Book analysis- Across the Nightingale Floor

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Book analysis- Across the Nightingale Floor

I have read the book Across the Nightingale Floor. It is written by Lian Hear who has been studying modern languages and been to Japan many times. It was first published in 2002. It is a story about a forbidden love and revenge in an ancient land.

The story is from a feudal period, and there are warlords, vassals, servants and housemaids. At the time of the story there are no machines, factories or other modern inventions. There are many influences from Japan, as traditions, seasons and landscape, even tough it is an imaginary country.
The main characters are Lord Otori Takeo and Lady Shirakawa Kaede. Takeo, or Tomasu as he is called in the beginning of the book, is 17 years old and lives among the peaceful
people called The Hidden (in the little mountain village Mino). They hide from the warlord Iida Sadamu who wants to kill them because they believe in a secret god. Takeo learns that killing others is cruel. In the beginning of the book he knows nothing about the world outside his little village, the cruelty and the wars of the lords, and he is just a boy who roams the forests around Mino, and who would never dream of killing other people.

“I had never imagined men and women could actually be torn into pieces, their strong, honey-colored limbs wrenched from their sockets and thrown to the waiting dogs”.

Eventually comes the day when Lord Iida finds the village Mino. Takeo is the only one who survives the bloody massacre. He sees his mother and sisters being killed and swears to seek revenge. Takeo is saved by Lord Otori Shigeru who saves him by killing one of the men and cutting the arm of the other one. He adopts Takeo and takes him to the Otori residence. He learns how to read and how to write but he also learns about the wars and Lord Iida. Then Muto Kenji, whom is a member of The Tribe, appears and tells Takeo that he is a member of the Tribe. The people of the Tribe are assassins with special talents like preternatural hearing, the ability to become invisible and to be at two places at the same time. They are also great artists and they can make people fall asleep by looking into their eyes. Takeo becomes an assassin having no problems about killing, but he needs a cover so he becomes an artist on the surface and an assassin beneath it.

Lady Shirakawa Kaede lives as a hostage in the Noguchi residence. is only 15 years old when the story begins and she has been a hostage since she was seven years old. She is from a fine and rich family but she is treated like a maid because of her father’s mistakes (the story doesn’t tell what kind of mistakes). She knows very little about what is happening outside the castle walls until a man dies because of her when he tries to force her to have sex with him. She is allowed to move in with the rest of the ladies at the residence. She is beautiful, young and virgin and men are attracted to her. The lord at the Noguchi residence decides that she is to marry an old man. He dies while celebrating the coming end of his widowhood. He is drinking wine with fiends when he suddenly falls down, stone dead, into the wine cups. Some people say that Kaede brings death to every man who desires her. At the same time she gets a new maid, Shizuka, who follows her through the whole story.

Muto Shizuka and Muto Kenji are members of the Tribe. Kenji is Shizukas uncle and the master of the Muto family. Kenji teaches Takeo some of the things an assassin needs to know. Shizuka is also Takeo’s cousin. She pretends to be a girlish servant but it is a cover because she is also an assassin. The Tribe asks Takeo to come and live with them. Lord Otori Shigeru, the man who adopts Takeo has other plans. He is seeking revenge. He finds Takeo and starts planning how Takeo could assassinate Lord Iida. Iida has hired people to kill Shigerus brother and succeeds. He is a cruel warlord who rules his country with iron hands. Not many people like him. Shigeru is patient and kind to his servants and vassals and the people of the Otori land love him. Lady Maruyama Naomi is Shigerus secret love and the most powerful woman in a country where women have barely any power at all. Except for her own daughter Kaede is her closest living relative which makes Kaede the heir of Lady Maruyamas grate domains. The domains lay next to Kaede’s father’s domains. There is a member of the tribe who is named Kikuta Kotaro. He is Takeo’s uncle and come to take him with him to the little village of the Tribe. He is also the head of the Kikuta- family

Takeo is told that his father was a member of the Tribe that married a woman from the Hidden, and swore to never kill anyone again. The woman was Takeo’s mother. The Tribe came after him and killed him because he had left the Tribe. The one who killed him was Kenji. Soon, Takeo is told, the Tribe will demand his life and obedience too. When Shigeru and Takeo go to the residence of Shigerus uncles for Takeo’s adoption, the uncles tell Shigeru that they have arranged a marriage for him whit Kaede. He has been unmarried for ten years and the uncles want him out of the way. They hope that the rumor about Kaede bringing death to men is true. The wedding is supposed to take place in Inuyama. Both the Otori lords and Kaede have to travel and they meet half a way and travel the rest of the way to Inuyama together. Lady Maruyama follows Kaede from the Noguchi residence to Inuyama. Kaede and Takeo fall in love with each other. Their love is most unsuitable since Kaede is going to marry Takeo’s adoptive father.

In Inuyama Takeo is supposed to assassinate Iida. To do this he will have to cross Iidas nightingale floor. It is a special kind of floor that sounds like nightingales when you tread on it. It is set together in a special way and made out of special wood. He can do it only because he is from the Tribe and have special talents.
When they come to the town Takeo is kidnapped by the Tribe. They say he is in danger if he tries to kill Iida. Shigeru, Lady Maruyama, Kaede and the others are betrayed by Lord Iida. He arrests Shigeru and tortures him by hanging him from his wrists from the castle walls. He is planning to kill him this way. Lady Maruyama and her daughter drown when they are trying to escape by boat. Takeo wakes up from the magic sleep he has been in and gets to know what have happened. The tribe let him go to rescue Shigeru from suffering a shameful and painful death if he promises to give his life and obedience to the Tribe afterwards. Takeo gets Shigeru down from the wall and the Shigeru ask Takeo to kill him because he is more dead than alive, he is dishonored and he feel that he has finished what he has lived for, try to kill Iida. Takeo does as he is told even if he knows he will regret it all his life. Then he goes for Iida.

Later the same night Lord Iida tries to force Kaede to have sex with him. She is afraid of him and kills him by stinging him in his eye with a needle and the she stab him with her knife. At the same time Takeo arrives at Iidas room and finds it empty. He sneak to Kaedes room and finds the both of them there, Iida is already dead. When the morning comes the bodyguards of Iida finds out what have happened. A smaller battle brakes out and the residence takes fire. They have to escape, and Takeo travel to a temple, Terrayama, to bury Shigeru and to place Iidas head on Shigerus grave. After some time Kaede and Shizuka turns up. Shizuka tell Takeo that the Tribe has decided to come and get him and if he doesn’t come with them they will kill him. So he follow Kotaro and Kenji to the place where the Tribe lives. Kaede, who is deeply in love, promises to wait for him for ever.
There is no clear message of the book. I think it is mostly a story of love and vengeance and all that those feelings bring, as hate and jealousy. The author maybe wants to warn the reader from this. Sometimes it only leads to war and suffering. In our time it may not lead to war but you won’t feel good about it anyway. The story is mostly told from Takeo’s point-of-view but sometimes you are told about Kaede in separate chapters. There are lots of dialogues but you also take part of Takeo’s thoughts.

“’I need to know how this came about. I’m not talking idly with you Shigeru. I need to know.’ Kenji’s voice was insistent. I could hear Chiyo fussing on the stairs. Lord Shigeru said, ‘We must bathe and eat. After the meal we’ll talk again.’ He will not want me in his house, now when he knows I am the son of an assassin, Takeo thought.”

This is when Takeo finds out he is an assassin and he is afraid of being thrown out. The book is written in an easy language and I had no problems understanding the book. It was little unrealistic since people are able to be invisible and be in two places at the same place. It is a fantasy-book. The nightingale floors are real and they can be seen is Kyoto an some other places in Japan. The book was real...