"Ah Matsuyo, my poor Matsuyo..."
Matsuyo had just taken her medicine and fallen into a deep sleep when a thirty-something, disheveled woman rushed into the Yayoi household. The moment she entered, she threw herself beside Matsuyo, clutching her small hand desperately, choking on her tears as if letting go would mean losing her forever.
It's not her fault for being timid; in Middle Ages Japan, the child mortality rate was frighteningly high for modern sensibilities. In a typical commoner family, having two or three out of six or seven children survive was considered a blessing from the gods, with mortality rates often exceeding 50%. Even among the Warrior Clan, where nutrition was relatively better, the mortality rate typically surpassed 30%.
This was an era where even a cold could be fatal, and sudden, severe abdominal pain, accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea to the point of confusion, was far from a good omen—thus death was not uncommon.
