In Memoriam in Imabari, Winter 1569

There are those who say that Shikkoku is bad luck for the Mori, that the Mori are not meant to be there. The Mori have lost two sons -Takamoto, the former daimyo, and Takakage - as well as countless warriors in Iyo province, defeated by the Chosokabe in the plains and in the castle of Imabari. Some say that the angry spirits of Shikkoku are working against the Mori.

So it is with a feeling of superstitious fear that Kobayakawa Mototsura watched as his samurai forced their way into Imabari Castle and overcame the few defenders within.

After the fall of Imabari, the Mori set up shrines in the fields and the castle precincts dedicated to the fallen heros of the Mori and also to the kami of Shikkoku. Mori monks consecrated the shrines while drink and food offerings were presented. The mood was hardly triumphant as the Mori host remembered the enormous losses suffered here.

Imabari is an unremarkable castle, and Iyo is an unremarkable province, Mototsura thought, but there is probably no land in all of Japan more sacred in the memories of the Mori than this land.