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About Asayi An Autistic Teen’s Journey to Topple a Shogun in Medieval Japan by Sharon Curcioby Sharon Curcio

Set in fifteenth century Japan, Asayi, a nobly-born autistic teenager, copies legal scrolls for her elderly father, Oktani, Shogun Ashikaga’s chief scribe. Asayi is autistic and presents as mute. No one knows of her disability except the Oktani household. The two travel then travel to the Shogun’s palace in Kyoto to deliver completed texts. Enroute Asayi sees smoke billowing from villages. Oktani tells her that this the fate of the farmers who refuse to pay taxes. At court, Nabui, the Shogun’s next most valuable scribe, eyes Asayi and tells a diplomat that he cannot wait for the border wars to destroy the Oktanis. Oktani confesses health concerns to the Shogun. Yoshinori Ashikaga assures Oktani that his daughter has the full protection of his Shogunate.
Upon returning home, old Oktani collapses from heart failure and dies. Asayi is taken back to the palace where Yoshinori quickly marries her off to Nabui, as his third wife. Nabui finds the girl sexually inept then is outraged when he finds she is unable to speak. Nabui and family beat Asayi to get her to talk, have an exorcism performed, then finally call for a physician. The physician says she has a birth injury which leaves her “defective.” Furious, Nabui takes his family away for a few weeks and leaves Asayi behind. She sketches and paints with a few scribes in the workroom. The workroom guard, Senji, looks at Asayi’s drawings and sketches small elements from her work on paper scraps which he hands off to her secretly. Nabui’s cook sees this happen and tells Nabui. Nabui accuses Asayi of adultery and immediately takes Senji and Asayi to the palace.
Nabui presents Asayi’s “infidelity” to the Shogun who has Senji severely beaten. Asayi is branded (between her thighs) in view of the court. Her limp body is dumped in the countryside. The next day a tanner (an Eta) finds Asayi and notices she is still alive. The Tanner uses Asayi to perform back-breaking work until she collapses. The Tanner then sells Asayi to a blacksmith who has her chip metal from rock. A ronin-monk notices Asayi in the forge and asks the blacksmith if he may speak to her. The blacksmith permits the monk, Kanemura, to take Asayi to the home of a Buddhist nun, Suri. Here Asayi sketches for the two what has befallen her. Kanemura and Suri with their spy network identify who she is and who has harmed her. The palace believes that Asayi is dead.
Another ronin-monk, Hatano approaches Suri and Kanemura with a plan to use the Yurei (ghost of Asayi) to destroy Nabui and the Shogun. Kanemura uses this plan as cover for other ronin-monks who will infiltrate the farming community close to the palace to stage an uprising. Asayi’s Yurei successfully leads Nabui to a deadly fall. Asayi haunts the Shogun twice before he decides to ritually bury Asayi to vanquish her Yurei.
The next night the Shogun attends a performance at the manor of one of his vassals. Kanemura and Hatano hide Asayi in a rug and roll her out as the performance hits a peak. Just as Asayi approaches the Shogun in a menacing way, a masked juggler jumps on the Shogun and slits his throat. The crowd panics. The Shogun’s chief advisor, Tenochi, bursts in to get the Shogun’s body. Meanwhile the juggler runs to a secret passageway as Hatano, Kanemura, Senji, and Asayi do. The juggler follows the group to the home of another Buddhist nun, Akumani. Senji seizes the juggler, binds him and drags him into Akumani’s hut There Suri interrogates him.
After much scrutiny, Suri recognizes the eyes of the juggler, and tears off his mask. The juggler is Lady Muira. Lady Muira reveals many truths: that Asayi is the Shogun’s daughter, from his rape of Lady Muira fourteen years ago, and that the Shogun had her husband, Lord Takei, ambushed and murdered. Lady Muira gave Asayi to her sister, Omari, and her husband, Oktani, to raise. However, the Shogun’s branding of Asayi and reports of her death finally led Lady Muira to the assassination. In the meantime, as the Chief Advisor, Tenochi, hauls the Shogun’s body through the palace gates, ronin monk warriors push through, battle the Shogun’s soldiers, and hold their ground. Kanemura watches the farmers’ uprising with pleasure.
Lady Muira reunites briefly with Asayi; the two women weep together then Lady Muira says she must return to the palace. Senji escorts Lady Muira but promises to return for Asayi. The drama concludes as Kanemura and Hatano watch the farmers win the revolt and Suri, Asayi, and Akumani light candles in Akumani’s hut and chant.

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