Taiko. Part 45

"We sc.r.a.pe out a living by hunting in the winter and making charcoal and selling it in the village in the summer."

"That may be so now, but not formerly. At the very least, you certainly belong to a family of pedigree. I'm not a retainer of the Saito, but due to certain circ.u.mstances, I'm lost in these mountains. We have no intention of harming you. If you don't mind, would you please tell me who you are?"

Mosuke, who had sat down next to his mother, suddenly asked, "Master samurai, you speak with an Owari accent too. Are you from Owari?"

"Yes, I was born in Nakamura."

"Nakamura? Not far from us. I was born in Gokiso."

"Then we're from the same province."

"If you're a retainer from Owari, I'll tell you everything. My father's name was Horio Tanomo. He served Lord Oda n.o.bukiyo at the fortress of Koguchi."

"How strange, if your father was a retainer of Lord n.o.bukiyo, then you would also be a retainer of Lord n.o.bunaga." I've met a good person here, Hideyoshi thought happily.

After he had been made governor of Sunomata, he had searched out men of ability to serve him. His way of handling men was not to employ them first and then make his judgment. If he trusted a man, he would immediately employ him, and then gradually put him to use. He had acted in the same way when he took a wife. He had an unusual talent for distinguishing true talent from mimicry.

"Yes, I understand. But I think, as Mosuke's mother, you don't want him to live out his life as a charcoal burner and hunter. Why don't you entrust your son to me? I know it will be taking all that you have. My status isn't high, but I'm a retainer of Lord Oda n.o.bunaga, Kinos.h.i.ta Hideyoshi by name. My stipend is low, and I think of myself as someone who is going out into the world armed with but a single spear. Will you serve me?" Hideyoshi asked, watching mother and child.

"What? Me?" Mosuke's eyes opened wide.

So happy she wondered if it was a dream, the old lady's eyes filled with tears. "If he is able to serve as a retainer to the Oda clan, my husband-who died dishonored in battle-would be so happy. Mosuke! Accept this offer and cleanse your father's name."

Mosuke, of course, made no objection, and immediately swore the oath of allegiance of a retainer.

Then Hideyoshi gave Mosuke his first order: "We are making our way to the rear of Inabayama Castle. We have a map of the mountains, but cannot find the right path. It's a rather difficult task for your first act of service, but you must guide us there. I'm counting on you."

Mosuke studied the map for a while, folded it up, and gave it back to Hideyoshi. "I understand. Does anyone need to eat? Did you bring along enough for two meals each?"

Having lost their way, they were just at the point of exhausting the rations they had carried along.

"It's only two and a half leagues to the castle, but we'd still better bring enough for two meals."

Mosuke quickly cooked rice and mixed in millet, bean paste, and salted plums, enough for ten men. Then he shouldered a single coil of hemp rope, and fixed flint and tinder and his father's sword at his side.

"Mother, I'm leaving," Mosuke said. "To go to battle is an auspicious start in serving my lord, but depending on my fate as a samurai, this may be our last farewell. If that should come to pa.s.s, please resign yourself to the loss of your son."

It was time to leave, but mother and child were naturally unwilling to part. Hideyoshi could hardly bear to watch. He walked away from the house and looked at the pitch black mountains.

Just as Mosuke was leaving, his mother called him back. She held out a gourd. "Fill this with water and take it along," she told him. "You're bound to be thirsty along the way."

Hideyoshi and the others were pleased. Until now, they had suffered from lack of water more than once. There were only a few places where springs bubbled up in the rocky crags. But the closer they came to the peak, the less water there would be.

When they reached a cliff, Mosuke tossed his rope, tied it to the base of the root of a pine, and scrambled up first, then pulled the others up behind him.

"From here on, the path becomes even more difficult to follow," he said. "There are a number of places, like the guardhouse at Akagawa Cave, where we might be caught by the guards." Hearing that, Hideyoshi understood the extent of Mosuke's prudence when, having been shown the map of the mountain, he had looked at it for a moment, not giving any quick reply. There was still something of the child about Mosuke, but he thought things out thoroughly, and Hideyoshi felt all the more affection for him.

The water in the gourd eventually became sweat on the ten men. Mosuke wiped a torrent of perspiration from his face and said, "We'll hardly be able to fight if we're this tired. Why don't we sleep here?"

"It would be good to sleep," Hideyoshi agreed, but then asked how much farther it was to the rear of the castle.

"Just down there," Mosuke said, pointing directly into the valley.

They were all excited, but Mosuke silenced them with a wave of his hand. "We can't speak out loud anymore. The wind may carry our voices in the direction of the castle."

Hideyoshi peered down into the valley. The dark trees enveloping the valley looked like an unfathomable lake. But when he looked long and hard, he could just make out the outline of a wall made of huge rocks, a stockade, and something like a storehouse between the trees.

"We're straight above the enemy here. All right, let's sleep until dawn."

The men slept on the ground, and Mosuke wrapped the now-empty gourd in a cloth and put it under his master's head. While the others slept for about two hours, Mosuke was awake, standing guard a little way off.

"Hey!" he called out.

Hideyoshi lifted his head. "What is it, Mosuke?"

Mosuke pointed to the east. "Sunrise."

Indeed, the night sky was beginning to show a tint of white. A sea of clouds covered the peaks. The valley behind Inabayama Castle, which was immediately below them, could not be seen at all.

"Well, let's start our raid," one of the men said, and Hikoemon and the others trembled with excitement, tying the cords of their armor and adjusting their leggings.

"No, wait. Let's eat first," Hideyoshi said.

While the sun came out over the vast ocean of clouds, they finished the second of the two meals Mosuke had prepared the night before. The gourd was empty, but the rice mixed with millet and wrapped in oak leaves, tasted so sweet they thought they would never forget it as long as they lived.

When they had finished eating, the mist in the valley below began to clear. They could see a precipice and a vine-covered suspension bridge. Beyond the bridge was a stone wall covered with thick green moss. The place was dark, and a desolate wind blew constantly.

"Where's the flare tube?" Hideyoshi asked. "Give it to Mosuke and teach him how to set it off."

Hideyoshi stood up and asked Mosuke if he understood how to use the flare, then said, "We're going down now to cut our way in. Keep your ears open. As soon as you hear shouting, set off the flare. All right? Don't slip up."

"I understand." Mosuke nodded and stood next to the signal tube. Seeing his master and the others off as they descended into the valley in high spirits, he looked a little unhappy. He would have liked to go with them. The clouds began to look like raging billows, and the plain between Mino and Owari became visible beneath them at last.

Since it was still early fall, the sun shone down harshly. Very quickly the castle town of Inabayama, the waters of the Nagara River, and even the crossroads among the houses came into sight. Yet not a soul could be seen. The sun rose higher.

What's happening? Mosuke asked himself nervously. His heart was pounding. Then, suddenly, he heard the echoing reports of firearms. The smoke of the signal he fired trailed into the blue sky, like a squid squirting ink.

Hideyoshi and his men had walked toward the rear of the castle with faces completely composed, looking here and there around the wide, empty s.p.a.ce where the gra.s.s was growing thick.

The first soldiers of Inabayama Castle to see the party thought that it was composed of their own men. Stationed at the neighboring fuel warehouse and rice storeroom, they ate their morning rations and gossiped. Even though there had been several days of steady fighting, this was a large citadel, and all of the action had been taking place around the front gate. Here at the rear of this natural fortress, it was so quiet you could hear the chirping of birds.

When there was fighting at the front of the castle, the soldiers at the rear could hear the sound of firearms crackling from the direction of the tortuous path to the front gate. But the few soldiers who guarded the rear thought they would not take part in the battle until the very end.

"They're really having it out, up front," one of the soldiers said complacently.

Eating their rations, the soldiers watched Hideyoshi and his men, and finally began to regard them with suspicion. "Who are they?"

"You mean those men over there?"

"Uh-huh. It's sort of strange, the way they're hanging around, don't you think? They're looking into the guardhouse by the stockade."

"They've probably come from the front lines."

"But who are they?"

"It's hard to tell when they're in armor."

"Hey! One of them's come out of the kitchen with a firebrand! What do you suppose he's going to do with it?"

As they watched with chopsticks in hand, the man carrying the firebrand ran into the fue1 warehouse and ignited the piles of firewood. The others followed, carrying torches and throwing them into the other buildings.

"It's the enemy!" the guards yelled.

Hideyoshi and Hikoemon turned in their direction and laughed, How did this seemingly impregnable stronghold fall so easily? First, the interior of the castle was thrown into confusion by the outbreak of fire at the rear. Second, the shouts of Hideyoshi and his men panicked the defenders, and they started to fight among themselves, thinking there must be traitors in their midst. But the most important factor in their defeat, understood only afterward, was the result of someone's advice.

Several days before, the dimwitted Tatsuoki had brought the wives and children of the soldiers fighting outside the castle, as well as the families of wealthy townsfolk, into the castle as hostages, so that his soldiers would not submit to the enemy.

The man who devised this policy, however, was none other than Iyo, one of the Three Men of Mino, who had already allied himself with Hideyoshi. So this "strategy" was nothing more than a seditious plot. Because of this, the confusion inside the castle during the attack was terrible, and the defenders were unable to put up full resistance to the attackers. Finally, n.o.bunaga, who was always looking out for an opportunity, sent Tatsuoki a letter at the height of the confusion: Today your immoral clan is engulfed in the flames of divine punishment and will soon be overwhelmed by my soldiers. The people of this province look for a sign of rain that will put out these fires, and shouts of joy are already rising from the castle town. You are the nephew of my wife. For many years I have pitied your cowardice and folly, and cannot bear putting you to the sword. Rather, I would gladly spare your life and grant you a stipend. If you wish to live, surrender and quickly send an envoy to my camp.

As soon as Tatsuoki read the letter, he ordered his men to surrender, and he and members of his family left the castle, accompanied by only thirty retainers. Attaching his own soldiers to them as an escort, n.o.bunaga exiled Tatsuoki to Kaisei, but he promised to give his younger brother, Shingoro, some land so that the Saito clan might not vanish.

With the unification of Owari and Mino, the value of n.o.bunaga's domains rose to one million two hundred thousand bushels of rice. n.o.bunaga moved his castle for the third time, from Mount Komaki to Inabayama, which he renamed Gifu, after the birthplace of China's Chou Dynasty.

"Be a Friendly Neighbor"

The castle town of Kiyosu was now deserted. There were few shops and samurai residences. Nevertheless, through that very desolation there shone the satisfaction of shedding a skin. It is a principle of all living things: once the womb has carried out its function, it must be content to decay and fall away. And very much in this way, it was a joy to everyone that n.o.bunaga was not going to be trapped forever in his hometown, even if it meant the town's decline.

And here, such a woman who had given birth was growing old. This was Hideyoshi's mother. She would be fifty this year. For the moment she was peacefully tending to her old age, living with her daughter-in-law, Nene, at their house in the samurai district of Kiyosu. But until two or three years before she had been a farmer, and the joints of her earth-chapped hands were still calloused. Having given birth to four children, she was missing many of her teeth. Her hair, however, was still not all white.

One letter that Hideyoshi wrote to her from the field was typical of many: How is your hip? Are you still using moxa? When we lived on the farm you always said, "Don't waste food on me," no matter what it was. So even here I worry that you're not eating properly. You must live a long life. I'm worried that I won't have time to take care of you as I'd like, because I'm such a dunce. Happily, I have not been sick here. My fate as a warrior seems to be blessed, and His Lordship holds me in high regard.

After the invasion of Mino, it would be difficult to count the letters he sent.

"Nene, read this. He always writes like a child." Hideyoshi's mother said to Nene.

Every time, his mother would show the letters to her daughter-in-law, and Nene would show the old lady the letters that came to her.

"The letters he sends to me aren't nearly as tender. It's always things like 'Be careful of fire,' or 'Be a dutiful wife when your husband is away,' or 'Look after my mother.'"

"That boy is clever. He sends a letter to you and one to me; one strict, the other tender. So I guess he divides his letter writing just right when you consider that he covers both sides."

"That must be it," Nene said, laughing. She looked after her husband's mother with devotion. She did her best to serve her as though she, like Otsumi, were her natural daughter. Above all other things, however, the old lady's pleasure came from Hideyoshi's letters. Just at the point when they were worrying because they hadn't received one for a long time, a letter arrived from Sunomata. For some reason, however, this letter was just for his wife, with nothing addressed to his mother.

Sometimes letters from Hideyoshi came just to his mother, with nothing for his wife. His messages to her were ordinarily just postscripts to the letters to his mother. He had never sent one strictly to his wife until today. Nene suddenly thought that something must be wrong, or that there was something he did not want to worry his mother about. Going into her own room and cutting open the envelope, she found an unusually long letter: For a long time it has been my hope that I could have you and my mother living here with me. Now that I have finally become the lord of a castle and have been awarded ageneral's standard by His Lordship, the situation is tolerable enough to invite my mother to Sunomata. I wonder, however, if it wouldn't discomfort her. She was concerned before that her presence would be a burden to me in my service to His Lordship. She has also always said that she is just an old farm woman, and that this life would be far beyond her status. For this reason, she is certain to refuse with some exccuse, even if I ask her.

What should I say? Nene had no idea. She thought that her husband's implied request was grave, indeed.

Just then the old lady's voice called to her from the rear of the house. "Nene! Nene Come here for a moment and look!"

"Coming!" Again today she was hoeing the earth around the roots of the autum eggplants. It was afternoon and still rather hot. Even the clods of earth in the garden were hot. Sweat shone on her hands.

"My goodness! In this heat?" Nene said.

But the old lady always replied that that was what farm people liked to do, and not to worry. No matter how many times Nene heard this, however, since she did not have farmer's upbringing and did not know the real flavor of farming, to her it had always looked like nothing more than backbreaking work. Still, she had recently felt that she was beginning to understand, at least a little, why her husband's mother was unable to stop working.

The old lady often referred to crops as "the gifts of the earth." The fact that she had been able to raise four children in great poverty and that she herself had not starved to death was one of those gifts. In the morning she clapped her hands toward the sun in prayer and said that this, too, was a habit from her time in Nakamura. She would not forget her former life.

Occasionally she said that if she suddenly became used to gorgeous clothes and sumptuous meals and forgot the blessings of the sun and earth, she would certainly be punished and become sick.

"Oh, Nene, look at this!" As soon as she saw her daughter-in-law, Hideyoshi's mother put the mattock down and pointed happily at her work. "Look at how many of the eggplants are ripe. We'll pickle them so we can eat them this winter. Bring the baskets over, and let's pick a few now."

When Nene returned, she gave one of the two baskets to her mother-in-law. As she began picking eggplants and putting them into the baskets, she said, "With all your hard work we're going to have enough vegetables for all the soup and pickles the house will need."

"I imagine the shops we patronize are going to be annoyed."

"Well, the servants say you enjoy it, and that it's good for your health. And it's certainly economical, so it must be a good thing."

"It won't be good for Hideyoshi's reputation if people think we're doing it just to be stingy. We'll just have to try to buy something else from the merchants so they won't think that way."

"Yes, let's do that. Well, Mother, I feel badly speaking about this, but a letter arrived from Sunomata just a little while ago."

"Oh? From my son?"

"Yes... but this time it wasn't addressed to you; it came just for me."

"Either way is just fine. Well, is everything as usual? Is he all right? We haven't received any news for a while, and I thought this must be due to His Lordship moving to Gifu."

"That's right. In the letter he asked me to tell you that His Lordship has made him the governor of a castle, so he thinks the time is right for us to join him. He asked me to persuade you to come, and said that you should definitely move to Sunomata Castle in a few days' time."

"Oh... that's wonderful news. That he should become the lord of a castle is like a dream, but he shouldn't go too far and overstep himself."

As she listened to happy news about her son, her mother's heart worried lest his good fortune should prove to be short-lived. The old lady and her daughter-in-law worked together in the garden, picking eggplants. Soon the baskets were full of the bright purple vegetables.

"Mother, doesn't your back hurt?"

"What? Why, to the contrary. If I work bit by bit like this all day, my body stays fit."

"I'm learning from you, too. Since you've let me help you in the garden off and on, I've learned to enjoy picking the greens for the soup in the mornings, and working with he cuc.u.mbers and eggplants. Even after we move to Sunomata Castle, there's bound to be a place somewhere on the grounds to plant a vegetable patch. We'll be able to work all we want."

The old lady covered her mouth with her earth-stained hand and chuckled. "You're just as clever as Hideyoshi. You decided to move to Sunomata even before I knew what was happening."

"Mother." Nene prostrated herself, pressing her fingertips to the earth. "Please grant my husband's wish!" The old lady hastily took Nene's hands and tried to put them to her forehead.

"Don't do that! I'm just a selfish old woman."

"No, you're not. I understand your thoughtfulness very well."

"Please don't get mad at an old lady's willfulness. It's for that boy's sake that I don't want to go to Sunomata. And so he won't be lacking in his service to His Lordship."