About twenty days after he said this, a similar mushroom sprouted out again but upside down this time. Everyone was surprised to see this and told Dokan. He said, ‘As I said before it would be strange if it grows upside down, it must have picked up what I said, so there is no wonder that it has come out upside down,’ and then he laughed.
Later on, it so happened that a hearth stand danced around a room laid with Tatami mats. To see this, Dokan said, ‘Human beings can walk with only two feet. No wonder it can walk as it has three feet! This kind of thing always happens by chance and people easily get anxious and disturbed.’ He did not care for it at all and nothing else took place thereafter.
Article 45
According to an old samurai story, there was a samurai whose name was Matsuda Kinshichiro Hidenobu, who was a retainer of Tentokuji Munetsuna Nyudo in Sano of the domain of Shimotsuke. He was born in Yamato. His master, Tentokuji Munetsuna Nyudo found and employed him when he went up to Kyoto, because it was known that he was an samurai who had achieved much.
Kinshichiro possessed such a phenomenal strength that he used to march with a huge twelve-layered Horo61 arrow cape with large bird feathers and carrying a gold covered deer horn as a standard.
After his lord died, Kinshichiro Hidenobu was employed by Gamo Ujisato and then after Ujisato died, Kinshichiro was attached to the troop of Natsuka Okura-no-tayu at the Battle of Sekigahara. At the battle he captured and dragged in ten of the enemy with a rake and had his allies cut off their heads, then he himself was killed in the battle.
Article 46
According to an old samurai story, at the Winter Siege of Osaka Castle, Suzukida Hayato-no-suke, who was on the side of Lord Hideyori, was given command of a ship to defend against the central west provinces and he was stationed at Etsuda Castle. However, Hachisuka Awa-no-kami, from Ieyasu’s side, attacked and captured the castle so Hayato-no-suke fled to Osaka to save his life.
The next spring, when Lord Hideyori’s senior counsellors met together to talk about strategies, this Suzukida was also present. Then a 12- or 13-year-old page boy went to him with a large fruit called an Okoji and said, ‘Look at this sir Hayato-no-suke. Do you not think it is a beautiful fruit?’ To this, he agreed that it was quite beautiful. Then the boy said, ‘This big Okoji fruit is just like you Sir Hayato-no-suke, if it were a human that is. It looks so graceful but it is not quite so on the inside, therefore, it cannot be served as food. Remember, you cannot judge things by their looks alone.’
At which the defeated samurai Hayato-no-suke was terribly embarrassed. However, at the Summer Siege, on the sixth of the fifth month, he was killed magnificently at the Domyoji entrance to the castle and his head was cut off by Kawakami Shinpachiro, a retainer of Mizuno Hyuga-no-kami Katsunari.
It is said the page boy was told to speak as such by Ono Shuri-no-suke.
Article 47
According to an old samurai story, there is a song sung by local people in Mikawa which they sing while grinding with a hand mill. It goes thus:
Lord Tokugawa has good men. Hattori Hanzo62 is the Devil Hanzo, Watanabe Hanzo is Spear Hanzo and Atsumi Gengo is the Head-Taker Gengo.
Article 48
According to an old samurai story, Date Masamune of Sendai fell into discord with his former ally Ashina Morishige of Aizu, and allied with himself Inawashiro Moritane, the lord of Inawashiro Castle who was also from Aizu, and they went to battle with Ashina Morishige in the middle of the Tensho period (1589). The vanguard, including Haneda Inaba-no-kami, Katakura Kojuro, Date Awa-no-kami and so on, and numbered at around 3,000 people, were encamped in Suriagehara. The Hatamoto command group stayed on Mt Bandai. Seeing this, Ashina Morishige – the defender – said to all his men, ‘We will not come back to our castle unless we win a victory in this battle with Masamune. Observe our determination!’ And from here they entered into combat with the attackers. When all of his army had crossed over the Niihashi River, they set fire to the bridge and encamped with the river to the rear. The purpose of this action was to show his determination to everyone that there would be no chance of retreat and the safety of the castle unless they had victory. However, Morishige intended to position an army of 10,000 people in Suriagehara but his four principle retainers, Sayo, Tomita, Hirata and Matsumoto betrayed him and secretly took the side of Sendai the attacker. Morishige was anxious to begin a battle but the four treacherous retainers would not mobilise their troops and he could not help but spend quite a few days dealing only with foot soldier skirmishes.
Eventually Morishige went to attack the front of the invader Masamune with his main retainers. Meanwhile, Masamune secretly moved with his army centre from Mt Bandai across the river at Dojima and succeeded in capturing the castle. On getting the signal to confirm this capture, Masamune’s vanguard started to fight fiercely against Morishige’s defending army. Although Morishige was resolute in battle, because of the betrayal of these four retainers, his army was defeated.
A son of Tomita – a senior retainer of the defending side – who was a Shogun imperial guard, said, ‘Even though my father betrayed him, I have no dishonesty,’ and after saying this he went deep across the enemy line, killed a samurai named Taromaru Kamon and brought his head to show his lord.
Afterwards, Morishige’s Castle was taken by Masamune. As Morishige was the youngest son of Satake Yoshiakira – a powerful warlord – he withdrew to his home domain of Hitachi, he changed his name to Yorihiro and lived in Ryugasaki of Hitachi. Though he was a son of Satake, he took the name Morishige as it was a noble family name of Aizu.
* * *
VOLUME THREE
* * *
Article 49
According to an old samurai story, Lord Ouchi Yoshitaka had a woman whom he loved and paid visits to in secret. Once, he sent a letter by messenger but the messenger heard him wrong and delivered it to his wife. Reading this letter, the wife made a poem and sent it to the woman.
Do not rely on him or his feelings towards you, he says he will not change but that’s what he used to say to me
After that, she also sent a poem to her lord as well:
It seems the plover bird must have had two different things in mind. You can see its footsteps stray from the path
Article 50
According to an old samurai story, the lord of Daijoji Castle in Kaga domain, Yamaguchi Genba-no-Kami allied himself with Ishida Mitsunari and defended the castle against a siege but in the end yielded at last to Maeda Toshiie, who was on the side of Lord Ieyasu.63 Toshiie reported the incident to the Lord Ieyasu. In reply, Lord Ieyasu appointed Horio Tatewaki, who was also the lord of Hamamatsu Castle in Enshu, with the defence of the newly aquired Daijoji Castle. There was another castle near to Hamamatsu, called Kariya Castle and Mizuno So-byoe-no-jo was its lord. As their castles were closely located, the two lords often met for friendly talks at Chiryu within Mizuno’s domain.
One time they met up in Chiryu to talk about the task of defending the acquired Daijoji Castle. Then during this talk a samurai, whose name was Kaganoe Yahachiro, who sympathised with the defeated Ishida Mitsunari, came to Chiryu and was outfitted for a long journey. The two lords saw this and asked him where he was going. Yahachiro replied that he intended to join them and to side with Ieyasu and that he was going down to Kanto region. They questioned the travelling samurai Yahachiro, saying they thought he was allied with Ishida and that it must be a lie or that he had an ill intention. He replied that was what other people had said but it was his true intention to side with them and their lord and that he had given a solemn oath. To this they said, ‘Then your word must be true. However, as you are not so highly ranked, you will be of little use to Lord Ieyasu. Therefore we will communicate to Kanto about your intentions; and you should not proceed but in fact wait for an answer in reply.’ They also said, ‘As Sir Tatewaki is going to take charge of Daijoji Castle, it is probably best that you should go there with him.’ The travelling samurai Yahachiro replied that he would leave everything to
them and agreed to go to the castle.
On hearing this, the two samurai were pleased and had a boisterous party filled with booze and revelry. In the middle of the party the new, travelling samurai, Yahachiro, drew his sword and killed the lord So-byoe-no-jo, and tried to kill Tatewaki as well. However, Tatewaki drew his sword and after a hard fight killed the traitor samurai in the end. Once So-byoe-no-jo’s men came and saw this, they mistakenly thought that Tatewaki had betrayed So-byoe-no-jo and had killed both him and the new, and lower samurai, Yahachiro (who was the real traitor). Twenty to thirty people now attacked him with swords and Tatewaki defended himself by fighting with them until he could get back to his men and explain what happened. At which point, a page who was attending the party, who knew what had happened, told his side of the story, and thus it was revealed that Lord Tatewaki was indeed telling the truth.
Afterwards, when looking into the traitor Yahachi’s pouch, there was a signed deed from Ishida’s side. It says that if he killed both Mizuno So-byoe-no-jo and Horio Tatewaki, he was promised to be given both their domains of Mikawa and Enshu.
Article 51
According to an old samurai story, there are six tools for a Musha warrior.
A Horo: an ‘arrow-catching cape’ which is shaped like a placenta, a shape that makes it worthy, as it is the result of the combination of In and Yo (Yin and Yang). This tool will protect you from any disaster.
A quiver: this quiver is modelled after the head of a demon called Isora.64 The deity Taishakuten killed this demon with twenty-five arrows, Therefore, a samurai’s quiver should have twenty-five arrows in it. There is one arrow which is most important. This single arrow is used to change a direction from an unlucky one to a positive one.
Archers’ sleeve:65 this represents Kongokai66 and Taizokai. Details are omitted.
A small flag: used to display a family crest. This is to display your surname without having to announce it. There are details to be known about this flag.
A folding fan: it should have ten ribs which represent the ten great virtues in Buddhism. In our country these ten great virtues symbolise the great Bodhisattva, Hachiman Daibosatsu, remember, there is nothing more suitable for a Bushi warrior to worship than this.
A rod or whip: this represents the twenty-eight lunar mansions in Chinese astronomy. The whip should be 2 shaku, 7 sun long, this represents twenty-seven of the mansions. You yourself represent one mansion, which adds up to a total of twenty-eight. Its construction should be orally transmitted.
The above are called the Rokugu or six tools.
Article 52
According to an old samurai story, Sendai Chunagon67 Masamune was one-eyed and composed his death poems as follows:
With one shining eye I declare to the king of Hell that I am the Lord of Oshu
By lighting ahead with the clear moon in my mind I have made my way in the darkness of this world
Article 53
According to an old samurai story, there were two bright samurai serving Kato Sama-no-suke Yoshiaki, whose names were Kawagi Gorozaemon and Kurokawa Kahyoe. Among all the retainers, these two were the most deeply determined on the path of samurai – that is Bushido. So much so that everyone complimented them, saying they would distinguish themselves as warriors in due course.
Of these two, Kawagi was always trying to outdo Kurokawa while Kurokawa was also trying to do better than Kawagi. At the coming of the Winter Siege of Osaka, these two warriors left, accompanying the lord’s son Shikibu Shosho68 to battle. During the journey they had to cross over the Yodo River. Realising this, the two came to step into the river on horseback and had their horses swim side by side. Unfortunately, the other side afforded no footing and the horses could not get out of the river and both the men and horses drowned. Everyone grieved for them with clenched fists, thinking that it was a tragic death.
There was another brave samurai, who was a retainer of the above and now dead Kawagi. He told his wife and children, ‘Now our master leaves our domain, I think he will not come back again. If it is the case, then neither will I.’ As he predicted, he followed his master and he stepped into the river and tried to swim across holding his horse’s tail, but he was also drowned.
Also, Kurokawa used to tell his horse in advance of combat, ‘As I treasure you so much I totally trust you to be of true value if the occasion so arises. If things turn out against my wishes we will die together. Please do not think ill of me for this.’ True to his word, he stabbed his horse twice at the side of the neck while they were both in the water. That is what was found after the bodies were raised from the deep.
Article 54
According to an old samurai story, in the domain of Echigo, Lord Nagao Tamekage had two sons, named Sir Rokuro and Sir Sarumatsu.69 Rokuro was very gentle while Sarumatsu was extraordinarily mischievous. Lord Tamekage disliked Sarumatsu and expelled him from Echigo at the age of 12 or 13 years. Later on, the lord was killed in a battle with the enemies of Kaga and Ecchu, and his son Rokuro succeeded his father.
However, since he was so gentle he spent time without the intention to fighting a battle to avenge his father’s death and it made the enemies in neighbouring provinces overconfident and they tried to invade Echigo. Then, Sir Sarumatsu, the mischievous child, who had been roaming the land, heard of that and came back home without delay. He raised the allied army and won a victory over the enemies in both Kaga and Ecchu. Even though he achieved his aim, the retainers of the clan did not have much attachment to him due to his wandering and no one raised the issue of whether Sir Sarumatsu should be the head of the clan.
Therefore, Sir Sarumatsu said, ‘Now that I have fought an avenging battle for my father, there is nothing to regret and now as I have something to think about, I will go up to Mt Koya of Kishu and become a priest.’ The retainers greatly surprised to hear this and tried to stop him, but he went as far as two or three Ri from the castle. There the retainers followed him and said, ‘Please stay with us. If you do not then our domain of Echigo will be taken by the enemy.’ He replied to this, ‘Then will you follow my orders from now on?’ They agreed to it, so he told them to take an oath and thus he came back with them. After that he defeated or killed70 those who would not take his side, forcing his brother Sir Rokuro to retire and making himself the lord of Echigo. It was this Sir Sarumatsu who later became Lord Nagao Kenshin Terutota.71
Article 55
According to an old samurai story, there was a very brave samurai named Shino-no-Saizo, who was a retainer of Fukushima Saemon-dayu Masanori. During the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Saemon-dayu sent him, together with another younger samurai, as messengers. The younger one said, ‘Let’s go along outside of the Taketaba bamboo shields.’ To this Saizo replied, ‘There is a hail of bullets and arrows on the outside, thus I cannot accompany you.’ So he went inside the shield wall. The younger samurai took the outside route saying, ‘What does it matter if you go along the outside?’ Favoured with good luck he succeeded in arriving at the destination without being shot. As the older samurai Saizo had taken the inside route, he arrived there without event or problem. After they regrouped and delivered the message to the receiver and made preparations to return, the young and ‘brave’ samurai said in a scared tone, ‘You were correct in your judgement, Sir Saizo. The arrows and gunshots from the enemy were so fierce that I scarcely survived.’
To hear that, Saizo said, ‘Though I hoped to go with you at the start, we had been told to deliver an important message, if we were killed before successfully passing it to the receiver, it would have gone against the military laws. Now we are finished with the mission, there will be no problem if we are killed by an arrow or gunshot.’ Thus, he insisted on taking the outside route while the young warrior went on the inside of the shields. Saizo came back without being shot.
Article 56
According to an old samurai story, those who have decapitated some famous generals or warriors are listed here; as I have remembered them.
L
ord Imagawa Yoshimoto was decapitated by Mori Shinsuke.
Torii Shirozaemon was decapitated by Tsuchiya Yemon-nojo.
Baba Mino-no-kami was decapitated by Kawai Sanjuro.
Naito Shuri-no-suke was decapitated by Asahina Sozaemon.
Oda Shichibyoe was decapitated by Ueda Mondo-no-suke.
Ikeda Shonyu was decapitated by Nagai Ukon.
Ikeda Shokuro was decapitated by Ando Tatewaki.
Mori Shozo was decapitated by Honda Hachizo.
Kawajiri Yohyoe was decapitated by Mitsui Yaichiro.
Shinagawa Okami-no-suke was decapitated by Yamanaka Shika-no-suke.
Yamanaka Shika-no-suke was decapitated by Kawaya Shinzaemon.
Hojo Tango-no-kami was decapitated by Ogita Shume.
Sanada Saemon-no-suke was decapitated by Nishio Nizaemon.
Mishuku Echizen-no-kami was decapitated by Nomoto Ukon.
Kimura Nagato-no-kami was decapitated by Ando Chosaburo.
Susukida Hayato-no-suke was decapitated by Kawamura Shinpachiro.
Akashi Kamon-no-suke was decapitated by Migiwa San’emon.
Ban Dan’emon was decapitated by Yagi Shinzaemon.
Orosi Hikozaemon was decapitated by Hattori Den’emon.
Samurai War Stories Page 11