‘Why was that?’ asked the children.
They told us this because when a stone was shot, the towers of our castle were shaken so tremendously that it felt as if the ground would split and weak-kneed women often fainted at this, it was a hard time. That is why they went around warning us all. Whenever we heard that, it felt like waiting for thunder after seeing lightning. At the beginning, we thought we were going to die and we could not think of anything, nothing came to us apart from fear. However, afterwards we did not care for it very much any more, as we were used to it. My mother and the other wives and daughters were all in the castle tower, casting bullets. As well as this, the severed enemy heads taken by our allies were gathered in the tower so that we could put name tags onto them, we did this so that we remembered who they were. We would also blacken the teeth in the head.
‘Why was that?’ asked the children.
It is because those heads with blackened teeth were considered to be decent warriors. Therefore, we were told to apply the colour to those heads with white teeth. Remember, heads are not what you should be afraid of, back then we even slept among the heads with the smell of blood in the air. (See Fig 21)
One day we were attacked with muskets by the besiegers and all people within the castle fell into fear and confusion, more than normal, this was because the castle appeared to be falling to the enemy that day. A high-ranking retainer came to us and said, ‘The enemy is out of sight now. Do not fuss yourselves any more and calm down, just, calm down.’ Just then a bullet flew in and hit my 14-year-old brother. He fell into a spasm and died. I must say, the scene I saw then was really tragic.
On that day, a Yabumi letter tied to an arrow flew into where my father was positioned in the castle, and it said ‘Kyoreki, a teacher to Lord Ieyasu has spoken up for you as he has a connection to you and reason to speak on your behalf, thus, if you want to escape from the castle, your life will be spared. You may flee to any province you like. All troops have been instructed to let you go. Therefore, you will not have trouble on your way out.’ Since being told the castle would fall the next day, we all had lost heart and feared that we might be killed on the morrow. My father secretly came over to the castle tower and told my mother and us to follow him. He then took us and put a ladder down from the side of the north wall attached to a rope. We went from here and we crossed over the moat in a wooden washtub. (See Fig 22)
Our party consisted of my parents, myself and a senior retainer, four in all and we left all the other retainers behind.
When we had gone as far as 5 or 6 cho north from the castle, my mother suddenly had pains in her stomach and delivered a baby girl. One retainer bathed her in the water of a rice field, and covered her with the skirt of his kimono. My father took my mother on his shoulder and we all made for the direction of Aonogahara. How fearful this experience was. Alas the old days, Manmaida, Manmaida.2 (See Fig 23)
When the children asked the old nun again, ‘please tell us about Hikone’ – she told the following tale:
My father was given a fief of 300 koku, but there were so many battles at that time and we had a very difficult time with everything.
Though we all had little savings, what we had every morning and evening was porridge, this we ate almost every day. Sometimes my brother went hunting with his musket in the mountains, then we cooked rice with greens and he took it as his lunch. When he ventured on these hunting excursions, we also got to eat this meal, so I often asked him to go hunting and if he did I became happy and excited.
Also we did not have enough clothes, I had nothing else but one summer kimono dyed pale blue that was handmade for me at the age of 13. As I was wearing the same thing until I was 17, it was too short for me and it did not even cover my shins, which was a great nuisance. All I wished for was to have a Katabira gown that would cover my shins. As you see from this, we had a very difficult life at that time. We could not eat lunch at all, nor take any late night meals. Young people these days care too much about clothes and are so obsessed with it that they spend money, or complain about food. It is so absurd.
[Commentary by a family member]:
She would always tell the children off by bringing up this old story of Hikone, and because of this, the children ended up calling her ‘Hikone Baba’ or the Hag of Hikone. Even now, we use the word ‘talk about Hikone’ to mean old people who criticise the current society by bringing up their past stories. It is said that the idiom originated from this old woman and it is only a local word and those from other provinces would not understand it.
Her father, Yamada Kyoreki, became a ronin and went down to Tosa, where he sought help from a relative, named Yamada Kisuke (who later became Yamada Youya). Oan married Amenomori Giemon, and after Giemon’s death, she was supported by the above Yamada Kisuke. Oan was an aunt to Kisuke. She died at over 80 years old, which was during the Kanbun era of 1661-73.
I [the author and family member] was eight or nine years old when hearing the above old stories from her on occasions, which I have remembered since then. The saying that, ‘time flies like an arrow’ holds true indeed.
During the Shotoku Era of 1711 to 1715, I told this story to my grandchildren and criticised them, putting together all ancient things to show how much waste there is these days. However, the cheeky grandchildren said to me, ‘The old woman was the Hikone Hag while you, our grandfather are a Hikone Jii, that is an old codger and that the world must change with time,’ they think I am talking nonsense and they stick their noses up at me. It makes me angry, but all I can say is ‘You should have fear about the future as you never know what will happen.’ In turn, my grandchildren will be sniffed at by their grandchildren someday. There was nothing else to say so I just chanted a word of prayer, ‘Mammaida, Mammaida’.
[Commentary by a later author]:
The above writing is an admirable and true story. Who recorded it is unknown. Possibly it was a memorandum by someone from the Yamada family. It was possessed by Tanaka Denzaemon and I borrowed it from him.
Kyoho 15 (1730) the Year of Kanoe Inu, the twenty-seventh day of the third month.
By Tanikakimori3
Okiku Monogatari
The Story of Okiku
(probably seventeenth century)
The grandmother of Tanaka Itoku – who was a doctor of the Ikeda clan – used to serve Yodo-dono4 in Osaka and her name was Kiku.
On the day when Osaka Castle fell, which was 5 May 1615, she was in a Nagatsubone chamber which was a place for companion ladies. They were totally oblivious to the fall of the castle that day and she gave some buckwheat to a female servant and ordered her to make pancakes. Then the servant left for the kitchen. After that, she was informed that the area around the Tamatsukuriguchi exit had been burnt down, and some other areas were also engulfed in flames. Next she heard a great uproar and went out to the external corridor of the main hall, there she beheld the entire area in flames. Upon seeing this, she went back to the chamber, took out her summer kimono and put on three layers of dress. Also, she put on three pieces of underwear and put the mirror – given by Lord Hideyori – into her clothes and went out to the kitchen. There, in the kitchen stood Takeda Eiou, wearing black armour, he had two unknown samurai with him at this time. One unknown samurai was asking a maidservant, outside of the kitchen, to take care of an injury to his shoulder and to tie his sash for him, but upon hearing his voice, the maid did not pay any attention to him and left the place in a rush. The warrior Takeda Eiou instructed us not to go out, but they did not care at all and left.
They found the Umajirushi standard of golden gourds left behind, and she, together with a servant named Oacha and one more, considered this to be shameful, so they broke the standard and threw it away. After that, they finally got out of the castle, there were the shield walls of bamboo but no warriors, neither inside nor outside of the castle, not even a wounded man could be seen. After a while, a man in a summer kimono came out from behind the bamboo shields, drawing a rusty sword and t
old them to give him any money that they had. She gave him two ingots and asked him which way General Todo was forming his defence. He replied that it was at the Matsubaraguchi exit, upon hearing this they asked him to take them there, and said if he did, they would give him more money. Thus he led them saying, ‘Come this way.’ On their way, they saw Yokoin-dono5 (who was a high-ranking lady) who was being carried on the back of a samurai with another samurai helping them by supporting her feet as they escaped. The party also had other samurai and maidservants following them. On seeing them, they immediately rushed up to them and joined their escape. The party dropped by a house in Moriguchi, where we laid down straw mats and two old Tatami mats. They placed Yokoin-dono on two Tatami mats and we ourselves sat on the straw ones. They had a wooden half-barrel of steamed rice, the rice was served on paper and we all ate it.
She did not know where they got that rice from, but this was probably given by Wakasa-no-Kami because Yokoin-dono was only staying in the castle for the negotiation of a possible reconciliation, the fall of the castle just happened to take place during her stay there. (See Fig 24)
One of the attendants was a daughter of Yamashiro Kunai, who was serving Lord Hideyori, and she was wearing only one katabira and one piece of underwear. As Kiku felt sorry for her, she took off one layer of her katabira and underwear and gave them to the woman.
In the meantime, Yokoin-dono was summoned by Lord Ieyasu and a palanquin came for her. Before leaving, the lady said to the attendants, ‘though you are women, you were in the castle and I have no idea what Lord Ieyasu’s orders will be and any order could be given. However, I will speak for you as well as I can but still you will have to follow whatever he orders, be well prepared for what is to come.’ With these words, everyone grieved deeply. After a while she returned and as soon as she got off the palanquin, she told them that the lord would allow everyone to go wherever they liked and have someone see us safely away. At this news we could not be happier. Then Kiku hoped to visit Matsunomaru-dono in Kyoto, but Kunai’s daughter, who was also among them, did not know where to go and asked me to let her accompany me. On their way to Kyoto, they dropped in on a merchant, who lived in Osaka. Though they did not think much of him when they were within the castle, he was better off than we expected. However, as they were refugees from Osaka Castle, it was inappropriate for him to let them stay even for one night, so he gave them each a roll of cloth instead. Next, they went to Oda Samon-dono’s mansion, but they could not gain entry. However, Kunai’s daughter, who was still with me at this point, was actually Samon-dono’s niece and she told them she was with them and asked why they would not permit us to enter. Upon this information, we were taken in immediately and treated much better than was to be expected. Samon-dono showed us courtesy, thinking he could save his niece thanks to her efforts. While staying at the Samon-dono residence for four or five days, they had to stay on the second storey, which was not so lavish, and also they had to take meals there too. Therefore, she took her leave and headed for Matsunomaru-dono’s residence. When she left, Samon-dono unexpectedly gave her a Katabira robe and five silver coins. In the end Kiku ended up serving Matsunomaru-dono6 and later on got married to Itoku’s grandfather and ended up in Bizen and died there.
It was not known what happened to the servant who was ordered to make the buckwheat pancake. People said that Lord Hideyori, Yodo-dono, Okura-kyo and all the other major people had moved into the Yamazato7 tea rooms as early as two or three days before the fall of the castle, so none of them were in the castle tower at the break of the siege. Whether they were dead or not is unknown. (See Fig 25)
Extra information on the castle siege by the original chronicler:
Before the fall of the castle, a bullet came from nowhere and went through a maid and smacked into the side of the cupboard. It is said the edge of a Tatami mat was torn off as the bullet went past. It was also said the bullet weighed 30 momme and when it was weighed in hand, this seemed to be correct. After this event, they hung a curtain in the direction from where it came.
War councils were always had in the same chamber and were held in the deepest part of the quarters, therefore the above Okiku had had a chance to overhear them.
In the castle, they would pound and make Mochi rice cakes almost every day. This Mochi was delivered to each chamber, where one piece was left in front of each chamber in the early morning. As it was that often, people tended not to appreciate it and sometimes left it as it was. In such a case, the deliverer put the one of the previous day against the wall, and added a new one each day.
Okiku saw the coming of age ceremony of Obinsobi8 for the girl Tenjuin-sama9, when she was standing on the Go board, Lord Hideyori cut a bit of her hair with a short sword.
The meals for Yodo-dono were prepared by the staff in the kitchen and passed to the serving attendants. The servants in the kitchen tasted it for poison before they passed it to the attendants. Or sometimes the attendants tasted before they offered it to the lady.
Before the fall of the castle, a monk of the Tofukuji temple of Kyoto, whose name was the reverend Gesshin, had been staying in the castle. Kiku asked him, ‘We will take leave and go up to Kyoto soon, until then could you keep this box for me? If I die within the castle, would you please perform a memorial service for us?’ Then she put some clothes and vessels in a box and gave it to Gesshin. Some of the contents are still kept within the Tanaka family.
Kiku served Yodo-dono because Kiku’s father, Yamaguchi Mozaemon was a son of Yamaguchi Mosuke and he was serving Azai Nagamasa. Yodo-dono – who Kiku was serving – was a daughter of Nagamasa and Kiku had served her since she was very young. Mozaemon later was employed by Todo Izumi-no-kami Takatora for a 300 koku income as a paid guest. However, as he heard about the Siege of Osaka, he decided to volunteer to work for the castle’s forces, which was accepted, and he was given armour right away. However, he was killed in battle and it is unknown what exactly happened to him in the end. However, he was given armour, but as he did not have a standard or banner, he asked his daughter, Kiku, to make one for him. She sewed red and white silk together to make a standard. With this, he was very pleased and thanked her very much for her help – which must have been his way of saying goodbye. The reason he was employed by Todo is this: Todo Takatora used to be an ashigaru foot soldier serving the Asai clan – when he had the name of Yoemon – and Mosuke, the father of Mozaemon – who was Kiku’s grandfather – was his sergeant. At that time Todo Takatora was so poor that he could not have breakfast at times, and Mosuke’s wife – Kiku’s grandmother – felt sorry for him and treated him with a simple meal from time to time. Feeling obliged to Mosuke’s wife for the kindness, Todo Takatora invited Mozaemon – Kiku’s father – and offered him a position as a paid guest. Mosuke ended up being paid up to 1,200 koku while serving the Asai clan.10
This is the end of the tales of females in Japanese warfare.
* * *
1 Oan is not a person’s name but is presumed to mean ‘an old nun’.
2 A Buddhist prayer
3 1698-1752, a Confucian and scholar of Japanese classics.
4 The concubine of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
5 A sister of Yodo-dono (on the side of the castle) and mother of Kyogoku Wakasa-no-Kami (who was on the besieging side), she was in the castle trying to negotiate, and she had been caught inside the castle.
6 A mistress of Lord Hideyoshi.
7 A facility built for the tea ceremony within the castle.
8 A coming-of-age ceremony for females, performed at the age of 16. Her fiancée, father or brother should cut a small amount of her hair from the side of her head.
9 Lord Hideyori’s wife, a daughter of Lord Ieyasu.
10 A small section of writing has been deleted here. It was a commentary by a later author and is an opinion on the story. The commentary is uninformative and has therefore been taken out.
Samurai Tales – A Brief
Overview of the Samurai
Found W
ithin
The following is information about and outlines of the samurai found within the Musha Monogatari or samurai tales scroll. The articles they feature in are alongside their names and a basic selection of information concerning their life has been given.
Abiko Sakudayu – Article 30
Unknown date; a retainer to Niwa Nagashige.
Akai Akuemon – Article 26
1529–1578; his original name was Akai Naomasa, known to be intrepid and commonly known as Akuemon, ‘evil one’, and his nickname was the red devil (oni) of Tanba. He came from the Akai Family of Tanba province and was the second adopted son and husband to the daughter of Ogino Iyo-no-kami, a castle lord, but he later killed his father-in-law, and took the castle. He then led the Akai family and reconciled with Oda Nobunaga and gained three districts. He died from disease.
Akashi Kamon-no-suke Takenori – Article 56
Unknown dates; a general and tactician serving Ukiga Hideie, who was a Sengoku daimyo with a fief of 550,000 koku. In the Musha Monogatari, it is said he was killed in the Summer Siege of Osaka Castle but according to one theory, he was missing and actually fled.
Akechi Hyuga-no-kami Mitsuhide – Articles 5, 26 and 40
c.1528–1582; served Oda Nobunaga and destroyed him in the Honnoji Incident in 1582, betraying him and forcing his suicide. Not much is known about his early days. First he was a ronin and then served the Asakura clan, then the Ashikaga shogun and finally Oda Nobunaga. He is said to have been very smart, capable and good at tactics. Promoted highly by Nobunaga and given 300,000 to 500,000 koku before the Honnoji Incident. However, Nobunaga is said to have treated his retainers very harshly and that Mitsuhide had a grudge against Nobunaga. After the Honnoji Incident, Mitsuhide was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unexpectedly came back to Kyoto to confront him, destroying this highly ambitious samurai’s lust to rule Japan. Eventually he was killed by a peasant while running away from the battle with Hideyoshi.
Samurai War Stories Page 13