mythos magic to “save Nippon.” Most of the history can go in the timeline, but the actions and development of Kurotokage should go here.

A Losing Battle: 1945 to present

Losing because they are being swamped in a rising flood of mediocre administrators who are more interested in feathering their nests or decrying others than in actually getting important things done. The Kurotokage lower ranks fear the Mythos, but they fear the audit and prosecutor’s office more: too many skeletons in the closet, and too many people searching for rugs to overturn. [Dave: I think this is also where they can get some definite cross-contact with Delta Green, through the Occupation Forces.]

The Kurotokage had been fiercely loyal to the Emperor for centuries, and when Japan lost World War Two it was a serious blow to many operatives. Following closely on the heels of the massive losses incurred during the War itself, this further reduced their ranks, and almost resulted in the destruction of the organization through sheer depopulation. [Dave: Let’s see if we can have one or two Kurotokage members get hanged as war criminals. Following the common pattern, they would be relatively innocent, while the truly evil men who framed them walk away free.]

Two factors were involved in assuring the continued existence of the Kurotokage: unofficial action by the Japanese government, and unofficial action by the American government. The Japanese government acted in the form of the Kuromaku, specifically the Imperial Household Agency, with financial support from the various zaibatsu members of the Kuromaku. While the American forces were totally unaware of their support, they in fact demonstrated to a Kurotokage operative that anti-Mythos activities were world-wide, and that perhaps there was hope for the future after all (as described in “Yuki Onna”).

Some possibilities for ops during WW2 (August 7, 2002, by Lipsett):

1. Britain: In Indochina, almost obviously. Another possibility is the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and other British colonies. Burma (tcho-tcho etc) is a prime target, especially since the Imphal Campaign there resulted in massive Japanese losses to the jungle rather than enermy action. See http://themanipurpage.tripod.com/history/wwII.html
2. Australia: Various collisions in New Guinea, which should be a ripe hunting group for all sorts of bloodthirsty Mythos creatures and ancient ruins.
3. Russia. Nomonhan, Mongolia in the summer of 1939. Massive casualties to the Japanese forces, emasculating their Chinese Army and destroying a good part of their continential air force. Later, in the islands north of Japan, such as the capture of the Kuriles by the Russians, the slave labor camps for Japanese POWs in Siberia, and later expatriation of Japanese citizens from Siberia and the Kuriles. Many references, but curiously few offer any degree of detail. See, for example http://world.std.com/~Ted7/altcamp5.htm#cNomonhan
4. Germany. Unquestionably, submarine I-52 (1944). See http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1044.htm
5. China. This is getting a bit out of the ODH realm and onto Charles Ripple’s turf, but the Chinese more than likely had lots and lots of nifty books and artifacts lying around. I’m sure there was quite a race to grab them, any number of times and paces. Flying Tigers, maybe?
6. America. Curiously enough, I can’t think of any good candidates, except possibly random encounters on vague Pacific islands. Maybe Dutch Harbor? http://www.vfw.org/magazine/jun02/attackonamerica.htm

Organization

In 1964, the year of the Tokyo Olympics and the height of the Japanese boom economy, the Kurotokage got a home. Mitsue, Mitsuboshi and MITI (via the Aozora-kai) cooperated in establishing the Fukuzawa Yukichi Institute (FYI). The Institute takes its name from famous Meiji-era Japanese educator Fukuzawa Yukichi, the founder of the prestigious Keio University and a strong supporter for universal education He is perhaps most famous in Japan for his belief in equality, which he expressed as “heaven created no man above another, and no man below.” The goals of the Institute are to “promote education for the people of the earth, through a better understanding of each other’s cultural heritages and respect for our fellow men.” The large, college-like facility is located in Yamanakako, Yamanashi Prefecture, on the shore of Lake Yamanaka at the foot of Mt. Fuji, about a 10-minute ride from Fuji-Yoshida Station on the Fuji Kyuko Line. It includes facilities and equipment normally associated with a mid-level university, such as a large computer room, massive library, many research and meeting rooms, dormitories (although most employees live off-site) and cafeteria. It employs about 120 full-time people and about 50 part-timers of various types. The majority of the staff cycles through, often on sabattical from other educational institutions in Japan or overseas, although the core management personnel are rarely changed. Operational expenses come from the initial “nest egg” provided by Mitsue and Mitsuboshi, plus massive research grants and subsidies from METI or other Japanese government agencies manipulated by the Aozora-kai, and donations from general corporations.

The majority of research performed at the facility is published in their glossy “Journal of the Fukuzawa Yukichi Institute” in bilingual (English and Japanese) format, as a quarterly. Articles are generally extremely dense and difficult to read, covering a variety of obscure topics such as achieving world peace through Buddhism, the utilization of foreign-language teaching in kindergarten, current folk beliefs in eastern Hokkaido, surveys of educational quality in the Philippines, and what have you. In short, it is a highly-successful, internationally-recognized research institute much like dozens of similar institutes around the world. The Honorary Director of the Institute is her Imperial Highness the Empress of Japan, and she makes public appearances at times.

About a dozen of the full-time permanent staff, and a dozen of the part-time staff, however, handle the daily operations of Kurotokage, and a special Ethnology Research Team concentrates on the collection, analysis and evaluation of Mythos tomes. In theory the tomes are destroyed after evaluation; in fact, they end up in the Special Artifacts Room, a controlled-environmental vault under the Main Administration Building. This vault is the largest single collection of Mythos material in Japan (the Taininhodo collection is probably the second-largest, but much of their material is stored in the DLs instead).

This operations center is tied into a secure and independent optical fiber network running the length of Japan, from Sapporo to Okinawa. It was laid simultaneously with the corporate network run by Mitsue, and while it often uses the same physical conduits, the two networks are entirely independent. The communications system is protected by a sophisticated but relatively conventional encryption system, and run out of a network operations center located in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, as a leased operation from a firm specializing in network operations. The network operation firm believes it is maintaining one of several Mitsue networks, and in fact Mitsue pays for maintenance and repair.

Communications with agents are handled through cellphones. The system is perhaps a bit clumsy, but it works. The cellphone is a perfectly normal cellphone, and can be used normally to call anyone, but the volatile memory has been loaded with a Java program to handle encryption. When the agent launches the application by calling up an innocuous-looking user-defined function, and then inputs a unique 8-character string, encryption is enabled. When encrypted the cellphone can communicate safely only with other encrypted terminals, producing only static even if the call is tapped. The encryption function is a trapdoor function, and unique to each cellphone, so even if one code is known it is impossible to determine the password scheme, or use it to gain access through any other cellphone. It is common for agents to use disposable cellphones. When encryption is on, the NTT national telephone network will ignore the call entirely, not logging it in various activity or billing registers. In this state, the cellphone can only communicate with other cellphones also in encrypted mode, and with the Kurotokage HQ (by pressing “0”). This is handled by a special backdoor built into the NTT system by Kurotokage when the system was originally created, and maintained since. In the unlikely event that the backdoor should be traced, pressing “0” will be found to lead to a transfer box which automatically routes calls to a preset number, using a modified “Blue Box” to avoid logging - and the preset number will have been deleted (the transfer box is already in place, and the transfer number was never input, so it can be used at any time). Since Kurotokage has people on the inside at NTT, this is unlikely to happen. Note that this backdoor makes it possible for Kurokotage to monitor, in theory, any telephone or datacom call processed through NTT facilities, which account for essentially all voice traffic and the majority of datacom traffic in Japan.

In addition to visible funding, funds are also provided by METI in the form of skim off of nationally-operated horse- and boat-racing operations. This is always cash income, and therefore untraceable.

The Kurotokage have no directly opposing group, and are therefore organized a bit differently from similar organizations in the United States or Europe. Japan is essentially a nation at peace, and in spite of soaring defense expenditures, the general citizenry is strongly committed to avoiding war and even most military action at essentially all cost. The government is exceedingly top-heavy, and the recent decline to deficit spending has nurtured a new breed of investigators (taxation, corruption, medical, pollution etc.) sincerely motivated to root out people and corporations violating Japanese law. As in any “advanced” nation, many of these investigators are motivated more by politics than by any sense of justice, but once an offender is found, the hounds bay nonetheless.

The Kurotokage does not officially exist, and in fact it does not even exist unofficially to the point that various other “black” Japanese organizations do: It receives no budget, it is not mentioned anywhere, and few people even at the highest levels have any idea of its existence. What it does have is an English conversation class.

It is very common for Japanese of all occupations and ages to study English, either during schooling or less formally evenings or on weekends. The “English Speaking Society” (ESS) was established in the early 1950s, primarily for professional people with tight schedules, offering the opportunity to meet informally with other people interested in English, at times and places convenient to all, and with frequent English-speaking teachers. At that time, the only English conversation schools available were tightly-structured, quite expensive private schools, most rigidly scheduled, and it the ESS proved very successful at attracting employed students.

The ESS was planned and initiated by **Kazuo, and worked perfectly. There is at least one ESS contact in all major and most intermediate-size Japanese cities, providing instant information on when and where meetings are held. Students pay for the meetings they attend, usually by having one person at each meeting send the total collected by postal transfer to the local office (the cheapest way to do it). In fact, a reasonable amount of money is generated through these efforts, and the vast majority of it is spent on rooms, English teachers, texts and similar things. Since there is no legal organization, any profits made are made by the local office, which runs very close to zero profit, zero loss, year after year, as a simple single-owner company paying the owner’s salary (and a modest salary at that). The local “office” is usually in that person’s home.

In addition to providing English conversation classes for students, however, the local office also provides special classes for Kurotokage ops. Since there are no fixed schedules, places or participants, any set of people can be brought together easily, and since native teachers are needed at times, it is a simple matter to meet with visitors from overseas as well. It provides a perfectly acceptable reason to meet with people from other ministries, other agencies, other companies, at any time and at the drop of a hat.

Clips from old Japan Notes.doc (Just stuck it here to keep track of it; doesn’t mean anything in particular yet).

The technical arm is the Meteorological Agency, Seismological and Volcanological Department, Office of the Director-General, Seismological and Volcanological Disaster-Prevention Measures Committee, Emerging Technology Evaluation Sub-Committee.

According to several books, the Monk Jofuku (pronounced Xifu in Chinese; dispatched by the Emperor of the Xin Dynasty to search for the secret of immortality in Japan) said that the underground palace was located under Asama Shrine, Yoshida City. Yoshida City is on the other side of Mt. Fuji, but it might be interesting to have this Institute built on top of the entrance to Amaterasu’s tunnels which lead down into the DLs and her “bottled Azathoth” laboratory…

It has several types of agents. (a) people who know the anti-Mythos mission of Kurotokage, and work with it, (b) friendlies, who don’t really know who they are working for but don’t like the Mythos anyway, (c) people who think they are working for some ultra-right-wing group dedicated to putting the Emperor back in power, (d) dupes, who have no idea of what is going on at all, but cooperate because they think they have been asked by some official government agency.

To accomplish (4), they have established a number of front organizations which exist solely on paper - no matter how they are investigated, they don’t exist, and will never be found. One is the right-wingers, the other is the ultra-secret government agency. Once in a while they do something to indicate that the organization actually exists, say, blow up an anti-emperor group’s offices and issue a statement claiming responsibility, but no matter how hard the police search, the group doesn’t exist.

Procedures and Style

As can be seen from the diagram, the Kurotokage accepts a range of information from various groups (the four shown underneath). When additional investigation or action is required, it assigns personnel via the English Speaking Society (ESS) to the right, also drawing on special personnel or resources from the four groups as needed. Results are passed directly back to the Kurotokage. Note that while the Shoka have information sources within the Kurotokage and the four groups, they do not monitor or control any of them entirely. Further, they have essentially no monitor or control over the ESS, and do not normally access op result information until after it is received by the Kurotokage.

Kurotokage agents are issued a standard PDA, which appears to be identical to the extremely-popular Zaurus from Sharp. There are a few major differences, however. First, all software and data in the PDA are stored on battery-driven volatile RAM; there is no hard disk drive, but the RAM has a multi-gigabyte capacity. If the battery fails, the RAM is wiped. Second, the circuit boards mounting the electronic components have a layer of thermite inside them, and the electronic ignition circuit is electrically prevented from activation. If the battery fails, the ignitor activates, and the whole things melts down very thoroughly, starting with the RAM chips. The Zaurus can be connected to any cellphone to enabled encrypted communication; without the Zaurus most cellphones function merely as normal phones (note that agents are issued special cellphones with encryption chips, so that the PDA is not required for secure communication). The PDA is provided with SmartCard implementations for GPS location-sensing, inertial tracking of motion, digital camera and various other features, any two of which can be installed at once. All of the SmartCards are standard commercial implementations.

Important Individuals

For now, refer to the number one guy as Kazuo, 2=Jiro, 3-Saburo, 4-Shiro, 5-Goro. We’ll worry about actual names later.

Hoshikawa Kazuo (cover name–real name unimportant)

Director, Kurotokage, Age 66 (born 1935)

Code Name: Oshou (“Monk,” or “revered”)

Str 12 Con 10 Siz 11 Dex 14 App 7

Int 17 Pow 18 Edu 18 SAN 62 HP 11

Damage Bonus: 0

Education: B.Sc. Archaeology, Waseda University

Basic and Officer Training, Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces

Cover Occupation: Administrative Director, Fukuzawa Yukichi Institute (FYI)

Skills: Anthropology 30, Archaeology 55, Art: Japanese Calligraphy 40, Conceal 60, Control 95 (1), Computer Use 20, Credit Rating 80, Cthulhu Mythos 20, Dodge 30, Dreaming 50 (2), Dream Lore 25, First Aid 45, Forensics 35, Gaming: Go 50, History 40, Law 45, Library Use 40, Martial Arts 35 (3), Occult 20, Persuade 55, Psychology 60, Scowl Forbiddingly 60, Sneak 30

Languages: Japanese (native) 90, English 50, Chinese (traditional, written) 60, Chinese (spoken) 30 (4)

Combat: Handgun 50, Fist 60, Kick 40, Grapple 75, Katana (bokken, shinai) 50 (5), Knife 60, Iron Fan (small club) 50 (6)

History: Hoshikawa-san was a child during the Pacific War. He came from family background steeped in Japanese tradition. His father was a nationalist and a martial artist, and was about as close to a 20th-century samurai as could be had. Kazuo had these values drilled into him from an early age, and, like Japan itself, saw them stripped away with his nation’s defeat during WWII. He was born in Japan-occupied China, but as the war neared its end, he went with his mother and siblings back to their home town of Nagasaki, while his father remained in China working for an undisclosed “dirty tricks” organization within the Army. Kazuo discovered later that in fact his father had worked for Kurotokage. Bare weeks before the end, he was sent to stay with some cousins in the countryside, and was near enough to see the flash and glow of the atomic weapon used on Nagasaki.

Of his immediate family, only he and his father survived the war, mad and broken, forcing the child to support them both any way he could. The black market was often the only market, and he quickly found ways to exploit it for survival, which brought him into contact with organized crime, not only the Yakuza, but gangs of White Russians, Americans, Koreans, and Chinese. He and his father drifted up to Tokyo, and by the time he was 16, Kazuo was a successful, and tough, “businessman.” He displayed a flair for brokering deals and acting as a go-between. But that life disgusted him, and, lying about his age, he joined the new 75,000-strong National Police Reserve, a paramilitary force in charge of internal security (this later became the JSDF) under command of the US Occupation Forces, becoming a military policeman. He left his father in the care of some other relatives, and he immediately shed his old skin and started a new life, rousting many of the same people he used to work with. Unknown to him, the group that had pulled his father’s strings was watching him as well…

His success led to promotions, and soon he was an officer, eventually moving into intelligence. His first direct encounter with the Mythos came during the Korean War, when he cooperated with the US military in hunting down a psychopathic (and horribly changed) US soldier who had been on medical leave in Okinawa. He was left with a strong impression that his US counterparts knew a lot more than they let on about the whole matter. Soon after that, he was contacted by, and joined, Kurotokage.

His new sponsors decided to cultivate what they recognized as a brilliant, resourceful mind, so he resigned from the Self-Defense Forces and, with their help, enrolled in Waseda University, studying Archaeology (at their suggestion). This provided a framework that allowed him to accept the true nature of the world, which his new masters slowly revealed to him. Again shedding his old skin, he became a consummate student of the unknown, and a fanatic devotee of the Emperor. He also began to realize that the insane mumblings of his war-shattered father held far greater meaning than he had previously realized. At some early point, Kazuo became conservative. He became a paragon of New Japan the way his father had been a paragon of Nationalist Japan. Like his father, he became a man of authority, took upon himself the responsibilities of authority, and defined himself by those responsibilities.

All went well for several years, and Hoshikawa rose in the ranks, but he began to have doubts and suspicions about the true goals of Kurotokage. It was while he was on a mission in the mountains of Kyushu that he encountered the Taininhodo and learned the truth about Amaterasu. Yet again, he shed his skin, but this time did not discard it, for he knew he needed a mask. Almost fortuitously, he was wounded on that mission, and during his recovery, he threw himself into Zen training, focusing on the development of his already formidable talent for self-control. By the time he was ready to return to duty, he had developed almost a split personality, remaining a devoted supporter of the Emperor, while below he plotted against Amaterasu.

He became the head of Kurotokage in 1991, answering only to those secret masters above him. Because his position requires some knowledge of Kurotokage’s dirty secrets, he is watched very closely for any sign of betrayal, and his life is constantly on the knife’s edge. He deals with the extreme stress of his situation in a variety of ways. In addition to daily meditation, he engages in brush calligraphy (his work is not bad, for an amateur) and trains irregularly at the Yagyu Shinkage Ryu dojo near his workplace. The latter has kept him in good condition, although he wishes he could devote more time to it. He also works out in kendo with other Kurotokage agents, who cringe at the thought of fighting him. It is not that he is skillful at kendo–in fact, he is very bad at the sport, often striking illegal zones, ignoring the referee’s calls to stop, and committing other fouls. He has even been known to fly into a blind rage during kendo bouts, and is called “Broken-Shinai” behind his back. What his underlings do not realize is that this instability is all part of his mask, and a way of getting his opponents to underestimate him in the case of a real battle in the future.

He is also obsessed with Go, and although he is a skilled player, he will never be a master. He realizes this, and has developed a quirk of obsessively trying to teach the game to people when the opportunity arises. It is another annoyance of working under him, but many agents find this eccentric behavior rather endearing.

In 1993, while researching a particular piece of lore in the records, he discovered a report from a Kurotokage agent written in 1945, mere weeks before the end of the war. It described how the agent had, at the request of his superiors, contacted the Deep Ones near Gray Dragon Island in the China Sea and requested assistance in destroying American vessels throughout the Pacific. Their “fee” was unrestricted license on an island community near Kagoshima, and the agent had granted their request as being “within assigned scope of duty,” condemning about 8,400 Japanese citizens to a horrible death. The end of the war came before the Deep Ones were able to have much effect on the American fleet, although they were responsible for a number of sinkings including the infamous sinking of three unarmed Japanese ferries evacuating Japanese from Sakhalin on August 22, 1945, with a reported death toll of over 1700 people. The agent who had written the report was his father.

At home, he cares for his father, who sometimes raves of things he could not possibly know, things that the son learned only through great effort. His father, now in his ninth decade, has recently fallen too ill even to tend his beloved garden, and is likely to die soon. Hoshikawa has hired a professional live-in nurse (a 43-year old man) to care for the father when Hoshikawa is busy, which is most of the time.

Description: A short, somewhat fat, but powerfully built Japanese man, mostly bald, with a dark complexion, liver spots, and a big black wart aside his nose. His remaining hair is black shot with gray, and trimmed short. He is surprisingly light on his feet , but he rarely reveals this, moving slowly and deliberately. Thin eyes, impossible to tell if he is looking at you, thinking or sleeping. In the office, he wears conservative suits, although he generally removes his dress shoes in favor of slippers while in his inner sanctum. At home, he likes to dress in traditional Japanese clothes, wearing a kimono or yukata indoors, or traditional farming clothes when outside, hacking ineffectually at his father’s now-neglected garden. He carries a fan with him wherever he goes, usually in an inside jacket pocket; while painted to look like an ordinary bamboo fan, anyone picking it up will notice that it is very heavy, and that the ribs and covers are made of solid iron, making it a useful weapon.

Notes:

1. The Control skill represents Hoshikawa’s ability to mask his thoughts, even from himself. With some effort, he can bury any thoughts he needs to, making it virtually impossible for them to be uncovered even by telepathy or torture. The skill also represents his ability to enter a deep Zen meditative state.
2. His Dreaming skill is not the result of natural talent or even training, but of a direct-transmission gift from the Taininhodo. It is something they do very rarely, but they recognized Hoshikawa’s potential, and knew they needed h His martial art school is Yagyu Shinkage Ryu, which includes training in a variety of weapons and unarmed techniques. The unarmed styles are primarily jiu-jitsu, with some atemi strikes.
3. He has had little opportunity to speak Chinese over the years, and mainly knows the language only in its written form. Still, he can get by if he has to.
4. The katana skill also applies to the practice weapons meant to simulate the katana. These weapons can all parry at the listed skill value.
5. The iron fan is basically a small truncheon; although some fans also have extendable knife blades, Hoshikawa’s does not. (Using the knife blades would use either iron fan skill or knife skill, whichever is higher.) The iron fan can also be used against pressure points in grappling. This allows the user to first make a grappling attack; if he succeeds, he can then make an iron fan attack in the same round, with the iron fan’s damage being in the form of subduing pain or blood/air constriction.

A glimpse into the psyche of Kazuo:

No matter how much Kazuo might wish otherwise, life will never be as simple as it was for his father. For he lives in the modern world, and…

… though he loves and serves the Emperor, he knows the truth and must fight against that…

… though he lives by his honor, he must lie and cheat and steal and conspire…

… though he is a man of duty, he must betray his duty to Kurotokage to lead the anti-Amaterasu faction.

Kazuo knows the danger of Amaterasu and despises the Shoka. But that doesn’t ease the very deep pain from the fact that he wishes he could be everything his father wanted him to be but must fight to destroy everything his father worked for. All day, Kazuo navigates through the corridors of power. He wears Western suits, utilizes the latest technology, and plays power games with the relativist morals required by the modern world. In his heart, he idealizes the past and his ancestors. He wishes nothing more than to live up their expectations.

He returns to his home, which within looks like it could be a set from a Kurosawa film. He exchanges his London-tailored suits for a kimono, and sits to drink tea with his invalid father. The father who taught Kazuo everything it meant to be a man. The father who Kazuo realized was in league with monsters. The father Kazuo could not bring himself to kill even when he discovered his betrayal of the Emperor. Kazuo had him rendered mentally incapable and condemned him to a pampered hell, consigned to a steady diet of drugs that keep the old man from falling into the deep sleep where he could contact Amaterasu and reveal the betrayal of his only son. In the prison of Kazuo’s home, the father has every comfort available except peace, condemned to this fate because, though he believes that he has betrayed every other value he was raised to believe, he will not betray that final value and commit patricide.

So the two old men sit in a setting that idealizes the past, but never facing that past. Kazuo sits quietly, as though in penance, as he listens to the old man moan softly, asking why his son will not love her, why does he spurn her love…

Sakamaki Jiro, Kazuo’s second-in-command

Operations Director, Kurotokage (age 56, born 1945)

Code Name: Sensei (“Teacher”)

Str x Con x Siz x Dex x App x

Int x Pow x Edu x SAN x HP x

Damage Bonus: x

Education: BA/MA/PhD History, Keio Gijuku University; PhD Cultural Anthropology, Sophia University

Cover Occupation: Manager, Research Department, Fukuzawa Yukichi Institute (FYI)

Skills: Anthropology 65, Archaeology 60, Art: Japanese Calligraphy 30, Conceal 40, Computer Use 40, Cthulhu Mythos 30, Dodge 10, Dreaming 25, History 40, Library Use 60, Occult 50, Psychology 40, Sneak 40, Game Theory 60, Planning 65, Risk Management 70

Languages: Japanese (native) 95; German 50; Chinese (simplified and traditional, written) 80, (spoken) 65; English 20

Combat: No skills

History: Sakamaki Jiro was born in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, into a middle-class family. His father was a professor of Japanese language at Keio Gijuku University (Mita campus) and his mother an elementary school teacher in nearby Yoyogi-Kouen, Shibuya. He was an only child. Due to his upbringing by two education professionals, he was a studious and quiet child, excelling in all aspects of the Japanese language, including writing, classical Japanese and Chinese; playing the piano, winning several minor awards during schooling; and model-building. While his grades showed only mid-level skill in mathematics, he discovered a rare skill at game theory and probability that proved invaluable throughout his career in many ways.

He specialized in the study of history, delving first into the roots of Japanese culture and then into its underlying origins in China, and in the pursuit of his PhD in history spent two years in western China doing field surveys of archaeological digs and researching ancient texts dealing with prehistorical civilizations in the region. Sometime during this period he evidenced a rising interest in cultural anthropology, and rapidly turned his talents to uncovering sources of information revealing the cultural and religious background and origins of the Japanese people. Not surprisingly, his studies led to Amaterasu.

After being noticed by one of the shoka for paying a bit too much attention to certain activities in Hokkaido, he was observed for two years, and then contacted in 1985 officially by a representative of the Imperial Household Agency and asked to cooperate in deciphering ancient Chinese manuscripts in the Imperial collection. He jumped at the chance, naturally, and passed the test with flying colors, demonstrating the proper subservience to the Imperial authority combined with a total lack of human warmth whatsoever. Over the next several years he proved himself again and again, with his expertise in game theory and psyching out the opposition being continually improved and refined until everyone referred to him merely as “Sensei.” In 1989 he was officially appointed Operations Director of the Kurotokage.

In this private life, such as it is, he remains a scholar and a bachelor. He has no sexual interests at all, and lives by himself in a FYI dormitory provided on-site. He is infamous for preferring to read over eating or bathing, although he does maintain himself in at least a healthy, clean state. He avoids meeting visitors to the FYI as much as possible, and when he cannot avoid them he is often pre-occupied and distant, apparently thinking of other things to the point that his visitors are happy to leave him alone again. He does, however, write regular articles and one column demanding the “cleansing” of the Japanese language, removing the thousands of katakana words imported from English following World War II, and a return to the “beautiful and culturally deep” Chinese characters of pre-War Japan. The general trend of Japanese culture is away from complex kanji and toward increased use of phonetic kana alphabets, but he remains adamantly against the “degradation of noble Japanese” and expresses his views succinctly if a bit one-sidedly in a number of right-wing publications. If the articles are read more deeply, they reveal his desire to return to a true Imperial rule and his positioning of Amaterasu as the ultimate destiny of Mankind through her chosen people: the Japanese.

He has suspicions about every person in the Kurotokage, including Kazuo, but has not found any hard evidence. Yet. While he has little interest in assuming Kazuo’s position himself, he would betray - or even kill - Kazuo in an instant if he discovered the truth.

The two men communicate only when required, on a cold, impersonal basis that suits both just fine. As Operations Director they interact quite frequently, and Sakimaki remains at all times the ultimate in cold efficiency, perfectly willing to sacrifice “human resources” in pursuit of a given objective.

Secret within a Secret

While the Kurotokage itself is hidden from the public eye, it is protected by a number of powerful patrons, including the Kuromaku (the real rulers of Japan, including major industrial conglomerates, METI and others) and the shoka. The very few who discover what the Kurotokage’s true purpose is, though, are faced with an even more difficult life.

While fulfilling Kurotokage missions to eliminate Mythos elements that could pose a threat to Amaterasu’s plan, they must also find a way to work against her, and at times this means against the Kurotokage. They are faced with the moral dilemma of having to betray comrades within the Kurotokage to protect innocent public citizens, or derail an insidious plot that threatens all of Japan. Naturally, their actions are viewed as treason or worse if discovered by regular Kurotokage members, so extreme security measures are required. With Kurotokage controlling the telephone system, however, they have had no choice but turn to non-electronic means: one-time pads, dream communications, dead drops and other means to communicate while remaining hidden.

To protect themselves a cell structure has been formed, so that even if one agent is turned or broken it is extremely difficult to penetrate other parts of the organizational structure. The weak point, obviously, is Kazuo, who continues his tightrope act under increasing pressure from all sides.

Other possibilities include Mark’s ideas of newsgroup-based communications.

Kuromaku and Japan Inc

This “group” is responsible for carrying out Amaterasu’s plan, although they usually have their own agendas instead of hers. They are also the ones who fill in a new Emperor on what’s happening, in the event that Amaterasu doesn’t (which is common; getting straight info from a crazy shamaness who died maybe 4000 years ago and is communicating through dreams, is not an easy task). As a result, individual members of the Kuromaku may know considerably more about what’s going on than the Emperor himself.

The Kuromaku is the name generally used to describe the group of men (this is Japan; probably no women in this group [although women may play important, but unofficial roles, and Dave Farnell has promised us some info on the remains of the pre-Meiji concubine intel network]) who often decide the course of the Japanese nation. There is no formal organization, and the members rarely meet. The Kuromaku itself, as a group, has no resources, no people, no buildings, no funds. It is not an organization in any Western sense of the word, but rather a nickname used to refer to the way that the “makers and shakers” behind the scenes cooperate with each other to move Japan. The last full meeting took place on August 13, 1945, after the Hiroshima bombing. Members were called to the hospital room of Tamasaburo Imasaki, the real head of the Mitsuboshi group, who was dying of old age, and by the time they had arrived the second bomb had been dropped on Nagasaki. They had little to discuss; the Emperor was informed in no uncertain terms that Japan would surrender (Japan accepted unconditional surrender on August 14 1945).

Since it is not an organization in a true sense, it is difficult to determine precisely when the Kuromaku came into existence. Its origins definitely trace back to the earliest periods of recorded Japanese history, when the Emperor in power would “retire,” turning apparent political power over to his son but in fact retaining all control. As the power of the warriors increased over the years, control of the nation gradually slipped from the hands of the Emperor, and the heads of military-political groups would meet with each other to discuss key issues, settling things quietly (when they could agree on a course of action - as often as not, the result was warfare).

As the merchant class emerged in the middle ages, the sheer power of money fueled the entry of several people into this select group, which, by this time, recognized itself as the actual power of Japan. As today, they almost never met, primarily because they knew they could never trust any of the other members, but also because they had little to talk about - almost by definition, members combined vast economic strength and a lust for power with an almost total lack of ethics. As a result, they could often accurately predict what other members would think of a situation, and act appropriately on major issues such as national policy. And when a problem flared between two members, they usually settled it themselves, and the other members wisely kept their noses out of the affair.

At the present there are seven (maybe) members, although new members can enter the group at any time by basically forcing the other members to accept them through sheer power (economic, military, political), successful blackmail of other group member or members (thus proving their fitness), or by achieving control of an existing member. It is also possible for existing members to be destroyed (for example, if the head of Hidachi, who would probably NOT be the president or chairman of the board, or even an officer, dies without arranging for a suitable replacement, Hidachi as a corporation continues business as usual, and is unaware that anything has happened. But the Hidachi group would no longer have any say in the Kuromaku, which would mean major advantages to Mitsue and Mitsuboshi.)

The current members are (in no particular order):

• Head of Mitsuboshi zaibatsu Imura Koujin; 井邑晧人. For background info, see: Information on Mitsubishi 1945 president
• Head of Mitsue zaibatsu Utano Ikichi (歌野亥吉)
• Head of Hidachi zaibatsu (possible conflict with Adam’s ideas for Green Dragons).
• Aozora-kai (Blue Sky Association), a group of strategic planners within MITI who have been working to achieve their own aims since the end of World War Two, including the Vice-Minister. Their aims are basically endless growth and development for “Japan Inc” as a nation, with little consideration for the individual Japanese citizen. No particular Mythos connections; sheer power grubbers.
• Head of Black Ocean Society or Green Dragons (need input from Adam)
• Head of the yakuza (possible conflict with Adam’s ideas for Green Dragons)
• Some group within the Imperial Palace, possibly the traditional heads of Shinto and related traditional rite and ritual, who would also be the guys grooming the new Emperor-to-be for his night out with Amaterasu. Another possibility is the Imperial Household Agency, Archives and Mausolea Department, Mausolea and Tombs Division (see Imperial Household Agency).

Of the kuromaku, the head of group 7 is always one of the shoka (see chapter on Amaterasu), and other kuromaku members have also been shoka in the past.

During the Edo Era (1603-1868), when the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled, the kuromaku consisted of:

• Head of Black Ocean Society or Green Dragons (need input from Adam)
• Head of the yakuza (possible conflict with Adam’s ideas for Green Dragons)
• Some group within the Imperial Palace, possibly the traditional heads of Shinto and related traditional rite and ritual, who would also be the guys grooming the new Emperor-to-be for his night out with Amaterasu.
• The Shogun himself in the early years, but only until 1709 when the Shogun Tokugawa Tsuneyoshi died. From that time he was basically a tool of one group or another, usually the kuromaku.
• Imagawa Shimbei, the head of the Silk Merchants’ Guild, centered in the major trading cities of Sakai, Kyoto and Nagasaki. This was founded as a secret cartel of silk merchants during the 16th century, and in 1604 received a monopoly on the import and distribution of Chinese silk, which represented enormous wealth. Imagawa scrabbled his way to the top in 1596 and remained there until 1638; his son Imagawa Takataro took over both the Guild and the kuromaku membership at his death and remained in power until he died in 1673 and the kuromaku membership was lost. The Guild itself remained rich and powerful until early Meiji.- I’m sure there are others we need to add… any ideas?

Hidachi Corp. and the Fuyokai

History of Hidachi Corp.

Founded by Odaira Ryohei. He was hired by Hisayama Mining in 1907, and by 1910 was operating a repair shop, especially for motors. He began selling as well as repairing motors, and in 1912 formed a company. One of its principle competitors was Toshiba, which had already been in business for 30 years by then, and already had a large staff, extensive product line and technical licensing agreements with leading firms overseas. With the first world war cutting of many machinery imports in 1914, along with the chance for overseas technology, Hidachi had no choice but to stress home-grown technology and manufacturing.

It began serious growth in 1918, absorbing the Tsukushima Works as its own Kamedo Plant, and opening a head office in downtown Tokyo. The original site was renamed the Hidachi Plant. In 1920 it was established as an independent corporation.

In 1919 the Yuaikai labor organization began activities at Hidachi as well, and was making inroads into the close-knit organization. That year, however, a disastrous fire broke out at the Hidachi Plant. Odaira did not actually claim that they set the fire, but as the union people attempted to interfere with recovery, the police broke them up, arresting many, and the union was dissolved. The Hidachi employees then formed their own mutual assistance association, the Kyosaikai, avoiding the unionization problems of Japan between the wars, and creating a private community behind corporate walls.

In 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake struck, having a tremendous effect on Hidachi. Most of the industries in the Tokyo region were destroyed or severely damaged by the quake, meaning a tremendous surge of business to the Hidachi Plant and the brand-new Kasado Plant, constructed only the year before. The capital this brought was used to fuel new expansion, but more importantly also major improvements in technology, especially production technology.

As Japan geared up for the Imperial expansion of World War II, government policy also provided significant assistance to Hidachi growth. From about 1938 a number of laws were passed to protect and foster domestic industry, especially munitions, and bring the essential materials needed for production to Japan. Supported by massive strategic investment, Japan experienced enormous growth in a number of fields, many of which Hidachi was involved in: industrial chemistry, electrical power generation, underground resource development, metals, chemicals, machinery, and especially the aircraft and shipbuilding industries.

Investment into these fields meant opening up enormous potential markets for Hidachi. By 1942, Hidachi had over 80,000 employees working in 18 divisions and 14 plants. Its sales network covered Japan, and it had an extensive R&D arm consisting of the Hidachi R&D Center and the Metallurgy Laboratory. Each plant was also provided with its own schools and training facilities, maintaining the ｪgfeudal kingdomｪh approach.

Hidachi was increasing in production volume, but more importantly it was learning to handle projects of increasingly large scope, such as an entire dam-building project. It began exporting railway equipment, electrical machinery and spinning machinery. In 1938, it established the Manchuria Hidachi Company, and the Korea Special Chemicals Company. By the start of World War II, it was a large industrial group, with dozens of large-scale subsidiaries. Many of these were newly created, and others were acquisitions. By 1942, it had 70 subsidiaries.

In 1938, America forbade exports of machine tools to Japan, and the Japanese government began modifying Japanese factories for wartime production. Hidachi was one of the first in line, ordered to make machine tools as key equipment for manufacturing efforts around Japan.

In 1941 resources began to be allocated by the government, with ｪgstrategic industriesｪh at the top of the list, and Hidachi was always first in line. In 1944 aircraft was designated a key strategic industry, and Hidachi handled all of the diverse components with the exception of the airframe itself.

In the final stages of World War II, all munitions plants, and indeed the majority of all industrial capacity of any sort, was bombed into rubble. At the end of the War, Japanｪfs industrial capacity was only about 60% of what it had been in 1944. America ordered the dissolution of the zaibatsu, including Hidachi, and the stock for 53 key subsidiaries was transferred out of the control of Hidachi. Strangely enough, Hidachi lost only 19 of its plants, most of which were significantly outdated or damaged by the War.

During the War, a critical development occurred affecting Hitachi, although it was totally unaware of it. The shoka in charge of Hitachi successfully suborned the ruling clique of the Fuyo Group, one of the six zaibatsu of Japan, vastly expanding his power base. While he continued to direct Hidachi on a day-to-day basis as his home-away-from-home, so to speak, he also designated subordinates to direct the operations of the entire Fuyo Group, exercising an enormous effect on Japanese industry in almost every sector.

Hidachi at once began converting its plants from wartime production to peacetime goods. Due to its line of mining machinery, it was again designated as a key industry, while its role as a major supplier of power plants brought it a huge market as Japan rebuilt. By 1948, about 70% of Hidachi revenue was coming, directly or indirectly, from the government.

In 1949 the situation changed. Government budgets were cut, and reconstruction financing was stopped. Hidachi revenues in railway equipment, communications, electrical machinery and industrial machinery dropped by a third. Hidachi faced massive readjustments, but in 1950 the Korean War began. With wartime demand from Korea, Japanese industrial production soared quickly back to what it had been before the War. Almost everything Hidachi manufactured was urgently needed in Koreaｪc revenues jumped from 6.72 million yen in the first half of 1950 to 10.9 million in the second half, 19.5 million in the first half of 1951, and 26.74 million in the second half. Hidachi also entered into a host of technical tie-up with overseas firms such as Babcock (steam generators), GE (steam turbines), and RCA (TVs and radios). The high-growth period of post-War Japan had begun.

The first major change was the development of the consumer market, as everyone demanded home appliances. From about 1955, Hidachi began shifting its corporate emphasis from industrial machinery to appliances and electronics, supported by extensive R&D and continuing overseas expansion. Revenues were growing at around 30% a year, consistently, and had become a global brand.

In 1957 Hidachi established the first nuclear power R&D center in Japan, completing an experimental reactor in Kawasaki City near Tokyo in 1961, rapidly assuming the central role in Japanese nuclear energy technology. In 1960 Hidachi was the leading manufacturer of transistors in Japan, following technical tie-up with a number of firms including RCA. With a dominant presence in many industrial and consumer fields in Japan, and a leading presence in most of the others, Hidachiｪfs position as a mover and shaker in Japan was assured, and by the 1980s it was truly a global corporation, with business offices in every nation, and manufacturing facilities dotting the globe.

Hidachi Today

• Incorporated: 1920
• Business lines: Manufacture and sale of electrical equipment; industrial equipment; railway equipment; engines and carriages; communications equipment; optical equipment; medical equipment; related software and components
• History: Founded in 1910 as Hisayama Mining Hidachi Works Machine Repair Shop. Renamed Hidachi Works of Hisayama Mining Corp in 1912. Merged with Tsukushima Works in 1918. Incorporated in 1920 under present name.
• Capital: US$23,077 million
• Officers: 37, under president Shoyama Etsuro
• Assets: US$90,698 million
• Revenues: US$67,879 million
• Pre-tax profits: US$2,761 million
• Employees: about 340,000 in consolidated group, and 80,000 in Hidachi (about 70% male)
• Ranked third worldwide in revenues as an electrical equipment manufacturer, following IBM and GE.

Key Hidachi subsidiaries

• Babcock-Hidachi K.K.
• Hidachi Air Conditioning Systems Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi America, Ltd.
• Hidachi Asia Ltd.
• Hidachi Building Systems Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Cable, Ltd.
• Hidachi Chemical Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi (China), Ltd.
• Hidachi Computer Products (America), Inc.
• Hidachi Computer Products (Asia) Corp.
• Hidachi Computer Products (Europe) S.A.
• Hidachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Credit Corporation
• Hidachi Data Systems Holding Corp.
• Hidachi Electronics, Ltd.
• Hidachi Electronics Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Home Electronics (America), Inc.
• Hidachi Home Electronics (Europe) Ltd.
• Hidachi Information Systems, Ltd.
• Hidachi Life Corporation
• Hidachi Maxell, Ltd.
• Hidachi Medical Corporation
• Hidachi Metals, Ltd.
• Hidachi Mobile Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Printing Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Plant Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Semiconductor (America) Inc.
• Hidachi Semiconductor (Europe) GmbH
• Hidachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd.
• Hidachi Telecom Technologies, Ltd.
• Hidachi Transport System, Ltd.

Notes

The above is essentially all fact, based on (obviously) Hitachi, which is a member of the Fuyo Group. Odaira was one of the shoka, and rapidly established himself as one of the kuromaku. He used his connections to achieve massive growth for Hidachi, as well as causing the Tokyo Earthquake (eliminating most of the competition for a year), controlling GHQ (to remain essentially untouched by post-War anti-zaibatsu programs), and triggering the Korean War (to reap wartime profits from the back lines). The kuromaku may have been responsible for Japanese expansion and even WW2, actually, simply to make money. The Odaira family no longer controls Hidachi, but the current ushika, a man named Nakabayashi Shintaro, still does. He was put into the post by Odaira Ryohei, and is now in his 80s.

M&M (Mitsue and Mitsuboshi)

Both Mitsue and Mitsuboshi (the M&Ms) began about the same time as modern Japan, around the start of the Meiji Era in 1868. Both zaibatsu rapidly established their key lines of business (banking, trading and mining for Mitsue; shipping, banking, shipbuilding and mining for Mitsuboshi), and both received the initial impetus for rapid and early growth from massive volumes of government business. This policy of handling growing amounts of government business while solidifying the corporate foundation was a common approach in the time, and was also taken by a number of other emerging corporate groups, notably Sumitomo, Konoike and Furukawa. While they were all powerful, the M&Ms were then, and now, two of the most influential in terms of both political pull and sheer economic strength.

Mitsue origins

Mitsue began as a kimono shop in about 1620, gradually growing into a general wholesaler supplying the Shogunate. It parlayed that opportunity into the position of a currency exchange office for the government, accumulating a considerable fortune. The company played both sides of the fence during the Meiji Restoration, and had its chance in 1867 when the new government issued an edict to Mitsue, Ono and Shimada groups demanding funding. Mitsue’s contribution began with military funding, and after investing an enormous amount into the new Japanese army through the fall of the old government, was rewarded by being appointed the foreign exchange agent for the Bureau of Accounting. Among its first duties were selling government bonds, issuing government development notes and exchanging old currency for new throughout Japan. It provided essentially all financial functions for the newborn government.

The government bonds were backed by future tax income, paying 12% per annum interest, and Mitsue served as salesmen in place of the government. The land development notes, specifically to support new colonies in Hokkaido and (to a lesser extent) overseas, were not convertible to currency. In the process, Mitsue was able to utilize essentially the national budget of Japan for periods ranging from two to six months, interest-free. When it was authorized to issue government bonds, it was also allowed to manage 20% of the total under its own authority.

When the Meiji government elected to follow the American banking system and establish a number of national banks in 1875, Mitsue was obligated to participate in the formation of the No. 1 Bank (predecessor of the Daiichi Kangyo Bank) with competitors Ono and Shimada. The following year, 1874, the government issued an ordinance requiring increased backing for deposits of public money, forcing Ono and Shimada into bankruptcy. This had the result of rapidly boosting Mitsue’s status, and making it possible for Mitsue to do what it had always wanted to: establish its very own bank. The Mitsue Bank was formed in 1876, and duly certified by the government. While it was a privately-owned bank, it was also one of the largest and richest banks in Japan, with its head office in Tokyo and key branches throughout the nation. (In 1882, the government established the Bank of Japan, which took over the handling of all government funds, resulting in a serious drop in business for Mitsue Bank.)

It handled both the general public and government accounts, split roughly equally. Noticing that many small farmers were unable to pay their taxes until the crops came in, the bank worked with Mitsue Trading to loan money against crop revenues, providing interest revenue and a guaranteed stream of business for the trading firm.

Mitsue Trading was established in 1876. When it was first established about half of its turnover was agricultural products; the overwhelming majority rice, with much smaller amounts of silk products and tea. Performance was given an enormous boost when it was granted export rights for the government-owned Miike coal mine. The terms were generous indeed: 2.5% commission plus 50% of profits. Export tonnage soared from 27,000 tons 1877 to 1.83 million tons in 1886, with exports to Shanghai, Tianjin, Hong Kong and Singapore. The entire mine was later sold to the Mitsue group, which had meanwhile used coal export shipping business to build a strong merchant fleet.

From 1877 to 1880 the government ordered Mitsue to handle foreign exchange operations on freight, loaning the necessary capital at low or even no interest. And because Mitsue usually sold the freight at the same time, it ended up receiving profit twice from each deal. In addition to making staggering amounts of money, Mitsue also established itself as a key supplier and service agent for the government.

Mitsuboshi origins

Mitsuboshi traces its origins back to 1870, when the Tosa han leased all of the assets of its Osaka Trading Office, including land, buildings and three steamships, to Yotaro Iwasaki. This was quite different from Mitsue, which traced its origins back to the Tokugawa era. Iwasaki concentrated on sea freight under the name of Tsukumo Trading, and when the han were abolished and replaced with prefectures in 1871, he took advantage of the opportunity to purchase those assets as well as the Masukata Silk Works and the Kutanda Camphor Factory. In addition, he also operated the Banzai and Otokawa coal mines, which had been held by the Shingu han as collateral for loans. In 1873 the firm was renamed Mitsuboshi Trading, by which time it had offices in Tokyo, Osaka, Tosa and Kishu, while in sea freight it had forced its way to become the leader in the field, ousting the government’s own fleet, which was backed by Mitsue capital.boshi began working for the government by providing troop transport, but as sea freight operations gradually received government protection, it began to develop monopolies on many key domestic and international routes. The first major opportunity was military action in Taiwan in 1874. The government had been planning to hire the American Pacific Mail Steamship Company, but the US announcement of neutrality made this impossible. In response, the government purchased outright 13 foreign vessels, and entrusted them to Mitsuboshi due to its strong ties to two key figures in the Meiji government: Okubo Toshimichi and Okuma Shigenobu. That year the ships made 24 trips under Mitsuboshi control, successfully transporting enormous quantities of troops, munitions and supplies and successfully winning the trust of the new government and the military both.

In 1875, when the Taiwan problem was resolved, the government ordered Mitsuboshi to establish a route to Shanghai, providing it with four ships to do so. In May, Okubo’s new policy for the protection of Japanese private sea freight carriers was enacted, and the first order under the new policy was issued to Mitsuboshi: specifically, the 13 ships entrusted to Mitsuboshi for military transport during the Taiwan fighting were outright given to Mitsuboshi, and an enormous annual fee paid to Mitsuboshi to assist them in opening up new routes and establishing the Japanese shipping industry. These payments were guaranteed to continue for another 14 years, and the 15 vessels owned by the government line (which had gone bankrupt in the meantime for lack of business) were given to Mitsuboshi to operate. As a result, Mitsuboshi controlled 37 vessels with a total capacity of over 23,000 tons - at that time, the majority of freighter capacity in Japan. In only a few short years after foundation, Mitsuboshi had established itself as a major power in both business and government.

When the Seinan Rebellion broke out in 1877, almost all ships except those on the Shanghai route were conscripted by the government for military use. Between February and September of that year, 44 freighters and 11 warships transported 58,000 men, horses, munitions and supplies. Mitsuboshi, of course, had no choice but to purchase new ships, and the government provided US$800,000 of the US$1,180,000 needed to construct eight new freighters at exceedingly low interest. While the Shanghai route was only making money thanks to massive funding by the government, Mitsuboshi made enormous profits from military transport during the Seinan Rebellion. In 1877, about two-thirds of corporate revenues came from military transport operations, about about half of that was sheer profit. The start of the M&Ms War and the establishment of Nihon Yusen

Naturally, Mitsue was quite upset at the sudden appearance of a powerful Mitsuboshi in Japan, not to mention their essential monopoly of the sea freight industry. And because Mitsuboshi controlled sea freight, Mitsue had no choice but to pay them to handle its own transport. Mitsue tried founding its own shipping company, Tokyo Clipper Ships, but it was crushed by Mitsuboshi competition. Help came from an unexpected quarter, though, with the sudden ousting of key Mitsuboshi supporter Okuma Shigenobu in 1881. While Mitsuboshi had suffered minor setbacks after the death of Okubo in 1878, the loss of Okuma’s backing announced the start of a major change in the status quo.

In 1882, the national government and Mitsue jointly established Kyodo Shipping, Mitsue holding the majority, which promptly initiated intense competition with Mitsuboshi. In most cases, this competition consisted of massive price drops, until both firms were losing money hand over fist. When the government finally recognized that the only possible result was joint bankruptcy, the government arbitrated the formation of a new company with investment by both parties. The new company, Nihon Yusen, was formed with Mitsuboshi holding about 40%, and Kyodo Shipping holding the rest, but the government guaranteed dividends for the next 15 years. Combining the fleets of both parents, the new company operated 58 vessels with a gross tonnage of 68,000 tons. Since the total number of vessels and tonnage for Japan at the time was only 228 vessels and 89,000 tons, it is clear how powerful the new firm was. Shortly after the new firm was established, Mitsuboshi purchased additional shares of Kyodo Shipping, leading in 1885 to the ousting of the last officers from Kyodo Shipping and the conversion of the new firm into a Mitsuboshi-controlled shipping company.

Government backing of the M&Ms

Both firms are similar in a number of ways. They both launched their core businesses at a very early stage (Mitsue banking and Mitsuboshi shipping) and secured semi-monopolistic deals with the government. The government was instrumental in the establishment, protection and development of both firms. And they both applied the special privileges received from the government to leverage themselves into dominant positions in their sectors. In addition to paying higher priced that normal for goods or services purchased from the M&Ms, the government also sold a number of production and manufacturing facilities to them at low prices. The list is endless, but includes key facilities that were critical in building a modern Japan and empowering the Japanese military efforts for the next several decades. For Mitsue, the key acquisition was the Miike Coal Mine, which made it possible for both Mitsue Mining and Mitsue Trading to reap enormous wealth. Mitsuboshi, meanwhile, picked up the Takashima coal mine, the Sado gold mine and the Ikuno silver mine, and especially the Nagasaki Shipyard.

In the 1880s there was strong pressure to expand colonies, both overseas an in Hokkaido, accelerated by strong domestic growth and similar expansionist policies by European powers in Asia. In 1886 Great Britain annexed Burma, and the following year France claimed much of Indochina. Britain, France and Germany began cutting pieces out of China from about 1890. Expansionism is generally accompanied by military demand, and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 channeled enormous amount of capital into the coffers of Japanese enterprise. Under its newly-announced policy of fukoku kyohei (rich nation and strong soldiers), the government had no interest in American-style free enterprise. There was a considerable difference in industrial capacity between Japan and the industrialized West, and as a result while Japanese industry was highly successful in fields such as spinning mills, there was little motivation to invest into, for example, industrial chemical plants or munitions. Such capital-intensive facilities were therefore constructed by the government. Much of the manufacturing equipment, even for the spinning mills, was imported from the West, leading to a gradual conversion of Japan into the same sort of Western colony that other Asian nations - especially China - were being converted into. In Japan’s case, the majority of the machinery came from America, and the majority of mill output was exported to America, although it did export of range of industrial raw materials to Europe, and import heavy industrial machinery in return. Japan as a nation was falling neatly into a new role as a second-rate industrializing nation at the mercy of the Western powers.

This was, naturally, unacceptable to both Mitsue and Mitsuboshi, which were keenly aware of the lead that their overseas competitors had. The Japanese government was also determined to avoid the fate of China, which was steadily being torn to pieces by the Western nations. The fukoku kyohei policy was born of this determination, and supported by a widespread belief in the destiny of the Japanese to rule, if not the world, at least Asia.

Both firms launched massive programs to expand their range of business in response, both by establishing new firms and acquiring existing ones. One of the first Mitsue acquisitions was a machinery manufacturer named Tanaka Mfg. Works. Years later, this firm was to become Toshiba Corp. Mitsue Bank had made large numbers of loans to many enterprises over years, in many cases it became possible for the bank to assume control of the company as a result, rapidly adding new members to the Mitsue Group in a variety of industrial fields.

Mitsuboshi was incorporated in 1893, by which time it owned large numbers of coal and ore mines, a sales network throughout Japan, and of course the Mitsuboshi Shipyard in Nagasaki. It established the Mitsuboshi Bank in 1895. In addition to serving the needs of the Mitsuboshi group, it also grew to become one of the five major banks of Japan at the time (Mitsue, Mitsuboshi, Yasuda, Sumitomo and Daiichi). The Sino-Japanese War provided a major boom for the shipyard, and supported the opening of a second shipyard in Kobe in 1896. Mitsuboshi purchased a smelter/refinery plant from the government in Osaka in the same year, making it possible to use their own coal and iron ore to produce steel. By about 1900, the Mitsuboshi group included shipyards, shipping, paper mills, railroads, insurance, banking, trading, warehousing, mining and steelmaking, to name a few.

It was a difficult time, because so much of the industrial infrastructure was still missing, and a number of firms failed, but overall the strategic goal of bootstrapping Japan into the industrialized world succeeded.

One of the reasons that it succeeded was cooperation at the highest levels. Driven by a mutual vision of Japan reigning supreme in Asia and finally evicting the Western interlopers, the presidents of Mitsue and Mitsuboshi met secretly on April 14, 1895, at a geisha villa in Kyoto following a meeting of the board of directors of their joint venture, Nihon Yusen. This was immediately after the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese War, which had boosted Japanese confidence in their belief in manifest destiny for Japan. The two of them talked in a private room until dawn, calling at times for food, drink, and once for paper, ink and brushes. The details of their discussions are unknown, but judging from the result they recognized the disastrous results of the competition that led to the formation of Nihon Yusen, and agreed to, if not aid, at least not hinder each other to achieve their goal. Regardless of who ruled Japan, if Japan ruled Asia their wealth and power would continue to grow, and that was a goal worth working for.

Their agreement worked enormously well, and while there were a number of squabbles between the firms in public view, they were inconsequential to corporate growth. The pair continued to meet about twice a year, in various locales around Japan, and each was now accompanied by an assistant (and future successor).

The conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War, which astounded Western nations and elevated Japan into the position of a world power, also marked a success for the M&Ms. When they met in April 1906, however, a third man appeared at their meeting: unannounced and unexpected, Odaira Ryohei was suddenly noticed, sitting at the low table along with the celebrating pair. Although there were four men in the room (the two presidents and their assistants), none saw how Odaira Ryohei entered the room, or how he managed to walk to the table and sit down without being noticed. He immediately dominated the conversation, describing a Japan which would command first Asia, and then the world, under the direct rule of Amaterasu the Sun Goddess. Again, the details of their conversation are unknown, but it was agreed that a new industrial bloc would be created to help fuel Japan’s growth, and that Odaira would be meeting with them again. He didn’t ask for support from the M&Ms, or even that they leave him alone; he merely stated that in a few years he would be attending their meetings as the head of an industrial group fully on a par with their. He did so, laying the foundation for the Hidachi group shortly after their meeting, and growing with astonishing speed until the scale of the Hidachi group was on a par with their own.

The growth of Japanese imperialism and World War 2

After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan leveraged its newly-gained status as a world power to enter into an alliance with Great Britain (1902). This was a major factor in gaining control of the Korean Peninsula following victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, as well as control of key Chinese railways and the southern half of Sakhalin. British Imperial tradition combined neatly with Japanese nationalism and militarism to ferment a new breed of Japanese Imperialism that led to the annexation of Korea in August, 1910. Japan was prompt to enter the First World War, picking up pieces of Asia as they fell from the hands of the defeated. In particular, the German presence in Asia was eliminated, with former German possessions being transferred to Japanese control, along with much of China (Manchuria, Mongolia, Shandong Province). The M&Ms were quick to invest into Korea and China, focusing on building industrial capacity to fuel the next stage of Japanese expansion. As the Russian Revolution destroyed Russian unity in Siberia, Japanese money and troops began expanding north and west from their massive foothold in Manchuria.

The boom years of the war economy were followed by the Great Depression. While this was disastrous for industry around the world, the intense centralization of industry in Japan into a few selected industrial groups meant that it was an unparalleled opportunity for the M&Ms. They picked up superior firms in many fields for pennies, quickly building enormous holdings in a wide range of fields, and creating the zaibatsu. The move was not limited to Japan, and both firms took advantage of government incentives for colonization to launch a variety of enterprises in Hokkaido and Sakhalin, Taiwan, and Sumatra. New firms were also created for strategic reasons, such as Tokyo Rayon, which was created by the Mitsue group specifically to counter the potential threat to the Japanese textile industry posed by synthetic fiber industries in America and Europe.

To better steer government policy-making, Mitsue created the Seiyukai and Mitsuboshi the Kenseikai, both armed with massive amounts of above-board and under-the-table capital and big-gun mouthpieces. Capital loans to overseas colonies were accelerated jointly, such as the 1932 loan to develop Manchuria was funded half by Mitsue and half by Mitsuboshi, funneled through the Bank of Korea. Much of this investment was into infrastructure, including key rail facilities and raw materials production. Mitsue and Mitsuboshi followed with manufacturing facilities to utilize the plentiful raw materials. Mitsuboshi Heavy Industries (MHI) was formed in 1934 through a merger of Mitsuboshi Shipbuilding and Mitsuboshi Aircraft. The firm established itself as a massive manufacturing arm for the Japanese military, with shipyards in Nagasaki, Kobe, Hikoshima and Yokohama, munitions plants in Nagasaki, aircraft plants in Nagoya, and machinery and equipment plants in Tokyo. Other subsidiaries such as Mitsuboshi Electronic, Nippon Optics (later to become Nikon) and Nippon Batteries filled a range of orders from the Japanese Army and Navy, providing massive capital influx and shifting the majority of corporate business back to government supply. Mitsue, with less of a manufacturing base to start from, relied primarily on its capital and personnel assets, applied under the direction of Toshiba and Nippon Steel Works. Ample Mitsue group coal and other resources were used to drive a variety of industrial chemistry plants, producing (among other things) the materials required for high-grade gunpowder.

One of the first fruits of the new cooperation was the formation of the Yawata Steel Works in 1934, with capitalization by Mitsue, Mitsuboshi and the national government. The firm was essentially a government-sponsored monopoly of the steel industry in Japan, headquartered in Kitakyushu, Kyushu (in later years, this was to become the Nippon Steel Corporation). The facility accounted for over 90% of pig iron production, over 50% of steel ingot, and a little under 50% of steel product.

As the situation in China worsened and Japan shifted to a full wartime economy, inflation began to accelerate, leading the Konoe Cabinet in June 1937 to announce a new economic policy consisting of (1) strengthened production capabilities, (2) an improvement in the international balance of trade, and (3) adjustments to supply and demand. This was largely formulated and imiplemented by the kuromaku, with extensive cooperative between the major zaibatsu, notably Mitsuboshi, Hidachi and Mitsue, and the increasingly-powerful Japanese Imperial military. In 1938, laws were passed to assure strategic industry with sufficient labor, and Japan’s manpower was put to work either in production or in the military. The national budget grew sharply from 4.7 billion yen in 1937 to 16.5 billion in 1941 and 86.2 billion in 1944, but the weight of direct military expenditures also soared, from 70 to 85% over the same period. Essentially all of this money was spent on military equipment and supplies, and about 70% of it has been estimated to have flowed into corporate coffers. Guess whose?

At the end of the War Japan was finally freed from the wartime economy, but it was in ruins: the manufacturing industry was at 7.5% of the production level of 1921, the mining industry at 36.3%, and agriculture 58.2%.

To promote the emergence of democracy and free competition, the zaibatsu were dismantled by MacArthur. All of the controlling firms were dissolved or stripped of their holdings, and the individual enterprises established as independent firms, usually with capitalization through shares available on the open market. From American eyes (and the American’s were in primary charge of the entire process), this was a success, but the reality was quite a bit different: Japanese ties of duty and “family” meant that the zaibatsu essentially continued to exist regardless of their loss of official standing. The groups rapidly established unofficial groups and cartels which achieved the same purposes. And to the secret rulers of the Mitsue and Mitsuboshi, the new structurehad no effect whatsoever, because their control remained absolute - at least, as regards the corporate resources they demanded control over.

Concretely, stock for the “headquarters” companies ruling each zaibatsu was taken by the occupation forces and transferred to a special committee, which later made it available to the employees and the general public. These core organizations were totally destroyed, which, in American eyes, eliminated the potential for a new zaibatsu to emerge. Mitsue was divided into about 200 firms, and Mitsuboshi into about 140. As the stock was released to the market, it was promptly snapped up by a host of buyers, most of whom were actually acting under orders from the people it was taken away from: the Mitsue and Iwasaki families, who had now successfully established themselves as the secret rulers of industrial and economic empires, and two of the most influential members of the Kuromaku. Merely losing a World War was hardly enough to put these guys out of business!

Post-war growth

While the initial planning at GHQ was to keep Japan dependent on US industry, the world situation changed. In 1946 Churchill gave his “Iron Curtain” speech, followed by the Truman Doctrine and the Cold War the following year. These events rapidly triggered reconstruction in both Germany (the Marshall Plan, in 1948) and Japan as America worked to build up new defenses in the face of a perceived Communist threat.

The Korean War was the final straw. While Japan was an unrelated third party oficially the outbreak of war in 1950 meant that occupied Japan was engaged very deeply indeed both politically and economically. Economically, Japan sold some JY100 billion per year in supplies to the US military, and this level of consumption continued for three years. In addition to eliminating inventories and fueling both export and domestic consumption, it also positioned Japan’s economy firmly into the role of supplying the US, while severing former trade ties with China.

In 1949 the Anti-Monopoly Law was revised, making it possible for companies once again to own stock in their subsidiaries and share officers with other firms. Former officers of the M&Ms returned to their positions, and new organizations were formed to assure smoother relationships: Mitsue launched the “Monday Club” for top management from many firms formerly in the zaibatsu, while Mitsuboshi did the same with its “Friday Club.” The very names Mitsue and Mitsuboshi, which had been forbidden by GHQ, returned with a vengence as suddenly a host of industries renamed themselves “Mitsue this” or “Mitsuboshi that.”

After the destruction of the headquarters firms, however, the shattered zaibatsu groups needed a new core, and this was the banking companies. As leading banks in Japan, both Mitsue and Mitsuboshi banks remained in operation, and strangely enough a large amount of their loans went to firms that used to be in the same zaibatsu: about a third of all loans, in fact. While the pre-War holding company type of organization was still illegal, ties through a central bank were perfectly within the law. While the former “dynasties” of Mitsue and Iwasaki family members were no longer officers, the banks performed their roles quite effectively.

Along with groupings around the banks, mergers also became quite common: Mitsuboshi was essentially reconstituted by 1954, and Mitsue by 1959. The zaibatsu were back, only about a decade after Japan had been pounded into rubble, and their dominant positions in the Japanese economy and industry remained largely untouched.

In 1955, MITI announced its strategy to develop petrochemicals as a strategic industry, providing funding to construct massive petrochemical plants. Needless to say, Mitsue and Mitsuboshi promptly participated: Mitsue with eight firms to found Mitsue Petrochemical Corp., and Mitsuboshi also with eight firms founding Mitsuboshi Petrochemical Industries Inc. Another of the six zaibatsu, Sumitomo Corp., also followed suit. Petrochemicals opened up a whole new field to the M&Ms, including a vast and growing host of derivatives, plastics, and eventually synthetics and organics of all kinds. In addition, it meant front-line entry into the growing energy market, starting with conventional activities such as prospecting, drilling and operating oil and gas fields (Mitsuboshi, for example, effectively created the nation of Brunei Darussalam and continues to provide essentially all of its income from vast offshore gas fields), and extending into nuclear power generation and aerospace.

As the Japanese economy hit the boom years of the 1960s, Mitsue and Mitsuboshi both showed phenomenal growth, not only vastly expanding their range of business activities, but also expanding their depth in each sector. Subsidiaries, affiliates and partners sprang up around the world, and the sheer scope of their activities coupled with the vast amounts of capital at their disposal made it possible to develop new businesses and activities in a mushrooming spiral.

The modern era

Mitsue has established its corporate headquarters in Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, the heart of the Tokyo business district. While this is nominally the home of their trading arm, one entire floor of the building is reserved for the use of the “soudanyaku” (counselor) and his personal staff. This Counselor (Imura Koujin; 井邑晧人), who has served in a number of roles in many Mitsue group firms, is in fact in overall charge of the entire conglomerate.

Mitsuboshi has adopted a different solution, because more of its group firms are themselves global in scale. The headquarters of the Mitsuboshi group, while few employees are aware of it, is actually located in Kyoto, in a spacious villa on the flank of Mt. Hie north of the city. Surrounded by an extensive forest and even more extensive (but well-hidden) defenses, the supreme ruler of the Mitsuboshi Empire, Utano Ikichi (歌野亥吉), issues his commands through a network of state-of-the-art communications systems.

Aozora-Kai of METI (formerly MITI)

within The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry

Background

After World War II, the Occupation forces under General MacArthur overturned most Japanese institutions, initially to destroy their war-making capability but later to build a new ally. The first few years consisted of extensive scrap-and-build changes to the Japanese government, economy, society, educational system and just about everything else. In addition to losing the guidance of their Emperor as a god, the Japanese people also lost the majority of the social underpinnings of their daily lives. Because so few of the Occupation troops, the vast majority of whom were American, knew anything at all about the Japanese people or culture, there were many cases where American systems were introduced wholesale, even when a perfectly satisfactory Japanese method already existed. They were not necessarily bad for the Japanese society, but they did serve to alienate the post-War generation from their elders. In many ways, the Japanese were Americanized. With the deterioration of US-Russian relations and the growing strength of the Communists in China by about 1948, America was forced to begin building Japan as an ally in East Asia. It came to be recognized as a key strategic base for Allied (again, primarily American) forces in Asia, and American policy (military and economic) worked to ensure that Japan would remain a cooperative ally in the future. With the Communist victory in China in 1949 and the outbreak of hostilities in Korea the following year, Japan became vital to the UN forces – and America. One sign of the changing times was a law that could forbid strikes for reasons other than economic reasons, enacted in 1948. In 1949 the Trade Union Act was revised, restricting political activity and reinstating “purge” regulation to control communists. It has been estimated that about 20,000 people were dismissed from government, teaching or industrial jobs between 1945 and 1950 for “communist tendencies”. In 1950 the Japanese Constitution was also modified to permit the formation of a 75,000-strong National Police Reserve, a paramilitary force in charge of internal security (this later became the JSDF). More quietly, however, Japan had also been restructuring its national government, gradually regaining control from Occupation forces and beginning, once again, to do things its own way. The Ministry for International Trade and Industry (MITI) was established in 1949 to promote exports, assure that essential machinery and technology could be imported efficiently, and develop domestic industry. The Japanese government felt the need for a Ministry to establish, implement and guide national policy on industrial development and exports (much less emphasis on imports), and with the strong agreement of major Japanese manufacturing groups such as Sumitomo, Mitsue, Mitsuboshi and Hidachi, the new Ministry was formed rapidly. Perhaps too rapidly: key personnel slots were filled from leading firms in the private sector, in many cases, bringing together a diverse range of goals and making it difficult to determine national policy that was, in fact, in the best interests of the nation.

Birth of the Aozora-Kai

As is so common with powerful government organizations, a host of new committees were created to investigate, discuss, formulate and implement policy. In addition to groups appearing in the budget and organizational table, there were also many ad hoc groups that came into existence to address specific needs, especially between different sections or departments within MITI. One of these was the Aozora-Kai (Blue Sky Association). It was created in 1950, almost immediately after MITI itself, and basically it only waited that long because that’s how it took for personnel assignments and the initial organization to settle out. On paper it is a long-range, inter-departmental think-tank dealing with the future of Japan. Topics discussed have included long-range technology development themes (technologies not expected to be developed for decades or more), issues of policy conflict with other nations (for example, the underlying reasons for the trade conflict in steel between Japan and the US), development and maintenance of key technologies (the Japanese semiconductor industry), and a number of related but not immediately obvious fields, such as changes in Japanese society and their effects on national strength, the education system and its effects on molding future citizens, and so on. (Among other things, they also prepared position papers on things like where and how to develop nuclear weapons capabilities, how to handle Unit 731 technology left over from WW2, the effects of a military annexation of Taiwan, and concealment of advanced Japanese combat and espionage capabilities.) That was their official status, and for those official goals a number of people were authorized to participate in a number of Aozora-Kai projects over the years. The group, however, had its own agenda as well.

As an ad-hoc group, albeit with official cognizance and support, the Aozora-Kai was responsible for preparing background or advisory reports for policy-makers. The trouble in the Japanese post-War government, however, was that making policy became an increasingly political game, with national development objectives assigned a secondary priority after political ones. To the planners of the Aozora-Kai, this was intolerable. Selected as they were for a commitment to the continued growth and development of Japan, and with a background of personal sacrifice formed through the Second World War, they were disillusioned when idea after idea was neglected or modified for political considerations, gutting it of meaning. The “hard core” leaders of the group met privately a number of times, and after several months of pussy-footing to discover each other’s feelings, they agreed that active measures were needed to protect and preserve the nation. Instead of merely advising, they would now implement policy themselves.

Growth and a Mission

The first step was getting clout. Fortunately, the group included a number of established and high-level MITI people already, and an active effort was made to find, evaluate and recruit fresh blood. Gradually people were also promoted within MITI, opening up new possibilities and providing new power. Old ties from pre-War Japan were also critical, providing communication channels with Mitsuboshi and Hidachi, both of whom participated in a large number of state-of-the-art technology R&D projects with MITI funding, and coincidentally happened to be Kuromaku members. As the Aozora-Kai spread its tentacles into corporate Japan, these firms were quick to note the scent of money in the air, and moved to absorb as much of it as possible. In a remarkably short time, the Kuromaku (at least, Mitsuboshi and Mitsue) was aware of the situation, and recognized a kindred soul in the Aozora-Kai: a group perfectly willing to sacrifice the general public to achieve its goals.

A number of new projects were developed and launched to the mutual satisfaction of the Kuromaku and the Aozora-Kai (which knows remarkably little about the Mythos, although they have noted that their partners do have access to some rather unusual capabilities…). In 1963 (the year that John F. Kennedy is shot in Dallas, Texas, and the American government supported a coup to topple Ngo Dnh Diem, prime minister of South Vietnam), the leader of the Aozora-kai, a former Imperial Army major named Takefuji Ninzaburo, was accepted as a member of the Kuromaku. He is still in effective (but unofficial) charge of the Aozora-Kai and a member of the Kuromaku, although he is quite old (born 1920).

Mausolea and Tombs Department, Imperial Household Agency

The Imperial household Agency, or Kunaicho (宮内庁 in japanese), is responsible for the needs of the Japanese Imperial family, including its many scattered possessions, such as the Edo castle grounds and buildings located smack in the middle of Tokyo. In FY2001, the official budget of the Kunaicho was about US$170M.

The organization (Japanese-language chart) is under the control of The grand Steward of the Imperial Household (the head of the agency). It is divided into several departments: The Grand Steward’s Secretariat, the Board of the Chamberlains, the Office of the Empress Dowager’s Household, the Office of the Crown Prince’s Household, the Board of Ceremonies, the Archives and Mausolea Department, and the Maintenance and Works Department. There are also three semi-independent sections: the Office of the Shosoin Treasure House, the Imperial Stock Farm, and the Kyoto Office of the Imperial Household. With the exception of the latter three external sections, all are located on or near the Imperial residences in the middle of Tokyo.

Official History

The predecessor of the Kunaicho was created by the Emperor Mommu (文武) in 701 AD. It was founded by Amaterasu, in the body of the noblewoman who would become Empress Genmei (661-721), reigning 707-715. It was a deliberate move on her part to set up the government in preparation for her return, and to be sure that things went smoothly she made sure to put a shoka in charge. The Kunaicho was originally a formalized version of the chamberlain’s organization, but rapidly assumed the role of an interface between the Imperial family and the outside world, isolating them from undue influences and ensuring they remained under Amaterasu’s control.

Throughout the many changes in Japanese government, and relocations of the Imperial capital, this organization remained with the Emperor and the Imperial family, providing an administrative base to fulfill their personal requirements. At all times it was hidden in the shadow of Imperial authority, working behind the scenes to serve the Imperial family, and never once acting under any other agenda.

It was created as the Imperial Household Ministry (Kunaisho) in 1908 (Meiji 41) as part of the general movement to improve Imperial authority, and its duties were formally defined. It was positioned directly under the control of the Emperor. After World War II, stripped of a number of relatively external functions and facilities such as the Imperial bodyguard and Gakushuin University, and transferred to the control of the Office of the Prime Minister on May 3, 1947. As part of the transfer, personnel were also reduced from the wartime high of 6,200 to only 1,500. On June 1, 1949 it was established under its present name as an external Agency under the nominal control of the Office of the Prime Minister.

Unofficial History

Ever since it was created, the Kunaicho has been controlled by one of the Shoka, either acting as the official head of the organization or issuing orders to the head. Amaterasu was, of course, extremely interested in monitoring the activities of the Imperial family, and especially in trying to develop the vessel that she would use to return to Wakeworld and implement he ultimate plan. Even though Amaterasu was often “out of touch” for decades at a time, the Shoka (and their various organizations) ensured that careful records were kept of what the Emperor and others of the Imperial bloodline were up to, with special attention t unusual events and dreams. Since the Kunaisho is responsible for providing all of the chamberlains (in other words, personal servants), secretaries and bodyguards for the Emperor and his family, this was a trivial matter: the Shoka merely sucked the knowledge they required from the minds of their workers.

As Amaterasu’s power and her understanding of the Mythos grew, she realized that they had enormous power and resources (eg, spells and tomes) that she could put to good use in achieving her own ends. The Shoka were directed to acquire these resources wherever possible. The Imperial family itself began to accumulate a number of crucial artifacts and tomes, as various Emperors or Imperial family members came under her sway and began to investigate the potential of the Mythos. To manage these diverse items, as well as control certain burial mounds and gateways discovered in Japan over the centuries, the Shoka created a special group which is today the Archives and Mausolea Department.

While the majority of this Department’s activities consist of maintaining various burial mounds and ancient documents, there is a very select group that is responsible for maintaining special mounds and documents. With the formation of the Fukuzawa Yukichi Institute (kurotokage) in 1964, essentially all Mythos-related materials were moved to the secure vault under that facility.

The Shoka, however, continue their close monitoring of all members of the Imperial family, and are the ones who “expose” each new Emperor to Amaterasu in a formal, sacred and extremely secret ceremony at Ise Shrine.

Head of the yakuza (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)

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Black Dragon Society

The Black Dragon Society (黒竜会, Kokuryu-kai) was the face of Japanese nationalism in World War II. The Black Dragons schemed and murdered their way across Japan, China, Korea and South East Asia in pursuit of Greater Japan, even infiltrating the United States in order to achieve their aims. The Dragons took their time to regroup after the war and started to implement Plan B. Instead of fading away, they became an organized conspiracy that has transcended Japan and the Far East and spread world-wide, settling around the pressure points of the modern financial, commercial and political world, while seeking harmony with the Mythos.

History

The Black Dragon Society was the successor to the Black Ocean Society that became too notorious for its actions. Through the last half of the nineteenth century Japanese nationalists in politics, the military and society formed societies dedicated to Japanese nationalism or advancement. Membership often overlapped, and some societies such as the Black Ocean and the Black Dragon were not afraid to use force to achieve their political aims.

Following defeat in the Second World War, Japan went through a degree of re-education, though not to the same extent as Western Germany. Organizations such as the Black Dragons became embarrassing and were no longer talked about, even though they had had large memberships spanning society. The Black Dragons had 10,000 members at their height of popularity. Public nationalism moved on to other forms of expression.

In 1945, the Dragons shrank back into the shadows, giving up a few hot-headed scapegoats to the Allied War Crimes investigators and trading Unit 731’s more mundane medical experiment results with the Americans in return for immunity from investigation and prosecution. The Dragons were able to make sure that the trust funds and fortunes of the zaibatsu, the pre-war merchant houses, were unaffected by war reparations. They encouraged the zaibatsu to modernize using American aid, so that they developed into the present day keiretsu.

Today, the term “Black Dragon” is a lazy journalist’s label, like “Nazi”; applied to elderly or dodgy individuals for publicly known right-wing opinions or actions. Some politicians are willing to pray at Shinto shrines dedicated to the war dead, or accept campaign contributions and votes from the Yakuza, but the modern consensus is that other than the occasional doomsday cult, organized Japanese fascism on the scale of the Black Dragons either died at the end of the Second World War or has faded away every year with encroaching death or infirmity of those involved. Those who say this have not learned, or will not speak, the truth.

The Order of the Green Dragon

Japanese nationalism has always been guided by shadowy forces preferring to remain in the background. The Black Ocean Society and other militarist secret societies were guided by these forces, as the Black Ocean later guided the Black Dragons. The shadowy force behind the secret societies, the politics and the power-plays since the nineteenth century is the Order of the Green Dragon. For much of their history the Green Dragons have been an obscure and ostensibly Buddhist monastic sect, rumoured to be great Zen masters with powers to see the future. The Order has guided Japanese expansion since the Americans forced Japan to open up to the outside world in 1854.

The monastic Order of the Green Dragon reputedly arrived in Japan from mainland Asia during the 8th century AD. The Order’s influence and prestige developed during the Ashikaga period of the 13-16th centuries. Until the 1560s, the Order maintained a solitary monastery in the mountains of Kii Hanto. However, before Oda Nobunaga’s campaign against the Buddhist monasteries during the 1570s and 1580s, the Order abandoned its monastery and retreated to Kyoto, where it escaped the worst of Oda’s excesses by laying low.

Following the Westerners a Tibetan monk appeared at the Green Dragons temple in Kyoto and revealed the full extent of the Order of Green Mens’ machinations. For over 900 years the monks of the Green Dragons have been in contact with a small group of Agarthan monks of the Left Hand Path located in Tibet, known as the Green Men, communicating astrally and co-operating with Tibetan monks to bring about the Tsan-Chan Empire in 3,000 years time.

Encouraged by physical contact with the Green Men, the Green Dragons quickly utilized nineteenth-century Japan’s growing nationalism and anti-foreign feeling for their own ends, and used the secret societies to establish and develop intelligence networks throughout Korea and China to gather intelligence, recruit allies, cause unrest and strengthen Japan’s position. As Japan became more powerful, annexing Korea, and extracting concessions and territory from ailing China, the Green Mens’ grasp became tighter on the increasingly resentful and proud Dragons. The Inner Council of the Green Dragons decided that co-operation with the Green Men would only continue as long as it was in Japan’s interest to do so.

The Green Men ordered the Green Dragons to co-operate with the Thule Gesellschaft in the 1920s and then the Karotechia during the 1930s. The relationship between the Dragons and the Karotechia was forced and uneasy. One of the last contacts Japan had with the Nazi Reich was a submarine voyage which evacuated several Karotechia personnel and a cargo of artefacts. It’s unknown whether the submarine, its passengers or cargo reached the Dragons or Unit 831 in 1945.

The Green Dragons, functioning as an inner circle of the Black Dragon Society, are now at odds with the Green Men. Since 1959 the Green Dragons have pursued an openly pro-Japanese plan for the Tsan-Chan Empire. Contact with the Green Men ceased when Chinese Communists overran the Green Mens’ monastery in Tibet, allowing the Dragons to proceed with their plans more easily. However, the seers didn’t predict renewed contact with the Green Men in the 1990s. At this time, the Dragons were unsure of the Green Men’s strength.

The Green Dragons are split along pro- and anti-Green Men lines. The majority of the Green Dragons are playing a game, co-operating with the Green Men but still trying to advance their own agenda. Though both want the Tsan-Chan Empire to come into existence, the Green Dragons’ seers suggest that propitious intervention at key points in the development of the Tsan-Chan Empire can influence and shape the putative empire in the image that best suits the Green Dragons and Japan. The Aum Shinrikyo cult was led by former Green Dragons following orders from the Green Men as a higher priority, endangering Dragon objectives.

Some occult researchers have observed that the Order of the Green Men are probably related to the Cthulhu Cult, the Leng Monastics or the Kuen-Yuin. Interestingly these commentators are deceased or missing - often mysteriously or suddenly, sometimes after encountering swarthy matelots.

Organization

The Dragons are very powerful in Japan, but have limited international reach, except through financial markets. The Keiretsu, powerful trading and manufacturing companies, have offices and manufacturing facilities all over the world which are utilized by the Dragons. Doho, overseas communities of ex-pat Japanese, may be persuaded to provide cover for Dragon activities. The Yakuza has always had close ties with nationalist secret societies, and much weaker international ties.

The Dragons are funded through the keiretsu, through the defense budget (one of the largest in the world on a per capita basis) and from tithes donated by worshipers of new religions organized or controlled by the Dragons.

The Dragons are ruled by their Council, the Inner Circle of the Dragons. Members of the Order who accept the green silk face mask never again leave the precincts of the Green Dragons’ temple, nor do they show their faces again to anyone other than the Daemon Sultan who dwells at the centre of the Universe beyond Space and Time. It is not known what happens to the wearers of the face-masks. Their number is always constant.

Philosophy

The Dragons expend great effort to be at harmony with the Mythos and understand their place in the Universe. The Mythos is perfectly natural; it is the human world-view that is unnatural and unordered. An adept’s world view is adjusted towards this perspective by rigorous training, starting with Zen Buddhist techniques of meditation and martial arts. When ready, they move on to elements of rinzai and satori philosophies, and The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. These are first used to bring about an awareness of the True Nature of the Universe, and secondly an understanding and acceptance of that universe. Only by accepting mankind’s place in the order of the universe can Man master his destiny. This understanding is enhanced by the use of koans, mondos and katsu. Sometimes the katsu can take the form of encountering minor elements of the Mythos. Black Lotus and the Liao Drug are sometimes used to accelerate training or open reluctant minds to infinite possibilities.

Magic

Chakra, or aura, perception allows adepts trained as manipulators to suggest, influence, direct or blackmail targets by literally seeing their targets’ weaknesses. Adepts are also trained to create, organize and develop cults; this includes infiltrating and subverting existing cults. Individuals with appropriate talents are trained to divine the future or see into the past. At higher levels of ability, seers often sacrifice a sense in order to amplify the remaining senses. Copious amounts of Liao and Lotus are consumed by the seers of the Dragons. Seers are at risk from entities like the Hounds of Tindalos, that live outside the perception of our reality. Valuable seers are guarded by adepts who can perceive and combat such threats.

Objectives

The objectives of the modern Black Dragons are subtler than the crude geo-political ambitions of the Thirties. This time the Dragons are building the Tsan-Chan Empire, a cruel and world-wide dominion that the Green Dragons have prophesied will rule the earth in millennia to come. The Dragons are sure that the One Emperor and Dai Nippon will lead and guide the Tsan-Chan Empire, as is their destiny. Their current goals are:

• The expulsion of communist influence in China, Korea and elsewhere in Asia.
• Conceal duplicity from the Green Men, maintaining a cooperative facade.
• Condition and unify world opinion through the adoption of Eastern culture: business models, martial arts, religion, philosophy.
• Ultimately, usher in the Tsan-Chan Empire in the next age. This long-term goal requires the survival of the Order of Green Dragons for thousands of years, making them very cautious.

To meet these objectives, the Dragons may ally themselves with any Mythos force.

NPCs

Dragon thug NPCs should have access to firearms, melee and unarmed combat skills. They follow orders as well as any fascist soldier, but are no more dangerous.

Agent provocateurs have good Theology, Psychology and Hypnosis skills; useful for wheedling out secrets and spotting human weaknesses at a glance, perhaps even some Astral Sight.

Full adepts are extremely dangerous, capable of amazing feats. Adepts should be Revenant characters because of their training and exposure to the Mythos. Adepts should have Occult, Mysticism, Cloud Mind and Cthulhu Mythos. An adept’s other skills could include Dodge, Fleet-Footed, Nerves of Steel, Martial Arts and Meditation. An adept is trained in Fast Draw, Firearms, Melee and Exotic Weapons. They have access to bleeding-edge biomedical and military technology some five to ten years in advance of markets, due to their contacts with the keiretsu, or the fruits of divination.

Relationships

Xianfeng and other fan-created organizations in this wiki reference the Black Dragon Society in their histories.

The 1993 Kong Hong SF comic Chiu Shen Z (“Cyber Weapon Z”) by Andy Seto and Chris Lau transports martial arts hokum a thousand years into the future, with the Shaolin Temple re-imagined as a Eugenics project in a decadent world threatened by demonic attackers.1 This concept sounds like a possible source of some of the Green Dragons’ powers.

Credits

Adam Crossingham invented the Black Dragon Society and submitted a draft article about it, The Kokuryu-kai (Black Dragon Society) and the Order of the Green Dragon, for Cthulhu Live: Delta Green edited by Robert McLaughlin (Fantasy Flight Games, Roseville, MN, USA, 2001). This material is not Delta Green Partnership canon. There is a long-standing plan to address the organization more fully in Our Darkest Hour. Unit 831 will not be appearing in that volume, and its appearance in Cthulhu Live: Delta Green is based on a now out-of-date conversation between Crossingham and Adam Scott Glancy.

This wiki article has been heavily edited by Viktor Eikman.

Cthonians

• Overview of Japanese deep structure or, Geology of Japan for Beginners. Includes:
  1. Japanese subduction zone (presented as a hands-on info file from the 1958 DG Operation: AHAB)
  2. A 1958 geological report about the trail of the cthonians
  3. A more recent report about geological anomalies in Japan
  4. Brief glossary/tech sidebar

• Cthonian ecology - or why they like it under Nihon. Includes:

  1. Cthonian timeline and general bio overview (keeper’s eyes only)
  2. Why Cthonians love it down there & the Cthonian way of Life (more Op: AHAB, Kurotokage and Taininhodo docs)
  3. The diary of a lone Tokugawa-era yamabushi that somehow connected with a cthonian and witnessed part of the burrower’s social life
  4. Field notes from a Meiji-era insect collector witnessing the hatching of a cthonian egg and following the earlier stages of a cthonian’s life
  5. A manga script and explanatory letter from a notoriously deranged mangaka (submitted to a publisher but ‘lost’ after a B&E) full of hentai tentacle sex and hints at cthonian sexuality (hentai as effect of cthonian libido seepage).

• The Cthonians and the Japanese. All the rest:

  1. How Zhang Daoling trapped a Cthonian under (insert opportune location)(maybe two or three versions of the same tale, with varying Mythos elements, and varying tie-ins with other chapters of the book)
  2. Cthonians & CATFISH (a collection of docs recovered and compiled by Kurotokage operatives or Anti-Mythos Monks through the years)
• Possible expansions/sidebars/stuff….
  1. Japanese Civil Protection details and DG-style template NPCs (who knows…. a Cthonian yamabushi cultist, a non-conformist geologist keeping up Mogi’s research, an oversensitive manga artist etc)
  2. New Cthonian Spells/Abilities - Mating Call, Clan Summoning etc.
  3. Keeper’s Help - some new and alternative takes on the old ‘stolen cthonian egg’ scenario seed.

Trail of the Cthonians

All I have at the moment is a reference to K. Mori’s article from 1964 in a book by geological maverick Forese Carlo Wezel, and a map from the K. Taira 1964 companion work.

In the ’50s, Benioff postulates that earthquakes are not random events, but the expression of a global system. With the forthcoming International Geophysical Year and all that, a lot of work gets done and a lot of data get collected. Following up on Benioff’s models, Japanese seismologist K. Mogi starts an in-depth historical study of seismic events in the Pacific Rim. In 1964, together with K. Taira, he compiles and plots data for the period between 1930 and 1964. The result is Taira’s Map. The map shows three distinct trails, each marked by an alignment of　successive seismic events. That is, each trail is made of the points representing a recorded earthquake. [you’ll probably need a map or atlas to follow this, but believe me, it’s worth it].

The First Track starts in Krakatoa, in the strait between Java and Sumatra in 1940. It follows the western coast of Sumatra and, curving slightly by the Andaman Islands, enters the Gulf of Bengal and hits the Asian continent somewhere north of Rangoon in 1950. From here on it marches with a path slightly curving eastwards, and enters China; the track follows the southeastern border of the Kunlun mountains and reaches the Nashan region, to disappear in 1957 somewhere between Nashan and Mongolia.

The Second Track starts in the Banda Sea region in 1940, points northwest to hit Mindanao and Leyte in the Philippines and then goes on due north, past Taiwan and up to the stretch of sea in front of Shanghai, just south of the tip of Korea (Quelpart island). Here the trail deviates sharply to the northeast, passes along the pacific coast of Kyushu on a curved path leading it to hit the Tokyo region in 1950. From here it continues northeast-wards along the Honshu and Hokkaido coast, follows the Kuriles and in 1960, a few hundred miles from Kamchatka does a sharp eastwards turn, crosses the Pacific in an almost straight course and hits Alaska in 1964.

The Third Track starts off the coast of Guatemala somewhere in the ’30s. It follows the isthmus due east and then turns sharply south by Malpelo Island, hitting Ecuador and Peru in 1940. From here it runs along the eastern side of the Andes till it reaches Bolivia, where it does a sharp turn to the southwest, hits Chile just south of La Paz in 1950 and then follows the Chilean coast due south reaching somewhere south of Santiago in 1964.

Note that:

All tracks are practically smack on the equator in 1940, while they are all in subpolar/peripolar zones by 1964 (we can extrapolate the trend of the First Track from the data at hand).
All tracks weave through the 'Fire Ring' margin instead of following a parallel to it.
All tracks are defined by ipocenters (that is, the deep seats of the energy release we perceive as an earthquake) at around 100 kms of depth.
As a bonus, Globally earthquake energy releases grow steadily between 1930 and 1960. To be blunt, quakes get nastier over a period of thirty years all over the world …

Cthonian ecology - or why they like it under Nihon

Cthonians travel in clans or extended families. Shudde M’ell being sometimes described as ‘Sultan’ of the Cthonians hints at a patriarchal structure, in which a single alpha male is granted the attendance of a number of females and submissive youngs in various states of development. This one also ties in rather well with the fact that the strongest and best known Cthonian spell (the one that causes a focalized earthquake) is described in the CoC books as a group spell. I just wonder if the required group is the single clan or if it is something like a Council of Clan Heads. Both possibilities have their pros and cons.

Cthonians are a migrant species, each clan following certain defined paths in the planet’s mantle. Migratory paths seem to skirt the vast oceanic plates, and stick to consumption margins (where probably the geochemistry of the environment is more suited to their needs). In particular, I think that water - which we know can be lethal to Cthonians in vast quantities - is still a needed component of the optimal cthonian living environment - and the only place to find water in the mantle is in Benioff zones.

(factual) thermal anomalies postulated in the sector of crust and mantle underlying Japan make the area particularly agreeable with the cthonian reproductive cycle.

The idea is that the mantle under Japan - at something like 100 kms depth - couples the high temperature of a much deeper setting with the water content and low pressure of a superficial setting. The equivalent of a cool, sunny day with a slight breeze, for cthonians.

A more stringent evolutionary problem might well be part of the cthonian predilection for Japan’s Benioff zone. To wit….. the Cthonian egg is a relatively small geodes-like object, containing a miniature cthonian that, at this stage, can be severely damaged by a small flame; in technical terms, instar-class cthonians (young adults and adults) need high temperature and pressure to survive, while the cthonian hatchling needs surface conditions.

I here rewrite the bit about ‘Cthonian Life Cycle’ bit n the CoC rulesbook.

The ‘geodes’ is a protective capsule for the cthonian embryo, shielding it from much temperature and pressure, while acting as a permeable membrane to extract the necessary (light) elements from the surrounding magma.

Hatching of the geodes is caused by two events

• full development of the embryo
• drop of temperature and pressure to surface-levels

This could be an evolutionary strategy - if, as I imagine, after coupling the cthonian female equivalent produces a few millions of cthonian eggs immediately after coupling (or during coupling), the cthonian ecosystem needs a mechanism to weed out the excess.

Laying eggs in an upwelling of magma is a way to ensure selection: those lucky enough to complete their development and reach the surface thanks to volcanic effusion are ‘winners’ and survive. The others either develop but remain in the magmathic chamber (were they are baked by the heat) or (less likely) they reach the surface too early and lack the elements needed to achieve full development.

[OK, so it’s all a matter of luck. But cthonians are clearly high-POW and therefore high-Luck critters. Any strategy weeding out the losers is good evolution for them]

Magmathic chambers under the Japanese archipelago are the ideal egg-laying chambers, that can couple at leisure in the relatively shallow depths under Japan and then trust their not-yet-born offspring to upwelling melted rock ‘bubbles’, that will carry the survivors in the magmathic chambers, for the first phase of development to take place, waiting for the next eruption.

By coupling the closer they can to the surface and by using vast chambers of fluid magma under active, frequently erupting volcanoes, as ‘incubators’, the cthonian parents can try and give a minimum of edge to their young.

Final consideration, once fully developed, cthonian babies start the long dig down towards home. They get adopted by the first clan they meet (thus ensuring genetic pool variety).

This said, we come to the lowdown and dirty part of this. Cthonian coupling. My current rough ideas, waiting for the full Hentai treatment, are:

1. cthonians do not have a sexual characterization before coupling
2. the coupling is preceded by a fight that culminates in the winner raping the loser and turning it into a female (this grants us the right harmonics of sex and violence to send all oversensitive Japanese mangamaniacs abuzz with hentai visions)
3. ‘mating’ is therefore both a way to keep the line going and to determine the clan leadership
4. the cthonian female lays eggs only once in its life cycle, and after that spends the rest of her existence educating the young and burrowing through the mantle. Females have no decisional power and probably lose their original intelligence, therefore the idea of turning into a female is particularly dreaded by still sexless cthonians.
5. when the new kid in town defeats the old sultan, the sultan gives birth (with predictable terrific spasms and the obvious ancillary surface devastations) and dies with a Cthulhu-class psychic backlash.

I’ve further refined (?) my angle on cthonian sexuality, trying to make it more relevant to a model of cthonian society and politics. Let’s see if you like this one….

Young cthonians are sterile hermaphrodites. When they reach the proper age (or when they feel like - more about this later) they challenge the clan head to achieve control and (as a thrown in bonus) sexual identity and activity.

1. if the old leader wins, he rapes the loser that gives birth and from there on is a sterile female nurse
2. if the newcomer wins, the clan head dies (so we eliminate completely his genetic input from the pool) and the winner has power and male status. But he has at this point to wait for the new challenge to actually produce offspring.

Point b, with its death of the elder and no offspring generated adds some spice to the stew. Should the new leader be in his turn defeated by a newcomer, we again get no offspring. It’s easy to see the underlying message - a weak leadership means a demographic depletion, hence damage the whole race (as clans grow by adoption, reducing the number of available youngs damages everyone). The head of the clan has therefore a racial imperative for being strong and ruthless.

See, we started with two giant magma-squids making out in the mantle and now we have some snippet of cthonian culture.

Let’s complicate matters.

I said ‘if he feels like’.

A cthonian of the right age can decide to avoid challenge, remaining attached to the clan as a sort of ermaphrodite eunuch. These could be the preservers of the racial lore, and/or the soldiers of the clan (probably they’ve a load of sexual frustration to discharge). Also, for a certain period (let’s say till they get into third instar) they can change their mind and challenge the leader.

So we get this clan social ladder

1. the clan head
2. the older, ‘stable’ eunuchs
3. the eunuchs still capable of challenging the boss
4. the young, untested ermaphrodites
5. the female harem

This gives us a certain political character for the clan. The young eunuch and the leader are keeping an eye on each other, wondering when the right time will come, if ever. For the eunuch, the best time to try his luck is just after a succession fight, hoping to catch either the

old leader or the young newcomer tired after the exertion .

What gives?

Well, I picture old Shudde M’ell as your classic backstabbing bastard, that laid low when it was time, nurtured a young hopeful as a tool to weaken the original leader of his clan, and then stepped in, assumed power, rose to dominance in the council of clans and ultimately attained godhood.

Pretty Japanese, all things considered.

And if the whole reminds you of what’s been happening above-surface in the last few centuries, well, maybe there’s some truth about the stories of cthonian psychic leakage. After all, there’s power, and not just tentacle sex, in the cthonians minds as they copulate. And someone’s bound to pick it up.

Imagine the Cosmic Irony (TM) - the most ambitious conspiracy in the history of Japan (and quite possibly humanity) is just a reworking of some weird giant underground squid political bickerings.

NOTE - I’m for not spelling this last ‘Cosmic Irony’ out in the sourcebook. Just hint at it and let wicked keepers pick up the joke.

A fate worse than death…. I see your point, but as you see I’m trying to make every little bit I threw in useful for defining better the cthonians.

Now I’ll have to flesh out the above (input welcome) and try and find something useful to say about the council of clans.

Ghouls

There are two distinct groups of ghouls in Japan, one “home-grown” and one of immigrants. The Japanese ghouls are from the same Dreamlands as good old American ghouls, but the foreign team is originally from Mongolia.

Called the Gama-ichizoku (蝦蟇一族), or Toad Clan, ghouls have been in Japan since prehistory, and were generally known as ‘gaki’ or hungry ghosts:

• http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/meihin/kaiga/emaki/mh5213e.htm

• http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/meihin/kaiga/emaki/mh5209e.htm

Now, the gaki are usually said to be invisible to the human eye, but in fact this was a metaphor, rather than a literal statement. They were so good at disguising themselves as ‘normal’ people that when they revealed themselves it seemed as they appeared out of nowhere.

As befits a clandestine group, their name was “disguised” by applying the normal meaning for gama, which is ‘toad’. (The ghoul’s crouching walk and apparent deformities match nicely with the toad name). So, to people who know nothing of their real form and purpose, they’re known as the Gama-ichizoku (蝦蟇一族), or Toad Clan, whereas those familiar with them know them as the Gama-ichizoku (餓魔一族) — which, if you wanted to be really melodramatic, could be roughly translated as the Clan of Starving Evil. These names are applied to all ghouls in Japan, whether native or of Mongolian in origin.

Japanese Ghouls

Japanese Ghouls are not followers of Mordiggian. Without the restriction of waiting for the meal to die without help, the situation of the Japanese Ghoul improves considerably. It certainly eliminates cremation as an obstacle.

Mongolian Ghouls

The ghouls were not present in Japan in great numbers prior to the Mongolian invasions of 1274 and 1281. As part of the Khan’s armies, however, the ghouls were always in the fighting, and especially in the clean-up detail. When the massive invasion fleet of the Khan invaded Japan in the Fukuoka region, a large number of troops were in fact ghouls, and (thanks to their toughness) most of them survived the decimation of their human fellows.

The Early Years

So, these Ghouls are separate from the Dreamlands Ghouls that the Tainihodo have the relationship with. They would be heretical and all “made” Ghouls. I need to work out how they would have acquired the Consume Memory and Consume Likeness spells without any connection to Mordiggian or the usual sources.

The first possibility that comes to mind is that they did have some contact with Dreamlands Ghouls in something like a missionary expedition from the Dreamlands. The Traditionalists might have seen them as poor pagans in need of enlightenment. The Mongol heretics took what worked for them and ignored the religion. Since they were living in an area where cremation was the norm, strict Mordiggianism didn’t catch on.

ASIDE: actually, in spiritual and magickal matters they would be more like the Anzique than the Mordiggian worshippers. The Anzique have a ritual that gives results much like Consume Memory, and so do the Tcho-Tcho. So these Mongol/Japanese Ghouls are Ghouls in body only. They have the physiology but share none of the traditions or culture. In the years between the failed Mongol invasion of (1281?) and Yagyu Jubei’s contact with them in the 1630s they had to cobble together their own culture in the least desirable real estate of Iga and Koga. If they had/have a religion, it would probably be devoted to a GOO associated with the Anzique or Tcho-Tcho.

The best path I’ve found for so far for pulling Ghouls and ninja together is through the machinations of Yagyu Jubei. Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi (or Mitsutoshi. Damn these multiple names.) was the first son of Yagyu Tajima No Kami Munenori; the swordmaster to the Tokugawa shoguns.

The Yagyu lived in a strategically important location near Nara City (which had been the first capitol of Japan) in the Yamato river basin, which also touched the southern edges of Kyoto. Access through the Yamato plains was essential for any general hoping to consolidate rule over all Japan. Currying favor with the landed gentry and samurai of that locale, therefore, would be a crucial factor for any ambitious warlord east of Kyoto.

When Munenori pledged fealty to Ieyasu, he probably brought more to the table than his fighting prowess. He may have also brought the services of an already well-established intelligence network that criss-crossed the Yamato. The warriors he gathered from Yagyu No Sato may also have been decisive in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.

Munenori became sometsuke (sort of overseer over the other daimyo) under Ieyasu. Japanese politics being what it was, it would make sense to put a spymaster overseeing the other daimyo. They were all plotting on their own, and a successful shogun was one that could spot treachery before it could get underway.

Since Munenori was swordmaster as well, the official fencing style of the shogun became the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu. Consequently, instructors from that school were requested by many clans, and these instructors became part of the intelligence network spreading out into the different provinces.

Munenori trained three successive shoguns in swordsmanship: Ieyasu, Hidetada and Iemitsu. Munenori’s son, Yagyu Jubei, first appears in official documents as a young attendant to the second Tokugawa shogun, Hidetada, in 1616. He subsequently became a follower of the third shogun, Iemitsu.

I’m scrambling around here to get a timeline, because he died in 1650 at the age of 44, which would have made him about 10 in 1616. Which helps supply the date for his missing 12 years.

Yagyu Jubei apparently dropped off the face of the Earth between his 24th and 36th years, which would be the years 1630-1642. Then, at the end of that period, Jubei wrote the Tsukimi No Sho (The Text of Looking at the Moon). The forward to this manuscript has some cryptic and tantalizing hints of what he was up to, but do not decisively solve the mystery of that missing decade. ASIDE: Gotta get a look at that text to see what hints are in the forward.

His father died in 1646, at which time Jubei took over the family domains.

Although legends say that some sort of disgrace or conflict with Iemitsu led to his 12-year disappearance, he came out of obscurity briefly in (1639? certainly during the mysterious period) for a family demonstration of swordsmanship for Iemitsu.

Although all paintings of Jubei during his lifetime show him with two good eyes, legend has him dressed in black, with a shock of hair tied simply with a cord, a flat sword guard covering his blind right eye, and sedge hat obscuring his features. He travels about the countryside incognito, until he whips out his avenging sword to save the innocent from wicked evildoers. You’ve got to love that.

I am going to go with the legends. Yagyu Jubei lost that eye during the missing years.

What he was doing for those 12 years was a mission for the shogun. He was seeking candidates to become covert operatives — ninja. This was a period with no warfare (but nonetheless the Golden Age of swordsmanship, with a lot of ronin wandering about trying to make reputations for themselves) because the Tokugawa shoguns knew what it took to stay on top: intelligence and the ability to make proactive moves before things could spin out of control into warfare.

His search would inevitably lead him to Iga and Koga, and there he would hear the tales of the supernatural abilities of the mysterious clans living in the most inaccessible regions.

What the Ghouls brought to the table was their speed, strength, agility, perfect interrogation methods (Consume Memory), secrecy, and being outside of any code of conduct. What Jubei offered was gainful employment, a career path and the (secret) patronage of the shogun. And maybe an ongoing tribute of condemned criminals to reduce the forays on the inhabitants of the countryside.

He sealed the agreement by giving them his right eye. I haven’t decided what they gave him yet. One possibility that occurred to me is that he had a Ghoul eye under that sword guard, through which he maintained communications to the Ghouls when back in Kyoto. He became sort of a living covenant between the shogun and the Ghouls.

The Ninja

The Mongolian ghouls drifted through the lower rungs of Japanese society since arriving in Japan, ending up (for no particular reason) in the Iga and Koga regions of Japan, now famed for their ninja warriors. They were, in fact, the original ninja, provided with a host of capabilities that normal men could not hope to achieve, such as shape-changing, ability to climb almost anything, enormous resistance to physical injury, and ability to go without sustenance for long periods of time. In later years the ghouls gradually pulled back from the public eye, and their disciples — men who hoped to attain their skills — began establishing a name for themselves as ninja. They did not possess the abilities of the ghouls, but the ghouls had ensured that the people of Japan feared them, and that fear itself was sufficient to establish the reputation of the ninja. Their training program and a few interesting tactical inventions brought them mastery of espionage operations in Japan for centuries.

The “rules of engagement” for a samurai are very strict, and preclude such useful activities as assassination, preparing traps, or turning from combat to bring back valuable information. But daimyos that read their “Art of War” were aware of the usefulness of espionage and covert warfare. Think of warriors unburdened by the samurai code as the weapons of mass destruction of the time. No one wanted them used, but you’d be a fool to let the other side have them when you didn’t.

The depiction of assassins as the “weapon of mass destruction” of its time is based on readings about the Assassins. In their region of the world, you simply did not renounce or lie about your faith. The thought of an enemy that could pretend to be a devout member of your own faith for years and years while waiting to be “activated” was a scary thought. The faithful could not respond in kind. The difference between Hassan i Sabbah’s soldiers and the soldiers of all the surrounding kingdoms was that difference. Hassan’s troops earned their way to Heaven by doing something that would condemn everyone else to Hell.

I know that some people will argue that of course the samurai weren’t so stupid as to leave themselves at a disadvantage over something as ethereal as a code. I disagree. The samurai commitment to the code is something that doesn’t translate very well to Westerners. Let’s put it this way: an individual samurai might run through the jungle and avoid combat to save his life, and maybe even bring back the information, but they would all have a problem with being ordered to do that. Why me? Don’t you think I am honorable? It could be conceived of, but was nonetheless unthinkable. If denying themselves useful military tools over a principle seems stupid or some bizarre Asian thing, remember that the US disbanded the Black Chamber because “gentlemen do not read each others mail.”

So, Iga and Koga with their population of hard fighting Eta became the recruiting pool for these unconventional warriors. They could creepy crawl and recon without loss of honor, because they had no honor to lose. They could hide or backstab or kill a sleeping enemy. They could drop their weapon and run like a mofo if it got the information back to their lines. They were not expected to stand and have an honorable, glorious death.

The first generations of ninja were probably scouts and long range recon patrols. But, once the utility of these warriors was established in warfare, covert ops beckoned.

So, ninja became assassins and spies. Most assassinations were done from a distance when the target was in the field. Ninjas as early snipers. But when an enemy didn’t stray from his fortress other methods had to be used. Female operatives known as kunoichi were used to catch an enemy with his pants down and vulnerable. Slipping poison into his food or drink. These “invisible” assassins were invisible by appearing to belong. There was a short story called “The Invisible Man” that illustrates the concept. The “invisible” killer of the story was the mailman. Every time the surveilling police were asked if anyone came to the door, they said no. In their minds, since the mailman was supposed to come to the door he didn’t count. Invisible. Or hiding in plain sight like a Purloined Letter.

Then again, what better disguise for a ninja than to travel with players? It’s one way to get past the walls without having to climb them with claws, and no incriminating clothing other than his stage costume.

Modern Day

Well, there’s always a need for covert ops, whether by governments, corporations or criminal organizations. Most probably don’t know just what they are dealing with, they just know they get good results.

However, I do see one use for them that offers some eerie possibilities.

Due to the traditions and procedures of the Japanese legal system, lawsuits are nowhere nearly as common as in the US or even Europe. Consequently, one of the most lucrative legal activities of the yakuza is debt collection. Well, the transactions are legal even if the methodology often isn’t. It has been estimated that gangsters forcibly collect one-half of all unpaid debts in Japan.

So what happens when the debt is enormous and the debtor is so powerful and well-protected that a midnight knock on the door is out of the question? The savvy yak brings in contractors: the pros from Iga.

Now, it would not do to have these debtors simply disappear. They would be missed, and besides, they have to be around to liquidate their property and pay off those debts plus handling fees. What the new ninja excel in is intimidation so horrifying that no victim ever goes to the authorities.

Using the skills they have been perfecting since Jubei’s time, the neo-ninja can abduct a debtor in the night from his well-guarded home and take him to a secure location for convincing. He is trussed-up like Alex in “A Clockwork Orange,” eyes wide open so he will miss none of the presentation. Then, after the situation and it’s resolution is explained to him, the pros from Iga bring in a live person (preferably someone the debtor knows and cares for), kill them, prepare them, and sit down and have a feast starring them for the edification of the deadbeat. To seal the deal, the debtor is forced to eat some of the meal. If he vomits they give him more until he keeps it down. They seldom have to resort to Stage Two, which is cutting off pieces of the debtor for a shared snack.

Cannibal Cult

Think something very small scale, maybe brought back by some WW2 veteran that picked up a Tcho-Tcho sort of appetite in the Pacific. I’m reading Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon and there’s a “Japanese soldier meets cannibals” chapter, so maybe that’s where this idea came from… And after all, we have not yet touched upon the matter of the veterans….

It would be a nice variant on the usual Tcho-tchos-running-a-ramen-stand plot. And it would fit exceedingly well (IMHO and all that) in a Japanese suburban setting - imagine just a bunch of guys that normally stop for a few drinks after office hours in some downtown bar, and once in a while eat a teenaged girl.

All very polite, all very low-profile. Some wilder elements tend to overdo it, but they get caught pretty fast.

Hastur (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)

Dreamlands

Structure

While Mankind tends to think of the Dreamlands as an unformed, nebulous, constantly-changing environment, in fact it is subject to its own natural laws. Mankind is merely incapable of comprehending these laws.

What they are, in human terms, is an n-dimensional space with enclosed realities floating within it. Each of these independent realities is like a bubble. Our own universe is said to be curved, and we hardly notice (I don’t think I’ve ever noticed, actually… near-sighted, I guess). Each of these bubble realities, then, is a self-contained universe, subject to its own natural laws, and could have more (or fewer?) dimensions than our own.

In many cases, bubbles may be connected to each other by “tunnels,” which may be relatively stable (like the tunnels linking ghoul graveyard access routes to the DLs) or transitory (access in a dream, or via drugs). Not all DLs are connected to all other, or even to any other DL. Some may be accessible only through one particular point or one particular dream, or perhaps not accessible at all, with their inhabitants totally isolated from the DLs (if they were human, what would that mean?).

When one bubble reality impacts another, it could result in both popping, or both combining into a larger one (soap bubble action). I suppose it could also end with the two bubbles still independent, but sharing one planar surface, also like soap bubbles. Bubbles have no real size to human perceptions, and can change in size in response to a number of factors. Chaosium, after all, casually expanded the size of Dreamlands any number of times with new supplements, as did Brian Lumley.

What defines the size of a soap bubble is the volume of air inside, basically, and what defines the size of a reality bubble (=size of reality inside) is the strength of the field creating it (=POW). Amaterasu has created a reality bubble (Japan DL) with herself at the core, and has guided Japanese civilization to constantly energize herself, providing a gradual (but slowing) increase in DL power. She has already absorbed at least one other bubble, the Ainu culture (have to check on dates; probably Meiji), and everything went nicely, so she’s ready for the next assault: to absorb Wakeworld into her reality. Screw the rest of Dreamlands.

The Japanese Dreamlands

There is a “concentric structure” to the Japanese Dreamlands, but it’s not visible except from the center… or if you aim for the core, where Amaterasu sits.

Your average Dreamer can pop up in any different sector, or even experience a mix of a few of them, depending on whatever factor you prefer. As long as he moves at random, or on a quest of his own, he can perceive the shift - be it subtle or dramatic, and in any sequence (from cyberpunk to Tokugawa with no intermediate pasages, for example). But as soon as the Dreamer’s purposes get directed, as soon as he has an aim and starts moving purposefully towards Amaterasu’s Cave, the structure folds protectively and he has to roam the different realms, in sequence, facing uncounted dangers and disorientation. Which might mean that the swiftest way to get to Amaterasu’s Cave is by going there without a purpose.

If you do not know where you are going it’s easier to get there. Very Zen, but it requires some practice. As a second accessory thought, of course Dreamlanders do not experience the shift - even if it means a total change of attire and accessories and quite likely a drastic shift in personality (it’s a long jump from sailor-suited schoolgirl to black-toothed, porcelain-faced princess). This only increases the disorientation.

One way of understanding the structure of the Japanese DLs is shown here. Each of the following layers is fairly independent of the others, and extend indefinitely outward from the central core, which is Amaterasu’s consciousness. The center of each layer is a huge volcano, which may be dormant or erupting depending on her mood at the time, and is called the “Kamimine” or “god mountain” by the inhabitants. There are also connections between random spots on different layers, gateways, if you will. Remember that this is a conceptual diagram, and in fact each layer is perceived as an independent world, unable to (usually) perceive any of the others. Dreamlands Structure

Moving in from the outer to inner “layers” of the Japanese DLs, there are several relatively clear-cut areas (there are any number of mixtures and peculiarities, as with Chaosium DLs):

1. The modern-day Japanese DL: this would be formed by the dreams of today’s inhabitants of Nippon*. Being a clueless American whose knowledge of Japan comes from movies and books, I’d say that this domain would be heavily identified with manga/anime. The endless metropolitan sprawl of NeoTokyo, where all the technology is both beautiful, luxurious, oppressive, and run-down, all at the same time. Lots of “Ghost in the Shell”-style merging of the organic and mechanized, bodies with wires and chip sprouting from them being commonplace. Girls in school uniforms with unnaturally enormous breasts, and hentai sex/rape on every corner. It would also be shaped by the grey dreams of office drones, who, if they are anything like I was during that short dark period of my life when I was literally killing myself with work, then their dreams are filled with panic attacks, repititive mindless tasks, and an obsession with time. If a Tokyo Police SWAT team member (and secret Kurotokage agent) were to enter the Japanese DL at this domain, his Kevlar vest would turn into some kind cyberknight mecha and his assault rifle would become a rail gun built into his flesh.
2. The Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere DL: to quote myself, the dream of Mitsuru Toyama still alive. A place that seems absolutely like traditional pre-Meiji Japan, but is all plastic in Disneyland sort of way - manufactured historical myth. We can also throw in alternative-1946 “If Japan Had Won the War” elements - Mitsubishi Zero flying disks and pulp-era Imperial Japanese soldiers with jet-packs. And lots of faceless (literally) small people wheeling the cogs of this fascist machine world with their blood. Here, our SWAT/Kurotokage agent watches as his armor fades into the alternate-1946 version of an NBC suit and his mecha gun becomes a chemical-gas weapon invented in a DL Mukden out of the darker dreams of Unit 731.
3. The Steampunk Meiji Era DL (as per Davide’s suggestions): kind of crossroads between the 1946 DL and the next, with all the alternative-1946 mecha becoming steam-powered. It might look a lot like a Japanese Carcosa, with Asians walking around dressed in Victorian/Edwardian clothes around trashheaps filled with the relics of their feudal past. Somewhere there should be a Valhalla-like battlefield where feudal samurai can banzai-charge machine guns all day and then get reborn the next day to banzai-charge again. The SWAT/Kurotokage agent sees the NBC suit morph into steam-powered mecha suit, and his gas-gun becomes an overly-complicated blackpowder Gatling-Gun-style rifle.
4. The Sengoku Era DL: feudal Japan out of a Kurosawa film. I don’t know how much of this would reflect the dreams of those that lived during the Sengoku era or the modern-day dreamers that harken back to it in the way Americans see the Old West. Back to our SWAT/Kurotokage man, and his courtier clothes becomes the grungy robes and cobbled-together armor of a ronin, and his musket becomes a huge tachi.
5. The Heian Era DL: the dreams of the Golden Age of Japan, full of ritual and pomp. The inhabitants would be more like actors in a play than free beings, carrying out the myriad of ceremonial tasks they set for themselves. Life as an endless tea ceremony. Think of the Tale of Genji, and people moving langorously through erotic, perfumed realities infused with the taint of the King in Yellow. Here our SWAT/Kurotokage agent would find himself in the stylized, uncomfortable clothes of a courtier.
6. The mythic DL: similar to the Sengoku Era DL, but here the monsters start to appear: tengu and oni and the like. This would be the Mononoke Hime-style DL, a Japan moving into its feudal prime yet still a part of an older primeval world. As one moves further through this domain, the dreams become even more primal and less human, till the dreamlands of Mu is reached. I can only imagine what lloigor may dream of. As for our SWAT/Kurotokage man, he has lost his ronin clothes and wears the simple primitive dress of an Ainu, and his tachi becomes a straight-edge Chinese-style bronze sword.
7. Amaterasu’s Cave: I leave this up to you. The SWAT/Kurotokage man finds his clothes an incongrous blend of all the domains he has passed through: the animal-skin cloak of an Ainu, the cobbled armor of the ronin, the stylized dress of the courtier, the steam-powered engine strapped to his back, the helmet of the alternate-1946 Imperial Japanese soldier, the wires and chips protruding from his flesh of the mecha, and the web gear of his SWAT uniform.

Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 01:36:40 -0000 From: “Charles Ripper” yeroshka7@hotmail.com

This reminds me of an old comic book series called Grimjack, from First Comics, written by John Ostrander. It was set in a city called Cynosure where different dimensions met. Some were permanent, but some moved in and out of phase. One of the key moments in the main character’s development was when Hell came into phase witht he city. The tag line for the description was that “Guns worked in some places, magic in others, but swords worked everywhere.”

Nostalgia aside, my question is, how do Dreamers get into a different ‘bubble’? If you go to sleep in Japan, are you automatically in the Japan DL? Or will gaijin still dream about the Mythos DL, but as they grow accustomed to the vibe of the new area, they slowly gain access to the new DL.

If we go with the latter, the access could take the for of going into caves that you ‘hear about,’ or maybe find when following a white rabbit. For the dreamer, he regards the new bubble as ‘underground,’ because he accessed it through caves, but each of the dreamlands can be the ‘underground’ for almost any other. Some restrictions apply.

Taking this image, if you started dream spelunkering, you might end up in the Mayan DL if you fall asleep on the Yucatan. You don’t automatically, but that potential is there.

Subject: Re: [Kurotokage] Re: Dreamland Japan Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 21:12:54 EST From: USFORREC1@aol.com Reply-To: Kurotokage@yahoogroups.com

Well, a few ideas that kicked up in my head with the recent discussions that I’ll throw out. Might be a gem or two amongst the heap.

What if the DL as laid out in the DL book is the natural DL. That is how it is supposed to be: the extremes of man’s (subconscious?)dreams, desires, imagination and fears expressed in a fantastic land. It has set rules and a slow, natural evolution that reflect a core subconsciousness that takes hundreds of years to affect. I would postulate the existenceof an Asian DL also existing here, following the same rules but separated fromthe Western one (as well as an African and Australian one). Now, as the Endtimes approach and massive upheavals have occurred around the world, changes to the belief structures have happened rapidly, affecting subconscious beliefs. This has caused the “bubbles” to appear in the DL. These are more modern areas that have appeared quickly in the DL. There is little rhyme or reason to where they appear. Some might be in an isolated area, while others have rippled up right in some already established one. They might be a building, small group of travelers or whatever, that have appeared. The main concept is that they are breaking the rules of the DL. This breakdown is a major sign of the Endtimes, as the two “realities” are being merged into one.

Now, what if Ashi was an early devotee of Hastur. She gained her powers by study at the Library of Celaeno and learned to command the Byakhee. With these powers,she led her tribe to power. Also, she awakened powers that allowed her access to the DL. She created the DL Japan and through her it was linked much more directly with the RW Japan than any other land was. Ashi continued to spread the worship of Hastur until she ran afoul of the Mi-Go in Japan (maybe doing multi-dimensional mining in Mount Fuji). She led her warriors against them and while victorious, she was killed in the RW.

Her DL form continued to exist, however, ruling the DL Japan. Her tribe kept her beliefs alive, forming the proto-BOYS and seeking a way to bring their priestess backin the RW (with the prevalent method being the inhabitation of the Imperial Line and the occasional manipulation of events from the DL). Her tribe also spread worship of her as her DL persona that with the twisting of tales grew into the tale of Amaterasu. While this eventually grew into a form of sun worship, it was initially a metaphor for her “enlightenment” through Hastur.

Through the years, the Kuromaku have served their Goddess. They seek a world dominated by Japan and led by a reborn Ashi. WW2 was to be the culmination of these schemes but things didn’t work out that way. Prepared to fight to the end, the Kuromaku was shocked into a different course of action by the dropping of the A-Bombs. That their enemies could harness a mythos force (not distinguishing between the bomb and Azathoth himself) made them quickly formulate another plan. With alliances made through Ashi with a ghoul faction, the Kuromaku managed to open several direct openings to the DL. They moved a number of their membership, some Imperial troops and equipment to DL Japan. The rest went underground to rebuild here.

Over the years, troops and equipment have been quietly moved into DL Japan, creating a strange mix of the traditional DL with technology from the recent years. They have been quietly making alliances with some of the mythos races and establishing a network through the DL. Their plan is to take control of the DL as a precursor to world control. Hastur is giving his support to the endeavor because by again linking the two realities through Ashi, his influence can spread and a further veil of reality is stripped away. Finally, from the shadows, Nyarlathotep is lending a very quiet hand to all of this because he realizes the ultimate truth: if the DL can be subverted in such a manner by a mythos force, the effects on humanity’s subconscious would be devastating. The corrupting influence will spread through billions, making them the Great Old Ones and heralding the Endtimes. The DL won’t be a last refuge for mankind but the signaler of our doom.

For campaigning, Kurotokage can be engaged in a desperate battle to save the DL that is fought in both the RW and DL. They can face the BOYS, Ghouls, cultists, Mi-Go seeking revenge, Yakuza, Japan, Inc., etc. Kuromaku can be using the DL to travel around the RW quickly to appear almost anywhere. DL magic and artifacts might be making their way here as tech is going the other way. Maybe Kuromaku is working on a VR system, hidden amongst other high tech products, as a way to finally break down the walls separating the Dreamlands.

Dave F:

Add to this Dave K’s idea of a Co-Prosperity Sphere, but instead of using WW2 weapons, have it fought using traditional weapons, magic, and intrigue. And the geography does not have to match our world’s—DLNippon could be taking over any nation of the DLs, or new ones we come up with. Imagine imperial samurai laying siege to Dylath-Leen.

Mark mentioned the Leiberian “bubble” idea — could the “Sphere” in Co-Prosperity Sphere be literal? The Nippon bubble trying to absorb another bubble to make a bigger sphere? Or Ed’s tinker-toy structure — could DLs mages try to make new doorways into other Realms in order to invade?

Also is Nippon even united in the DLs? I’m thinking Mononoke Hime, with armies from the central government constantly trying to bring the outlying, stubborn-individualist provinces under control. The Ryukyus could still be independent, at least.

Scenario arc

Mibe Town and the Deep Ones

Okinawa and Zoth-Ommog

Scenario Two: The US Military Base in Okinawa

Scenario One basically ends in one of two ways: either the players (as American DG agents) run amok and get arrested for killing Japanese citizens, or they find a way to avoid killing off the DOs and instead decide to live-and-let-live while determining exactly why the three people were killed. This causes the scenario path to split, but both branches end up in Okinawa. (Need maps and TOE for Okinawa.)

If they are arrested, the Japanese military (under prodding from Kurotokage) handles the case, either because some of the players are active US military or for some unknown security reason. They get sent hush-hush to Okinawa, eventually to be sent back to the States and forgotten. Deep Throat will arrange to brief them somewhat before they are imprisoned, and drop hints that there is a problem at the military base which, if they could happen to fix, would probably result in charges being cancelled. The players get much less information on Kurotokage in general and the specific problem, though.

If they handle the first scenario right, they have learned to trust (somewhat) what Deep Throat has to say. Deep Throat will ask if they would be willing to help clean up a mythos situation at the US base in Okinawa, in return for the gratitude of the Japanese government. Deep Throat will explain a very little bit about kurotokage, leading the players to believe it is an organization run secretly by the government. This will help set the players up for shocks later.

This is the Zoth-Ommog (sp?) problem written up in the Kurotokage list. One US soldier brought the “religion” to Okinawa several years ago, perhaps as long ago as Vietnam, and has gradually been accumulating personnel and victims.

The Bookstore in Tokyo

Scenario 3: The Bookstore

The players are now free again, and have Deep Throat much more impressed with their abilities. If they have done the first two scenarios correctly, they will be able to actually meet Kazuo, who will remain a nameless “important man in the organization.” If they manage to impress him, more information may be forthcoming. If they screwed up on the first one, they won’t meet Kazuo, but in any case they will be invited to visit the key tourist spots of Japan: Tokyo, then Kyoto, then Nara. A guide will be provided from the local ESS, arranged for by an unknown party that the players will not be able to determine. ESS records show it was a cash-in-advance arrangement by a Mr. Tanaka Taro. This entire tour sequence is just a waste of time, but it does serve to get the players used to moving around in Tokyo, and show them where to pick up an interpreter if they need one. Their guide is just that - a guide - and in fact they are being monitored by a totally separate group.

After the Keeper gets tired of dragging them around Japan (need maps etc; be sure to include visits to the Tokyo and Kyoto Imperial Palaces, being sure to mention the descent from Amaterasu), it’s time to move on. The guide is a book collector, and mentions this often; he should be carrying some English-language book designed to grab the players’ attention – how about “Tom Swift and his Dirigible” or something along that line? If the players bite, then they are off to Jimbocho, the used book district of Tokyo. If not, the guide should say since they’re at the Palace, Jimbocho is real close and would they mind if he dropped by his favorite store and picked up a book they are holding for him?

If the players are lucky or sensitive, they will notice a piece of cardboard in the rare books cabinet, which has a (locked) glass sliding door. A portion of the title will be visible: “The King in Yell” with the remainder hidden behind another book. It is obvious that the cover has been torn off. The owner of the bookstore will be happy to open the cabinet, but will watch to be sure they don’t damage his books, none of which are mythos. When he sees the cover (probably after a player picks it up) he will immediately become agitated, grab it, and rush out the door, shouting to the interpreter that he has to deliver it to “Kamata-sama.”

The players should take the bait and riffle through his address book, finding out that there are two Kamatas listed.

The bookstore owner doesn’t know anything in particular about mythos, and never even opened the King in Yellow book, but the bookstore and the ESS guide will serve as important information sources for the players. The two Japanese will take a liking to the players and make a variety of information available to them, as well as steering them in the right direction. Neither is tightly linked to kurotokage, the kuromaku or anyone else of particular import, but there are at least two channels available for the players to trace: ESS to kurotokage, and bookstore to Kamata.

The Kamata who bought the book is a retired executive managing director of Mitsuboshi Electric, one of the lead companies in the Mitsuboshi group. A little research will show that he was in line to be the next president and suddenly quit after something happened. Research will show that he was suspected of having been involved in ritual cannibalism, but charges were dropped for lack of evidence (ie, pressure from above). He was eased out of the promotion ladder, however. A visit to his house will turn up ghoulish items.

The players will be presented with unmistakable evidence of his guilt, and will (more than likely) waste the guy, rescuing his next victim(s) and finding evidence that points to the next link in the ghoul chain, this time an officer in Hidachi. A new Kurotokage agent will appear and suggest they leave the country because they are stirring up too much trouble, and be obnoxious enough that the players will NOT tell him about the link to Hidachi. If the players do tell him, the Kurotokage agent should give them specific orders to leave Japan, and the players will get a visit from yakuza that night. If they play it right, they can get a pistol or two out of this meeting, one way or another.

Hidachi and the Death of Deep Thoat

Scenario Four: The Corporate Labyrinth

Penetrate Hidachi, discover a little more about how corporate power in Japan is linked to various mythos baddies. Turn up at the same place as a kurotokage hit team, taking out a bunch of baddies at a Hidachi facility somewhere. The Hidachi baddies are performing a ceremony for an unnamed goddess, represented as a radiant woman dressed in ancient (Heian Era) court clothing, but who isn’t named. The players will have plenty of opportunity here to get themselves killed if they really want to, either by some nasty mythos creature or just plain bullets. If they use their heads, they may be able to get a pistol and hide it somewhere for later recovery (if they keep it, the cops will find it). Deep Throat will not explain who the statue is, but cautions them to keep it quiet until they have a chance to talk elsewhere.

Later that night Deep Throat meets with them at a pre-arranged location, and discloses that least some of the worshippers were kurotokage agents. Just as he is about to reveal who the statue represents, he is shot by a sniper rifle. Within seconds police cars arrive (not minutes, but seconds) and the meeting site is a mess. The players will notice how quickly the cops arrived, and (eventually) ask who called them. It was an anonymous cell phone call, from the phone number that Deep Throat had given to the players.

Meeting Kazuo and The Taira

Scenario Five: View from a Height

Kazuo telephones the players (Deep Throat was a highly-ranked kurotokage agent, but was employed by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, in the Ports and Harbors Bureau). He makes it clear that he has been in close touch with Deep Throat for some time, and knows all about the players. He cautions them to stay quiet about whatever suspicions they may have because the walls have ears.

He asks them if they could meet with him, suggesting they climb Mt. Fuji and be at a particular station and restaurant for lunch on a particular day. He, obviously, arranges to be there as well. They run into each other, literally, and Kazuo apologies profusely for spilling soup all over the player; they end up sitting down at the same table to share a bottle of beer, and Kazuo reveals he is the person they came to meet.

They talk chit-chat, with Kazuo pretty much refusing to be drawn into serious conversation. If the players try to force it, Kazuo will leave. If they try to restrain him, he will noisily call for help. When he leaves, however, he will leave a set of necklaces on the table, one for each player, unmarked. These will allow the players to enter the dreamlands that night.

Most of the players wake up in the usual place, and must go down the 700 steps into the Enchanted Woods. A note there is addressed to them, directing them to the bridge across the River Skai to Mt. Lerion. At the bridge (a nice Japanese-style wooden bridge, with pagoda-style lanterns at either end), they are met by a Japanese monk (robes, staff, straw hat ﾐ the works) who is apparently mute and deaf, and leads them to unknown Japanese temple in the DLs (the home of the Taininhodo), where they are grilled by the abbot and an unknown elderly Japanese man (The Taira). The vast majority of their questions are ignored, but they are able to confirm that this is the usual DLs, and they are on Mt. Lerion, very close to the enchanted wood. The mission of this group of players is to get to the temple and pick up information. They will be given a talisman to allow them to awake the other group from the other DLs (made of agate, feels cold to the touch – usually, not always, wakens Dreamers).

One of the players instead wakes up in Amaterasu’s DLs, where he has a glimpse of some Japanese world (Keeper’s choice; usually any player or players with (mythos+sanity) scores of <75, who can’t enter the DLs) and discovers that the volcano at the center of the world is a goddess named Amaterasu, or maybe is the place where she lives. He confirms that this is NOT the usual DLs, because none of the usual places or even gods are known. The mission here is merely to survive until they awake, because in these DLs foreigners are generally disliked, feared and even hated.

Kazuo, so close to the center of the web, would have to see these preparations being made. He realizes that the conspiracy-inside-a-conspiracy that is the Taira-loyal Kurotokage won’t be enough to face an Amaterasu-possessed Empress in an age of nuclear weapons. He decides that it is time to look for allies.

He has reports, rumors and a scattering of information that leads him to believe that there is a secret American organization working against the Mythos. There are reports, primarily from the days of the Occupation, that detail American Army and intelligence personnel investigating and attacking the Mythos in all its forms. No direct, formal contact was made, but there have been rumors that this shadowy American group still exists in the present day. Kazuo might think that only the might of the US government would be enough to stop the worst-case Amarterasu scenario. He doesn’t have to know the truth.

So he hears about the planned mission to kill the two Japanese residents going to the US for genetic testing. He knows about their ancestry, so he knows what it’s all about. He decides to let them out of Japan, and that the assassination should occur on US soil after some genetic tests have been run. He knows this should be a red flag for any American anti-Mythos group. He expects them to inquire, and perhaps investigate, and he will be able to get a man to contact them.

That’s where Deep Throat comes in. He’s Kazuo’s contact with the agents when they come to Japan. I don’t know how to arrange that part yet, but the pieces are there. Deep Throat guides them to Mibe Town, and when that’s over, he feeds them other missions. The places that he has them hit are of some importance to the pro-Amaterasu group, but nothing that would bring summary execution of the characters. In the end, Kazuo will arrange for Deep Throat to be betrayed, and bring the characters into an alliance with Kurotokage. He will not reveal the secret of the Taira at this point. That would be for later, Kurotokage-centric campaigns.

We need to take into account that the Household Agency might issue an official proclamation that no woman will ever sit on the throne. (The Prime Minister has hinted that he favors changing the Constitution to allow a woman to take the throne, but in these parts, you can go out of the room to use the multifunction toilet and come back to find out there’s been three changes of government while you were gone.) Not a major problem–just mention in the flavor text that Kazuo “cannot take that risk; even if the Household Agency were to explicitly prohibit a female Empress, even if Princess Masako were to give birth to a boy, the consequences of failure are too great.”

Tomes

Real books (sections in italic are fictional)

Nihonkoku Genpou Zen’aku Reiiki (Book of Good and Evil Spirits of Japan; 日本国現報善悪霊異記)

Written by a monk named Kyokai (景戒) at Yakushidera Temple (薬師寺) in Nara in the early 9th century. Only three scrolls (116 chapters) are known to exist. In fact therered were a total of six scrolls, the first three covering mundane spirits, and the last three covering Mythos information as known to the author. Copies of the last three scrolls, and (often corrupt) reproductions, exist in a number of places, including the Tainin Hodo, Kurotokage, Green Dragons and Hidachi. More information (in Japanese) can be found here.

Tengukyou (天狗経)

It was written in the mid-Edo Period (1603-1868), claiming that there were a total of 125,500 tengu in Japan at that time. It is written as a Buddhist prayer, and within it lists the names of all 48 tengu lords. While corrupt and useless now, a scholar of ancient languages will be able to tell that in fact it was written in Aklo, and the original Aklo pronunciations replaced with suitable Chinese characters of similar pronunciation and no meaning. If pronounced correctly, the spell will summon Byakhee.

Japponische Reiss-Beschreibung (Description of a Japanese Journey) by Caspar Schamberger (1649)

A visit to the ruling court - with its preparation, the trip, the arrival, and the audience - written by the German physician assigned to the Dutch trading community on Dejima (Nagasaki). The text has, unfortunately, been lost. More here.

Rikuto (rikuto, 六韜) Scrolls

A set of 16 scrolls detailing tactics and swordsmanship, along with a variety of rituals useful in defeating low-order Mythos creatures. The property of Taininhodo monk and tactician Oniichi Hogen (鬼一法眼), and studied by Minamoto Yoshitsune. generally thought to be fanciful, but in fact still in the collection of the Tainin Hodo in Dreamlands.

Tortoise shells (for divination) from Shang Dynasty China

Discovered only in China in the 18th century, thousands of these shells were removed from the region around Anyang, China, and transported to Japan by the Imperial Japanese Army. Many of them were fakes, but most of them vanished during the War years and have not been found since. The real ones, of course, are now mostly in the possession of Kurotokage, and reside in the vault.

De La Perouse, JFG, “Voyage de la La Perouse Autour du Monde, publie conformement au decret du 22 avril 1791, et redige pa M.L.A. Millet-Mureau,” Paris, de l’Imprimerie de la Republique (1797). 4 vols. with one folio of maps.

Montanus, A., “La Civilisation Ainou et les Cultures Arctiques,” Paris, 1937. 272 pp, 48 plates, 112 illos, 10 maps.

Japanese fictional books

Nakahara Diary (中原家記) (created by Lipsett)

Written by Nakahara in his last years, this personal diary records everything he knew or suspected, for the guidance of his sons. Due to their fanaticism, only a part of Chapter 4 (dealing with tengu (ie, byakhee)) and all of Chapter 5 (protections against Mythos entities) are extant.

Tainin Hododoki, or, Chronicles of the Tainin Hododo (大忍保道堂記) (created by Lipsett)

Kept at the main temple, this work records all information about the daily activities of both the temple personnel and their enemies. Invaluable in charting movements and trends.

Momooka Teikun (桃岡庭訓往来) (created by Lipsett)

This journal of guidance written by Nakahara’s second-in-command primarily deals with swordsmanship and tactics, but also has a detailed account of his extermination of the bizarre cult of devil worshippers on Nashijima in the Inland Sea. Edited edition privately published in English in Hong Kong, 1873. Copies widely available in collections of medieval books.

Diary of Captain Tateyama (館山中将日記) (created by Lipsett)

Captain Tateyama, exiled from Kyoto in 1031 for offending a nobleman involved with the Tainin Hododo, kept a diary of his adventures. Useful for descriptions of various races and rites throughout Japan, but flawed by superficiality and bad and constant attempts at court verse. Incomplete version extant in Diet Library.

The Private Journal of Francesco Lopez of Portugal (created by Lipsett)

Written by a Jesuit priest between 1549 and 1566. He landed at Kagoshima with Francis Xavier, but soon located the Tainin Hodo, in 1551. He remained with them, acting as a channel of information and advice. This journal somehow found its way back to the Vatican Collection, where it was uncovered in 1736. As an outsider’s view, it is a superb piece of reportage, dealing all aspects of Tainin Hodo life. It is the source of Chapters 4 and 5 of the Nakahara Diary, which he apparently copied from memory over years, since he was not allowed to copy directly. He planned to transcribe the entire volume, but vanished in 1566. Collection of the Vatican Library. Complete copy in Tainin Hodo archives.

Records of the Department of Religion (神祗官日録) (created by Lipsett)

Covers from 816 to 1156, this daily record of the official Department of Religion deals mostly with state ritual and ceremony in the capital. However, a number of scribes also recorded reports and rumors from the hills. Very useful for general information and lore, although it exists only in fragmentary secondary sources, within the Maeda Collection. Selected parts from 966 to 1027 were published in History of Heian Japan (平安朝史), within the New Japan History (新大日本國史) series (Dainippon Shuppan, Tokyo, 1934). All references to the evil gods were deleted.

Hayakawa Diary (早河日記) (created by Lipsett)

Only a single fragment survives of this diary, written by a merchant-pirate operating from the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) between 1412 and 1453. Located at an auction in 1883 in Hong Kong, it deals with his close contact with a group of Deep Ones. Mostly superficial, but some interesting quoted ceremonies. Reprinted (severely cut) in Histories of Japanese Merchants (日本商人史) (Jinmon Shobo, Tokyo, 1928).

Chinese fictional books (info: Dave Farnell, Charles Ripper)

Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan: (see The Fate, p71)

Ancient Chinese scrolls. The Fate has a copy bound into a book. Ancient Chinese, difficult to read even for a scholar.

Goddess of the Black Fan (see The Fate, p72)

Ancient Chinese scrolls contain a series of poems which detail the story of Monk Liu and his meeting Goddess who hides face behind black fan. He sees her face (Bloated Woman=Nyarlathotep), commits suicide.

This was in No. 14/15 of Unspeakable Oath.

Dreamlands etchings of uncertain origin. (Cylinder 3 stats: SAN Loss:1D3/1D6, Mythos:+4% Spell multiplier: x2)

The original brick cylinders were a gift from Bokrug to the people of Kadatheron (or merely built in his name: truth unknown, and bricks are thousands of years old). There are three, all with inscriptions in Dream, readable by all. Made of turquoise, navy blue and dark green bricks. Over 10 feet high, and similar diameter. The first two describe history and geography of Kadatheron and Western DL. Third has hidden mysteries and spells, but different readers interpret them differently, so different transcriptions exist. The third cylinder is also available in English Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810), Portuguese (handwritten notes dated 1750), and Chinese (written in Mandarin in 1785 by an unknown author, this version was recently discovered on sale at a bookshop in Hong Kong. A scholar browsing in the shop noted that the owner, Mr. Devon Yu, watched anyone who perused the copy very carefully.) The Chinese version contains Contact Bokrug, Emerald Darts of Ptath, Stupefying Blast and Viridian Wind.

The Yellow Codex is mentioned in the Keeper’s Companion, p60.

Xanthic Folio

A set of tablets in what is said to be elder thing glyphs, found in China. These deal with the King in Yellow and his court at some length. Why a prehuman document should do so is unknown. Sanity loss 1D6/1D20; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; average 8 weeks to study and comprehend/16 hours to skim.

Yellow Codices

These English and French translations of the Xanthic Folio have circulated among jaded artists and writers for years. They are believed to be the inspiration for the King in Yellow – even though its contents are quite different from the play, the Codices seem to convey it to the reader, almost subconsciously. Sanity loss 1D4/1D8; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; average 7 weeks to study and comprehend/ 14 hours to skim.

Other fictional books

Black Sutra (暗黒経) (created by several)

Written by Burmese monk U Pao in c. AD700. Comments on evolution, Yidhra. Only fragments of several chapters are known to exist. Apparently brought to Japan by the Green Dragons and later captured by the Tainin Hodo. Partial copy in Tainin Hodo collection. Little actual technique, although other sources indicate that the extant portions are vastly misleading. Copy in Green Dragon collection: Complete.

“Hunting the Poem of Dreams” (幻詩狩り)　by Kawamata Chiaki.

Insane French author in 1948 wrote “Gold of Time” (時の黄金). Handwritten pamphlet, scribbled writing. Cover is blank, first line is the title, slightly larger. Pamphlets have yellow covers. When you read it, your mind goes somewhere else, leaving an empty husk of a body. The body then dies within a few days. It can be translated, but the translator “dies” when he pens the last word. Editions known to exist in French, English, Japanese. Sounds like a King in Yellow derivative to me!

Amaterasu

Bibliography

General Japanese history, myth and legend

1. “Tokyo Underworld: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan”

Robert Whiting, ISBN 0-375-72489-3

1. “The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan’s Imperial Family”

Sterling and Peggy Seagrave, ISBN 0-552-14709-5

1. “Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697”

W.G. Aston, Tuttle, ISBN 0-8048-0984-4

The definitive accounts of the creation of Japan and the Japanese, with the foundation of the Imperial family, and descriptions of the foundation and expansion of the first kingdoms of Japan (cast of myth, but with the history visible between the cracks). Extensive footnotes, and only one of many available editions.

1. “Giappone” (in Italian)

J.D. Bisignani, IdeaLibri [ISBN 88-7082-390-3]

A massive 1000+ pages “Cultural Tourist Guide to Japan”, short on the tourist side but rich in historical and Mythological references, with a penchant for legendary and uncanny events. Covers practically every popular Shinto festival, every weird local legend, every ancient landmark, one prefecture at a time. A lot of highly detailed maps, sketches and pictures. Ideal writer/keeper companion (pity there’s no English equivalent that I know of!)

1. 上田正昭, 講談社学術文庫, ISBN4-06-9215-7

(Kodai Nihon no Jotei, by Ueda Masaaki, Kodansha)

Theories and facts on the early queens of Japan, including Pimiko, with much discussion of evolution from oracles to oracle-queens to state queens (ie, without religious aspects). Lots of quotes and commentary from ancient Chinese histories mentioning Japan.

1. “Japanese Postwar History”

Gary D. Allinson, Cornell University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8014-8372-7

The basic Contemporary Japanese History and Society textbook here at Turin University. Features a handy, year-by-year chronology of events (1932/1995) and a huge bibliography. Chapters cover broad periods (1932-1945, 1945-1955, 1955-1974, 1974-1989, 1989-1995) and the book is good for researching quick-and-dirty, sidebar-like “background information” on social and political evolution. Great pictures an added bonus.

1. “Supernatural and Mysterious Japan - Spirits, Hauntings and Paranormal Phenomena”

Catrien Ross, Yenbooks, Tokyo, 1996, ISBN 4-900737-37-2

And it’s amazing the amount of weirdness you get for the money, in such a slim volume. The end result feels like a night-time talk with a well-informed traveller; the whole reads more like a quick set of notes or travelogue than an in-depth look at the current state of the supernatural in Japan, but it’s absolutely crammed full of facts and names and stories so that, despite a pair of drawbacks, this is required reading for anyone running a horror/conspiracy campaign set in Japan. The drawbacks are the lack of a map, of a proper index and of a bibliography, the latter being the worst problem (you can just get a map from a guidebook and 160 pages are few enough for you to browse looking for what you need, but tracking resources can be a pain). It’s slim and it’s rambling, jumping from place to place and from haunting to haunting, but it’s hard to finds a page that does not contain at least a good campaign hook.

1. Holtom, D.C., “The Japanese Enthronement Ceremonies,” Kyobunkan (Tokyo) 1928.

This is an excellent description of the ceremonies for the enthronement of the Taisho Emperor in 1928, with numerous illustrations and a few photos. It also has extensive write-ups of the symbology behind a number of the important artifacts and ceremonies, all written by a Westerner who respected the rising Japanese military society (remember, this is pre-WW2). Quite interesting, but only if you’re into long ceremonial description.

1. 秋庭俊、帝都東京・隠された地下網の秘密 (Imperial Tokyo: Secrets of the Hidden Subway System, by Akiba Shun), Yosensha, 2002, ISBN 4-89691-680-8

The author has collected a stunning array of old maps (including a lot from GHQ), and makes a strong case that there was a subway system in Tokyo before World War 2. As evidence he presents all sort of highly useful information (useful in the CoC sense). Probably not all that interesting for people who haven’t ridden the Tokyo subway, though…

Religion

1. “Zen at War”

Brian Victoria, Weatherhill, ISBN 0-8348-0405-0

Written by someone who obvviously knows where all the skeletons are buried, and with excellent research backing it all up. He provides precise names, dates, places, references and background detail to demonstrate that the Zen monks of Japan supported japan’s militaristic growth, very actively at times. He also points out people and organizations against such support for imperialism. A very good look into one largely-forgotten facet of WW2 in Japan.

1. “Zen and Japanese Culture”

Daisetsu Suzuki, Princeton-Bollingen, ISBN 0-691-01770-0

Thought-provoking explanations of how Zen became an integral part of traditional Japanese culture, how important it was to forming Japanese culture, and how important it still is in many arts and social venues. Interesting enough, Suzuki was also a key proponent of Buddhist support for Japanese Imperialism and military conquest in WW2.

1. “The Buddhist Tradition in India, China and Japan”

ed. William Theodore de Bary, Vintage, ISBN 0-394-71696-5

An overview of the birth, development and spread of Buddhism, with extensive translation into English of key documents. Covers the pattern of growth and transmission more than the essentials of the religion.

1. “Thank You and OK! An American Zen Failure in Japan”

David Chadwick, Penguin/Arkana 1994, ISBN 0-14-019457-6

A realistic look at the monastic life from the inside, by an outsider. Touchingly humorous.

1. “The Unfettered Mind “

Takuan Soho, Kodansha [ISBN 0-87011-851-X]

Three essential treaties on Zen by a zen master, each written in the form of instructions to practitioners of kendo. Includes the “Sword Taia” commentary, useful for Dreamlands magic.

1. “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones”

Paul Reps & Nyogen Senzaky (eds.), Shambhala, [ISBN 1-57062-063-6]

The essential Zen collection, includes stories, koans and miscellaneous writings. The “Centering” Sanskrit manuscript is open to a number of Mythos/Dreamlands interpretations.

1. “青年地球誕生” (in Japanese)

春木秀映 and 春木伸哉; 明窓出版

(Seinen Chikyu Tanjo, by Haruki, Shuei and Haruki, Shinya, Meisou Shuppan) [ISBN4-89634-011-6]

Written by the head priest of Heitate Jingu Shrine in Kumamoto, the book provides a wealth of information on myths and legends related to the Shrine, notably relating to Amaterasu and the Imperial line, especially Meiji and Showa. The authors also manage to incorporate a host of theories on many things, including Atlantis, Mu, aliens bringing the Japanese Imperial line to the earth 1.7 million years ago and the Lost Tribe of Israel as the origin of the Japanese.

Modern Japan

1. “You Gotta Have Wa”

Robert Whiting, Random House/Vintage 1990, ISBN 0-679-72947-X.

Baseball in Japan: history, social effects, foreign players…but so much more. Although (perhaps because) it focuses on a very narrow aspect of culture, it accurately reveals more about Japanese culture as a whole than any other book I’ve read.

1. “Speed Tribes: Days and Nights with Japan’s Next Generation”

Karl Taro Greenfeld, Harper Perennial 1994, ISBN 0-06-092665-1

Each chapter deals with a different character — a bike-gang member, an aspiring yakuza punk, a porn star, a shop girl, a foreign hostess-club girl, a high-school dropout, an obsessed computer nerd — all people who don’t fit the usual stereotypes of Japan. Although Greenfeld has been accused of fusing fact and fiction, the characters and events in the book are all believable.

1. “Confessions of a Yakuza”

Junichi Saga, Kodansha [ISBN 4-7700-1948-3]

Memoirs of a yakuza man, collected by his doctor, from his early apprenticeship to his rise in the structure. Lots of details about the inner workings of “classical” (i.e. pre-war) Yakuza.

1. “Ore Giapponesi” (in Italian)

Fosco Maraini, Dall’Oglio [ISBN 88-7718-638-0]

Also known as “Zuihitsu Nippon”, this is the second edition of ethno-anthropologist Maraini’s introduction to Japanese culture (the English version of the first ed., “Meeting Japan”, has long been out of print); built as a memoir of Maraini’s own experiences in Japan during the 40s, the late 50s and the late 70s, the book covers everything, from architecture to Shinto rituals, from everyday life of the salaryman to the condition of foreign political prisoners during WW2. Extremely rich in details, anecdotes and with an eye always out for the larger picture.

1. Pink Samurai - Love, Marriage and Sex in Contemporary Japan

Nicholas Bornoff, Pocket Books [ISBN 0-671-74266-3]

As the title implies, this is a book covering sexual attitudes in contemporary (1990) Japan and their deep roots.

Martial arts

1. “Ribellarsi e Giusto - Arti Marziali, Filosofia e Pensiero Rivoluzionario dal Compagno Mao a Bruce Lee” [Rebelling is Right - Martial Arts, Philosophy and Revolutionary Thinking from Chairman Mao to Bruce Lee] (in Italian)

Riccardo Pedrini, Castelvecchi [ISBN 88-8210-036-7]

The book looks at martial arts from an informational and ideological point of view.

Outside Japan proper

1. “Foreign Devils on the Silk Road”

Peter Hopkirk - - U. of Massachusetts Press [ISBN 0-87023-435-8]

Tagged as “The Search of Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia”, this includes extensive data on Indiana Jones-style archaeology and espionage activities in Central Asia between the early 1800s and the 1940s. Extensive section on Japanese activities and details of the fabled collection of antiques of Count Otani Kozue (Jodo Shinshu sect leader and a spy-master of sorts).

Maps of Japan

Ancient, Edo-era PDF

Modern-era PDF

Modern-era links

Sidebars and modules

Project AHAB

Otani Kozui

Tanuki

The Lost Legion

St. Jerome in Japan

Deep Ones in China Sea (also, see Mibe) (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)

Lloigor (North Korea?) (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)

Byakhee (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)

Ithaqua (LOST/NON-EXISTENT)

Related Fiction

1. Dream Reaper by Davide Mana
2. Without Intent by Davide Mana
3. Tosui Scrubs a Floor by Edward Lipsett

Japan URLs

A collection of media, history bits and concepts that were mentioned in http://kurotokage.org/Kurotokage/JapanURLs.htm. I believe these were all used as inspiration or prompts for narratives. This section is not archived in the Fairlight Project website.

Some, if not most of these links are broken, so in those cases I’ll:

1. Check for archived pages
2. if not, Find a similar page based on the provided context.

Anime/Mythos hooks

Children of an Elder God Ranma 1/2 - EIDOLONS Ranma 1/2 - Turning the Wheel Ranma 1/2 - Waters Under Earth She’s Got the Look

China

Ancient Chinese finds China Links Chinese Dynasties Chinese Security Home Page Dynasties, Emperors, and Presidents of China URLs on Traditional Chinese Medicine

Chronologies and histories

Chronology of Japanese History Early Japan 歴史DB ~スクリーバ

Crime

Changing Preconceptions of the Nuclear Terrorism Threat: A Case Study of the Aum Shinrikyo Cult Did Aum Shinri Kyo set off a nuclear bomb in Western Australia in 1993?@Everything2.com Findings - 6/16/97 MAHIKARI AND AUM: IN THE GRIP OF THE BLACK HAND Illegal immigration and smuggling Terrorism in Asia 1993 The Japanese Yakuza Yakuza: Past and Present

Culture

Fashion Okakura Kakuzo: The Book of Tea The Keiretsu and Zaibatsu Conglomerates

General URL lists

Asia links Chinese, Japanese, & Indian Emperors Japan links Japan Main Page Japan-Related Resources japanlinks Mother of All Japan Links

Hard facts on Japan

Cultural Notes on Japan Japan Information Network:Top JPN-Government & Constitution Directory Library of Congress Area Handbook / Japan Six major Keiretsu THE KEIRETSU SYSTEM: CRACKING OR CRUMBLING? - No. 14, April 7, 2000

Imperial family

Behind the Chrysanthemum Curtain Geneology of the Japanese Imperial Dynasty Hou Han Shu on Japan Imperial Family of Japan (unofficial site) Japan and the Imperial Household (with maps) Japan’s Other Emperor Nomenclature 葵の風～徳川将軍家～ 宮内庁

Intelligence

Doihara, Kenji AKA; The Lawrence Of Manchuria Eastern Jewel AKA: Yang Kuei Fei, Yoshiko Kawashima Intelligence Resource Program Japan Intelligence and Security Agencies Japanese Espionage in S Korea PSI - Japan’s Spy Agency Exposed Sorge, Richard

Korea

Korea links South Korea’s “Spy” Agency - ANSP (“KCIA”)

Maps

Japan Information - Maps Japan with major cities U of T Japan History Links

Meiji Era

Emperor Meiji’s First Contacts with Foreigners Important Events of the Meiji Era Itou Hirobumi Japanese history: Meiji Period Kido Takayoshi Meiji Period in Japan Okubo Toshimichi Role of Emperor In Meiji Japan Saigo Takamori The Meiji Era and the Modernization of Japan…Part 1 - Suite101.com The Rescript on Education of the Meiji Emperor Usui Reiki Hikkei - Poems of the Meiji Emperor Yamagata Aritomo

Military and Law Enforcement

Coast Guard organization Coast Guard region map Comparison of Japanese and American police Criminal Justice Resources for Japan Ground SDF Information Disclosure in Japan Japan Coast Guard (top) Japan Defense Agency Home Page Japan Law & Government Japanese Law overview Maritime SDF National Institute for Defense Studies Technical R&D Institute, Defense Agency US Army Overview of JSDF World Law Enforcement sites World Navies Today World Special Units, incl. Japan 国内外防衛／軍事関係リンク 防衛白書　平成１２年版

Mt. Iwate

岩手火山関係リンク集 岩手山火山関連情報 岩手山情報

Myth, Legend, and Prehistory

Ainu and Basque Ainu Legends Ancient Japanese fonts Bronze mirror pictures (Japanese) Deities Gods Goddesses - Japan Folk shamans of NE Japan Myths and legends on the Web Revolution of Ancient History- The Kami of Shinto 神々の足跡 日本の神々 日本の神話と古代史 日本神話 閼伽出甕【第９版】　超古代

Mythos Japan

Cthulhu Web Ring Japan Japanese Mythos books JIOPIKA Kagura (Japanese CFB) Miskatonic Preparatory School N-SYSTEM メイン ＲＰＧリンクの間/クトゥルフの呼び声編 TomePage TRAM FRAGMENTS アーカム大学付属図書館 フレームページ 幻想住人録666 邪神帝国 魔道書 妖蟲世界

Pre-WW2 Wars

Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) Russo-Japanese War Bibliography Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) The Gempei War (1180-85) Warring States Japan (1467-1573)

Religion

Basic Terms of Shinto Deguchi Grand Shrine of Ise Ise Shrine maps Koyasan Shingon Temples Mt.Kouya Shinto － 社格とは － 伊勢神宮のオフィシヤルサイトへようこそ 厳選リンク集

Samurai and Ninja

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai History of the Ninja - EnterTheNinja.com Samurai Archives Warrior Quest International - Ninja Arts - History Women Warriors of Japan

Scenario Hooks

List of ships detained in Japan SE Asian Archaeology Projects Submarine I-52 (1944) The RO-501 submarine (1944) The Search for the I-52 What Happened to Flight 007?

Southeast Asia

Vietnam - Period 1847-1961 Vietnamese Myths

Taiwan

Government Information Office, Republic of China Taiwan Security Research

Tanuki

Pom Poko // Nausicaa.net Tanuki

Tibet

History of Tibet

UFOs in Japan

Japan’s UFO Capital (Sightings, Ancient Documents) Japanese Magazines & Newsletters featuring UFOs Parking Lot for UFOs SETV- References to Pertinent Works UFO Research Center (Japanese) UFO Roundup Articles: Japan

Unit 731

Biological Warfare and Unit 731 Foreword Unit 731-1

US Military in Japan

Commander, US Naval Forces Kadena Air Base Misawa AB, Japan Home of the “Wild Weasels” Ship Repair Facility Yokosuka U.S. Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Japan U.S. Navy Public Works Center, Yokosuka Japan USARJ & 9th TSC Camp Zama, JAPAN Welcome to Okinawa! Yokota Air Base, Japan

WW2

California Lawsuits for Japanese War Crimes Colonel Tsuji of Malaya Fukuoka POW Camp #1 - Part 1 Japan at War, 1931-1945 Japan’s Atomic Bomb (Bibliography) Japan’s World War II Business Practices Kempei Tai Nomohan air battle (1939) Office of Naval Intelligence (1882-1942) Operation codenames Russo-Japanese War (1904-1945) Status of IJN Ships at End of WW2 World War II Links on the Internet WW2 Timeline

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All contents copyright (c) by the members of the Kurotokage Group, except as otherwise specified on each document.