Haruko
Haruko is a longer play of a minor daimyo struggling to expand her small holdings during the tumultuous years of the Shogunate through charismatic leadership and wile at court.
Plot
The play opens with Daimyo Haruko dealing with a dispute between her subordinates. Through their arguments about the distribution of the small rich lands of the gens, the audience learns that the domain is pressed between larger agressive provinces. The concerns of her subjects are varied, but each is addressed and the conflict dissolved.
As tensions worsen between the neighboring daimyos, Haruko uses her position as a neutral party to great effect, playing each side off the other to keep her own lands safe and prosperous. In private, the burdens weigh heavy on her, with the play's grand aria having Haruko singing out her determination to do right in protecting her family and domain from the ambitions of her rivals.
An ambassador is sent from one of the neighboring provinces, demanding Haruko align with them or be crushed in the coming conflict. After the days of negotiations he spends his night in a tavern where Eri and Shiro, Haruko's errant daughter and her bodyguard, manage to pry military plans from him during a drunken singing session.
The negotiations break down, and the ambassador swears that the armies of his clan will sweep into the valley within weeks. Haruko reveals sealed orders sent from the Shogun's court for the ambassador to present to his daimyo; the Shogun was informed of the secret military plots, and has ordered the armies to set sail for a Threshold campaign or forfeit their lands and title.
Characters
Though the play's narrative is mainly focused on the larger intrigues and burdens falling on the daimyo's shoulders, smaller comedic scenes between Eri and Shiro entwine through the entire story. The pair commonly get in trouble with their antics, but pitch in to help the daimyo as the plots converge.
