Shirakawa Kaede

Shirakawa Kaede (later Otori Kaede, briefly Fujiwara Kaede- disputed) is the heir to the Seisshu domain of Shirakawa; she later becomes the rightful ruler of both Shirakawa and Maruyama. She is the other main point-of-view character throughout the series, apart from Otori Takeo. For much of the series, she is known for her unusual beauty, which gains her the unfortunate reputation of bringing death to anyone who desires her. Through her marriage to Takeo and her inheritance of Maruyama and Shirakawa, Kaede later becomes co-ruler of the Three Countries, and a formidable politician in her own right. She and Takeo have three daughters (Shigeko and the twins Maya and Miki) as well as a son who dies in infancy. At the end of the series, she is given sanctuary at the temple of Terayama with Miki; her eldest daughter Otori Shigeko becomes head of the Otori clan and co-ruler of the Three Countries, just as Kaede once was.

caca During Orphan Warriors, Kaede tentatively re-builds her alliance with Takeo's vassal Miyoshi Kahei, seeking to give support to her nephew Arai Sunaomi and her daughter Shigeko, who has been married to Saga Hideki. As the tensions between the Saga and the Otori's allies builds to the point of war, she travels to Miyako in an attempt to negotiate, but instead witnesses Hideki's death. When the Empress declares Shigeko her regent, Kaede offers to take her place, allowing Shigeko to return to her domain of Maruyama and marry her retainer and love interest, Sugita Hiroshi.

Kaede spends the next seven years governing the Eight Islands on behalf of the Imperial Family, centralizing the government and introducing the same administrative reforms she and Takeo maintained in the Three Countries. However, this results in opposition from many of the clans outside the Three Countries, as well as various foreign traders and the Terada pirate clan. Seeking to deal with this opposition as tactfully as possible, Kaede sends Sunaomi (who she hopes to make her heir in Shirakawa) on a mission to Hofu.

Across the Nightingale Floor
Born to the once-powerful Shirakawa warrior clan (one of the three largest clans in the Western Country), Kaede was immersed early on into the male-dominated upper society of the Three Countries. She received very little education from her conservative father despite her keen intelligence and desire to learn, something that frustrated her immensely; she was not particularly close to her sisters at the time, as they were quite a bit younger than she, but was close to her mother. At a very early age, she was made a political hostage to the neighboring Noguchi clan (former vassals of the Otori, who betrayed them and joined the Tohan) in order to extend Tohan influence into the Western Country.

With her late childhood and adolescence spent as little more than a well-attended maid in Noguchi castle, Kaede seemed of little significance until, when she was fifteen, a guard attempted to sexually assault her and she slashed him in the throat with a knife. The guard was then finished off by her one friend in the castle: Arai Daiichi, heir to the Arai clan and another Seisshu hostage of the Noguchi. Daiichi was banished by the Noguchi soon after and Kaede was betrothed to an elderly Tohan retainer to remove the controversy of the incident. However, her betrothed died of a heart attack before the wedding, and she began to acquire the reputation that anyone who desired her or sought to marry her would die. Her increasing and unusual beauty only strengthened this reputation. Around the same time, Daiichi sent her a new handmaiden to help protect her: his former lover Muto Shizuka, secretly a member of the Tribe. Shizuka would become Kaede's closest friend, teaching her political maneuvering, swordplay and many other skills she would need.

Not long after this, Kaede was unwittingly drawn into the political schemes of Iida Sadamu and the Otori lords Shoichi and Masahiro, who had her betrothed to Otori Shigeru to cement an alliance between the Tohan and Otori clans. The marriage was secretly an excuse to draw Shigeru into the Tohan capital, where Sadamu- who harbored a longtime hatred for Shigeru- could assassinate or execute him, using Kaede's reputation as an excuse. Unaware of this, Kaede went along with the betrothal, believing it to be the last chance for her to rescue her family from disgrace; along the journey, she met her kinswoman Lady Maruyama Naomi, who served as a reluctant political mentor to her. Not realizing Naomi was secretly Shigeru's longtime love, Kaede was hurt and confused by Naomi's coldness towards her. Nonetheless, at Naomi's suggestion, she began training daily with Shizuka in the way of the sword; Kaede was shocked by Shizuka's great skill, as she had first assumed her to be little more than a cheerful, airheaded teenager.

At Tsuwano, they met with Shigeru and twenty of his retainers. While she liked Shigeru and knew he was a kind man, Kaede felt an immediate connection with Shigeru's ward and adopted son, Otori Takeo; Takeo soon reciprocated her feelings when they fought one another in a practice sword duel. The two became increasingly close over the journey to Inuyama, though Kaede's position as Shigeru's betrothed made such interactions rare and awkward; she confided in him about her distant relationship with her father and the ill health of her mother, who she had not seen since going to the Noguchi. She was also intrigued by the strange connection Takeo seemed to share with Shizuka and her uncle, Muto Kenji; all three were descended from the Tribe.

Arriving at Inuyama in the ninth month, Kaede and the other women were mostly secluded within the massive castle, where the wedding was due to occur in three days. However, Takeo's sudden disappearance after the first night disturbed her and made her unwell. Shizuka soon revealed to her that Takeo and Shigeru had been planning for Takeo to assassinate Sadamu using his Tribe abilities, but the families of the Tribe had believed Takeo would fail and abducted him in order to preserve his powers. Without the means to destroy his enemy, Shigeru was forced to go along with the marriage to try and protect himself, Naomi and Kaede, but Naomi believed Sadamu would find a pretext to kill him unless they all attempted to escape, especially as she was secretly pregnant with Shigeru's child. Before attempting to escape, Naomi apologized for her coldness towards Kaede and named her as heir to Maruyama should she and her daughter Mariko die. Despite the knowledge that Arai Daiichi was now in rebellion against the Tohan, Kaede and Shizuka became convinced that he would fail unless Sadamu was killed.

On the day of the wedding, Kaede was heartbroken to learn that Naomi and her daughter had drowned attempting to cross the river the day before; Naomi's handmaiden Sachie was rescued, tortured and revealed the relationship with Shigeru, and their mutual connections to the Hidden, giving Sadamu an excuse to strip Shigeru of his warrior's priveleges and hang him by the arms from the wall of Inuyama. It was clear to Kaede that she had been used as a political pawn to seal Shigeru's fate, and seeing no alternative, she resolved to take her life to restore what little honor she could to her family's name. That night, Sadamu met with her alone and interrogated her about her knowledge of Shigeru's conspiracy, but she convincingly feigned ignorance and concealed her fear. Sadamu eventually decided she could kill herself if she chose, and he would then marry her younger sister to lay claim to Shirakawa. Drunk, lusting after Kaede's beauty and hoping to further humiliate Shigeru, Sadamu then attempted to rape her, but she killed him with a concealed weapon Shizuka had taught her to use. Moments later, Takeo entered the room; he had negotiated with the Tribe to rescue her, bring Shigeru down from the wall and kill Sadamu. Believing they would both be dead by the morning, Kaede and Takeo made love, confirming their mutual feelings for each other. After beheading Sadamu's corpse, Kaede, Takeo, Shizuka and Kenji fought killed most of the Tohan retainers in the castle; during the scuffle, several lamps were overturned, setting the fortress alight. As they escaped across the river from the burning castle, Daiichi's triumphant army arrived.

Kaede, Takeo, Daiichi and the Arai retainers rendezvoused in the Middle Country at the temple of Terayama (one of the stops on their original journey). There, Daiichi requested that Takeo marry Kaede as Shigeru's heir. Despite the logic of the move and their mutual love, Takeo privately told Kaede that he could not, as the Tribe would kill him unless he joined them as he had promised. Kaede remarked that there were worse things than death, and that she would gladly follow him into the next world, as she only felt safe with him and would never love another man. As their eyes met, Takeo unintentionally put her under the "Kikuta Sleep" (a Tribe ability unique to the Kikuta family, to put someone into a deep sleep by looking them directly in the eye) and she fell unconscious.

Grass For His Pillow
Kaede eventually awakened after several days, by which time Takeo has already departed with the Tribe. While asleep, she experienced a sensation as if she is lying encased in ice, and saw a vision of the White Goddess (one of the traditional Shinto deities) who told her "Be Patient. He will come for you." Kaede took this to mean that Takeo will eventually come back to her, and resolved to return to Shirakawa and learn how to rule and administer the domain, so that she can claim her inheritance of the Maruyama domain. Shizuka, who remained with her, warned her not to tell anyone about her role in killing Iida Sadamu, as it is such an offense among the warrior class that not even her ally Arai Daiichi would let her live for it. Kaede then met with Daiichi and explained her intention to return home and persuade her father to submit to him; she also asked that he allow Muto Shizuka to return with her, as she was aware that Daiichi felt betrayed by the Tribe and by Shizuka in particular, and wanted to keep her safe from the Arai. Daiichi reluctantly allowed her to depart with Shizuka.

During the long journey, Shizuka revealed that another member of the Tribe was traveling with them for the protection of both Kaede and Shizuka, due to the possibility of an assassination attempt. Despite Daiichi and Shizuka's long relationship (which had resulted in the birth of Shizuka's two sons) he had felt angry enough at her constant deception to order an attempt on her life, disguised as a bandit raid so as not to offend Kaede. The attempt was quickly foiled by Shizuka's companion, Kondo Kiichi of the Kuroda family.

Kaede also discovered that she was pregnant with Takeo's child, conceived during their night of passion in Inuyama. In order to protect her family from disgrace, Shizuka suggested that she tell her father that Shigeru, fearing the Tohan's deception, had secretly married her at Terayama, with Maruyama Naomi as a witness; with their deaths, the story would be impossible to verify and Kaede's child might have a claim to the Otori domain as well.

Returning to Shirakawa, Kaede was pleased to be reunited with her sisters Ai and Hana (who had been very young when she had been sent to Noguchi) but grieved to learn that her mother had recently died. She was dismayed by the poor state of the farms and the impoverished, mismanaged estate; it was the result of poor weather, the war (the Arai army had pillaged part of the Shirakawa domain on their march east) and her father's abandonment of administration after the death of his wife and his defeat by Daiichi. Worried and angry at Lord Shirakawa's depression and deteriorating mental state, Kaede took charge of the household with Shizuka's help and persuaded her father to adopt a more submissive position. She repeatedly implored him to teach her as if she were a son, intending to gain the skills how to rule and take over from him entirely. After initially refusing, her father taught her how to read and write, though he mainly supplied her with texts by K'ung Fu-Tzu (Confucius) who overwhelmingly advocated the submission of women, much to her frustration.

After a few weeks, the Shirakawa were visited by a neighbor, Lord Fujiwara, a nobleman from the capitol who held an estate alongside their domain. Fujiwara, although not demonstrating sexual desire for Kaede, was fascinated by her appearance, boldness and intelligence; in turn, she was both deeply intrigued and repelled by him. She accepted an invitation to his house, where he showed her various treasures and curiosities he had collected over the years; in turn, she told him the fiction of her marriage to Shigeru and the recent events at Inuyama.

That autumn, Fujiwara invited Kaede and her father to attend a drama performed by several actors who lived in his household; she was astonished by how she saw herself depicted in the lead actor's performance. Unfortunately, while there she encountered the monk Kubo Makoto from Terayama, who was a flute-player for the performance. Assuming from the way Kaede was addressed as "Lady Otori" that she had married Takeo, Makoto unintentionally revealed the truth to her father: that she had not been married to Shigeru at Terayama. Kaede, pleading illness, returned home with Shizuka and reluctantly prepared to commit suicide. Her father, driven insane by the shameful circumstances, soon arrived and ordered her to witness his own suicide, then to kill herself and her sisters. However, he was unable to take his own life and succumbed to madness, attempting to sexually assault Kaede before Shizuka and Kondo killed him.

In the aftermath of her father's demise, Kaede again employed deception to maintain her control over Shirakawa; she claimed that her father, having lost the will to live due to his prior defeats, had killed himself and had named her as his heir. When two of her warriors refused to swear allegiance to her because she was a woman, Kaede immediately had Kondo kill them and confiscated their property, demonstrating her growing ruthlessness. She then had messages sent to Sugita Haroki, the chief retainer and regent of Maruyama, informing him of her intention to claim it. However, shortly afterwards Kaede suffered a miscarriage due to shock; subsequently she became severely ill, suffering hallucinations and such a high fever that Shizuka was sure she would die. However, Lord Fujiwara sent his personal doctor, Ishida, who managed to save her life. She eventually awakened, having no clear memory of her father's death or how her miscarriage had occurred.

After recovering (and grieving for the loss of her child), Kaede sought to prepare her household and estates for the winter, to recruit masterless warriors, and to educate her sisters. Despite Shoji (her father's retainer) and Kondo aiding her with administration, she soon realized many of her farmers, the warriors she hoped to employ, and her own household would probably starve by spring. However, when one of Daiichi's retainers, Akita Tsutomu, came to visit, Kaede managed to give him and his men the impression that she had her estate well under control despite her father's death and her status as a woman; indeed, she cowed him, deflecting his request that she return with him to Inuyama and take his nephew Sonoda Mutsuru as a hostage, to solidify her alliance with Arai on more equal terms. Soon after, she received Sugita Haroki, who treated her with respect and equality and made it clear that most of the Maruyama clan would support her; unfortunately, they lacked the manpower to resist her rival claimant, Iida Nariaki, alone. Kaede resolved to meet Daiichi in the spring and request that, in return for her continued alliance with him, he support her claim to Maruyama.

Despite these two diplomatic successes, Kaede knew she lacked the resources to either hold Maruyama or even feed her entire household at Shirakawa through the next winter. At Shizuka's suggestion, despite her personal revulsion for him and her embarrassment over her prior deception, Kaede decided to accept another of Fujiwara's invitations. While she believed that the nobleman simply wanted to "collect" her for her beauty, as he had so many other things, she also believed that he was a better prospect for her independence than putting herself and her sisters in Daiichi's custody.

At his estate, Kaede was treated with the same lavish hospitality as before; the only difference being that Fujiwara called her "Lady Shirakawa" rather than "Lady Otori."

Journey to Maruyama
During the early stages of Brilliance of the Moon, Kaede and Takeo continued to consolidate their position at Terayama until Jo-Ann informed them of an Otori force gathering to ambush them on the temple road. They instead led their forces over the mountains and into the Western Country, intending to go to Maruyama and form a stronger position. Before their departure, Takeo told Kaede some details of his parentage and part of the prophecy concerning his fate and the five battles to come, though he did not mention the part about his death, or the fact that Yuki was carrying his son. Kaede showed interest in Takeo's maternal heritage and connection with the Hidden, having known that her kinswoman, Maruyama Naomi, also practiced their faith to a limited degree; she particularly liked the concept that, in the Hidden God's eyes, women were equal to men. However, she conceded to Takeo's request that she remain out of battle for the time being- not because she was a woman, but because, as heir to Maruyama, if she were to die, their entire cause would be lost. She then swore an oath (and made Takeo do the same) that neither of them would kill themselves if they heard of the other's death, until they saw proof or stood before the grave.

Kaede, Takeo and their initial supporters (about 1,000) departed before sunrise and hurried across the mountains, despite the rains. They encountered a flooded river on the opposite side that destroyed the bridge and made the usual ford impossible, but Jo-Ann and his fellow outcasts had constructed a floating bridge. Despite the revulsion of their warriors and her own household, Kaede did not protest or show discomfort in crossing the outcasts' bridge, though she did not participate in the subsequent Battle of the Ford, where Takeo and his warriors destroyed a band of local bandits.

Reaching the small town of Kibi, run by Lord Niwa (one of Daiichi's retainers), Kaede and Takeo found it barely garrisoned and suffering due to poor harvests and bandit attacks. Choosing to negotiate their return to Daiichi's good graces rather than attack, they were cautiously welcomed by Niwa, who was grateful to them for destroying the bandits. Kaede soon joined Takeo in the bathhouse, both of them quickly giving into their desire for one another and having sex. Afterwards, they discussed strategy; reasoning that Arai had been unable to garrison his new conquests because he'd taken too much land too fast, they chose not to leave a garrison at Kibi, instead focusing all their efforts on relieving- and then holding- Maruyama, for the time being.

Epilogue:
Takeo narrates the epilogue of Brilliance of the Moon, saying he and Kaede have been together since the end of the war, and have kept the peace through their marriage-alliance and diligent administration for fifteen years. Kaede gave birth to their eldest daughter, Shigeko, two years after the end of the war; their twin daughters Maya and Miki were born two years later, after a difficult pregnancy that nearly killed Kaede. Shigeko closely resembles Kaede before her injuries, while Maya and Miki take after Takeo's appearance; unlike their older sister, they have inherited all their father's Tribe abilities, and are shunned both for this and for being twins, an unlucky stigma in the Eight Islands. Kaede herself is not immune to this superstition (especially as she conceives no further children for many years afterward), and though she does not outright abuse or mistreat her twin daughters, she sometimes shuns them, showing blatant favoritism for Shigeko, which worries both Takeo and Shigeko herself.

Hiroshi acts as the retainer and administrator for Maruyama when Kaede is in the Middle or Eastern Country, as he holds the domain in trust for Shigeko until she comes of age. As overlord of both Maruyama and Shirakawa, Kaede has inherited over half the Western Country, while Takeo inherited all the Middle Country; only Kumamoto and Inuyama are outside their sphere of influence, and as both their former clans are dead, their new rulers (Arai Zenko and Sunoda Mutsuru) were placed there by Kaede and Takeo. To further secure their loyalties, both were married to Kaede's sisters, Ai and Hana.

The Harsh Cry of the Heron
At the start of the story, Kaede, Takeo and their daughters have gathered in Inuyama for the new year, and Kaede is dueling Takeo with kendo staves; this time, she wins. She then watches with pride as Shigeko duels her father, though her obvious favoritism draws further anger and jealousy from the twins.