On Writing Brilliance of the Moon

Brilliance of the moon, touch of the wind.

The title comes from a Noh play by Zeami, The Fulling Block, which is the play Kaede watches with Lord Fujiwara in Grass For His Pillow. Like Grass For His Pillow the title contains five syllables. Across the Nightingale Floor has seven. Last year an aquaintance, Professor Shimizu, observed to me, 'The classic Japanese rhythm is in five syllables and seven syllables.' Of course, this is the rhythm of the haiku go shichi go. It made me go back and look at my titles and texts and I realised how often I used this rhythm unconsciously. Many people have commented on how "Japanese" the language in Tales of the Otori sounds, and this may be one of the reasons.

My ears were alert to every sound, straining to hear above the pounding of the horses' feet and the creak and jingle of the harness as well as the dull roaring of the sea...There was a moment of silence and in that moment I heard the unmistakable sound, somewhere between a creak and a sigh, of a bowstring being drawn.
- Brilliance of the Moon, p.222

Something else I only recently consciously realised was how Takeo's superacute hearing echoes the onomatopoeia used in manga and anime. Reading a manga is an aural experience as much as a visual one and attunes your senses to everything you can hear around you.

It was past sunset and the evening light was clear and blue, The wind had dropped and birds were singing their last song of the day. I heard a rustle in the grass and looked up to see a hare cross the clearing in the distance. I drank the tea and looked at the hare, It gazed back at me with its large wild eyes for many moments before bounding away. The tea's taste was smoky and bitter.
- Brilliance of the Moon p 96

A third technique I use frequently is one I've observed in films and in manga. The reader or spectator's attention is drawn away from the main drama to the natural world, to falling petals, leaves on the veranda, eddies of water, birds or animals. In the world of the Otori, especially in Book Three, nature and weather play a major role, underlining how humans are a part of this world and play out the drama of their lives within it.

We live in the midst of the world; we can live no other way.
- Brilliance of the Moon p 318