Hideyoshi mumbled a reply.
“You're the one who's probably surprised," Nobunaga said.
“I am surprised, my lord. You see everything."
“This mountain is high enough for me to look out over ten provinces at least. But
there's someone who knows your behavior in even more detail than I do. Do you have any idea who that is?"
“You must have a spy trailing me."
“Your wife."
“You're joking! Aren't you a little intoxicated today, my lord?"
“I may be drunk, but I'm hardly mistaken about what I'm saying. Your wife may be living at Sunomata, but if you think she's far away, you're making a serious mistake."
“Oh, no. Well, I've come at a bad time. With your permission, I—"
“You can't be blamed for playing around," Nobunaga said, laughing. "There's nothing wrong with looking at the cherry blossoms from time to time. But why don't you call Nene, and the two of you get together?"
“Of course."
"It's been a while since you've seen her, hasn't it?"
"Has my wife been bothering you with letters or the like?"
"Don't worry. There hasn't been anything like that, but I sympathize. And not just with your wife. Every wife has to look after the home while her husband is away at war, so even if he has only a little bit of time, a man should show his wife before anyone else that he's all right."
"As you wish, but…"
"Do you refuse?"
"I do. There's been nothing untoward for a number of months, but my state of mind has not moved away from the battlefield by even a hair's breadth."
"Always the clever talker! Are you going to start wagging that tongue again? It's quite unnecessary."
"I'll retire, my lord. I'm rolling up my banners here."
Lord and retainer laughed together. After a while they started drinking and even sent Ranmaru away. Then the talk turned to a topic serious enough for them to lower their voices.
Nobunaga asked expectantly, "So how are things in the capital? I have messengers constantly going back and forth, but I want to hear what you have seen."
What Hideyoshi was about to say seemed to have to do with his expectations.
"Our seats are a little far apart. Either my lord or I should move a little closer for this."
"I'll move." Nobunaga took the sake flask and his cup and moved down from the seat of honor. "Close the sliding doors to the next room too," he ordered.
Hideyoshi sat down directly in front of Nobunaga and said, "The conditions are the same as ever. Except that, since Shingen failed to reach the capital, the shogun seems to have become more despondent. His schemes have become openly hostile to you, my lord."
"Well, I can imagine. After all, Shingen got as far as Mikatagahara, and then the shogun heard that he had withdrawn."
"Shogun Yoshiaki is a crafty politician. He fidgets about, bestowing favors on the people, and indirectly makes them fear you. He's made good propaganda out of the burning of Mount Hiei, and seems to be inciting other religious groups to rebellion."
"Not a pleasant set of circumstances."
"But it's not worth worrying about. The warrior-monks have seen what happened to Mount Hiei, and it has cooled their courage considerably."
"Hosokawa is in the capital. Did you see him?"
"Lord Hosokawa has fallen out of favor with the shogun and has confined himself to his country estate."
"He was driven away by Yoshiaki?" Nobunaga asked.
"It seems that Lord Hosokawa thought that allying with you would be the best way to preserve the shogunate. He risked his own reputation and advised Lord Yoshiaki several times."
“It's apparent that Yoshiaki won't listen to anyone."
“More than that, he's taking a rather extravagant view of the remaining powers of the shogunate. In a period of transition, a cataclysm separates past and future. Almost all of those who perish are those who, because of their blind attachment to the past, fail to realize that the world has changed."
“Are we living through such a cataclysm?"
“In fact a very dramatic event has just occurred. Word was just sent to me, but—"
“What kind of dramatic event?"
“Well! This has still not leaked out to the world, but since it was heard by the keen ears of my agent Watanabe Tenzo, I think that it can perhaps be believed."
“What is it?"
“It's incredible, but the guiding star of Kai may have finally set."
“What! Shingen?"
'During the Second Month, he attacked Mikawa, and one night while he was laying siege to Noda Castle, he was shot. This is what Tenzo heard."
For a moment, Nobunaga's eyes widened and he looked straight at Hideyoshi's face. If it was true that Shingen was dead, the course of the nation was going to change very quickly. Nobunaga felt as though the tiger at his back had suddenly disappeared, and he was shocked. He wanted to believe this story, but at the same time he could not. As soon as heard the news, he felt an incredible surge of relief, and an indescribable joy welled up inside of him.
"If this is true, a very gifted general has left this world," Nobunaga said. "And from now on history has been entrusted into our hands." His expression was not nearly as complex as Hideyoshi's. In fact, he looked as though he had just been served the main course at a meal.
"He was shot, but I still have no idea whether he died immediately, what were the extent of his wounds, or where he was hit. But I've heard that when they suddenly lifted the siege of Noda Castle and withdrew into Kai, they did not display the usual Takeda fighting spirit."
"I suspect not. But it doesn't matter how fierce the Kai samurai are, if they have lost Shingen."
"I received this report secretly from Tenzo on my way here, so I immediately sent him back to Kai to get confirmation."
"Has no one heard this yet in the other provinces?"
"There are no indications that anyone has. The Takeda clan will probably keep it a secret, and will make it appear that Shingen is in good health. So if some policy is promulgated in Shingen's name, the chances are nine out of ten that Shingen is dead, or at least in a serious condition."
Nobunaga nodded thoughtfully. He seemed to want to confirm this story. Suddenly he took the cup of cold sake, and sighed. To think that a man has but fifty years…. But he did not feel like dancing. Reflecting on another man's death moved him far more than reflecting on his own.
"When will Tenzo return?"
"He should be back within three days."
"To Yokoyama Castle?"
"No, I told him to come straight here."
"Well then, stay here until then."
"I had planned on doing that, but if I could, I'd like to wait for your orders at an inn in the castle town."
"Why?"
"No particular reason."
"Well, how about staying in the castle? Keep me company for a while."
"Well…"
"What a dullard! Do you feel constrained to be at my side?"
"No, the truth is…"
"The truth is what?"
"I left a… companion in that inn in the castle town, and since I imagined it would be lonely there, I promised I would go back tonight."
"Is this companion a woman?" Nobunaga was dumbfounded. The emotions that the report of Shingen's death aroused in him were so far removed from Hideyoshi's worries.
"Go to the inn tonight, but come back to the castle tomorrow. You can bring your 'companion' with you." These were Nobunaga's last words to him as he turned to go.
He had hit the nail right on the head, Hideyoshi thought on his way back to the inn. He felt as though he had been reprimanded, but this was, again, Nobunaga's grace. He was wrapping the head of the nail in an artistic decoration without the nail even noticing. The following day he went up to the castle with Oyu, but it did not cause him any embarrassment.
Nobunaga had moved to a different room and, unlike the day before, was not surro
unded by the smell of sake. Sitting in front of Hideyoshi and Oyu, he looked down at them from a dais.
"Aren't you Takenaka Hanbei's sister?" he asked familiarly.
This was the first time Oyu had met Nobunaga, and here she was with Hideyoshi. She hid her face and would have liked to have sunk through the floor, but she answered with a faint voice that was a thing of beauty.
"I am honored to make your acquaintance, my lord. You have also favored my other brother, Shigeharu."
Nobunaga gazed at her, impressed. He had felt like teasing Hideyoshi a little, but now he felt guilty and became serious.
"Has Hanbei's health improved?"
"I haven't seen my brother for some time, my lord. He's busy with his military duties, but I do receive letters from time to time."
"Where are you living now?"
"At Choteiken Castle in Fuwa, where I have a slight connection."
“I wonder if Watanabe Tenzo has returned yet," Hideyoshi said, trying to change the subject, but Nobunaga was an old fox and was not going to be taken in.
"What are you saying? You're getting confused. Didn't you yourself just tell me that Tenzo wouldn't return for another three days?"
Hideyoshi's face turned bright red. Nobunaga seemed to be satisfied with this. He had wanted to see him look self-conscious and troubled for a while.
Nobunaga invited Oyu to the evening's drinking party, and commented, "You haven't seen my dancing, although Hideyoshi has seen it on several occasions."
When Oyu asked to take her leave later that evening, Nobunaga did not insist on her staying, but he said bluntly to Hideyoshi, "Well then, you go too."
The couple left the castle. Soon, however, Hideyoshi returned alone somewhat flustered.
'Where is Lord Nobunaga?" he asked a page.
“He has just now retired to his bedroom."
Hearing this, Hideyoshi hurried to the private apartments with an unusual lack of composure and asked the samurai attendant to convey a message.
'I must have an audience with His Lordship this evening."
Nobunaga had not yet gone to sleep, and as soon as Hideyoshi was ushered into his presence, he asked for everyone to leave the room, but although the men on night watch withdrew, Hideyoshi still looked around the room nervously.
"What is it, Hideyoshi?"
"Well, it seems there's still someone in the next room."
"It's no one to be worried about. It's just Ranmaru. He should be no problem."
"He is also a problem. I'm sorry to ask, but…"
"He should go too?"
"Yes."
"Ranmaru, you leave too." Nobunaga turned and spoke toward the next room.
Ranmaru bowed silently, got up, and left.
"It should be all right now. What is this?"
"The fact is that when I took my leave and went back to town just now, I ran into Tenzo."
"What! Tenzo's back?"
"He said that he hurried across the mountains to get here, hardly knowing day from night. Shingen's death is a certainty."
"So…after all."
"I can't give you many details, but the inner circle in Kai seems to have put on a faзade of normality, beneath which a melancholy air can clearly be detected."
"Their mourning is being kept a strict secret, I'll bet."
"Of course."
"And the other provinces know nothing?"
"So far."
"So, now's the time. I assume you forbade Tenzo to speak about this."
"That's not something you have to worry about."
"But there are some unscrupulous men among the ninja. Are you sure about him?"
"He's Hikoemon's nephew, and he is loyal."
"Well, we should be extremely cautious. Give him a reward, but keep him inside the castle. It would probably be better to imprison him until this is all over."
"No, my lord."
"Why not?"
"Because if we treat a man like that, the next time the opportunity comes up, he won't feel like jeopardizing his life as he did this time. And if you cannot trust a man, but give him a reward, he might be tempted with a lot of money by the enemy someday."
"Well, then, where did you leave him?"
"As luck would have it, Oyu was just about to return to Fuwa, so I ordered him to go along as a guard for her palanquin."
"The man risked his life coming back from Kai, and you immediately ordered him to accompany your mistress? Isn't Tenzo going to resent that?"
"He went along with her happily. I may be a foolish master, but he knows me very well."
"You seem to employ people a little differently than I do."
"You can be doubly at ease, my lord. She may be a woman, but if it appears that Tenzo is about to spill any secrets to anyone, she'll protect our interests, even if she has to kill him."
"Put away your self-congratulations."
"Sorry. You what I'm like."
"That's not the point," Nobunaga said. "The Tiger of Kai has died, so we can't delay. We've got to move before Shingen's death is known by the world at large. Hideyoshi, leave tonight and hurry back to Yokoyama."
"I had planned to do that immediately, so I sent Oyu back to Fuwa, and—"
"Forget the rest. I've hardly got time to sleep. We're going to mobilize at daybreak."
Nobunaga's thoughts were perfectly in line with Hideyoshi's. The opportunity they had always sought—the time to finish up a former problem—was now at hand. The problem being, of course, the liquidation of the troublesome shogun and the old order.
Needless to say, as Nobunaga was an actor in the new age that was about to replace the old, his advance was quickly realized. On the twenty-second day of the Third Month, his army thundered out of Gifu. When it arrived at the shores of Lake Biwa, the army split into two. One half of the army was under the command of Nobunaga. He boarded ship and sailed across the lake to the west. The remaining half, composed of the troops led by Katsuie, Mitsuhide, and Hachiya, took the land route and advanced along the southern edge of the lake.
The land army ousted the anti-Nobunaga forces made up of the warrior-monks in the area between Katada and Ishiyama, and destroyed the fortifications that had been erected along the road.
The shogun's advisers quickly held a conference.
"Shall we resist?"
"Shall we sue for peace?"
These men had a big problem: they had not yet given a clear answer to the seventeen-article document that Nobunaga had sent to Yoshiaki on New Year's Day. In it, Nobunaga had itemized all his grievances against Yoshiaki.
"What audacity! I am the shogun, after all!" Yoshiaki had said angrily, conveniently forgetting that it was Nobunaga who had protected him and returned him to Nijo Palace. Why should I submit to a nonentity like Nobunaga?"
Messengers had come from Nobunaga one after another to work out peace terms, but had withdrawn without being granted audiences. Then, as a sort of response, the shogun had barricades erected on the roads that led to the capital.
The opportunity that Nobunaga had been waiting for and that Hideyoshi had been planning against was the arrival of the appropriate moment for reproving Yoshiaki for his lack of response to the Seventeen Articles. That opportunity had come sooner than either of them had imagined—hastened by Shingen's death.
In any period of history, a man on his way to ruin always holds on to the ludicrous illusion that he is not the one about to fall. Yoshiaki fell straight into that trap.
Nobunaga saw him in yet another way, saying, "We can use him, too." Thus he was handled with delicate disrespect. But the members of the worthless shogunate of this period did not know their own value, and no matter what the subject of their thoughts, intellectually speaking, their understanding did not go beyond the past. They saw only the narrow face of culture in the capital and believed that it prevailed throughout Japan. Entrusting themselves to the cramped policies of the past, they relied on the warrior-monks of the Honganji and on the many samurai warlords throughout t
he provinces who hated Nobunaga.
The shogun was still unaware of Shingen's death. And so he played tough. "I am the shogun, the pillar of the samurai class. I'm different from the monks on Mount Hiei. If Nobunaga were to aim his weapons at Nijo Palace, he would be branded a traitor."
His attitude indicated that he would not decline war if it was offered. Naturally, he called on the clans around the capital and sent urgent messages to the faraway Asai, the Asakura, the Uesugi, and the Takeda, setting up a showy defense.
When Nobunaga heard this, he turned toward the capital with a laugh and, without stopping his army for a single day, entered Osaka. The ones who were shocked this time were the warrior-monks of the Honganji. Suddenly face to face with Nobunaga's army, they had no idea what to do. But Nobunaga was content simply to line his men up in battle array.
"We can strike anytime we like," he said. At this point he wanted most strongly to avoid any unnecessary expenditure of military strength. And, until this time, he had repeatedly sent envoys to Kyoto asking for a response to the Seventeen Articles. So this was a sort of ultimatum. Yoshiaki took a highhanded view: he was shogun and he simply did not feel like listening to Nobunaga's opinions of his administration.
Among the Seventeen Articles, Yoshiaki was pressed quite firmly by two articles in particular. The first was concerned with the crime of disloyalty to the Emperor. The second article had to do with his disgraceful conduct. While it was his duty to maintain the peace of the Empire, he himself had incited the provinces to rebellion.
"It's useless. He'll never accept this kind of grilling—just written notes and messengers," Araki Murashige said to Nobunaga.
Hosokawa Fujitaka, who had also joined Nobunaga, added, "I suppose it's no use hoping that the shogun will wake up before his fall."
Nobunaga nodded. He seemed to understand only too well. But it would not be necessary to use the drastic violence here that he had employed at Mount Hiei; neither was he so poor in strategy that he would have to use the same method twice.
"Back to Kyoto!" Nobunaga had given this order on the fourth day of the Fourth Month, but it had seemed nothing more than an exercise to impress the masses with the size of his army.
TAIKO: AN EPIC NOVEL OF WAR AND GLORY IN FEUDAL JAPAN Page 59