So here we are in the midst of a pandemic, and I thought I'd have time to catch up on reading and on reviewing the Usagi story timeline. That hasn't happened since I'm still on a normal work schedule, but I did finish Saga books 7 & 8 and will try to explain the time which I feel has passed in those books.
SAGA Book 7 - Traitors of the Earth: no clear indication where we begin, so I can only assume we continue where we left off from Book 6, making it sometime in summer. There is a possible indication of cooler weather leading to Autumn in "What the Little Thief Heard" because Kitsune is cold on the last page. In "The Hidden Fortress" we see a dragonfly again, indicative of late summer or early fall. In the "Death of Lord Hikiji" Usagi is eating a fruit. What could it be? I guess anything, but I like to think an apple or maybe a persimmon, either of which would also indicate autumn.
In the Town Called Hell story arc we see a single maple leaf blowing through town in the lead story. And in Nukekubi there are turnips in a garden, which might also indicate harvest time, or autumn, or maybe not. The next two stories leave little if any clues as to season, but in "Encounter at Blood Tree Pass" on page 9 the farmers are planting rice, so this tells us it is sometime during spring. The character Kato also says he has "searched for weeks for Usagi" since we last encountered him in "A Town Called Hell!" "Return to Hell" continues the story with Kato, so we can assume not much time has passed.
Red Scorpion is the third story arc of book 7, and starts out with a jump back in time "more than half a year ago" before returning to the present, with talk of coming rains and "farmers are ready with their planting", so let's say it's late spring. Both "Toad Oil" and "Returns of the Lord of Owls" have no clear indication of season. But in the Scorpions Tail stories the rice fields appear to be freshly planted (late spring/early summer) So from Traitors of the Earth to Scorpiom's Tail we seem to have passed through
AUTUMN, WINTER & SPRING.
Saga Book 8 - in the TWO HUNDRED JIZO story arc, there's lots of rain, and the story "Ice Runners" indicates summer.
In the THIEVES & SPIES story arcs, "The Thief and the Kunoichi" parts 1,2 & 3 all take place over a few nights at most. Our best guess is it is still summer. In "One Armed Swordsman" we are told directly that it is Autumn. While "Death of a Tea Master" tells us it is spring - with the words, "green leaves"..."a new season begins." In "The Bride" a coming storm & rains might indicate summer.
Finally in the HELL SCREEN story arc we experience a lot of rain again. In "River Rising" we also see some young
kyuri (cucumber) growing on a vine. "Kazehime" and "Secret of the Hell Screen" also have plenty of rain, and we are told that 3 months have passed since Usagi's arm was injured in the fight with the Kappa, so I'm guessing it's late summer now, and in "Fate of the Elders" we see a dragonfly again and there is mention of a chilly night (early autumn?). So in these stories it looks like we've gone from
SUMMER to
AUTUMN, skipped winter, then back into
SPRING and
SUMMER.
So if I figure this correctly, it seems that less than a year has passed between the beginning of Saga Book 4 and the ending of Saga Book 6, while from the beginning of Book 7 to the end of Book 8 close to 2 years have elapsed - this would mean roughly 3 years have gone by in that time frame.
Your thoughts and comments are welcome!
Now I need to go back to the beginning and try to work out that part... wish me luck! Unless someone would like to tell me they've figured this part out already?
