Chapter 37 Present Day #2
“Unless the sex killed him,” Zoey had grinned, to which Julia had slapped her arm.
Through their research, the pair also knew that Tokugawa Yoshinobu was forced to abandon the shōgunate in 1867 when the rule of Japan went back to the Emperor and ushered in the Meiji period.
Yoshinobu retired to this area and became renowned for his photography, falconry, horseback riding, archery, and many of the arts. It was also the year Mizuki was born.
Julia shifted in her chair. “Being the daughter of a concubine doesn’t exactly feel like royalty,” Julia said and ate another piece of raw tuna.
The waiter came to their table and spoke in broken English, “You ladies enjoying your meal?”
“Oh man, yes,” Julia said. “This tuna is amazing.” She ate another piece dangling from her chopsticks.
“Shizuoka City is known for its tuna and its tea.”
Zoey laughed, “That sounds like it should be a rap song…tuna and tea.” She saw at once that the waiter didn’t understand. “Sorry, no offense.”
“Save room for dessert. We have special desserts from local green tea,” he said and walked away.
Zoey grimaced at Julia, who waved it off.
“So many unanswered questions,” Julia frowned. “If Shibata Mizuki was the daughter of the Shōgun, why did she become a geisha? Maybe it makes sense if Yuria was not a true wife. I don’t know. It all makes my head swirl.”
Zoey pulled her phone from her purse and did a search.
Then she read, “Consort or concubine is a partner in marriage or spouse. A man was permitted a single legal wife, and his other wives were known as consorts or concubines. A legal marriage was a political partnership chosen by the lord or father, while the samurai could choose a consort. Children born of consorts were legitimate and could become heirs.” Zoey looked at Julia. “Maybe they married for love?”
Julia looked out the window just as the bride and groom walked together down the aisle. She wiped a tear and said nothing.
Zoey idly browsed her phone, looking for an answer. She found something and stopped scrolling. “Wow.”
Julia sighed, acknowledging she’d heard.
“You know we haven’t searched Shibata Yuria’s name, right?” She tapped her phone. “This might be unrelated, but there’s a huge art museum here in Shizuoka that says it has works from Shibata Yuria, an artist from the early 1900s.” Zoey looked at Julia, expecting a response. “Julia. Did you hear?”
“Yeah, sorry?”
Convinced this was a valuable lead, Zoey said, “The museum is open until ten. You want to go take a look?”
* * *
Even though Julia and Zoey were exhausted from the week’s journey, the thought of finding clues to Shibata Yuria at the museum intrigued them.
The Shizuoka Prefectural Museum boasted art from masters around the world, including both Eastern and Western landscapes, as well as Japanese artists, and one of Julia’s all-time favorite artists, Claude Monet.
Walking up the grand, granite stairway, Julia and Zoey came face-to-face with Auguste Rodin’s sculptures of the Gates of Hell and The Thinker, the sixth cast of the original.
They now stood in the massive gallery on the second floor, wondering where paintings from Shibata Yuria could be located.
The entire museum at this time of the evening stood eerily quiet, and Julia took small steps, to mute the echo of her heels.
A portly Japanese man in a dark suit sat at a small desk in the corner and asked if he could be of assistance.
Julia asked through Zoey where they would find a painting by Shibata Yuria. The man was immediately interested. “You know of this artist?”
“Hai,” Zoey said and glanced at Julia. Julia nodded, giving her the go ahead to explain.
Julia didn’t understand the dialogue, but she couldn’t help but smile at his body language. The man kept exhaling loudly through the back of his throat and bowing, glancing between Zoey’s explanation and Julia.
He finally bowed deeply and said, “It is an honor to meet you. Would you please follow me?”
“See, I told you, princess.” Zoey smirked as they followed the man down a short corridor.
“Yeah…just not sure what you told him.” She elbowed Zoey.
The man stopped abruptly. “Here you are. I truly wish we had more of her art. She is one of my favorites.”
Julia blew out a long deep breath, looking at the two landscape paintings by her great-great-great-great-grandmother. Both colorful oil canvases looked as if they had been painted somewhere in Shizuoka—both included the sea, mountains, and a golden hour sky.
“Delightful, aren’t they?” the man commented. “She is so different from the other artists of her day.”
“Do you have any information about Shibata Yuria?” Julia asked hopefully.
“Yes, of course. That is my job,” the man said without sarcasm.
As Zoey and the man conversed, Zoey’s excitement continued to build until Julia could no longer stand it.
Zoey smiled and held up her hand for the man to stop. “Okay,” she addressed Julia. “He seems to know a lot. Shibata Yuria was born in 1844 and died at age seventy-four in 1918. “That was the year after Rikka moved to America” Zoey added for Julia.
She turned and asked the man a few more questions.
“Yes, Yuria was indeed a secondary wife to the Shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu. He does not know why they were separated but has always assumed it was because he lost the shōgunate. Shibata Yuria became extremely poor. But now her paintings sell for millions of dollars.”
The man interrupted her with more information that Zoey then relayed to Julia. “Yuria was one of the first women to leave Japan in the Tokugawa period. Rumor has it that she traveled with her father to France. Perhaps that is where she learned to paint.” The man’s voice became more animated.
“What makes you think that?” Julia asked Zoey to ask him.
The man looked furtively around the empty hall as though he were about to spill a secret.
“Would you please come with me?” he whispered.
They followed the man, taking quick steps to keep up with him until they reached a door that he unlocked. Before opening the door, he turned to them and said, “Please, tell no one that I have showed you this. We are not supposed to release this to the public until we know for sure.”
He swung open the door, turned on bright fluorescent lights, and led them to the back of the room where an easel stood covered in linen. The man slipped on a pair of white cotton gloves and lifted the fabric. “The museum has just purchased this painting for fourteen million dollars.”
Underneath was an average-looking painting that seemed incomplete. The painting displayed a body of water, a stone pavilion, and an unfinished rendering of a rowboat with two lovers kissing.
Julia stepped closer to inspect the painting, expecting to see the signature of a master artist. Instead, she read a red scribble, “Oscar and Julia,” accompanied by a heart. She stepped back from the painting and looked at the man.
He smiled, took hold of the frame with both hands, turned it over, and showed it to Julia.
It read, “Claude Monet and Shibata Yuria.”