Taiko. Part 38

"h.e.l.lo! I'm home!" Whenever he returned home, he always yelled out loudly at the entrance before going in. This way, they would all know that the son-in-law of the house had returned-from the servant working in the storage room to the corners of the kitchen. But today Tokichiro did not wait for people to come out and greet him.

When he entered the room, Tokichiro was struck by what he saw. A new mat had been spread out on the floor, and his armor chest placed on top of it. Naturally enough, his gloves, shin guards, body armor, and waistband were there, but also some medicine for wounds, a brace, and an ammunition pouch-everything he would need to take with him was laid out in order. "Your equipment," said Nene.

"Very good! Very good!" He praised her without thinking, but was suddenly struck with the thought that he hadn't yet judged this woman correctly. She was even more capable than he had perceived before marrying her.

When he had finished putting on his armor, Nene told him not to worry about her. She had taken out and arranged the earthenware cup for sacred sake.

"Take care of everything, please, while I'm away."

"Of course."

"There's no time to say good-bye to your father. Would you do it for me?"

"My mother took Oyaya to Tsushima Temple, and they still haven't returned. Father's been ordered to duty at the castle, and sent a message a while ago that he won't be coming home tonight."

"Won't you be lonely?"

She turned away but did not cry.

She looked like a flower caught by the wind with the heavy helmet on her lap. Toki-chiro took it from her, and as he put it on, the fragrance of aloeswood unexpectedly filled the air. He smiled at his wife appreciatively, tightly knotting the scented cords.

3.

FIFTH YEAR OF EIROKU 1562.

Characters and Places.

Saito Tatsuoki, lord of Mino.

Oyaya, Nene's sister Sak.u.ma n.o.b.u.mori, senior Oda retainer Ekei, Buddhist monk from the western provinces Osawa Jirozaemon, lord of Unuma Castle and senior Saito retainer Hikoemon, name given to Hachisuka.

Koroku when he became Hideyoshi's ward Takenaka Hanbei, lord of Mount Bodai Castle and senior Saito retainer Oyu, Hanbei's sister Kok.u.ma, Hanbei's servant Horio Mosuke, Hideyoshi's page.

Hosokawa Fujitaka, retainer of the shogun Yoshiaki, fourteenth Ashikaga shogun Asakura Kageyuki, general of the Asakura clan Inabayama, capital of Mino Mount Kurihara, mountain retreat of Takenaka Hanbei Sunomata, castle built by Hideyoshi Gifu, name given to Inabayama by n.o.bunaga Ichijogadani, main castle of the Asakura clan.

A Castle Built on Water.

In those days the streets of the castle town of Kiyosu rang with the voices of children singing a rhyme about n.o.bunaga's retainers: Cotton Tokichi.

Rice Goroza Sneaky Katsuie Out in the cold, n.o.b.u.mori.

"Cotton Tokichi"-Kinos.h.i.ta Tokichiro-was riding out as the general of a small army. Although the soldiers should have been marching out in splendid array, the morale was low, and they lacked spirit. When Shibata Katsuie and Sak.u.ma n.o.b.u.mo had left for Sunomata, the army had marched out to the sound of drums, with a flourish of banners. In comparison, Tokichiro looked like the leader of an inspection tour of the province, or perhaps of a relief detachment for the front.

A couple of leagues from Kiyosu, a lone rider came chasing after them from the castle, calling to them to wait.

The man leading the packhorse train looked back and said, "It's Master Maeda Inichiyo." He sent a man to the head of the column to inform Tokichiro.

The order to rest was pa.s.sed along the line. They had hardly walked far enough to work up a sweat, but the officers and men were halfhearted about the whole affair. It was an army that did not believe in the possibility of victory. And if one looked at the faces of the rank and file, one could see they were uneasy and showed no trace of a will to fight.

Inuchiyo dismounted and walked through the ranks, listening to the soldiers' talk.

"Hey! We can rest."

"Already?"

"Don't say that. A rest is all right anytime."

"Inuchiyo?"

As soon as Tokichiro saw his friend, he dismounted and rushed to greet him.

"The battle you're headed for will be the turning point for the Oda clan," Inuchiyo said suddenly. "I have absolute faith in you, but the expedition is unpopular among the retainers, and the unease in the town is extraordinary. I chased after you to say good-bye. But listen, Tokichiro, becoming a general and leading an army is very different from your previous jobs. Come on, Tokichiro, are you really prepared?"

"Don't worry." Tokichiro showed his resolve with a firm nod of the head, and added, "I have a plan."

When Inuchiyo learned what that plan was, however, he frowned. "I had heard you sent Gonzo with a message to Hachisuka, right after you received His Lordship's orders."

"You know about that? It was absolutely secret."

"The truth is, I heard it from Nene."

"A woman's mouth always leaks, doesn't it? That's a little scary."

"No. Just as I was looking in through the gate to congratulate you on your appointment, I overheard Nene talking to Gonzo. She had just come back from a visit to Atsuta Shrine to pray for your success."

"In that case, you have some idea of what I'm going to do."

"Well, do you think these bandits you're asking to be your allies are reliable? What happens if you don't pull it off?"

"I will."

"Well, I don't know what you're using as bait, but did their chief give any indication that he agreed to your proposal?"

"I don't want the others to hear."

"It's a secret, is it?"

"Look at this." Tokichiro took out a letter from under his armor and handed it silently to Inuchiyo. It was the answer from Hachisuka Koroku that Gonzo had brought back the night before. Inuchiyo read it silently, but as he returned it, he looked at Tokichiro in surprise. For a while he did not know what to say.

"You understand, I guess."

"Tokichiro, isn't this a letter of refusal? It says that the Hachisuka clan has had a relationship with the Saito clan for generations, and to break with them now and support the Oda clan would be immoral. It's clearly a refusal. How do you read it?"

"Just as it is written." Tokichiro suddenly hung his head. "It troubles me to speak so bluntly after you've shown your friendship by coming after me this far. But if you have the least bit of consideration, please just do your duty at the castle while I'm gone and don't worry."

"If you can say that, you must have faith in yourself. Well then, take care."

"I'm obliged." Tokichiro ordered the samurai at his side to bring Inuchiyo's horse.

"No, don't stand on formality. Go on ahead."

As Tokichiro remounted, Inuchiyo's steed was led up as well. "Until we meet again." Once more waving from horseback, Tokichiro rode straight ahead.

Several unmarked red banners pa.s.sed before Inuchiyo's eyes. Tokichiro turned and smiled at him. Red dragonflies peacefully flitted through the blue sky. Without another word, Inuchiyo turned his horse in the direction of Kiyosu Castle.

The moss was surprisingly thick. One might look into the s.p.a.cious garden of the Hachisuka clan's mansion, so like the temple gardens that one is forbidden to enter, and wonder how many centuries old the green moss actually was. Thickets of bamboo stood in the shade of large rocks. It was a fall afternoon, and absolutely quiet.

It's survived, that's for sure, Hachisuka Koroku would reflect when he went into the garden. It reminded him of the link with his ancestors, who had lived in Hachisuka for generations. Is my generation, too, going to pa.s.s without establishing a respectable family name? On the other hand, he consoled himself, in such times as these, my ancestors might appreciate my holding on to what I have. But there was always one part of his character that refused to be persuaded.

On such peaceful days, when one gazed at this old house that was just like a castle, surrounded on all four sides by thick, luxuriant greenery, it was impossible to believe that the lord of this place was just the master of a band of ronin, leading several thousand wolflike warriors who haunted the backroads of an unsettled land. Working secretly in both Owari and Mino, Koroku had managed to secure a power base and enough influence to resist the will of n.o.bunaga.

Walking across the garden, Koroku suddenly turned toward the main house and called out, "Kameichi! Get ready and come out here."

Koroku's eldest son, Kameichi, was eleven years old. When he heard his father's voice he took two practice spears and went out into the garden.

"What were you doing?"

"Reading."

"If you're addicted to reading books, you're going to neglect the martial arts, are you?"

Kameichi averted his eyes. The boy was different from his powerfully built father, a his character leaned toward the intellectual and gentle. As far as the world could tell, Koroku had a worthy heir, but he was actually unhappy with his son. The more than two thousand ronin under his command were mostly uneducated, wild country warriors. If the clan's leader was not able to control them, the Hachisuka would vanish. It is a natural principle among wild animals that the weak become meals for the strong.

Every time Koroku looked at this son, who resembled him so little, he feared that this was the end of his family line, and deplored Kameichi's gentle nature and scholarly bent. Whenever he had even a little leisure, he would call the boy into the garden and try to pour some of his own fierce fighting spirit into him through the martial arts.

"Take a spear."

"Yes, sir."

"Adopt the usual stance and strike without thinking of me as your father." Koroku leveled his own spear and charged toward his son as though he were an adult.

Kameichi's weak-spirited eyes shrank at his father's terrifying voice, and he retreated, Koroku's unmerciful spear struck Kameichi's shoulder hard. Kameichi screamed and dopped to the ground in a dead faint.

Running into the garden from the house, Koroku's wife, Matsunami, was beside herself. "Where did he hit you? Kameichi! Kameichi!" Obviously angered at her husband's rough treatment of her son, she called abruptly to the servants for water and medicine.

"You fool!" Koroku scolded her. "Why are you crying and consoling him? Kameichi is weakling because you've brought him up that way. He's not going to die. Get away from him!

The servants who had brought the water and medicine simply looked with blank expressions at Koroku's severe face, and kept their distance.

Matsunami wiped her tears. With the same handkerchief she pressed down on the blood that flowed from Kameichi's lip as she cradled him in her arms. He had either bitten his lip when his father had struck him, or it had been cut by a rock when he fell.

"It must hurt. Were you hit somewhere else?" She never quarrelled with her husband, regardless of how displeased or excited she felt. Like any woman of her day, her only weapons were her tears.

Kameichi finally regained consciousness. "I'm all right, Mother. It was nothing. Go away." Picking up his spear and gritting his teeth in pain, he got up again, for the first time demonstrating a manliness that must have delighted his father.

"Ready!" he shouted.

A smile softened his father's face. "Come at me with that kind of spirit," he encouraged him anew.

At that moment a retainer ran in through the gate. Turning to Koroku, he announced that a man claiming to be a messenger from Oda n.o.bunaga had just tied his horse at the main gate and said that he absolutely must speak with Koroku in private. What should be done with him, the retainer wanted to know. "And he's a little strange," he added. "He walked in casually through the gate alone, without any ceremony, looking around as though he were familiar with the place, saying things like, 'Ah, it's just like home,' 'The turtledoves are cooing as always,' and 'That persimmon tree has gotten big.' Somehow it's hard to believe he's an Oda messenger."

Koroku c.o.c.ked his head to one side. After a moment he asked, "What's his name?"

"Kinos.h.i.ta Tokichiro."

"Ah!" Suddenly it was as though his doubts had melted. "Is that so? Now I understand. This must be the man who sent that message earlier. There's no need for me to meet him. Send him away!"

The retainer ran off to throw Tokichiro out.

"I have a request," said Matsunami. "Please excuse Kameichi from practice just for today. He still looks a little pale. And his lip is swollen."

"Hm. Well, take him along." Koroku left both the spear and his son with his wife. Don't spoil him too much. And don't give him a lot of books, thinking you're doing him favor."

Koroku walked toward the house, and was about to untie his sandals on the steppingstone, when the retainer ran up again.

"Master, this man is getting stranger and stranger. He refuses to go away. Not only that, but he walked through a side gate, went right into the stables, stopped a groom and a garden sweeper, and was talking with them as though he had known them for a long time."

"Throw him out. Why are you being so easy on someone coming around from the Oda clan?"

"No, I even went beyond what you told me, but when the men spilled out of the barracks and threatened to throw him over the mud wall, he asked me to talk to you one more time. He said that if I told you he was the Hiyoshi you met ten years ago at the Yahagi River, you would certainly remember. Then he stood there looking like you couldn't budge him with a lever."

"The Yahagi River?" Koroku couldn't remember at all.

"You don't remember?"

"No."

"Well then, this fellow must be really strange. He's just rambling on in desperation. Shall I rough him up good, slap his horse, and chase him back to Kiyosu?"

It was obvious the man was getting annoyed at being a messenger again and again. With a look that said, just wait and see, he turned and had run as far as the wooden gate when Koroku, who was standing on the steps to the house, called out and stopped him.

"Wait!"

"Yes, is there something else?"

"Wait a minute. You don't think it could be Monkey?"

"You know the name? He said to tell you it was Monkey if you didn't remember Hiyoshi."