After that, the 'wandering shogun' approached the Wada, the Sasaki, and various other clans for assistance. From the very beginning, his plan was not to live on other people’s charity. He planned to defeat his brother's murderers and restore his family's office and authority. He sought help, appealing to distant clans.
This was, however, a great matter involving the entire nation, because Miyoshi and Matsunaga had seized the central government. Although Yoshiaki was shogun in name, he was in fact nothing more than a penniless exile. He had no money, much less an army of his own. Nor was he particularly popular with the people.
Mitsuhide took up the story from Yoshiaki's arrival at Asakura Yoshikage's castle in Echizen. Just at that time, there was an ill-fated man in the service of the Asakura who had not been admitted as a full retainer of the clan. This was he himself, Akechi Mitsuhide. It was there that Mitsuhide had met Hosokawa Fujitaka for the first time.
Mitsuhide went on, 'The story is a little long, but if you'll do me the favor of listening to me, I'll ask you to tell it in detail to Lord Nobunaga. Of course, I must hand the shogun's letter to Lord Nobunaga in person.'
Then, in order to make his own situation clear, he talked about events from the time he left Akechi Castle and fled to Echizen from Mino. For over ten years, Mitsuhide tasted the hardships of the world. An intellectual by nature, he was easily drawn to books and scholarship. He was thankful for the reverses he had suffered. The time of his wandering, the period of his distress, had certainly been long. Akechi Castle had been destroyed during the civil war in Mino, and only he and his cousin, Mitsuharu, had escaped to Echizen. In the years since Mitsuhide had dropped from sight, he had lived as a
His only desire was to find the one right lord to serve, and one good opportunity. As he looked for a way to come up in the world, Mitsuhide studied the martial spirit, economics, and castles of various provinces with the eye of a military strategist, preparing for a later day.
He traveled far and wide and visited all the provinces of western Japan. There waa a good reason for this. The west was always the first place to receive foreign innovation and it was there that he was most likely to gain new knowledge on the subject he had made his specialty—guns. His knowledge of gunnery had led to several episodes in the western provinces. A retainer of the Mori clan, Katsura by name, arrested Mitsuhide in the town of Yamaguchi on suspicion of being a spy. On this occasion he spoke openly of his origins, his situation, and his hopes, and even revealed his evaluations of the neighboring provinces.
While he questioned Mitsuhide, Katsura was so impressed by the depth of his knowledge that he later recommended the traveler to his lord, Mori Motonari. 'I think he is quite clearly uncommonly talented. Were he given employment here, I suspect he would accomplish something later on.'
The search for talented men was the same everywhere. Certainly such men who 1eft their homes and served other provinces would someday end up as the enemies of their former lords. As soon as Motonari heard of Mitsuhide, he wanted to see him. One day Mitsuhide was summoned to Motonari's castle. The next day Katsura visited Motonari alone, and asked him for his opinion of his guest.
'As you said, there are very few men of talent. We should give him some money and clothes, and send him courteously on his way.'
'Yes, but didn't he impress you in some way?'
'Indeed. There are two kinds of great men: the truly great and the villain. Now, if a villain is also a scholar, he is liable to bring ruin upon himself and harm to his lord.' Motonari went on, 'There is something shifty about his appearance. When he speaks with such composure and clarity in his eyes, he has a charm that's very enticing. Yes, he's truly a captivating man, but I prefer the stolidity of our warriors of the western provinces. If I put this man in the middle of my own warriors, he'd stick out like a crane in a flock of chickens. I object to him for that reason alone.' And so Mitsuhide was not taken in by the Mori clan.
He traveled through Hizen and Higo, and the domains of the Otomo clan. He crossed the Inland Sea to the island of Shikoku where he studied the martial arts of the Chosokabe clan.
When Mitsuhide returned to his home in Echizen, he found that his wife had taken ill and died, his cousin, Mitsuharu, had gone to serve another clan, and after six years his situation had not improved. He still could not see even a flicker of light on the road that lay ahead.
At this low point, Mitsuhide went to see Ena, the abbot of the Shonen Temple in Echizen. He rented a house in front of the temple and began to teach the children of the neighborhood. From the very beginning, Mitsuhide did not see schoolteaching as his life's work. Within a couple of years he had become conversant with the administration and problems of the province.
During this period the area was regularly disturbed by uprisings of the warrior-monks of the Ikko sect. One year, when the Asakura troops were wintering in the field during a campaign against the warrior-monks, Mitsuhide asked Ena, 'It's just my own humble thought, but I'd like to present a strategy to the Asakura clan. Whom do you suppose it would be best to see?'
Ena immediately understood what was in Mitsuhide's mind. 'The man most likely to listen to you would be Asakura Kageyuki.'
Mitsuhide entrusted the temple school to Ena and went off to Asakura Kageyuki's camp. Because he had no intermediary, he simply walked into the camp, carrying his plan written down on a single piece of paper. He was arrested, not knowing whether the plan had been given to Kageyuki, and he heard nothing for two months. Although he was a prisoner, Mitsuhide inferred from the movements in the camp and the morale of the troops that Kageyuki was carrying out his plan.
At first Kageyuki had been suspicious of Mitsuhide, which was why he'd been arrested; but since there was no way to break the deadlock in the fighting, he decided to test Mitsuhide's plan. When the two men finally met, Kageyuki praised Mitsuhide as a warrior with an extensive knowledge of the classics and of the martial arts. Giving Mitsuhide the freedom of the camp, Kageyuki summoned him from time to time. It seemed, however, that Mitsuhide was not going to be so easily granted the status of retainer, and so one day he spoke out rather forcefully, even though he was not given to boasting:
'If you loan me a firearm, I'll shoot the enemy general in the middle of his camp.'
'You may take one,' Kageyuki said, but, still harboring some doubts, he secretly appointed a man to watch Mitsuhide.
It was an age when, even for the wealthy Asakura clan, a single firearm was extremely precious. Thanking him for the favor, Mitsuhide took the gun, mixed in among the troops, and went to the front lines. When the fighting started, he vanished deep behind enemy lines.
Hearing about the disappearance, Kageyuki later demanded to know why the man who was watching Mitsuhide had not shot him in the back. 'Perhaps he was an enemy spy after all, feeling out the internal conditions here.'
But a few days later it was reported that the enemy general had been shot by an unknown assailant as he inspected the battle lines. The morale of the enemy was said to have been thrown suddenly into confusion.
Soon afterward, Mitsuhide returned to camp. When he appeared before Kageyuki he was quick to ask him, 'Why didn't you call out the entire army and rout the enemy? you call yourself a general when you let an opportunity like this slip by with your arms folded?'
Mitsuhide had done what he had promised: he had gone into enemy territory, shot the general, and returned.
When Asakura Kageyuki went back to Ichijogadani Castle, he told the story to Asakura Yoshikage. Yoshikage took one look at Mitsuhide and asked him to serve him. Later, Yoshikage had a target put up in the castle grounds and asked for a demonstration. Mitsuhide, though he was by no means a skilled marksman, demonstrated his skill putting sixty-eight out of one hundred rounds into the target.
Mitsuhide was now given a residence in the castle town and a stipend of one thousand
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:
