King Kaie III of Rukai Departs After Four-Day Visit — Informal Meeting With Ushio Kishiura Comes to Light

King Kaie III of Rukai, 34, departed Tokei via the Haneda Air Route at 8:50 a.m. on the 22nd aboard his official aircraft. The four-day itinerary that began with his arrival on the afternoon of the 19th, previously reported — the signing ceremony and tour of the Third Appraisal Center on the 20th, and the visit to Window 1, 'the Lit City,' on the 21st, which, as previously reported, never opened during his tour — has now come to a close. Mayor Motoko Ukai and officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Imperial Household Agency saw him off, along with, as previously reported, two licensed sword bearers from the Tokei Sword Bearers' Association and one covert patrol officer, who stayed with him to the end. The King reportedly paused once before the terminal and gave a small wave toward the farewell line.

Afterward, Mayor Ukai told reporters, "Over four days, I feel we received a great deal that can't be measured in numbers. As for next year, let's make noise about the details once we've seen that the destination itself is settled" — again working her familiar refrain, as previously reported, into her remarks.

As he departed, the Foreign Ministry announced that the two governments had reached basic agreement in principle on exploring a reciprocal visit by Mayor Ukai to Rukai, targeted for sometime next year. Yuichi Amamiya, 55, councillor at the ministry's International Cooperation Bureau, previously reported in these pages, said, "Just as the King's visit was the first of its kind, a visit by this city's mayor to Rukai, should it happen, would also be a first. The schedule and scale remain to be worked out, but I can say the direction itself — that it will happen — is settled." As previously reported, Deputy Director Manon Keilea of the Retrieval Agency is expected to serve as the point of contact, with coordination proceeding alongside the preliminary appraisal-personnel exchange with Hekikai Isles set for around November 10.

Lord Chamberlain Makalea, on the Rukai side, commented, "His Majesty has long valued not only receiving but visiting in turn. If the Mayor comes to us, it will be our turn to be the ones showing something."

At the departure briefing, after summing up the four days, Lord Chamberlain Makalea added, "There is one thing outside the official schedule I'd like to share." On the night of the 21st — the same evening Window 1 failed to open during the King's tour — the King had informally visited, for a brief time, the home of Ushio Kishiura, 74, a Fukagawa music teacher, previously reported in these pages. "I was the only one who accompanied him, along with an interpreter. No photographs or records were kept. His Majesty himself asked that it not be treated as an official event, so I hadn't intended to mention it at all. But on learning that your paper had already written Mr. Kishiura's name into its coverage, I decided that saying so properly was more honest than staying silent."

This paper spoke with Kishiura on the 22nd. He said that around 8 p.m. on the 21st, an Imperial Household Agency official called to say "someone wishes to visit informally," and he had about thirty minutes to prepare. "When I learned it was the King, honestly, I didn't know what to say. But once His Majesty sat down on the tatami, the first thing he asked was, 'You're a first-generation too, aren't you?' That's what let my shoulders relax."

According to Kishiura, the King mentioned that the Rukai royal house also carries Drifter blood, and that his own great-grandmother had been a first-generation Drifter. "He said he wanted to talk as one who carries the word 'first generation' to another." The previously reported resemblance between 'Lullaby of the Shore' and the melodic cadence from Window 5, 'the Sword Country,' also came up. "He asked if they sounded alike. I told him it does feel that way to me, but that similar lullabies probably exist in many places. His Majesty didn't press further than that." At the King's request, Kishiura sang a little of the lullaby, quietly. "I don't know if I sang it well. But I remember he closed his eyes while he listened."

Kishiura said quietly, "No one truly knows where our homeland is. Even so, at my age, I think I've learned for the first time that there are things people can share without ever knowing."

In response to this paper's inquiry, the TDA's Dimensional Survey Division again stated, "Mr. Kishiura's private meeting isn't a matter for this division, but no academic material has emerged, this time included, linking Window 5's identity to his lullaby." As previously reported, decoding of the object recovered from Window 5 on October 20th remains postponed until November, and the division's stance against rushing to connect things remains unchanged.

The Foreign Ministry said the visit brings no change to the sticking points over the Window Treaty's memorandum, reported on the 21st, or to the November exchange with Rukai and Hekikai Isles, adding, "That the visit as a whole drew broadly welcoming responses from both the disclosure and middle camps alike should give the year-end signing talks a tailwind."

The King's aircraft left the Haneda Air Route a little after 9 a.m. Over four days, most of what this paper reported were official scenes — a signing ceremony, a tour of a window room. But the hour on the night of the 21st, when two first-generation Drifters exchanged words in a small Fukagawa tatami room, appears on no official schedule at all. Even so, it happened.