Becoming The Muse

“The life of an echo.
Perfect sky and mountain firm.
Fires of purity burn.
On a dark ocean.”

—Okubo Tokugawa

A poem from Spellbound The Grimnoir Chronicles an Urban Fantasy Series by Larry Correia. In the book, the poem is written by Okubo Tokugawa an immortal and exceptionally powerful wizard who rules as the Chairman of the Japanese Imperium and of course a poet.

The character is fictional but has a name that’s a combination of two major Japanese historical surnames representing opposing eras of Japanese history, Ōkubo Toshimichi (a Meiji Restoration leader known for composing classical Kanshi poetry) and the Tokugawa Shogunate (the ruling samurai family that Ōkubo helped overthrow).