SUDDEN DISAPBPEARANCE OF NAGOYA CASTLE
Prelude
Two golden shachihoko adorn the roof of Nagoya Castle donjon. Shachihoko is a monster with a tiger’s head and a carp’s body. It is said that shachihoko protects the castle from fire by pouring water from its mouth. The creature originated from an Indian mythological crocodile-like animal called Makara, which carried the Goddess of Ganga on both water and in the air.
The 333-year-old shachihoko were burned down when Nagoya Castle was destroyed by the U.S. firebombs on May 14, 1945. The castle was reconstructed in 1959. Today two second-generation shachihoko decorate it.
1
The male shachihoko named Kimpay dreamt on the night of November 12, 2012. He met the first-generation shachihoko in the dream. The whole body was badly charred with its tail half blown off.
“Listen to me,” the shachihoko said.
“I will,” Kimpay responded looking at the two bright big eyes. He felt a familiarity with the monster.
“I am your predecessor, the first-generation shachihoko.”
“Oh, God,” Kimpay was so surprised that it took some time for him to collect himself. “What do you want with me, my predecessor?”
“My son, I have come to convey my wish to you. I feel sorry that I failed to protect the castle during the war.”
“But you had protected it since the Edo era for more than 300 years.”
“Yes. I have protected it for 333 years. I remember the day when they put me and my wife on the donjon’s roof in 1612, just 400 years ago. It was our glorious day,but alas,” the first-generation shachihoko
stopped speaking, apparently overwhelmed by remorse. “I failed to protect the castle.”
“But you are not responsible. The bombs destroyed it. You shouldn’t regret it.”
“How foolish you are! I could have prevented the castle from burning.”
“I don’t believe it. How could you?”
“Don’t you know anything about our superpower?”
“Superpower?
What power?”
“Darn it!
You are endowed with the power of extinguishing fire and flying.”
“Oh, really? How wonderful! Then why did you fail to put out the fire?”
“A good question. At that time when the war situation was deteriorating, foolish men from Nagoya City decided to dismount me and my wife to keep us in a safe place, but when we were lowered down to the second floor level on the morning of May 14, 1945, B29 bombers dropped bombs on the castle. Each of us was confined in a box, wrapped in thick cloth and bound by ropes. Now my son, how can you use the superpower in such a condition? When I smelled and heard the fire, I tried to pour water, but it was too late.”
“That’s too bad. Probably they didn’t believe in your power.”
“Exactly. I could have protected the castle, but my efforts were in vain. So, my son, you understand what I ask of you now.”
“To protect Nagoya Castle from fire.”
“Good. Do not forget.”
Saying so, the shachihoko disappeared.
2
Billions of kilometers away from the earth, just beyond the orbit of
Neptune, there exists the Kuiper Belt, a disc-shaped region consisting of over 70,000 icy objects. It is the home of comets.
It so happened that a dark object a kilometer in diameter, let’s call it
Comet X, was pushed out of the Kuiper Belt when it collided with neighboring objects, and began to approach the sun. In the course of 400-year trave, it passed the orbits of Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn. When it passed Jupiter, it entered the sun’s warm region and suddenly began to evaporate making a million-kilometer-long pale tail. No space telescopes, nor x-ray telescopes, nor human technology detected
the tiny comet, much less predicted its exact course. Reduced to an object of half a kilometer in diameter, Comet X now passed the Mars.
3
When Kimpay woke from the dream, he told his spouse-shachihoko, Kanemi, about the dream.
“So, our duty is to protect the castle from fire and work for the benefit
of Nagoya people,” Kimpay said.
“I see. But our castle is built of concrete and iron, so it won’t burn
down easily,” Kanemi said.
“I know. So, both of us are not necessary to protect the castle. You stay
here. I will fly around the city and see if there are any problems among the people,” Kimpay said.
“Please take me with you. The castle won’t catch fire. I am tired of
staying on the castle.”
“No, you stay here. There are Edo era’s paintings, picture scrolls,
furnishing goods, swords, and other precious materials. You should stop any fire and protect them.”
“If you say so,” Kanemi reluctantly obeyed him. “But, Kimpay-san, I don’t
know how to pour water from my mouth. Where is the water in the first place?”
“Our predecessor told us to drink the sea water. He said we could drink
limitless water in a large gulp. I will stay here while you fly to the Ise Bay
and drink water. Oh, and to fly, move your four fins like wings. They will
work, he said.”
Soon Kanemi successfully flew to the Ise Bay, filled herself with water, and returned to the castle.
“Now I am ready. Please inspect Nagoya City and do your best for the people’s benefit.” Kanemi said.
“OK, then.But before I leave, I have to tell this to our dear Castle.”
“I have heard both of you,” Castle said in a bass voice. “Don’t worry about me. I will take care of myself. Be careful and do your best, Kimpay.”
So, without worrying about the castle and Kanemi, Kimpay moved his fins and flew to the east of Nagoya.
4
When Kimpay was flying over the Higashiyama Zoo & Botanical
Gardens, he heard a child crying in the amusement park of the gardens.
Wondering why she was crying Kimpay flew down and landed about 10 meters away from the girl.
She was still crying hard, “I want to ride the Ferris wheel. I want to
ride the Ferris wheel.”
Her mother was saying to her, “But the sign says ‘CLOSED FOR REPAIRS,’ so it does not operate today. You must give up.”
But the little girl did not give up and kept crying. The mother was at a
loss.
Kimpay, determined to help them, immediately approached and said, “Little girl, if you don’t mind, please ride on my back. You’ll enjoy the ride.”
Kimpay crouched before the girl so that she could get on him easily.
Looking at the tremendously big eyes and huge mouth, the girl was
terrified and suddenly began to cry harder, “I’m scared. I’m scared.”
Her mother got angry and said, “You are the golden shachihoko of Nagoya Castle, aren’t you? What are you doing here?
Don’t meddle in our affairs. It’s none of your business. Go away.”
So, Kimpay flew up into the sky disappointed.
He thought, “Since children will be scared to look at me, I should choose
adults to give helping hands to.”
Ten minutes later when Kimpay was flying over Aratama-bashi, a busy area in Nagoya, he saw a middle-aged man and a young woman quarreling at a cross road.
The man was saying, “Why didn’t you stop? The signal was red. You must pay for the damage to my car.”
“It was green, you fool. You must compensate me,” the woman shot back.
While they were arguing, several people gathered and watched them.
“It’s useless to talk to an idiot. Let’s go to the police,” the man said.
“Good idea. They’ll give the right judgment. You’ll be sorry,” she
retorted.
“You’ll be whining,” he said.
Kimpay thought, “This is a chance to help them. I’ll end the quarrel.”
He flew down towards the cross and landed before them.
“Let’s not fight. Kiss and be friends," Kimpay said.
Both of them were surprised at the monstrous intruder.
The woman said, “Why, you are the golden shachihoko. What are you doing here? None of your business. Get lost.”
The man also said, “Get lost.”
Kimpay was again disappointed and rose up into the sky. He did not know what to do for the benefit of the people. He thought he should call it a day and fly back to the castle.
While he was circling above Aratama-bashi to determine the direction for the castle, he saw a golden carp being bullied by several dark carp in the Yamazaki River near Aratama-kobashi Bridge. He thought the golden carp was trying to escape from them, because she seemed to be swimming in full speed in a zigzag course. One of the fast carp
caught up with her and dashed to her side. She turned on a dime when another carp made a dash for her. That instant she jumped out of the river into the air, and splashed down into the river. Now the dark carp surrounded her. She had no chance to escape.
Kimpay thought he must protect the golden carp. “I have failed to help
human beings, but she’s not a human but fish. I am fish, too. So I’m sure I can protect her.”
Kimpay dived down into the water between the dark carp and her.
He said to them, “Stop bullying her. She is my close relative. Look at
our golden color. I will never let you touch her.”
To Kimpay’s surprise, the golden carp complained that they were just
playing tag. She said she was it that time. All the carp said, “Don’t interrupt us. Please go away. Big fish.”
Totally discouraged, Kimpay flew back to Nagoya Castle.
He thought, “It is beyond my power to help Nagoya people. Something is
wrong with them or with me.”
5
Comet X passed the orbit of Mars at the speed of 120,000 kilometers per
hour. The tail extended to a million kilometers because its surface had been evaporated by the sun’s heat. If the comet moved towards the sun at this speed, it would crash into it in 79 days. Comet X came within 1.5 hundred million kilometers of the sun. When it came into the earth’s orbit, it was pulled toward the earth.
6
When Kimpay returned to Nagoya Castle, he told Kanemi about his unsuccessful experience.
“…in this way, they won’t accept
my kind offer. Something is wrong,” Kimpay said.
“I see, but haven’t you forced your good will on them?” Kanemi said.
Listening to them, Castle joined their conversation.
“Let me humbly say, Kimpay. I think you did something beyond your power. It is impossible for us to solve human skirmishes. What our predecessors told us is to protect Nagoya from fires and natural disasters, not to meddle with human affairs. You should make the
most of your specialty. You have the power to pour as well as absorb unlimited water. Why not use your specialty. You know, nobody will get angry if you have extinguished a fire.”
Kimpay understood what Castle said.
The next day (December 11) around three o’clock in the afternoon, when Kimpay was flying over Nakamura Ward, he saw black smoke rising. When he approached the smoke, he saw a three-storied building burning. He heard fire engine sirens coming from a distance. There was no time to lose, he thought. He hovered just above the building and uttered, “Water!” and opened his mouth. A torrent of water gushed out of it. In ten seconds the fire was extinguished. The onlookers were amazed at Kimpay’s magical power.
“Did you see that? That creature was the golden shachihoko
of Nagoya Castle,” one of the onlookers said.
“Yes, that was great!” another said.
Kimpay realized his power and understood what Castle said: use your specialty. He flew back to Nagoya Castle in fine feather.
7
At eleven o’clock on the morning of December 12, 2012, John Kennedisky, an astronomer working for the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona happened to discover Comet X. He made a quick calculation and found that it was heading for the earth. He reported about the comet to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The
director of the center, Isac Winestein, calculated its orbit based on the data Kennedisky had sent to him. He was startled. It would hit the earth in 19 hours and 57 minutes.
Winestein informed Thomas Franklin, chief of Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking Program run by the NASA of the comet. Franklin calculated the course again and confirmed that it would collide against the earth. He immediately informed the NASA administrator of the estimated time and place of the collision.
Time: at 7 seconds, 7 minutes, 7 o’clock
on the morning of December 12, 2012. A margin of error was 2 seconds
Place: at a latitude of 35 degrees, 10 minutes, 48 seconds, 67 north and a longitude 136 degrees, 54 minutes, 23 seconds, 63 east. That was at the intersection of Sakae 3-chome, Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. A margin of error was 2 kilometers.
The NASA immediately informed the U.S. Defense Department, the Japanese government, and astronomical observatories all over the world of the intimidating situation.
The Japanese government received the information 19 hours and 28 minutes before the collision. The government issued an emergency warning through the Internet, television, and radio.
“This is an emergency warning. A comet is going to hit Sakae, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture in 19 hours. The shock heat will destroy all the areas within a radius of 10 kilometers from Sakae. The buildings within the radius of 15 kilometers will collapse by the shock winds of 50 kilometers per hour. The residents within the radius of 30 kilometers from Sakae must immediately evacuate from the area. Please do not rush but act in a cool and collected manner. For the meantime, Japan
Railways Central, Meitetsu Lines, Kintetsu Lines, Aonami Lines, subways, and buses will operate. Extra trains will also operate. I will repeat….”
The people in the area were all panic-stricken. All the roads were congested with people and vehicles. All the stations were crowded with fleeing people who were crying, screaming, shouting, and quarreling.
“Where are you, honey?”
“Mom! Mom!”
“A train is coming at platform No. 4. Please do not push! Don’t push!”
8
At two o’clock on the afternoon of December 11 (17 hours and seven minutes before the collision), some twenty men from the Culture and Tourism Department of Nagoya City were carrying out and loading onto the trucks the precious art work such as the wall paintings of fusuma and the wooden ceiling paintings, armor, and hanging scrolls that were decorated in Nagoya Castle.
Kimpay and Kanemi felt something was wrong with people in Nagoya. Kanemi flew away from the castle to see the cause. She looked down at the ground and saw both the National Highway No. 22 and Ohotsu Street jam-packed. She flew down onto the ground near the City Hall Subway Station and asked a hurrying old woman what the matter was.
“Don’t surprise me, Golden shachihoko. Haven’t you heard the news?
A comet is going to hit Sakae soon,” she said.
“Oh, God! When will it hit?”
“At 7: 07:07 tomorrow morning, they say.”
Kanemi hurriedly returned to the castle and told the news to Kimpay and Castle.
Kimpay said, “Then it will be dangerous to stay here. We should also evacuate…, no. No, we will say here. This is the time for us to protect Nagoya and its people.”
Kanemi and Castle agreed with him.
Castle said earnestly, “You are right.
This is the time we will defend Nagoya. I wish I had wings so that I could fly and attack the comet.”
Kanemi was moved by Castle’s words, talked to Kimpay in a small voice, and said, “We will let you fly, Castle.”
“Really? Thank God! I will crash the comet into pieces.”
The three of them discussed how to attack the comet. They thought it would be nonsense to fly right then because they did not know the course of the comet, much less its location. Instead,they reached a conclusion to wait till the last moment to see its exact course and location.
The next day, at 4:07 on the morning of December 12, Comet X was making a dash at the Japanese archipelago at 20 kilometers per second. It was burning hard and red.
At 6:50, the sun rose. The blue roof tiles of five-storied Nagoya Castle reflected the sunlight and shone in the morning glow. The shachihoko
couple had descended to the first floor the night before and had tightly fixed themselves on the walls of the first floor. Kimpay was on the north side wall, and Kanemi on the south side. Both of them had their heads downward and tails upward. Just below the first floor was ishigaki
or a base mound.
9
At 33 seconds before Comet X hit Sakae, Nagoya, the lightning rod antenna on the roof of the castle caught the comet. Castle said, “Now!” and a tremendous amount of water gushed from the mouths of Kimpay and Kanemi against the base mound of the donjon. The clouds of spray rose 100 meters high.
At 31 seconds before the crash, the speed of the gushing water reached 8 kilometers per second. Then, believe it or not, the donjon floated one centimeter above the mound. The next moment, it flew towards the comet. Nobody saw the donjon’s brave flight.
At 25 seconds before the crash, the comet approached within 500 kilometers of the earth, and the donjon reached 100 kilometers above the earth. The distance between the two was 400 kilometers. The comet had a bluish yellow tail and the donjon had two white tails.
At 20 seconds, the distance shrank to 300 kilometers.
At 15 seconds, their distance was 150 kilometers. The two would collide with each other in 5 seconds.
4 seconds before the collision, their distance was 120 kilometers.
3 seconds, 90 kilometers.
2 seconds, 60 kilometers.
1 second, 30 kilometers.
The next moment, they collided with each other causing a tremendous explosion. The explosion energy was 1000 times aspowerful as an atomic bomb.
The donjon was broken into pieces. While they were falling towards the earth, they burnt and disappeared. Kimpay and Kanemi flew away at full speed from the donjon as directed by Castle. They suffered from the heat wave from the collision. The golden scales of their bodies melted and the copper cover appeared under the scales.
The comet broke into two. One burnt up; the other was intact and flew down towards the Ise Bay. Kimpay and Kanemi saw half of the comet fall into the bay. They rushed down to the bay. Their copper covers came off and from inside the cover the naked earthenware bodies appeared. When the fiery comet dropped into the sea, a crown-shaped water ring rose 1,000 meters high above the sea. The top of the ring stopped rising momentarily and crashed down onto the sea making a round deep hole in it. The surrounding waters of the hole immediately flowed into the center, crashed together, and made a 500-meter high water pillar. It crashed down again and made a great tsunami. It rushed to Nagoya Port, the Chubu International Airport, and Yokkaichi Port at the speed of 100 kilometers per hour.
Even though Kimpay and Kanemi were completely exhausted, they rushed with gritted teeth and flew down onto the spot the comet had crashed. The tsunami would arrive at the shore in one minute.
As soon as Kimpay and Kanemi landed in the sea, they opened their mouths as wide as possible and began to drink the seawater.One full gulp, another full gulp, and another full gulp. They were determined, “This is the very moment to save Nagoya, keep the promise, and mourn for Castle. Tears mixed with seawater stood at the corners of their eyes. Both of them thought they would be glad to sacrifice their lives if they could save Nagoya. They were gazing at Nagoya Port in the far distance, constantly praying.
The tsunami heading for the Nagoya Port went over the breakwater easily and advanced towards the piers, where there were thousands of piled containers and automobiles for export.
Just five seconds before the tsunami reached the piers, it stopped and began to flow backward. They retreated from the Chubu International Airport and the Yokkaichi Port, too.
Three minutes later, all the tsunami was pulled back towards the center of the Ise Bay, collided together, and countervailed. Soon the boisterous sea changed into a gentle sea.
Seeing it, Kimpay and Kanemi put forth their final effort and flew towards the base mound of Nagoya Castle. When they reached it, they lay there more dead than alive. They looked at each other’s earthenware face, which looked satisfied with their accomplishment.
“You’ve done a good job, Kimpay,” Kanemi gasped out.
“You, too,” Kimpay said in a feeble voice.
Those were their last words. Their earthenware bodies collapsed gradually and turned into two mounds of soil.
10
Around seven o’clock on the morning of December 12, the evacuees who had moved to Ogaki, about 50 kilometers west of Nagoya, were looking at the eastern sky over Nagoya. When they saw a sharp light run in the sky, they thought their houses had been destroyed. All of them were discouraged, but when they heard the 10 o’clock morning news, they could not believe it.
The news went:
“The comet exploded and burn up in the atmosphere. No damage has been reported in Nagoya City and the surrounding areas.”
At nine o’clock on the morning of the next day, the Nagoya Castle gate was opened and many tourists visited it. They walked along the moat, crossed the bridge, and when they reached the Honmaru donjon site, they were surprised to see no castle.
“Look, there is no castle!”
“My! Only the base mound. What’s happened?”
The news of the sudden disappearance of the castle spread all over Japan instantaneously.
At four o’clock in the afternoon, newspaper extras were delivered throughout Japan. The headline read, “Nagoya Castle Donjon Crashes Comet. Shachihoko Saves Nagoya.” The extra had several photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and a NASA satellite telescope. The serially taken photographs showed how the castle approached and crashed against the comet, and how the tsunami was advancing toward Nagoya Port.
One of photographs showed Kimpay and Kanemi’s faces. They were drinking the seawater with their eyes wide open.
The End
