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

by Eiji Yoshikawa

  Hideyoshi greeted each one of them, offering each a cup of sake. The well-wishers then walked by any number of groups of preceding visitors, their faces bright and cheerful Passing through the main and west citadels, one could see that every room was filled with guests—here was a group chanting Noh verses, there was a group reciting poetry. Even after noon, more well-wishers came before Hideyoshi.

  Hideyoshi took care of all business in Himeji until the fifth, and that evening he startled his retainers by announcing that he would be leaving for Kyoto on the following day. They rushed to get things ready in time. They had thought that he would be staying in Himeji until the middle of the month, and indeed until noon Hideyoshi had showed no inclination to leave at all.

  It was only much later that people understood the motives behind his actions. Hideyoshi moved quickly and never lost an opportunity.

  Seki Morinobu commanded Kameyama Castle in Ise. Although nominally one of Nobutaka's retainers, he was now on friendly terms with Hideyoshi. During the holidays,

  Seki came to Himeji in secret to offer his congratulations for the New Year.

  As he was congratulating Hideyoshi, a messenger arrived from Ise. Seki's castle had been seized by Nobutaka's leading supporter, Takigawa Kazumasu.

  Hideyoshi left Himeji without a moment's delay. He reached Takaradera Castle that evening, entered Kyoto on the seventh, arrived at Azuchi on the following day, and had an audience with the three-year-old Samboshi on the ninth.

  "I have just now asked Lord Samboshi for permission to subdue Takigawa Kazumasu," Hideyoshi said to Seki and the other lords as he walked into the hall, almost as if he had kicked a ball into their midst. "Katsuie is behind this. So what we have to do is conquer Ise before Katsuie's soldiers are able to move."

  Hideyoshi issued a proclamation from Azuchi. It was circulated widely in his domains, as well as to the generals in those areas friendly to him, and called for all just war­riors to gather at Azuchi. How pitiful for the creator of the blind strategy that inspired that proclamation. There in Kitanosho, married to the beautiful Lady Oichi and sur­rounded by deep snow, Shibata Katsuie waited vainly for nature to take its course.

  If only the spring sun would come and melt the snow. But the snow walls that had seemed to him an impenetrable defense were crumbling even before the advent of spring.

  Katsuie was shaken by blow after blow: the fall of Gifu Castle, the revolt in Nagahama, Nobutaka's surrender. And now Hideyoshi was going to attack Ise. Katsuie felt he could neither leave nor sit still. But the snow on his borders was as deep as on the moun­tain passes of Szechuan. Neither soldiers nor military supplies would be able to cross them.

  He had no need to worry about an attack from Hideyoshi. He would march forward the day that the snow melted, but who could tell when that would be? The snow seemed to have become a protective wall for the enemy.

  Kazumasu is a veteran, too, Katsuie thought, but taking the little castles at Kameyama and Mine was a careless movement of soldiers without much regard for timing. That was stupid. Katsuie was furious.

  Although his own strategy was riddled with faults, he criticized the actions of Takigawa Kazumasu, who had attacked too early.

  But even if Kazumasu had abided by Katsuie's plans and waited for the snows to melt, Hideyoshi—who had already seen through the enemy's intentions—would not have spared them the time. In a word, Hideyoshi had outwitted Katsuie. He had seen what was in Katsuie's heart from the time the man had sent envoys for peace talks.

  Katsuie was not simply going to take all that sitting down. Twice he sent out messengers: first to the ex-shogun Yoshiaki, asking him to encourage the Mori to attack from the western provinces; then to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

  But on the eighteenth day of the First Month, Ieyasu, for reasons unknown, met secretly with Nobunaga's eldest son, Nobuo. Ieyasu had been professing strict neutrality, so what was his plan now? And why was a man of such cunning meeting with one entirely lacking in that quality?

  Ieyasu had invited Nobuo, who was timidly being swept along in the violent tide of the times, to his own private quarters. There he favored that frail man with entertainment

  And secret conversations. Ieyasu treated Nobuo exactly as an adult would treat a child, and whatever conclusions the two reached remained secret. At any rate, Nobuo returned to Kiyosu delighted. His appearance was that of a commoner very pleased with himself, and there was also something of a guilty conscience about him. He seemed extremely hesitant to look Hideyoshi in the eye.

  And where was Hideyoshi on the eighteenth day of the First Month? What was he doing? Accompanied by only a few trusted retainers, he had wound around the northern part of Lake Biwa, stealthily traversing the mountainous area on the border of Omi and Echizen.

  As Hideyoshi toured the mountain villages and high ground, which were still under deep snow, he pointed out strategic places with his bamboo staff and gave out orders as he walked.

  "Is that Mount Tenjin? Build some ramparts there, too. And construct some right away on that mountain over there as well."

  On the seventh day of the Second Month, Hideyoshi sent a letter from Kyoto adressed to the Uesugi, proposing an alliance.

  The reason was not complicated. The Shibata and the Uesugi had continually fought bloody battles over a number of years, now taking land from one another, now losing it. It was likely that Katsuie would now be thinking about mending those old grudges so that he could concentrate all of his strength on the confrontation with Hideyoshi. But his stubbornness and pride made it unlikely that he would succeed in carrying off so subtle a strategy.

  Two days after sending the letter to the Uesugi in the north, Hideyoshi announced his army's departure for Ise. He divided his forces into three corps, which advanced along three different routes.

  With war cries, under clouds of banners and drums, their march shook the mountains and ridges. All three armies crossed the central mountain range of Omi and Ise and regrouped in the areas of Kuwana and Nagashima. That was where Takigawa Kazumasu was to be found.

  "First let's see what battle formation Hideyoshi chooses," Kazumasu said when he heard that the enemy was approaching. He was fully confident of his own ability.

  It was a matter of timing, and he had misjudged the moment to begin hostilities. The treaty between Katsuie, Nobutaka, and Kazumasu had been kept secret even from their own advisers, but now the fuse had been blindly ignited because Kazumasu had been so eager for an opportunity. Dispatches were sent to Gifu and Echizen. Leaving two thousand soldiers in Nagashima Castle, Kazumasu himself went to Kuwana Castle.

  The castle was protected on one side by the sea and on the other by the hills around the castle town, and it was easier to defend than Nagashima. Even so, Kazumasu's strategy was not simply to retreat to this narrow strip of land. Hideyoshi would have to divide his sixty-thousand-man army to attack Gifu, Nagashima, and Kuwana, as well as the various other castles in the area, so even if his main army attacked, it would not be with overwhelming strength.

  On the one hand, he had heard that the enemy army was impressive in its numbers, but on the other, he knew that its soldiers would be taking the roads over the peaks of the

  Owari-Kai mountain range. It was obvious that the supply train carrying the munitions and provisions would be very long.

  With that in mind, Kazumasu believed that destroying Hideyoshi would be no diffi­cult task at all. Draw him in, attack mercilessly, watch for the opportunity to get Nobutaka on his feet again, unite with the soldiers in Gifu, and destroy Nagahama.

  Contrary to Kazumasu's expectations, Hideyoshi had not bothered to take the small castles, but had decided to attack the enemy's main stronghold. At that moment, urgent messages began to come to Hideyoshi from Nagahama, Sawayama, and Azuchi. The situation was not an easy one; the clouds and surging tides that covered the world changed with every passing day.

  The first dispatch read: "The vanguard of Echizen has passed through Yanagase. A part of it will soon be invad
ing northern Omi."

  The next courier bore a similar message: "Katsuie's patience has finally broken. In­stead of waiting for the thaw, he has engaged twenty or thirty thousand coolies to clear the snow from the road."

  Yet a third messenger reported how critical the situation was: "It is probable that the Shibata forces left Kitanosho around the second day of the Third Month. By the fifth, the vanguard had advanced as far as Yanagase in Omi. By the seventh, one division was threatening our positions on Mount Tenjin, while other divisions set fire to the villages of Imaichi, Yogo, and Sakaguchi. The main army of twenty thousand men under the com­mand of Shibata Katsuie and Maeda Inuchiyo is steadily advancing southward."

  "Strike camp immediately," Hideyoshi ordered. And then, "On to northern Omi."

  Leaving the Ise campaign to Nobuo and Ujisato, Hideyoshi turned his army toward Omi. On the sixteenth he reached Nagahama, and on the seventeenth his troops were snaking their way along the lakeside road that led to northern Omi. He himself rode on horseback. The spring breeze played on his face as he rode beneath the commander's standard of the golden gourds.

  At the border of Omi in the mountainous area of Yanagase, the fresh snow lay in pleats and folds. The wind blowing over the area and swooping down on the lake from the north was still cold enough to redden the noses of the warriors. At dusk the army divided to take up positions. The soldiers could almost smell the enemy. And yet not a single column of smoke from an enemy campfire, or a single enemy soldier, could be seen.

  But the officers pointed out the enemy positions to their men. "There are Shibata units along the base of Mount Tenjin and in the area of Tsubakizaka. There is also a large division of the enemy stationed in the areas of Kinomoto, Imaichi, and Sakaguchi, so stay on your guard, even when you sleep."

  But the white mist trailed into camp, ushering in an evening so peaceful it could hardly be imagined that the world was at war.

  Suddenly, sporadic gunfire was heard in the distance—all from Hideyoshi's side. No a single shot was returned throughout the night. Was the enemy asleep?

  At dawn the gunners who had been sent to test out the enemy's front line pulled back. Hideyoshi ordered the commanders of the musket corps to report to his headquarters, where he listened carefully to their reports of the enemy positions.

  "Have you seen any trace of Sassa Narimasa's troops?" Hideyoshi asked.

  Hideyoshi wanted to be sure, but all three commanders answered in the same way.

  “The banners of Sassa Narimasa are nowhere to be seen."

  Hideyoshi nodded, acknowledging that it might be true. Even if Katsuie had come, he would be unable to do so without anxiety because of the Uesugi at his rear. Hideyoshi could imagine that Sassa had been left behind for precisely that reason.

  The order to eat breakfast was issued. The rations carried during a campaign were unpolished rice balls packed with bean paste and wrapped in oak leaves. Hideyoshi talked his pages while chewing his rice noisily. Before he had eaten half of it, the others had finished.

  “Don't you chew your food?" he asked.

  “Aren't you just a slow eater, my lord?" the pages answered. "It's our custom to eat quickly and shit quickly."

  'That's a good way to be," Hideyoshi replied. "Shitting quickly is good, I guess, but you all should try to eat like Sakichi."

  The pages looked at Sakichi. Like Hideyoshi, Sakichi had eaten only half of his rice and was chewing it as carefully as an old lady.

  “I'll tell you why," Hideyoshi continued. "It's all right to eat quickly on days when there's going to be a fight, but it's different when you're besieged in a castle and there are limited provisions that you have to stretch out for the day. At that time you'll be able to see the wisdom of eating slowly both in the well-being of the castle and in your own health. Also, when you're deep in the mountains and plan to hold out for a long time out provisions, you may have to chew on anything—roots or leaves—just to satisfy stomach. Chewing well is an everyday matter, and if you don't get into the habit you won’t be able to do it voluntarily when the time comes." Suddenly getting up from his camp stool, he waved them along. "Come on. Let's go climb Mount Fumuro."

  Mount Fumuro is one of a cluster of mountains at the northern edge of two lakes—the smaller Lake Yogo and the larger Lake Biwa. From the village of Fumuro at its foot to its summit is a height of almost eight hundred meters and a walking distance of over two leagues. If the traveler wanted to climb its steep slope, he would have to plan on taking at half a day.

  “He's leaving!"

  “Where's he going so suddenly?"

  The warriors guarding Hideyoshi noticed the retreating figures of the pages and ran after them. They could see Hideyoshi happily walking on ahead, grasping a bamboo staff, looking for all the world as if he were off on a hawking expedition.

  “Are you going to climb the mountain, my lord?"

  Hideyoshi pointed halfway up the slope with his staff. “Right. Up to about there."

  When they had climbed about a third of the way up the mountain, they came to an area of level ground. Hideyoshi stood looking around, as the wind cooled the sweat on his forehead. From his position he had a bird's-eye view of the area from Yanagase to lower Yogo. The road to the northern provinces, which wound its way through the mountains and connected several villages, looked like a single ribbon.

  “Which one is Mount Nakao?"

  "That's it over there."

  Hideyoshi looked in the direction in which the warrior was pointing. That was the enemy's main camp. A large number of banners followed the lines of the mountain and continued down to its base. There a single army corps could be recognized. But if one looked further, one could see that the banners belonging to the forces of the north filled the mountains in the distance and occupied the strategic areas on peaks closer at hand and all along the road. It was just as though some military expert had made that piece of heaven and earth his base and was trying his hand at a tremendous expansion of his for­mation. There were no cracks or spaces in the subtlety of the arrangement or in the strat­egy of the positioning of troops. The grandeur with which they showed themselves ready to swallow the enemy was beyond words.

  Hideyoshi silently looked out over the scene. He then looked back toward Katsuie's main camp on Mount Nakao and gazed fixedly at it for a long time.

  Looking closely, he could see a group of men working like ants on the southern face of the main camp area on Mount Nakao. And not in just one or two places. He could de­tect activity in all of the slightly elevated locations.

  "Well, it looks like Katsuie intends to make this a long campaign."

  Hideyoshi had the answer. The enemy was building fortifications at the southern end of the main camp. The entire battle array, which spread out like a fan from the central army, had been positioned with great care. It would make a steady, carefully controlled advance. There was no sign of preparations for a surprise attack.

  Hideyoshi could read the enemy's plan. In a word, Katsuie intended to keep him pinned down here to give his allies in Ise and Mino the time to prepare for a combined offensive from the front and rear.

  "Let's go back," Hideyoshi said, and started off. "Isn't there another way down?"

  "Yes, my lord," a page answered proudly.

  They came to an allied camp just between Mount Tenjin and Ikenohara. From the banners, they knew it was Hosokawa Tadaoki's post.

  "I'm thirsty," Hideyoshi said after presenting himself at the gate.

  Tadaoki and his retainers thought that Hideyoshi was conducting a surprise inspec­tion.

  "No," Hideyoshi explained, "I'm just on my way back from Mount Fumuro. But since I'm here…" As Hideyoshi stood before Tadaoki, he drank some water and gave orders: "Strike camp immediately and go home. Then take all of the warships docked at Miyazu in Tango and attack the enemy coast."

  Hideyoshi had conceived of the idea of a navy when he was climbing the mountain. The plan did not seem to have anything to do with what he was i
nvolved with at the time, but that kind of discrepancy was, perhaps, peculiar to his way of thinking. His thought processes were not limited by what he saw in front of him.

  After half a day of military observations, Hideyoshi had almost completely deter­mined his strategy. That night he summoned all of the generals to his headquarters and told them what he was going to do: because the enemy was preparing for extended hos­tilities, Hideyoshi's forces would also construct a number of ramparts and prepare for protracted hostilities.

  The construction of a chain of fortresses was begun. The engineering was on a grand scale—geared to encourage morale. Hideyoshi's decision to begin building right in front the enemy, at a time when a decisive battle seemed imminent, could be called either reckless or courageous. It could easily have lost him the war. But he was willing to take that chance in order to connect himself to the people of the province.

  The fighting style of Nobunaga had been characterized by an irresistible force; it was said that "where Nobunaga advances, the grasses and trees wither." But Hideyoshi's fighting style was different. Where he advanced, where he made his camp, he naturally drew people to him. Winning over the local people was an important matter to attend to before ever trying to defeat the enemy.

  Strict military discipline is vital, but even on days when blood seemed to flow, there was something of a spring breeze wherever Hideyoshi set up his camp stool. Someone even wrote: "Where Hideyoshi lives, the spring wind blows."

  The lines of fortresses were to run through two areas. The first ran from Kitayama in Nakanogo, along the route to the northern provinces through Mount Higashino, Mount Dangi, and Mount Shinmei; the second went along Mount Iwasaki, Mount Okami, Shizugatake, Mount Tagami, and Kinomoto. Such a huge undertaking would require tens of thousands of laborers.

  Hideyoshi recruited the men from the province of Nagahama. He had signposts advertising the work raised in the areas especially devastated by war. The mountains were filled with refugees. Lumber was cut, roads were opened, fortifications were constructed everywhere, and it was easy to believe that a line of fortresses would spring up overnight. But the construction work was not so easy. A single fort required a watchtower and barracks, and also moats and ramparts. Three wooden palisades were set up, while huge rocks and trees were stockpiled directly above the road that the enemy would most likely take to attack.