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

then smiled affectionately. 'It's been a long time since we last met. I believe it was at Master Koroku's house in Hachisuka.'

'Yes, that's right. Not long ago—I think it was at the end of the year at Nijo Palace— I overheard Lord Mitsuhide say that you had come to the capital. I came with an envoy from Lord Mori Terumoto, and stayed in Kyoto for a while. The envoy has already re­turned home, but since I'm just a country priest with no urgent business, I've been stop­ping here and there at temples both in and out of Kyoto. I thought Lord Nobunaga's present construction project would make a good travel story back home, so I stopped to take a look. I must say I'm very impressed.'

'Your Reverence is involved in some construction, too, I hear,' Hideyoshi remarked abruptly. Ekei looked startled, but Hideyoshi laughed, adding, 'No, no. Not a castle. I understand you're building a monastery, called Ankokuji.'

'Ah, the monastery.' Ekei's face relaxed, and he laughed. 'Ankokuji has already been completed. I'll hope you'll find time to visit me there, though I fear that as the master of Nagahama Castle your schedule will not allow it.'

“I may have become the lord of a castle, but my stipend is still low, so neither my position nor my mouth carries much weight. But I'll bet I look a little more grown up than when you last saw me in Hachisuka.'

'No, you haven't changed a bit. You're young, Lord Hideyoshi, but then almost everyone on Lord Nobunaga's field staff is in the prime of life. I've been struck from the very first by the grandeur of the plan for his castle and by the spirit of his generals. He seems to have the force of the rising sun.'

'Ankokuji was paid for by Lord Terumoto of the western provinces, was it not? His own province is wealthy and strong, and I suspect that even in terms of men of talent, Lord Nobunaga's clan is no match.'

Ekei seemed anxious not to become involved in such a conversation, and once again he praised the construction of the donjon and the superb view of the area.

Finally, Hideyoshi said, 'Nagahama is on the coast just north of here. My boat is berrthed nearby, so why don't you come and stay for a night or two? I've been granted some leave, and I thought I'd go back to Nagahama.'

Ekei used this invitation to make a hasty withdrawal. 'No, perhaps I'll call on you at another time. Please give my regards to Master Koroku, or rather Master Hikoemon, that is, now that he's one of your retainers.' And he suddenly walked off.

As Hideyoshi watched Ekei go, two monks, who seemed to be his disciples, came out from a commoner's house and chased after him.

Accompanied only by Mosuke, Hideyoshi went to the construction site, which had the look of a battlefield. As he had not been assigned important responsibilities in the building work, he did not have to stay permanently in Azuchi, nevertheless he made frequent trips from Nagahama to Azuchi by ship.

'Lord Hideyoshi! Lord Hideyoshi!' Someone was calling him. Looking around, he saw Ranmaru, displaying a beautiful line of white teeth in his smiling mouth, running toward him.

'Well now, Master Ranmaru. Where is His Lordship?'

'He was at the donjon all morning, but he's now resting at the Sojitsu Temple.'

'Well, let's go over there.'

'Lord Hideyoshi, that monk you were just now talking to—wasn't he Ekei, the famous physiognomist?'

'That's right. I've heard that from someone else. I wonder if a physiognomist can real­ly see a man's true character,' Hideyoshi said, pretending that he had little interest in the subject.

Whenever Ranmaru spoke with Hideyoshi, he did not guard his words as he did with Mitsuhide. This did not mean Ranmaru thought that Hideyoshi was an easy mark, but there were times when the older man played the fool, and Ranmaru found him easy to get along with.

'A physiognomist really can tell!' Ranmaru said. 'My mother says that all the time. Just before my father died in battle, one of them predicted his death. And the fact is, well, I’m interested in something Ekei said.'

'Have you had him look at you?'

'No, no. It's not about me.' He looked up and down the street, and said confidentially, 'It's about Lord Mitsuhide.'

'Lord Mitsuhide?'

'Ekei said there were some evil signs: that he looked like a man who would turn against his lord.'

'If you look for that quality, you'll find it. But not just in Lord Mitsuhide.'

'No, really! Ekei said so.'

Hideyoshi listened with a grin. Many people would have censured Ranmaru for being an unscrupulous rumormonger, but when he talked like this, he seemed not much more than a freshly weaned child. After Hideyoshi had humored him for a while, he asked Ranmaru more seriously, 'Who in the world did you hear these things from?'

Ranmaru prompdy took him into his confidence, replying, 'Asayama Nichijo.'

Hideyoshi nodded his head as though he could well imagine.

'Asayama didn't tell you this himself, did he? Certainly it must have gone through someone else. Let me see if I can guess.'

'Go ahead.'

'Was it your mother?'

'How did you know?'

Hideyoshi laughed.

'No, really. How did you know?' Ranmaru pressed.

'Myoko would believe such things from the outset,' Hideyoshi said. 'No, it might be better to say that she's fond of such things. And she's on familiar terms with Asayama. If it were up to me, however, I would say that Ekei is more proficient at looking into the physiognomy of a province than into that of a man.'

'The physiognomy of a province?'

'If judging a man's character from observing his features can be called physiognomy, then judging a province's character by the same method could be called the same thing. I've realized that Ekei has mastered that art. You shouldn't get too close to men like him. He may look like nothing more than a monk, but he's really in the pay of Mori Terumoto, lord of the western provinces. What do you think, Ranmaru? Aren't I much better man Ekei at the study of physiognomy?' he laughed.

The gate to the Sojitsu Temple came into view. The two men were still laughing as they climbed the stone steps.

The construction of the castle was progressing visibly. By the end of the Second Month of that year, Nobunaga had already vacated Gifu and moved. Gifu Castle was given to Nobunaga's eldest son, the nineteen- year-old Nobutada.

However, while Azuchi Castle—incomparable in strength and announcing the beginning of an entirely new epoch in castle construction—towered so loftily over this strategic crossroads, there were those who were greatly concerned about its military value—among them the warrior-monks of the Honganji, Mori Terumoto of the western provinces, and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo.

Azuchi stood on the road that ran from Echigo to Kyoto. Kenshin, of course, also had designs on the capital. If the right opportunity presented itself, he would cross the mountains, come out north of Lake Biwa, and, at a stroke, raise his banners in Kyoto.

The ousted shogun, Yoshiaki, of whom there had been no news for some time, sent letters to Kenshin, trying to incite him to action.

Only the exterior of Azuchi Castle has been finished. Realistically, the completion of its interior will take another two and a half years. Once the castle is built, you might as well say that the road between Echigo and Kyoto will have ceased to exist.

Now is the time to strike. I will tour the provinces and forge an alliance of all the anti-Nobunaga forces, which will include Lord Terumoto of the western provinces, the Hojo, the Takeda, and your own clan in Echigo. If you do not take a spirited stand as the leader of this alliance first, however, I do not anticipate any success at all.

Kenshin forced a smile, thinking, Does this little sparrow plan to dance until he's a hundred years old? Kenshin was not the kind of soft-witted leader who would fall for such a ploy.