land of Japan.

Today would be the most important day of Homma's life, the day he would launch himself on the great adventure that would see him reach dizzying heights of fame and fortune; the day that would eventually see a humble rice trader of the merchant class achieve the greatest honour his country could bestow.

This Monday morning Homma sat cross legged on his precious straw mats at his family rice warehouse and forced himself to concentrate on the lists of deliveries and inventory that required his attention every morning. He looked longingly at a pile of large, fine, rice paper parchment beside his small desk. These parchments were unusually large and ordered for Homma by his good friend Nomura San who made the best Tofu in all ofJapan and had access to the oversized parchment which was made in Kyoto. Strangely rice paper is usually not made from rice at all. What most people mean by rice paper was more typically made with any of the three traditional materials of kozo (mulberry), gampi or mitsumata. But this was a special paper for a very special purpose.

These papers were Homma's most precious possession. More precious than the family's land and warehouses; more precious than the inventory of rice bales stored in the six separate warehouses. It was covered with strange symbols all of them painstakingly drawn by Homma. These symbols ran up and down the sheets in strange whirls and patterns. Numbers ran across the bottom and along the sides of the parchment. Some of the