TAIKO: AN EPIC NOVEL OF WAR AND GLORY IN FEUDAL JAPAN

by Eiji Yoshikawa

  "You're Saya?" Hideyoshi asked.

  "Yes, my lord."

  "And you're from Fuwa in Mino?"

  "A village called Tarui."

  "Well, I imagine you're pretty familiar with the area."

  "I lived there until I was twenty years old, so I know it a little."

  "Do you have any relatives there?"

  "My younger sister."

  "What is she doing?"

  "She married into a local farming family, and I imagine she has children by now."

  "Wouldn't you like to go back there? Just once?"

  "I've never thought about it. It's likely that if my sister heard that her brother, the ronin, was coming home, she'd feel very uncomfortable around her husband's relatives and the rest of the village."

  “But that was before. Now you're a retainer of Sunomata Castle and a respectable samurai. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"

  “But Fuwa is a strategic district in western Mino. What would I be doing in enemy territory?"

  Hideyoshi nodded repeatedly at this obvious point, and seemed to be making up his mind about something. "I'd like you to come with me. We'll disguise ourselves so that we don't attract attention. Be at the garden gate by nightfall."

  Hikoemon inquired dubiously, "Where are you thinking of going so suddenly?"

  Hideyoshi lowered his voice and whispered into Hikoemon's ear, "To Mount Kurihara."

  Hikoemon looked at him as though he doubted his sanity. He had suspected for a while that Hideyoshi had something in mind, but Mount Kurihara! Hearing his master, he could hardly hold back his surprise. A former retainer of the Saito clan, a man who was regarded as a great strategist, was living a secluded life on the mountain. This man as Takenaka Hanbei. Some time before, Hideyoshi had made a thorough inquiry into the character of this man and his relationship with the Saito clan.

  Now, if we can lead this horse through the camp gate in the same way we pulled the Tiger of Unuma and the Three Men…This was Hideyoshi's general plan, but for him to consider penetrating enemy territory and going to Mount Kurihara itself was unthinkable.

  "Do you really mean to go there?" Hikoemon asked incredulously.

  "Of course."

  "Really?" Hikoemon pressed.

  "Why are you making such a point of this?" Hideyoshi appeared to think that it was no cause for danger or concern. "In the first place, you're the only one who knows my intentions, and we're going in secret. I'm going to ask you to take care of things while I'm gone for a few days."

  "You're going alone?"

  "No, I'll take Saya with me."

  "Going with him will be the same as going unarmed. Do you really think you're going to be able to cajole Hanbei into being our ally by going alone into enemy territory?"

  "That will be difficult," Hideyoshi muttered almost to himself. "But I plan to try. If I go with an open heart, it won't make any difference how firm the ties are that bind him the Saito clan."

  Hikoemon suddenly recalled Hideyoshi's eloquence when he had argued against him at Hachisuka. Still, he wondered if Hideyoshi would really be able to bring Takenaka Hanbei down from Mount Kurihara. Even with his eloquence. No, even if things went poorly, and Hanbei decided to leave his mountain retreat, it was possible that he might choose the Saito rather than the Oda.

  It was rumored at the time that Hanbei, having retired to Mount Kurihara, was lead­sing a quiet, countrified life, perfecting himself as a hermit away from the world. But one day, if his former masters, the Saito, were in danger of ruin, he would return to lead their army. Surely it was true that when they had driven away the great Oda attack before, he had not come to be at the head of their forces, but remained viewing the war clouds over the country from Mount Kurihara, sending his meditations to the Saito one by one and teaching them secret strategies of war. There were people who spread this story around as though it were the truth. It would be difficult—Hideyoshi himself had said this. Hikoemon felt the same way but even more so, and let out something like a groan.

  "That will be a difficult ambition to realize, my lord." The look on his face expressed admonishment.

  "Well…" Hideyoshi's troubled expression cleared. "There's really not that much to worry about. A difficult thing can be unexpectedly easy, and what appears to be easy can in fact be extremely difficult. I think what's essential is whether or not I can make Hanbei trust in my sincerity. My opponent being who he is, I don't plan on simple stratagems or tricks."

  He began preparations for his secret journey. While he thought this trip might be futile, Hikoemon was unable to stop him. Day by day his respect for Hideyoshi's resourcefulness and magnanimity increased, and he believed that the man's ability was far above his own.

  Nightfall. As agreed, Saya was standing by the garden gate. Hideyoshi looked every bit as shabby as Saya.

  "Well, Hikoemon, take care of everything," Hideyoshi said, and started off as though he were just going to walk around the castle grounds. It was not, in fact, very far to Mount Kurihara from Sunomata—perhaps about ten leagues. On a bright day, Mount Kurihara could be seen dimly in the distance. But that single line of mountains was Mino's fortress against the enemy. Hideyoshi took a roundabout route along the mountains and entered Fuwa.

  To know the nature and special characteristics of the people who lived there, it was essential to look first at the area's natural features. The district of Fuwa was in the foothills of the mountains in the western part of Mino, and was a bottleneck in the road to the capital.

  The autumn colors at Sekigahara were beautiful. Innumerable rivers crisscrossed the land like veins. Ancient history and countless legends remained at the roots of the autumn vegetation as the grave markers of a bloody past. The Yoro Mountains formed the boundary with Kai, and clouds came and went constantly around Mount Ibuki.

  Takenaka Hanbei was a native of the area. It was said that he was actually born at Inabayama, but he had spent most of his childhood at the foot of Mount Ibuki. Born in the fourth year of Temmon, Hanbei would now still be only twenty-eight years old, nothing more than a young student of military affairs. One year younger than Nobunaga, one year older than Hideyoshi. Nevertheless, he had already abandoned the quest for great achievement in the chaotic world, and had built himself a hermitage on Mount Kurihara. He took pleasure in nature, made friends with the books of the ancients, and wrote po­etry, never meeting with the visitors who often came to his door. Was he a fake? This was also said of him, but Hanbei's name was respected in Mino, and his reputation had trav­eled as far as Owari.

  I'd like to meet him and judge his character for myself, was the first thought in Hideyoshi's mind. It would be regrettable for him just to pass by and not meet such a rare and extraordinary man, when they had both been born into the same world. Even more, if Hanbei was driven into the enemy camp, Hideyoshi would have to kill him. He sincerely hoped this would not happen, because it would be the most regrettable event of his entire life. I'm going to meet him, whether he'll see people or not.

  The Master of Mount Kurihara

  Mount Kurihara, situated next to Mount Nangu, was not very high, and looked almost like a child snuggling against its parent.

  Ah, it's beautiful! When they approached the peak, even Hideyoshi, who was no poet, was in ecstasy, struck by the sublime beauty of the autumn sun sinking below the horizon. But now his mind turned to a single thought: How can I get Hanbei to become my ally? And this was quickly followed by another: No, to confront a master strategist by means of strategy would be the worst strategy of all. I can only meet him as a blank sheet of paper. I'll just talk to him candidly, and speak with all my power. Thus he rallied his spirits. Nevertheless, he still did not even know where Hanbei lived, and they had been unable to find his isolated residence by the time the sun went down. Hideyoshi, however, was not in a hurry. When it got dark, a lamp would naturally be lit somewhere. Rather than walking around uselessly, taking all the wrong turns, it would be more pleasant and quicker to stay where the
y were. At least he seemed to be thinking this way, because he sat resting until the sun had set. Finally they spotted the tiny dot of a lamp off in the dis­tance, beyond a swampy hollow. Following a narrow, meandering path that wound its way up and down, they at last reached the place.

  It was a level plot of land surrounded by red pines, halfway up the mountain. They had expected to encounter a small thatched cottage surrounded by a broken-down fence, but they now found themselves approaching a crude mud wall encircling a large com­pound. As they came closer, they could see three or four lanterns burning farther within, instead of a formal gate, only a bamboo shutter flapped loosely in the wind.

  This is so big, Hideyoshi thought as he entered silently. Inside was a pine wood. A narrow path led from the entrance into the pines, and except for the pine needles covering the ground, one was not aware of a single speck of dirt. Walking on, for about fifty yards, they came to the house. A cow was lowing in its stall in a nearby shed. They could hear a fire crackling in the wind, and its smoke filled the air. Hideyoshi stood still. He rubbed his sharp eyes. With a gust of wind from the mountain, however, the place was suddenly swept clear of smoke; and when he looked, he saw a child putting twigs under the stove in a cooking hut.

  "Who are you?" the boy asked suspiciously.

  "Are you a servant?" Hideyoshi asked.

  "Me? Yes," the boy replied.

  "I am a retainer of the Oda clan. My name is Kinoshita Hideyoshi. Could you pass on a message?"

  "To whom?"

  "To your master."

  "He's not here."

  "He's out?"

  "I'm telling you, he's really out. Go away." Turning his back on the visitor, the child sat in front of the stove, and once again began stoking the fire. The night mist on the mountain was chill, and Hideyoshi squatted in front of the stove, next to the child.

  "Let me warm myself up a bit."

  The child said nothing, but gave him a quick glance out of the corner of his eye.

  "It's cold at night, isn't it?"

  "This is a mountain. Of course it's cold," the boy said.

  "Little monk, this—"

  "This is not a temple! I'm Master Hanbei's disciple, not a monk!"

  "Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

  "Why are you laughing?"

  "I'm sorry."

  "Go away! If my master finds out some stranger has crept into the cooking hut, I get scolded for it later."

  "No. It'll be all right. I'll apologize to your master later."

  "You really want to meet him?"

  "That's right. Do you think I'm going to go back down the mountain without meeting him, after coming all this way?"

  "People from Owari are rude, aren't they? You're from Owari, right?"

  "What's wrong with that?"

  "My master hates people from Owari. I hate them too. Owari's an enemy province isn't it?"

  "That's right, I guess."

  “You've come looking for something in Mino, haven't you? If you're just on a journey you'd better go right on by. Or you'll lose your head."

  “I don't intend to go any farther than this. My only plan was to come to this house.”

  "What did you come here for?"

  “I came to seek admission."

  “Seek admission? You want to become a disciple of my teacher, like me?"

  Uh-huh. I guess I want to become a brother disciple with you. At any rate, we should get along well. Now go talk to the master. I'll look after stoking the oven. Don't worry, the rice won't burn."

  "That's all right. I don't want to."

  "Don't be bad-tempered. There, isn't that your master coughing inside?"

  "My master coughs a lot at night. He's not strong."

  "So you lied to me when you said he was out."

  "It's all the same whether he's here or not. He won't meet with anyone who calls, no after who they are or what province they come from."

  "Well, I'll wait for the right time."

  "Yeah, come again."

  "No. This hut is nice and warm. Just let me stay here for a while."

  "You're joking! Go away!" The boy jumped up as if to attack the intruder, but when glared at Hideyoshi's smiling face in the flickering red light of the oven, he was unable stay angry no matter how hard he tried. As the child stared hard at this man's face, his initial feelings of hostility gradually lessened.

  "Kokuma! Kokuma!" called a voice from the house. The boy reacted instantly. Leaving Hideyoshi where he was, he dashed from the hut into the house, and he didn't come back for quite some time. In the meantime, the smell of scorched food drifted out of the large cauldron that sat on top of the stove. Unable to think of it as just someone else's meal, Hideyoshi quickly picked up the ladle on top of the lid and stirred the contents of th cauldron—brown rice gruel mixed with dried chestnuts and dried vegetables. Others might have laughed at this pauper's food, but Hideyoshi had been born on a poor farm, and when he looked at a single grain of rice, he saw his mother's tears. To him, this was no trifling matter.

  "That boy! This is going to burn. What a waster."

  Taking a cloth, he grabbed the handles of the pot and lifted it up.

  "Oh, thank you, mister."

  "Ah, Kokuma? It was just beginning to burn, so I took the cauldron off. It seems to have boiled just enough."

  "You already know my name, huh?"

  "That's what Master Hanbei called from inside just now. Did you talk to the master for me while you were there?"

  "He called me for something else. As for interceding for you, if I talked to my teacher about some useless thing, he'd only get mad. So I didn't say anything."

  "Well, well. You're strict about following your teacher's orders, aren't you? I'm really impressed."

  "Huh! You're just talking for the sake of your own pride now."

  "No, it's true. I'm impatient, but if I were your teacher, I'd praise you like this. That's no lie."

  Just then, someone came out of the nearby kitchen, holding a paper lantern. A female voice called repeatedly for Kokuma, and as Hideyoshi turned and looked, he could dimly see a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl wearing a kimono with a pattern of mountain cherry blossoms and mist, tied with a plum-colored sash. Her figure was illuminated in the sooty darkness by the light of the paper lantern she held in her hand.

  "What is it, Oyu?" Kokuma stepped toward her and listened to what she said. When she finished speaking with him, the cherry-blossomed sleeve glided down the dark entrance hall together with the lamp and disappeared behind the wall.

  "Who was that?" Hideyoshi asked.

  "My teacher's sister," Kokuma said simply and in a gentle voice, as though he were speaking of the beauty of the flowers in his master's garden.

  "Listen, I'm asking you. Just to make sure, won't you please go inside just once and ask him to see me? If he says no, I'll leave."

  "You'll really leave?"

  "I will."

  "For sure, now." Kokuma spoke emphatically, but finally he went inside. He returned right away and said abruptly, "He says no, and that he detests receiving guests… and I got scolded, sure enough. So please go away, mister. I'm going to serve my teacher his meal now."

  "Well, I'll leave tonight. Then I'll call again sometime." Submitting meekly, Hideyoshi stood up and started to go.

  Kokuma said, "It won't do any good to come back!"

  Hideyoshi retraced his steps in silence. Unmindful of the darkness, he descended to the foot of the mountain and slept.

  When he got up the following day, he made some preparations and once again climbed the mountain. Then, just as he had done the day before, he visited the mountain residence of Hanbei at sundown. The day before, he had spent too much time with the boy, so today he tried going up to the door that appeared to be the main entrance. The person who responded and came out to his call was the same Kokuma of the day before.

  "What! Mister, you've come again?"

  "I wondered if I could ask to meet him today. Do me the favor of as
king your teacher again." Kokuma went inside, and whether he really talked to Hanbei or not, he quickly returned and gave him the same blank refusal.

  "If that's the case, I'll inquire again when he's in a better mood," Hideyoshi said politely and left. Two days later he climbed the mountain again.

  "Will he meet me today?" Kokuma made a round trip inside the house in his usual fashion, and once again refused him plainly. "He says it's annoying that you come so often."

  That day Hideyoshi returned in silence again. He visited the house this way any number of times. In the end, whenever Kokuma saw his face, he did nothing but laugh.

  “You've got a lot of patience, haven't you, mister? But coming here is useless, no matter how patient you are. These days, when I go in to tell my teacher you're here, he just laughs instead of getting mad."

  Young boys will easily become friendly with people, and a familiarity had already started to develop between Kokuma and Hideyoshi.

  Hideyoshi climbed the mountain again on the following day. Waiting at the foot of the mountain, Saya had no idea of his master's frame of mind, and finally starting to get angry, he said, "Who does Takenaka Hanbei think he is? This time I'm going to go up there and call his rudeness into account."

  The day of Hideyoshi's tenth visit was a day of violent wind and rain, and both Saya and the people who owned the farmhouse where they stayed did their best to stop Hideyoshi from going, but he stubbornly put on a straw raincoat and hat, and made the asscent. Arriving at dusk, he stood at the entrance and called in as usual.

  "Yes. Who is it, please?" That night, for the first time, the young woman, Oyu, who Kokuma had said was Hanbei's sister stepped out.

  "I know I'm bothering Master Hanbei by calling, and I regret that I'm doing so against his wishes, but I've come as my own master's envoy, and it will be difficult for me to return home until I have met him. It is part of a samurai's service to deliver his master's messages, so I'm resolved to call here until Master Hanbei agrees to see me, even if it takes two or three years. And if Master Hanbei refuses to meet me, I have decided to disembowel myself. Alas, I'm sure that Master Hanbei knows the hardships of the warrior class better than any man. Please… if you could put in a good word for me."