The Elusive Samurai, I: Tokiyuki and the Baptism of Fire

The Elusive Samurai, I: Tokiyuki and the Baptism of Fire

Time is a funny thing: There is a certain vertigo to it. Sometimes, a carved stone older than civilization pops up in the river of my city—a city with a wall built by a Roman legion, Renaissance palaces, and Visigoth churches once ransacked by Napoleon’s soldiers.  As the years go by, these backgrounds become landmarks of my own life, its own dizzying array of facts, stories, and references. I am connected to that past. I got married in a white …