Sashimo

Sashimo is a small village in Dorakuro, surrounded by rice fields and irrigation canals. The village is built around the palace of the local lord, a vassal of the daimyō of Rindo. The palace stands within a square wall, encircled by a narrow moat. To the south adjoins the temple, also walled, with its watchtower and bell. Straight streets lined with low wooden houses and workshops follow each side of the moat. Farmers, smiths, and artisans live close together. At the center, the main roads cross at a wooden bridge and a small market square. Beyond the walls, the plains open wide, with a distant view of the mountains to the east.   Sashimo serves as the administrative center of the Rindo Province, a small but strategic village overseeing rice production across the northern flatlands of Dorakuro. The palace of Koshi Urimaru, the local samurai ruler, forms the heart of the settlement. Here, harvest quotas are recorded, taxes collected, and the orders of the daimyō enforced. Around the moat live the families who manage the land, while the farmers dwell in wooden houses at the edge of the rice fields. To the south stands the temple, where religious ceremonies mark the passing of the seasons and the collection of taxes. Sashimo may be small, but the rhythm of its labor sustains the flow of food for the entire region.   From afar, Sashimo seems almost one with the land: rows of houses and straight streets reflected in the waters of the paddies. The air smells of wet earth and woodsmoke. Each day, the temple bell rings across the plain, followed by the murmur of water running through the irrigation channels. Within the palace moat, all is quiet save for the sound of crickets and the measured steps of a watchman along the wall. At dusk, mist rises from the fields and drifts through the streets until the shapes of house and wall fade, it is then, they say, that the Time of Monsters begins.   The temple on the southern edge of the village is dedicated to Shinzo and Kauro, mountain and sea. Each month, farmers bring offerings of rice and straw. The lord of Sashimo guards the palace as though it were an extension of the temple itself. Everything revolves around ritual, ensuring harmony and abundance in the cultivation of rice.   On the northern side of the village stands a small teahouse, where travelers gather to rest and share news. At night, guards patrol along the moat, but beyond the village it is dark and still. An old well at the edge of the fields serves as a quiet resting place, or, at times, a secret meeting point for smugglers.   The people of Sashimo live simple but meticulous lives. Every family knows its place in the irrigation system; every wall is whitewashed each year, every road repaired after the rains. Discipline and order come naturally here, a legacy of the Rindo Clan. Outsiders notice that little is spoken, yet much is remembered. The villagers trust in routine, not in words. The temple and the palace are the twin poles of Sashimo: one for prayer, the other for obedience. Between them, life moves at its steady pace, calm as the water that nourishes the fields.