Mitsuhide was now given a residence in the castle town and a stipend of one thousand kan, one hundred sons of retainers were put under his instruction, and he again organized a gunners' regiment. Mitsuhide was so grateful to Yoshikage for rescuing him from adversity that for several years he worked tirelessly with no other intention than torepay him for his blessings and good fortune.
His devotion, however, finally brought objections from his peers. They accused him of being conceited and putting on highbrow airs. No matter what the topic of conversation or the activity, his refinement and intellect shone brilliantly for all to see.
This attitude did not sit well with the retainers of this provincial clan, who began to complain about him: "He's plainly conceited."
"He's just a snob."
Naturally, these complaints reached the ears of Yoshikage. Mitsuhide's work also began to suffer. Cold by nature, he was now the target of equally cold looks. It might have been different if Yoshikage had protected him, but he was held back by his own retainers. Winding its way even through Yoshikage's many favorite concubines, the dispute twisted through the castle. Mitsuhide himself was without connections and had just found temporary shelter. He was miserable, but there was nothing to be done.
I made a mistake, Mitsuhide thought. He had food and clothing but was now bitteerly regretting his decision. Having been in such a hurry to escape adversity, the bank he had crawled out on was the wrong one. Such were his despondent thoughts after spending nothing but unhappy days. I've wasted my entire life! This depression seemed to affect his health, and he began to suffer from a scablike skin disease, which, in time, became serious. Mitsuhide asked Yoshikage for a leave of absence to go for a cure at the spa town of Yamashiro.
While he was there, travelers reported that rebels had attacked the Nijo Palace and murdered Shogun Yoshiteru. Even there, in the mountains, people were shocked and unsettled.
"If the shogun has been murdered, the country's going to fall into chaos again."
Mitsuhide immediately made preparations to return to Ichijogadani. Confusion in Kyoto meant confusion in the whole country. Quite naturally, this event would have aftereffects in the provinces. Undoubtedly, hurried preparations were being made at that very moment.
I could sulk and be depressed about trivialities, but it would be shameful for a man in his prime, Mitsuhide decided. His skin disease had cleared up at the spa and now Mitsuhide quickly presented himself before his lord. Yoshikage barely acknowledged his return, and Mitsuhide withdrew before his lord's indifference. He was not summoned after that. He had been relieved of his command of the gunners' regiment in his absence, and everywhere the atmosphere seemed to be hostile. Now that Yoshikage's former reliance on him had completely changed, Mitsuhide was once again prey to mental agony.
It was then that he received the visit from Hosokawa Fujitaka, who could only be described as a heaven-sent visitor. Mitsuhide was so surprised that he went out to greet the man himself, overawed that a person as exalted as Fujitaka had come to his house.
Fujitaka's character was exactly to Mitsuhide's liking. He certainly had the air of a noble and learned man. Mitsuhide had long lamented that he was unable to meet men of real quality, and such a guest naturally brought joy into his heart. He felt doubt, however, about the purpose of Fujitaka's visit.
Although his lineage was noble, at the time he secredy visited Mitsuhide's home, Fujitaka was really nothing more than an exile. Having been driven out of Kyoto, the refugee shogun, Yoshiaki, was fleeing through the provinces. It was Fujitaka who approached Asakura Yoshikage on the shogun's behalf. Touring the provinces preaching loyalty and trying to stir the provincial lords to action, Hosokawa Fujitaka was the only man who suffered with Yoshiaki, trying to overcome his master's pitiful reverses.
"Surely the Asakura clan will declare itself his ally. If fhe two provinces of Wakasa and Echizen joined us, then all the clans of the north would rush to our cause."
Yoshikage was of a mind to refuse. Regardless of what Fujitaka preached about loyalty, Yoshikage was not inclined to fight for a powerless, exiled shogun. It was not for a lack of military strength or resources, but because Yoshikage supported the status quo.
Fujitaka quickly perceived that the situation was not in their favor and, aware of the nepotism and internal struggles within the Asakura clan, abandoned his efforts there. Yoshiaki and his retainers, however, were already on their way to Echizen.
Although the Asakura clan felt greatly annoyed about having him as a dependent, they could not mistreat the shogun, and designated a temple as his temporary residence. They treated him well but also prayed for his early departure.
Then, quite suddenly, here was Mitsuhide, receiving a visit from Fujitaka. He was, however, still unable to guess the reason for the visit.
"I've heard that you have a taste for poetry. I saw one of your works when you went to Mishima," Fujitaka said by way of an opening remark. He did not look like a man whose heart was suffering. His countenance was absolutely mild and benign.
"Oh, I'm ashamed to hear it." Mitsuhide was not just being modest; he was sincerely embarrassed. Fujitaka, of course, was famous for his verses. That day their conversation began with poetry and went on to Japanese classical literature.
"Gracious, the conversation was so interesting, I forgot this was my first visit here Apologizing for his long stay, Fujitaka took his leave.
After Fujitaka had left, Mitsuhide was even more perplexed. Gazing at the lamp, he became lost in thought. Fujitaka called on him two or three times, but the subjects of conversation never departed from poetry or the tea ceremony. But then one day—a day of drizzling rain so dark that lamps were needed inside—at a quiet moment, Fujitaka was more formal than usual.
"Today I have something very serious and secret to discuss," he began.
Mitsuhide, of course, had been waiting for him to break the ice like this, and answered, "If you trust me enough to tell me a secret, I certainly promise to keep it. Please speak freely, on any subject."
Fujitaka nodded. "I'm sure that someone as perceptive as you has already quickly guessed why I have been visiting like this. The fact is that those of us in attendance on the shogun came here depending on Lord Asakura as the only provincial lord who would be his ally, and until now we have secretly negotiated and appealed to him a number of times. His final answer, however, has been put off from day to day, and a decision does not seem to be in the offing. In the meantime we have studied the internal administration and affairs of Lord Asakura, and I know now that he does not have the will to fight for the shogun. Those of us who have appealed to him understand that it is futile. However…" Fujitaka spoke as though he were an entirely different man from the ne who had visited before. "Who among all the provincial lords—besides Lord Asakura— is a man upon whom we could rely? Who is the most reliable military leader in the count today? Does such a man exist?"
"He does."
"He does?" Fujitaka's eyes shone.
Mitsuhide calmly wrote a name on the floor with his finger: Oda Nobunaga.
“The lord of Gifu?" Fujitaka caught his breath. Raising his eyes from the floor to Mitsuhide's face, he said nothing for a short while. After that, the two men discussed Nobunaga for a long time. Mitsuhide had been a retainer of the Saito clan, and in serving his former master, Lord Dosan, he had observed the character of Dosan's son-in-law. Thus there was a certain authority in what he said.
A few days later, Mitsuhide met Fujitaka in the mountains behind the temple that had become the shogun's lodging. From him he received a personal letter written by the shogun and addressed to Nobunaga. That night, Mitsuhide quickly left Ichijogadani. Naturally he abandoned both his residence and retainers, expecting never to return. The next day the Asakura clan was in an uproar.
The he cry went up, "Mitsuhide has disappeared!" A punitive force was sent out to bring him back, but he could no longer be found within the boundaries of the province.
Asakura Yosh
ikage had heard that one of the shogun's followers, Hosokawa Fujitaka, had visited Mitsuhide, and so now Yoshikage turned on the shogun, saying, "Assuredly he's incited Mitsuhide in this matter, and has probably sent him off to another province as a envoy." And Yoshikage drove the shogun from the province.
Fujitaka had guessed this outcome beforehand. Thus, taking it rather as an opportunity, he went with his entourage from Echizen to Omi and found shelter with Asai Nagamasa in Odani Castle. There he waited for good news from Mitsuhide.
And this was why Mitsuhide had come to Gifu. Carrying the shogun's letter, he had risked his life many times along the way. Now he had finally completed half of his objective. He had found his way to Mori Yoshinari's residence, and was this very evening quietly seated across from Yoshinari himself, explaining in detail the aim of his mission and asking Yoshinari to act as an intermediary with Nobunaga.
It was the seventh day of the Tenth Month in the ninth year of Eiroku. One might, perhaps, call it a fateful day. Mori had interceded for Mitsuhide, and the details of the situation had reached Nobunaga. This was the day that Mitsuhide entered Gifu Castle and met Nobunaga for the first time. Mitsuhide was thirty-eight, six years older than Nobunaga.
"I have carefully looked over the letters from Lord Hosokawa and the shogun," Nobunaga said, "and I see that they have requested assistance from me. Unworthy as I am, I will give them whatever strength I can."
Mitsuhide bowed and responded to Nobunaga's words. "Risking my insignificant life for the nation has been a mission far exceeding my own low status." There was nothing false in Mitsuhide's words.
His sincerity impressed Nobunaga, as did his bearing and conduct, his perceptive use of words, his admirable intelligence. The more Nobunaga watched him, the more he was impressed. This man should prove to be of service, he thought. Thus Akechi Mitsuhide came under the wing of the Oda clan. Soon, he was granted a domain in Mino of four thousand kan. Moreover, as the shogun and his followers were now with the Asai clan, Nobunaga sent a number of men under Mitsuhide's command to escort them to Gifu Castle. Nobunaga went to the provincial border himself to greet the shogun, who had been treated as such a troublesome man in the other provinces.
At the castle gate, he took the reins of the shogun's horse and treated him as an honored guest. In truth, Nobunaga was not just holding the reins of the shogun's horse, but taking hold of the reins of the nation. From this moment on, whatever road he took, the storm clouds and winds of the times were in the fist that held those reins so tightly.
The Wandering Shogun
After the shogun and his party had found refuge with Nobunaga, they were lodged at a temple in Gifu. Vain and small-minded as they were, all that the shogun's retainers wanted to do was to display their own authority. They did not realize the extent of the changes occurring among the common people, and as soon as they had settled in, they began to behave in a highhanded, aristocratic manner, and complained to Nobunaga' retainers:
"This food doesn't taste quite right."
"The bedding is much too coarse."
"I know this cramped temple is just a temporary residence, but it reflects poorly on the shogun's dignity."
They went on, "We would like to see the treatment of the shogun improved. For the present, you might select some picturesque spot for the new shogun's palace and begin its construction."
Nobunaga, hearing of their demands, considered these men to be pitiable. Immediately summoning Yoshiaki's retainers, he told them, "I've heard that you wish to have me build a palace for the shogun because his present residence is so cramped."
“Indeed!" their spokesman replied. "His present lodgings are so inconvenient. As the shogun's residence, they lack even basic amenities."
Well, well," Nobunaga answered with some contempt. "Aren't you gentlemen thinking rather slowly? The reason the shogun appealed to me was so that I might drive out Milyoshi and Matsunaga from Kyoto, recover his lost lands, and restore him to his rightful place."
"That's correct."
“Unworthy as I am, I consented to take on this great responsibility. More than that, I think that I should be able to realize the shogun's hopes for him in the very near future. How am I going to have the leisure to build a palace for him? And do you gentlemen really want to give up your hopes of returning to Kyoto to reestablish a national government? Would you be satisfied to spend your lives quietly in some scenic place in Gifu, and become early recluses in a large palace, with your meals provided by your host?"
Yoshiaki's attendants withdrew without saying another word. Thereafter, they did not complain so much. There was nothing false about Nobunaga's grand words. As summer turned to fall, Nobunaga ordered a general mobilization of Mino and Owari. By the fifth day of the Ninth Month, nearly thirty thousand soldiers were ready to go. By the seventh day, they were already marching out of Gifu for the capital.
At the great feast in the castle the night before the army's departure, Nobunaga had told his officers and men, "The commotion in the country, which is the result of territorial disputes among rival lords, is causing endless distress to the people. It is hardly necessary to mention that the misery of the entire nation is the anguish of the Emperor. It has been the iron rule of the Oda clan—from the time of my father, Nobuhide, to the present—that the duty of the samurai must be, first and foremost, the protection of the Imperial House. Thus, in our march on the capital at this time, you are not an army acting for me, but one that is acting in the name of the Emperor."
Every one of the commanders and men were in high spirits at the proclamation to set out.
For this great enterprise, Tokugawa Ieyasu of Mikawa, having recently bound himself in a military alliance to Nobunaga, also sent a thousand of his own troops. At the departure of the entire army, some voiced criticism.
"The Lord of Mikawa hasn't sent many men. He's sly, just as we've always heard."
Nobunaga shrugged this off with a laugh. "Mikawa is reforming its administration and economy. It has no time for other considerations. For him to send a large number of troops right now would mean great expense. He's going to be frugal even if he is criticized, but he's no common commander. I suspect that the troops he sent are his best men."
Just as Nobunaga had expected, the one thousand soldiers from Mikawa under Matsudaira Kanshiro were never outstripped in any battle. Always fighting in the vanguard, they opened the way for their allies, their courage bringing all the more fame to Ieyasu's name.
Every day the weather continued to be beautiful. The thirty thousand troops marched in black lines beneath the clear autumn sky. The column was so long that when the vanguard had reached Kashiwabara, the rear guard was still passing through Tarui and Akasaka. Their banners hid the sky. As they passed the post town of Hirao and entered Takamiya, there was some shouting from up ahead.
"Messengers! There are messengers from the capital!"
Three generals rode out to meet them.
"We wish to have an audience with Lord Nobunaga." They carried with them a letter from Miyoshi Nagayoshi and Matsunaga Hisahide.
When this was related to headquarters, Nobunaga said, "Bring them here."
The messengers were brought in immediately, but Nobunaga sneered at the message of reconciliation in the letter as a trick of the enemy. "Tell them I will give them my answer when I reach the capital."
As the sun rose on the eleventh, the vanguard crossed the Aichi River. The following morning Nobunaga moved toward the Sasaki strongholds of Kannonji and Mitsukuri. Kannonji Castle was held by Sasaki Jotei. Jotei's son, Sasaki Rokkaku, prepared Mitsukuri Castle for a siege. The Sasaki clan of Omi were allied with Miyoshi and Matsunaga, and when Yoshiaki had sought shelter with them during his flight, they had tried to murder him.
Omi was a strategic area along Lake Biwa on the road to the south. And here the Sasaki waited, boasting that he would destroy Nobunaga just as Nobunaga had annihilated Imagawa Yoshimoto, in a single blow. Sasaki Rokkaku left Mitsukuri C
astle, joined forces with his father at Kannonji, and distributed his troops among the eighteen fortresses in Omi.
Shading his eyes with his hand, Nobunaga looked down from high ground and laughed. "This is a wonderful enemy line, isn't it? Just like in a classic treatise."
He ordered Sakuma Nobumori and Niwa Nagahide to take Mitsukuri Castle, placing the Mikawa troops in the vanguard. Then he said, "As I told you the night before we left, this march on the capital is not a personal vendetta; I want it understood by every soldier in the army that we are fighting for the Emperor. Do not kill those who flee. Do not burn the people's homes. And, as far as possible, do not trample over the fields where crops have not yet been harvested."
The waters of Lake Biwa were still invisible through the morning mist. Darkly piercing that mist, thirty thousand men began to move. When Nobunaga saw the flare that signaled the attack on Mitsukuri Castle by Niwa Nagahide's and Sakuma Nobumori’s troops, he ordered, "Move the headquarters to Wada Castle."
Wada Castle was an enemy stronghold, so Nobunaga's order meant to attack and take the castle. He said it, though, as if he were ordering his men to move into an unoccupied position.
"Nobunaga himself is coming to attack!" the commanding general of Wada Castle shouted in response to the lookouts on the watchtower. Striking the hilt of his sword, he harangued the garrison: "This is heaven-sent! Both Kannonji and Mitsukuri Castle would have been able to hold for at least a month, and during that time the Matsunaga and Miyoshi forces and their allies to the north of the lake would have cut off Nobunaa’s path of retreat. But Nobunaga has hastened his own death by attacking this castle. A wonderful opportunity indeed! Do not let this piece of martial luck escape. Take Nobunaga's head!"
The entire army screamed its assent. They were confident that the iron walls of the Sasaki clan could hold out for a month, even though Nobunaga commanded an army of thirty thousand men and had many able generals. The powerful provinces surrounding them also believed this. But Wada Castle fell in half a day. After a battle lasting a little over four hours, the defenders were routed, and fled into the mountains and to the shores of the lake.
TAIKO: AN EPIC NOVEL OF WAR AND GLORY IN FEUDAL JAPAN Page 48