Catalyst Castle

About three years ago I spotted this book in a bookstore. The classic Japanese illustration on the cover jumped out at me as I walked past it. I bought it right then, but for some reason it’s taken me until just recently to finish reading it. It’s not that it isn’t interesting; I just kept getting distracted with other things.

Shinju is a historical mystery novel by Laura Joh Rowland. It’s based in Japan during the late 1600s, and follows the story of a police detective named Sano Ichiro as he investigates what appears to be a double suicide. He believes that the supposed lovers were actually murdered, and investigation soon produces evidence that this is true. In his pursuit of truth and justice, Ichiro faces many challenges that a modern detective would not encounter due to cultural restrictions and standards of propriety of the day. In the end, he discovers that the murders were just a small part of an intricate conspiracy with the ultimate aim of assassinating the shogun and starting a revolution.

Ichiro makes an interesting protagonist. He’s not just a detective but also a samurai, a man raised with martial training and a strong sense of duty. As a samurai, Ichiro is a man of action and a capable swordsman. His sense of duty is both a cause for inner conflict and a strong motivator for him. At first he almost determines to cease his investigations when his immediate superiors frown on his efforts. However, while his duty to them demands that he obey, he feels an even stronger duty to the pursuit of justice. Eventually he finds fulfillment when he discovers that his perseverance means the protection of the shogun, the highest lord to whom he owes his allegiance.

In reading this book I also learned some interesting things about ancient Japanese culture. When Ichiro wanted an autopsy of the dead man to determine the true cause of his death, he had to pursue it in secret because of the cultural taboo against cutting on dead bodies. One of the evidences against the original assumption that the two victims were lovers who had committed suicide together was the fact that the man was a known homosexual, and such a practice was socially accepted in Japan that long ago. It was also interesting to learn that the class distinctions of the day would allow a samurai to kill a commoner with little penalty, but murder of a samurai could result in execution. It was also interesting to learn about the arrangements imposed on the Japanese noblemen by the shogun in order to control them. All of the great landowners were required to maintain a luxurious estate in the capitol in addition to their estates on their own land. They were also required to keep their families there in the capitol. This meant that if they attempted to rebel the shogun could hold their families hostage and seize their properties in the city.

Overall, it was a very interesting read. Ichiro was an intelligent man, a skilled warrior, and a man of some character. The plot remained interesting from beginning to end, with the stakes gradually rising as the investigation progressed so that the excitement continued to mount.


Roleplaying
Because of my obsession with roleplaying games, I tend to absorb most material with an eye for what I could take from it and apply to gaming. Here are some ideas from Shinju.

Cultural Elements in Setting: The setting of historical Japan contributed a lot to the conflicts and complications of this story. It might be fun to play a game set in this period. I’ve never played a game where the setting gave much attention to cultural quirks and class distinctions. This story demonstrated that such elements can be powerful elements for bringing characters to life.

Mystery: I’ve played a couple of games where mystery was an element of the plot. In the game InSpectres, the player characters solve mysteries, but the solution to the mystery is provided by the players themselves. In the game Dogs in the Vineyard, the player characters have to investigate the goings-on of each town they visit, but the focus is less on solving mysteries and more on finding solutions to complex moral dilemmas. A game where the player characters investigate a mystery with the simple goal of discovering who-done-it and bringing that person to justice could be an interesting experience, though it would require careful attention from the GM to create a believable mystery with just the right amount of clues so that it is neither too easy to solve nor impossible to overcome.