The Thousand Mask Warrior

Yipun Tyre

There is a Japanese village in Ayyutthaya. In Siamese, the village is referred to as Ban Yipun or Muban Yipun. The Japanese call it Ayutaya Nihonjin-machi. The village is located a little outside the capital of the Ayutthaya kingdom which has been inhabited since the 14th century AD. The village is located on the east side of the Chao Phraya river, opposite the Pranggi settlement in the west, as well as the British and Walanda settlements.

In the village lived about 1000 to 1500 Japanese, including slaves from various nations, including the Tai or Thai people, a tribe native to Siam. However, according to Japanese records, there were up to 8000 people living there during the Kan’ei period in Japan beginning in 1624. The Japanese who lived in this village consisted of assassins and ronin, Japanese traders and Japanese Christians who fled Japan.

Three Japanese swordsmen, two of whom were assassins and one of whom was a former Japanese Christian soldier, were conversing in a liquor store. The two Japanese hitmen are just a handful of the 800 hitmen under the leadership of Yamada Nagasama who are best known in the world of shortness, martial arts and combat. However, an influential figure for the Japanese people in Ayutthaya, and served as governor of the Nakhon Si Thammarat region has died a few years ago, precisely in 1630 AD.

The two assassins were named Konoshi Hidetada and Arima Oda respectively. Formerly, under the leadership of Yamada Nagasama around the 1620s AD, both of them were still in their teens, has been involved in piracy and attack of Walanda ships that want to enter and are in the waters around Betawi. Their experience of fighting in the ocean and on land has actually been qualified.

Their other friend, Paulo Omura, was a Kirishitan, or a Japanese Christian. He was one of the victims of the banning and slaughter of Japanese Christians by the Tokugawa Shogunate government and was started in 1614 AD by the second shogun, Hidetada. They managed to escape Japan after the defeat in the Japanese Nasrani rebellion war at the fortress of Shimabara in 1637 to 1638 AD, a year ago.

The three of them were talking to each other in silence. It seemed that they did not want this conversation to be heard by the other party. However, until now no one in Ban Yipun knew that these three citizens were secretly known as the three Japanese Swordsman titled Three Gods Iai. They are members of nine New World warriors along with seven other warriors, namely the Siamese Tiger, the white Tiger of the Osing clan warriors from the Blambangan kingdom, The crow Barong the scribe of the Tengger tribe and two Khmer warriors. These nine warriors were led by the middle-aged God Step Three of Kerinci.

Paulo Omura, although a Japanese who comes from the group of Christians or Kakure Kirishitan, is actually not a devout religion at all. A little over a year ago, he followed the orders of Amakusa Shiro, the sixteen-year-old leader of the Christian Samurai, to stage a rebellion in Shimabara. At that time he tended to hate the two Shimabara landlords, matsukura Katsuie and Karatsu by Terasawa Katataka who gave excessive tax and tribute rules even though the area he lived in was very poor.

So, his escape to Siam with the Kirishitans is only to get a better life, much better. He wants to be rich and honorable. The New World gives us that opportunity. In Japan, the great war of Shimabara, thousands were beheaded and died in battle because of the use of weapons and the deployment of large crowds. At that time, the Kirishitan people did not have a good plan. So, destruction and defeat clearly happened.

However, for matters of personal ability and devotion, Paulo Omura cannot be doubted anymore. The moves are terrible, containing years of pain and incorporating elements of suffering. No wonder Paulo Omura showed such a cold face. He flinch when he heard the two colleagues tell thoroughly about the lunge of Jayaseta the Thousand Mask Swordsman. He was eager to try out the greatest abilities of the warrior from the land of Java and fight it with his mainstay, namely Iai Jujika ni Tsuke Rareta, the Sword of the Crucifixion.

These three Iai Gods had understood that Jayaseta must now be on his way to the center of Ayutthaya. They were unwilling to allow the opportunity to fight with the figure to be seized by the members of the other nine New World warriors.