Post by Tanaka Kozo -Tnk (Tristan) on Jan 26, 2014 21:27:16 GMT -5
Sen Kafu no Josai - The Citadel of One Thousand Widows
According to the histories there has been a fortification in one form or another in the hills above the city of Kamikatsu since the time of the Gokai Taisan. The current fortress however is more recent, having been built during the Tai Henkan Funso, sacked and rebuilt during the Dai Kunshu no Toshi, and then refurbished and expanded during the more recent period of the Go Do Jidai. This most recent work was conducted by Lord Mori Takeshi, who constructed a marshalling yard in front of the outermost curtain wall and then built another layer of walls and towers around this.
The current name of the citadel however pre-dates this expansion, being drawn from events during the period in the Dai Kunshu no Toshi when the citadel was sacked. The Lord Mori of Yamaki had departed the province with almost all of his troops on a campaign to chastise an army of bandits and pirates that had been raiding his southern holdings. To hold the city of Kamikatsu he left a levy made up of all of the cities married men.
Many quiet months passed and the southern campaign proceeded slowly, the pirates and bandits proving elusive and hard to track down. It was at this point, informed by the spies and informants that he had placed amongst the pirates and bandits, that the Lord of Akiota struck with an army of 10,000 men.
Investing the citadel he demanded that the militia surrender immediately and unconditionally. The militia fearing the consequences should Lord Mori return and hear that they had surrendered immediately, declined, indicating that they could not surrender with honour intact until they had the measure of their enemy.
That very night, through means still unknown, the forces from Akiota slew all the sentries and opened the gates. As troops moved into the now open citadel they barred the doors of the barracks and set them aflame. By the time the sun rose the next morning the garrison had been slain to the man.
Eager to assert his dominance over the city of Kamikatsu, Lord Akiota commanded that the grieving women of the city provide food for all his troops. The women of the city all though grief stricken, where now filled with a violent rage when they heard how their husbands had been salin and resolved to get their revenge. Preparing the food they added the venom from the spines of sea urchins, to ensure that the men who slew their husbands would die with them.
As the women bough the feast and laid it out before the army, Lord Akiota, aware of the possibility of treachery as he had used it himself, commanded that each of the women try each of the dishes laid out before his army. The women, aware that either death from their own poison or likely death at the hands of Lord Akiota awaited each consumed a portion of the poisoned food, their stoic faces giving no clue as to what they faced, for they knew that the urchin poison acted slowly and that they would gain their revenge soon after their death.
When Lord Mori returned to the citadel, summoned with his army by an urgent courier, he found a charnel house. The bodies of 11,000 men and 1000 women strewn haphazardly across the grounds of the castle. That night in his field camp could here a chorus of voices, women shouting out for vengeance.
The citadel, now rebuilt is unusual in that rather than a central keep surrounded by curtain walls the centre point of the citadel is a shrine to the Silver Face, built from the consecrated bones of all the women who cried out for vengeance.
According to the histories there has been a fortification in one form or another in the hills above the city of Kamikatsu since the time of the Gokai Taisan. The current fortress however is more recent, having been built during the Tai Henkan Funso, sacked and rebuilt during the Dai Kunshu no Toshi, and then refurbished and expanded during the more recent period of the Go Do Jidai. This most recent work was conducted by Lord Mori Takeshi, who constructed a marshalling yard in front of the outermost curtain wall and then built another layer of walls and towers around this.
The current name of the citadel however pre-dates this expansion, being drawn from events during the period in the Dai Kunshu no Toshi when the citadel was sacked. The Lord Mori of Yamaki had departed the province with almost all of his troops on a campaign to chastise an army of bandits and pirates that had been raiding his southern holdings. To hold the city of Kamikatsu he left a levy made up of all of the cities married men.
Many quiet months passed and the southern campaign proceeded slowly, the pirates and bandits proving elusive and hard to track down. It was at this point, informed by the spies and informants that he had placed amongst the pirates and bandits, that the Lord of Akiota struck with an army of 10,000 men.
Investing the citadel he demanded that the militia surrender immediately and unconditionally. The militia fearing the consequences should Lord Mori return and hear that they had surrendered immediately, declined, indicating that they could not surrender with honour intact until they had the measure of their enemy.
That very night, through means still unknown, the forces from Akiota slew all the sentries and opened the gates. As troops moved into the now open citadel they barred the doors of the barracks and set them aflame. By the time the sun rose the next morning the garrison had been slain to the man.
Eager to assert his dominance over the city of Kamikatsu, Lord Akiota commanded that the grieving women of the city provide food for all his troops. The women of the city all though grief stricken, where now filled with a violent rage when they heard how their husbands had been salin and resolved to get their revenge. Preparing the food they added the venom from the spines of sea urchins, to ensure that the men who slew their husbands would die with them.
As the women bough the feast and laid it out before the army, Lord Akiota, aware of the possibility of treachery as he had used it himself, commanded that each of the women try each of the dishes laid out before his army. The women, aware that either death from their own poison or likely death at the hands of Lord Akiota awaited each consumed a portion of the poisoned food, their stoic faces giving no clue as to what they faced, for they knew that the urchin poison acted slowly and that they would gain their revenge soon after their death.
When Lord Mori returned to the citadel, summoned with his army by an urgent courier, he found a charnel house. The bodies of 11,000 men and 1000 women strewn haphazardly across the grounds of the castle. That night in his field camp could here a chorus of voices, women shouting out for vengeance.
The citadel, now rebuilt is unusual in that rather than a central keep surrounded by curtain walls the centre point of the citadel is a shrine to the Silver Face, built from the consecrated bones of all the women who cried out for vengeance.