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Authors: Ben Stevens
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possession…’
Indeed, a close search of Katamari’s room, carried out soon after he’d committed suicide, had unearthed ten more of these ‘Sticks of Death’. The Jushoku had quickly relapsed into a terrible fever caused by the shock of all that had taken place, and the severe mental strain it had caused him.
This had resulted – finally! – in my having to attend to him closely for several days and nights. At times, it seemed as though the head priest wouldn’t survive – but then slowly he’d begun to recover.
As for the scrolls we’d discovered in that small, hidden room, what they revealed is by now famous, of course. The Sanskrit was quickly translated; and so we soon learned that numerous, previously unknown teachings of Buddha had been recorded on the paper stored inside the sealed lengths of bamboo.
It was this knowledge which Gyoja had brought back with him from his travels around India and China, and had then hidden in the temple he’d had constructed, leaving cryptic clues concerning the existence of this knowledge for anyone who could determine the real meaning of his words.
It seemed strange behavior, and I said as much to Holmes. But he only smiled.
‘Well, maybe he thought that whoever succeeded him should have to earn this knowledge, as he had,’ mused Holmes. ‘Otherwise he was just giving it away, as it were – the recipient getting it for free.
‘No, Gyoja was determined that whoever found all these scrolls would have to do so by their wits. Plus, as I said before, I believe there was a slightly puckish side to this outwardly holy man. However, he of course failed to predict the deception and murder his little game would result in…’
The scrolls were soon taken away to Kyoto, there to be examined at length by experts. As the reader may already be aware, the information they contained led to major changes in Buddhist thought and theology, both in Japan and abroad, and also resulted in the formation of the now-major ‘Golden Path’ branch of Buddhism.
The story of how the scrolls were found, too, only increased Sherlock Holmes’s fame. As they would have made Katamari famous, had his fiendish plan been successful…
‘I can only presume,’ said Holmes about that man, ‘that after causing our deaths, he would first have blocked access to the Barrel Room on some pretence. He would then have set about hastening the death of the Jushoku – all the while carefully ensuring that this death was made to look entirely ‘natural’.
‘How exactly Katamari would have achieved this, I can’t be certain. But given the Jushoku ’s often fragile state of health, it would not have been an overly-difficult task – even without Katamari having to use one of his foul ‘sticks’.
‘In any case,’ continued Holmes, ‘with the Jushoku dead, Katamari would have had to succeed as ‘acting’ head priest. A period in which he would, quite suddenly, ‘discover’ the priceless scrolls hidden by Gyoja several hundred years before.
‘This discovery would instantly have made him famous; and would, undoubtedly, have seen him become a real head priest – if not at the temple where he’d previously been a senior monk, then at another.
‘ This , you see, was Katamari’s ultimate ambition – an ambition he knew he could not possibly realize any other way. For so many years he bit back the frustration and bitterness he felt at being an anonymous senior monk at a remote temple – then, finally, he began to see a way he could possibly get everything he’d ever wanted.
‘More, even…’
Now, at this inn in which we were staying, I ventured to say –
‘Well, so much for Katamari. But, Holmes- san … The head temple of the Shining Path has its mystery solved for it. The Jushoku can again seek his successor, secure in the knowledge that no more tragedy will strike. The high-ranking Buddhist clergy in Japan have delivered to them a set of scrolls so valuable as
Indeed, a close search of Katamari’s room, carried out soon after he’d committed suicide, had unearthed ten more of these ‘Sticks of Death’. The Jushoku had quickly relapsed into a terrible fever caused by the shock of all that had taken place, and the severe mental strain it had caused him.
This had resulted – finally! – in my having to attend to him closely for several days and nights. At times, it seemed as though the head priest wouldn’t survive – but then slowly he’d begun to recover.
As for the scrolls we’d discovered in that small, hidden room, what they revealed is by now famous, of course. The Sanskrit was quickly translated; and so we soon learned that numerous, previously unknown teachings of Buddha had been recorded on the paper stored inside the sealed lengths of bamboo.
It was this knowledge which Gyoja had brought back with him from his travels around India and China, and had then hidden in the temple he’d had constructed, leaving cryptic clues concerning the existence of this knowledge for anyone who could determine the real meaning of his words.
It seemed strange behavior, and I said as much to Holmes. But he only smiled.
‘Well, maybe he thought that whoever succeeded him should have to earn this knowledge, as he had,’ mused Holmes. ‘Otherwise he was just giving it away, as it were – the recipient getting it for free.
‘No, Gyoja was determined that whoever found all these scrolls would have to do so by their wits. Plus, as I said before, I believe there was a slightly puckish side to this outwardly holy man. However, he of course failed to predict the deception and murder his little game would result in…’
The scrolls were soon taken away to Kyoto, there to be examined at length by experts. As the reader may already be aware, the information they contained led to major changes in Buddhist thought and theology, both in Japan and abroad, and also resulted in the formation of the now-major ‘Golden Path’ branch of Buddhism.
The story of how the scrolls were found, too, only increased Sherlock Holmes’s fame. As they would have made Katamari famous, had his fiendish plan been successful…
‘I can only presume,’ said Holmes about that man, ‘that after causing our deaths, he would first have blocked access to the Barrel Room on some pretence. He would then have set about hastening the death of the Jushoku – all the while carefully ensuring that this death was made to look entirely ‘natural’.
‘How exactly Katamari would have achieved this, I can’t be certain. But given the Jushoku ’s often fragile state of health, it would not have been an overly-difficult task – even without Katamari having to use one of his foul ‘sticks’.
‘In any case,’ continued Holmes, ‘with the Jushoku dead, Katamari would have had to succeed as ‘acting’ head priest. A period in which he would, quite suddenly, ‘discover’ the priceless scrolls hidden by Gyoja several hundred years before.
‘This discovery would instantly have made him famous; and would, undoubtedly, have seen him become a real head priest – if not at the temple where he’d previously been a senior monk, then at another.
‘ This , you see, was Katamari’s ultimate ambition – an ambition he knew he could not possibly realize any other way. For so many years he bit back the frustration and bitterness he felt at being an anonymous senior monk at a remote temple – then, finally, he began to see a way he could possibly get everything he’d ever wanted.
‘More, even…’
Now, at this inn in which we were staying, I ventured to say –
‘Well, so much for Katamari. But, Holmes- san … The head temple of the Shining Path has its mystery solved for it. The Jushoku can again seek his successor, secure in the knowledge that no more tragedy will strike. The high-ranking Buddhist clergy in Japan have delivered to them a set of scrolls so valuable as
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