Masahiro built a small honjo —a fortified residence—around the lantern. He named it Yaka Honjo. For fifty years, he and his descendants kept the flame, using its light only to judge disputes among the villagers, to unmask spies, and to guide lost souls back to the path of honesty.
Masahiro’s great-grandson, Takeda Kenji, grew tired of the lantern’s truth. He wanted its light to bend to his will—to make enemies appear wicked, allies appear pure, and his own betrayals invisible. He consulted a corrupted yamabushi (mountain ascetic) who taught him a forbidden rite: to feed the lantern a shikon —a death-poem written in the blood of an innocent. yaka honjo
For three centuries, Yaka Honjo stood abandoned. But the lantern did not die. It waited. Masahiro’s great-grandson, Takeda Kenji, grew tired of the