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

by Eiji Yoshikawa

  Oichi answered with tears in her eyes. "No!" she said through her tears. "When a woman marries into a warrior family, she is resolved to accept her own karma. To tell me to leave the castle now is truly cold-hearted, and it's unthinkable that I should go begging at Hideyoshi's camp gate, asking him to spare my life."

  She looked at Katsuie, shaking her head behind her sleeve. But Katsuie tried once again. "No, no. It gives me pleasure to think that you would be so faithful to me when our relationship is still so shallow, but your three daughters are the children of Lord Asai. than that, Hideyoshi would certainly not be heartless to the sister of Lord Nobunaga or to her children. So you should go ahead and leave, and leave quickly. Go prepare yourself."Calling over one of his retainers, Katsuie gave the man instructions and told them to get started. But Oichi only shook her head and refused to move.

  "But even though you are so determined, may these innocent children at least leave the castle as my lord wishes?"

  She gave the appearance of agreeing with him. Then she shook awake the youngest child, who was sleeping on her lap, and told the children they were to be sent outside the castle.

  Chacha clung to her mother. "I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I want to be with you, Mother!"

  Katsuie spoke to her and her mother tried to persuade her, but they were unable to stop her desperate tears. Finally she was led away and forced out of the castle against her will. The sobs of the three girls could be heard as they moved far into the distance. It was already close to the fourth watch of the night, and the joyless party was over. The warriors quickly retied the leather straps of their armor, picked up their weapons, and began to disperse to their final posts, the posts that would be the places of their deaths.

  Katsuie, his wife, and the several members of the clan moved together into the interior of the main citadel.

  Oichi had a small desk brought to her and began to grind the ink for her death poem. Katsuie also left a poem.

  While the night was the same everywhere, it was not the same for everyone. The dawn was quite different for the vanquished and the victor.

  "Make sure we have taken the surrounding walls by the time the sky turns white,” Hideyoshi ordered, and then waited peacefully for the dawn.

  The town was also relatively calm. Fires broke out in two or three places. They had not been set by Hideyoshi's soldiers but more likely had been started accidentally by the confused townspeople. Because they could serve as bonfires that would illuminate surprise attacks from the soldiers in the castle, they were allowed to burn all night.

  Various generals had gone in and out of Hideyoshi's quarters from evening until midnight. Because of that, there was talk that either a movement was afoot to spare Katsuie's life or that the castle would soon capitulate. Nevertheless, even after midnight, no change was made in the original battle strategy.

  The quick activity in every camp meant that dawn was close. Soon the conch shell was sounded. The beating of the drum began splitting the mist. It reverberated with a boom throughout the entire camp.

  The assault began precisely at the Hour of the Tiger as had been planned. The attack commenced as the troops facing the castle wall opened a barrage of gunfire.

  The popping of the guns reverberated uncannily through the mist, but then suddenly both the gunfire and the war cries of the vanguard stopped.

  Just then a lone rider broke through the mist, whipping his horse from Kyutaro's position to Hideyoshi's camp stool. Behind him ran a single enemy samurai and three young girls.

  "Hold your fire! Stop the attack!" the rider shouted.

  The fugitives were, of course, Nobunaga's nieces. Ignorant of the wearers, the soldiers watched as six elegant sleeves went by, soaked in the mist. The eldest sister held her middle sister's hand, while she in turn took care of the youngest. They tiptoed over the stony road. It was considered the proper etiquette for fugitives to go with very little to protect their feet, and the little princesses were no exception, walking on the earth in nothing but heavy silk socks.

  The youngest stopped walking and said she wanted to return to the castle. The samurai who had accompanied them from the castle calmed her down by putting her on his back.

  “Where are we going?" the little girl asked with a shudder.

  “We're going to a nice man's place," Shinroku answered.

  “No! I don't want to go!" the girl cried.

  The older girls did their best to calm her down.

  “Mother should be coming later on. Right, Shinroku?"

  “Yes. Of course she is."

  Pattering on like that, they finally approached the stand of pines where Hideyoshi had made his camp.

  Hideyoshi came out from behind the curtain and stood beneath a pine tree, watching them approach. He walked up to meet the girls.

  “They all have the family resemblance," he said when he saw them up close.

  Was it the figure of Nobunaga or that of Oichi that was conjured up within his beast? Whichever it was, he was completely charmed and could only mutter that they were good children. A tassel hung elegantly from Chacha's plum-colored sleeve. Against the middle sister's sleeve, which was embroidered with a bold pattern, was a red sash. The youngest girl was dressed no less elegantiy than her sisters. Each had a tiny satchel scented with aloeswood and a tiny golden bell.

  “How old are you?" Hideyoshi asked. But none of the three would answer. On the contrary, their lips turned so white they gave the impression that if you touched them they would burst into tears.

  Hideyoshi laughed lightly and displayed a smile. "There is nothing to fear, my little princesses. From now on you can play with me." And he pointed to his own nose.

  The middle sister laughed a little, perhaps because she was the only one who was reminded of a monkey.

  But suddenly the gunfire and war cries shook the area even more strongly than before, sweeping over the entire area of the castle. Overhead, the morning sky began to appear.

  The little princesses saw the smoke rising from the castle walls and started to scream and cry in confusion.

  Hideyoshi put the girls in the care of a retainer, then called vehemently for a horse and rode off in the direction of the castle.

  The two moats along the outer walls that drew in the waters of the Kuzuryu River did not allow the attacking troops an easy approach.

  When at last, however, they were able to cross the outer moat, the soldiers in the castle had set fire to the bridge at the front gate. The flames leaped to the tower over the gate and spread to the area of the barracks. The resistance of the defenders was furious beyond the attackers' anticipation.

  At noon the outer castle fell. The attackers flowed into the main citadel from every one of the gates.

  Katsuie and his senior retainers had gone to the keep to make their final stand. The mighty keep was a nine-story building with iron doors and stone pillars.

  After two hours of fighting in the keep, the attacking soldiers had sustained many more casualties than they had suffered during the whole morning. The courtyard and the tower were a sea of flames. Hideyoshi ordered a temporary retreat. Perhaps because he saw that they were making little headway, he pulled back every corps.

  During that time he selected several hundred stalwart warriors. No one was to carry firearms; only spears and swords.

  "Now I'm going to see it done! Cut your way into the tower!" he ordered.

  The specially picked spear corps immediately enveloped the tower like a swarm of wasps and soon penetrated into the interior.

  Jet black smoke poured from the third floor, from the fourth, then from the fifth.

  "Good!" Hideyoshi yelled when a huge umbrella of flames shot out from the tower's multifaceted eaves.

  That was the flash that signaled Katsuie's end. Katsuie and the eighty members of his household held the attackers back on the third and fourth floors of the keep and fought hard until the very end, slipping in the spilled blood. But now three members of his family called to
him.

  "Prepare yourself quickly, my lord!"

  Running up to the fifth floor, he joined Lady Oichi. After witnessing her death, Shibata Katsuie ended his life by cutting open his stomach.

  It was the Hour of the Monkey. The keep burned all night. The magnificent buildings that had stood on the banks of the Kuzuryu River since the time of Nobunaga burned like a funeral pyre for innumerable past dreams and a thousand souls. Nothing, however, could be found in the ashes that in any way resembled Katsuie.

  It was said that he had packed dry grass into the tower with meticulous care so that he would be burned up completely. And for that reason, Katsuie's head could never be offered as sure proof of his death. For a while some said that Katsuie had escaped, but Hideyoshi reacted with almost complete indifference to those rumors. By the following day he had already turned toward Kaga.

  Oyama Castle in Kaga had been until the day before the headquarters of Sakuma Genba. When the fall of Kitanosho was reported, the people in that area could see what was in the wind and surrendered to Hideyoshi. He entered Oyama Castle without a fight. But the more victories his armies won, the more he warned them about the gravity of the situation and cautioned them against the slackening of military discipline. His aim was to overawe the solid warriors of the Shibata and their allies once and for all.

  Sassa Narimasa in Toyama Castle was one of those warriors. Indeed, he was a strong supporter of the Shibata and held Hideyoshi in complete contempt. In terms of lineage, Sassa was far above Hideyoshi. He had been Katsuie's second in command during the northern campaign, and during the campaign against Hideyoshi, he had been asked to stay behind, not only to check the Uesugi clan but also to manage internal matters in the north.

  Sassa is here. That is the stance he took as he glared out of the castle, standing firm in his guardianship of the northern provinces. Even though Katsuie had already perished and Kitanosho had fallen, there was a good possibility that—with his natural ferocity and professed dislike of Hideyoshi—Sassa might make a desperate effort to step into Katsuie's shoes and do his best to prolong the war. And he was indeed thinking of doing that by combining his own fresh troops with the remaining Shibata.

  Hideyoshi purposely did not confront the man. The numbers of Hideyoshi's army demonstrated his power, and he decided to let their presence persuade Sassa to reconsider his position. In the meantime he approached the Uesugi clan with an invitation to form an alliance. Uesugi Kagekatsu sent a retainer to congratulate Hideyoshi on his victory and to respond affirmatively to Hideyoshi's offer.

  Considering the apparently friendly relationship between Hideyoshi and the Uesugi clan, Sassa Narimasa found it impossible to plan a battle of resistance. He therefore disguised his intentions and finally declared his submission to Hideyoshi. He then married his daughter to Inuchiyo's second son, Toshimasa, and settled down with relief in his own province. Thus the area north of Kitanosho was pacified by momentum, and virtually no fighting had been required.

  Having secured the north, Hideyoshi's victorious army returned to Nagahama Castle on the Boys' Festival, the fifth day of the Fifth Month.

  At Nagahama Hideyoshi listened to reports of the situation in Gifu. After Kitanosho, it was chiefly Gifu Castie that continued its attacks on Hideyoshi, but after the great defeat of the Shibata, the martial spirit of Nobutaka and his soldiers was considerably dampened. To make matters worse, there were in Nagahama Castle many retainers from Gifu who had deserted Nobutaka and joined Hideyoshi. In the end, the situation had become so extreme that a mere twenty-seven men remained with Nobutaka. Because Nobutaka had relied particularly upon the Shibata, for him their destruction was akin to cutting the roots of a plant. His men all deserted him, except for his favorites. Nobuo assembled his forces and surrounded Nobutaka's castle. He sent a message saying his brother should go to Owari.

  Nobutaka left Gifu Castle, took a boat, and landed at Utsumi in Owari. One of Nobuo's attendants went to Nobutaka with an order for him to commit seppuku, and, feeling that his time had come, Nobutaka calmly wrote out his last words and then took his own life. Thus Nobutaka's end was caused by his own brother. But the man who was behind his death was Hideyoshi. It is hardly necessary to say that Hideyoshi was unwilling to attack Nobutaka—who was so closely related to Nobunaga—with his own army, and so resorted to using Nobuo.

  At any rate, the mediocrity of Nobuo and Nobutaka cannot be doubted. If they had made their minds one as brothers—or if either one had been distinguished in bravery and blessed with an eye that could perceive the tide of the times—they would not have experienced such a collapse in the end. Compared with Nobuo, who showed a good-natured stupidity, Nobutaka was a bit more courageous. But he was really not much more than an incompetent bluffer.On that seventh day Hideyoshi left for Azuchi, stopping at Sakamoto Castle on the eleventh. In Ise, Takigawa Kazumasu also surrendered. Hideyoshi gave him a province in Omi worth five thousand bushels. He did not venture to question Kazumasu about his past crimes.

  10 ELEVENTH YEAR OF TENSHO 1583

  Characters and Places

  Gamo Ujisato, senior Oda retainer

  Nakagawa Kanemon, commander of Inuyama Castle

  Ikeda Yukisuke, Shonyu's son

  Bito Jinemon, retainer to Hideyoshi

  Mori Nagayoshi, Ikeda Shonyu's son-in-law

  Sakai Tadatsugu, senior Tokugawa retainer

  Honda Heihachiro, senior Tokugawa retainer

  Ii Hyobu, senior Tokugawa retainer

  Miyoshi Hidetsugu, Hideyoshi's nephew

  Oda Nobuteru, Nobuo's uncle

  Ise, Oda Nobuo's province

  Nagashima, Oda Nobuo's main castle

  Ogaki, Ikeda Shonyu's castle

  Mount Komaki, fortified position held by Ieyasu

  Gakuden, Hideyoshi's main camp

  Okazaki, Tokugawa Ieyasu's castle

  Osaka, Hideyoshi's new castle

  The Sins of the Father

  In just one short year, Hideyoshi had risen so rapidly to prominence that even he was surprised. He had struck down the Akechi and the Shibata; Takigawa and Sassa knelt before him; Niwa held him in special confidence; and Inuchiyo had demonstrated his loyalty to their old friendship.

  Hideyoshi now controlled almost all the provinces that Nobunaga had conquered. Even his relationship with provinces outside Nobunaga’s sphere of influence had undergone a complete change. The Mori, who for years had obstinately resisted Nobunaga's plans for hegemony, had signed a treaty of alliance and sent hostages.

  There was, however, one man who remained an open question: Tokugawa Ieyasu. There had been no communication between the two for some time. They were silent, like poor chess players waiting for the other side to make a good move.

  The silence was finally broken by a diplomatic overture from Ieyasu, soon after Hideyoshi's return to Kyoto on the twenty-first day of the Fifth Month. Ieyasu's most senior general, Ishikawa Kazumasa, called on Hideyoshi at Takaradera Castle.

  "I have come to convey Lord Ieyasu's congratulations. Your great victory has brought peace to the nation." With that solemn announcement, Kazumasa presented Hideyoshi with a valuable antique tea container called Hatsuhana.

  Hideyoshi had become a devotee of the tea ceremony, and he was delighted to receive the precious gift. But it was also clear that he derived even greater satisfaction from having received the courtesy from Ieyasu first. Kazumasa had planned on returning to Hamamatsu that very day, but Hideyoshi detained him.

  "You don't have to hurry," Hideyoshi said. "Stay for two or three days. I'll tell Lord Ieyasu that I insisted. Especially since we're having a little family celebration tomorrow.

  What Hideyoshi called "a little family celebration" was the banquet to mark his Investiture with a new court title, which was the seal of imperial approval on his domestic policies and military successes. He was also to announce the construction of a major new castle in Osaka.

  The banquet lasted three days. A seemingly endless line of guests made its way up
to the castle, and the narrow streets of the town were clogged with the carriages of courtiers, servants and horses.

  Kazumasa was forced to admit that Nobunaga's mantle had come to rest on Hideyoshi’s shoulders. Until that day he had firmly believed that it would be his lord, Ieyasu, who would succeed Nobunaga, but the time he spent with Hideyoshi changed his mind. When he compared Hideyoshi's and Ieyasu's provinces and reflected on the differences between their troops, he concluded sadly that the Tokugawa domain was still a small provincial outpost in eastern Japan.

  A few days later, Kazumasa announced his intention to leave, and Hideyoshi accompanied him as far as Kyoto. As they were riding along, Hideyoshi turned in the saddle and looked back. He beckoned to Kazumasa, who was riding some way behind, to join him. As a retainer of another clan, Kazumasa had been received with the courtesy due to a guest, but he quite naturally rode behind Hideyoshi.

  Hideyoshi said warmly, "We decided to travel together, and that doesn't mean that we should ride separately. The road to Kyoto is particularly boring, so let's talk as we ride."

  Kazumasa hesitated for a moment but then rode up to Hideyoshi's side.

  “it’s inconvenient going back and forth to Kyoto," Hideyoshi went on. "So within the year I’m going to move to Osaka, which is close to the capital." He then described his plans to build a castle.

  “You’ve chosen a good location in Osaka," Kazumasa remarked. "It's said that Lord Nobunaga had his eye on Osaka for a number of years."

  “Yes, but the warrior-monks of the Honganji were entrenched in their temple-fortress there, so he was forced to settle for Azuchi."

  Before long they entered the city of Kyoto, but just as Kazumasa was about to take his leave, Hideyoshi stopped him once again and said, "It wouldn't be advisable to take the land route in this heat. You'd better take a boat across the lake from Otsu. Let's have some lunch with Maeda Geni while the boat's being prepared."