I am Katsumaru Mori, descended from Mori Terumoto, warlord-founder of Hiroshima.

But war does not intrigue me.

I was an architect, living in Tokyo. I helped to design the sumo stadium!

Hospital Notes :

<When we first encountered Mr. Mori, he was incapable of coherent communication. Of course, given the events that have recently occurred, his... distress was quite understandable. However, after being given time and attention he did show some slight signs of improvement. He began to communicate again, and could even describe his own involvement in the tragedy.

Mr. Mori is a good and honest man, but he has begun to demonstrate classic signs of schizophrenia (a fractured self-consciousness, slippage within perception/understanding of place and time) as well as an unnerving sort of confusion regarding his own death. His condition is in this way rather remarkable, and has contributed to widespread interest in his case.

Below is a history, assembled from the accounts of relatives and friends, although neither were numerous. However, it is known to be as accurate as any concerning this enigmatic survivor of Hiroshima, and provides some context for his curious condition.>

Katsumaru Mori was born in the city of Hiroshima in the year 1873, the son of a minor government official. His family was of modest means, and was unremarkable, but a sense of pride in his family name and history was instilled in him. He was told early on in life of his noble ancestry, and of his descent from the line of Mori Terumoto, the founder of Hiroshima and a man who was nearly the shogun of Japan. Terumoto was young Katsumaru's namesake, and the boy identified strongly with his ancestor, vowing to restore glory to the Mori family.
Katsumaru excelled in school, and at age 18 travelled to Tokyo to apprentice under a master architect. He impressed many members of the architectural community, and with every year he improved his skills. He worked for years, hoping to achieve a masterpiece, a building to stand as monument to his ability and to his family's name. Katsumaru was single-minded in his pursuit of excellence, eschewing the company of others for his work. He was not unattractive, and yet he did not marry, hoping instead to start a family back home in Hiroshima after making a name for himself in Tokyo (for there were more opportunities for a young man in the state capital). Finally, in 1909 Katsumaru helped to design the Ryoguku Kokugikan, the first sumo arena in Japan. It was a massive building and was built with great skill and at great cost. Katsumaru had finally achieved his dream, and began to turn his thoughts back toward Hiroshima.
But in 1917, shortly after returning home, Katsumaru received word that the Kokugikan had caught fire and was irreparably damaged. He hurried back to Tokyo to find that his creation had been grievously burned, but he managed to convince city administrators to let him rebuild it. He again devoted a tremendous amount of time and effort to redesign the structure, and in 1919 work began to save the Kokugikan. However, that very year a massive windstorm tore down part of the incomplete roof, killing several workmen and halting the project. Katsumaru devoted himself even more to his project, investing a great deal of his own money into recreating his masterpiece, his addition to the faded glory of his ancestors' lineage. Finally, in 1923, the building was completely consumed by fire during the Great Kanto Earthquake. Katsumaru's monument to the spirits of his ancestors was finally destroyed, and a part of the man died with it. Katsumaru returned home to Hiroshima a broken man. He was 50.
During his time in Hiroshima he began to reflect upon his failures, and became possessed with the idea that he was in some way repeating the failures of his ancestor and namesake, Mori Terumoto. For Terumoto had been 36 years old when he built Hiroshima Castle and established the city, the same age that Katsumaru had been when the Ryogoku Kokugikan had been completed. And in 1599, Terumoto, aged 46 at the time, had been stripped of his power and exiled by the Tokugawa clan. Katsumaru had been 46 when the windstorm accident had finally halted reconstruction of the arena. In Terumoto's 50th year the Tokugawas finally claimed the Shogunate and moved the seat of power permanently to Tokyo, completing the disgrace of Mori Terumoto. Katsumaru had been 50 himself at the time of the Kanto Earthquake.
This unusual fixation of Katsumaru's soon developed into a strange madness, a delirium that was all the more pronounced because of the absence of family or friends. He lives in the outskirts of Hiroshima, in a world that is blurred between fantasy and reality to the extent that he himself is unable to know what is real and what is the product of his own troubled mind.