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

'No, I suddenly woke up. Even the pages were flustered.' Hideyoshi wore a bright smile, a sight she had not seen for some time. 'Takenaka Hanbei reported that a ship with an envoy's banner is on its way from Azuchi. I got up immediately, paid my respects to the castle shrine, and then came here to apologize for neglecting you in recent days.'

'Aha! You've apologized to the gods!' his mother chuckled.

'That's right. Then I have to apologize to my mother, and even to my wife, I think,' he said with great seriousness.

'You came all the way here for that?'

'Yes, and if you would only understand how I feel, I wouldn't have to go through the form of doing this anymore.'

'Oh, this boy is cunning.' His mother laughed outright.

Although Hideyoshi's mother was probably somewhat suspicious of her son's sud­denly cheerful behavior, she was soon to understand the reason.

'Master Maeda and Master Nonomura have just arrived at the castle gate as official messengers from Azuchi. Master Hikoemon went out immediately and led them to the guests' reception room,' Mosuke announced.

Hideyoshi dismissed the page and began picking eggplants with his mother. 'They're really ripening well, aren't they? Did you put the manure along the dirt ridges yourself, Mother?'

'Shouldn't you be hurrying off to see His Lordship's messengers?' she asked.

'No, I pretty much know why they've come, so there's no need to get flustered. I think I'll pick a few eggplants. It would be nice to show Lord Nobunaga their shiny emer­ald color, covered with the morning dew.'

'You're going to give things like this to the envoys as presents for Lord Nobunaga?'

'No, no, I'm going to take them this morning myself.'

'What!'

Hideyoshi had, after all, incurred his lord's displeasure and was supposed to be penitent. This morning his mother began to have doubts about him and soon was almost worried to distraction.

'My lord? Are you coming?' Hanbei had come to hasten Hideyoshi, who finally left the eggplant field.

When the preparations for the trip had been made, Hideyoshi asked the envoys to accompany him back to Azuchi.

Hideyoshi suddenly stopped. 'Oh! I've forgotten something! His Lordship's present.' He sent a retainer to fetch the basket of eggplants. The eggplants had been covered with leaves, and morning dew still clung to the purple beneath. Carrying the basket with him, Hideyoshi boarded the ship.

The castle town of Azuchi was not yet a year old, but fully a third of it had been finished and was already bustling with prosperity. All travelers who stopped here were struck by the liveliness of this dazzling new city, its road spread with silver sand leading to the castle gate; the masonry steps made of huge stone blocks; the plastered walls and the bur­nished metal fittings.

And while the sight was indeed dazzling, the grandeur of the five-story donjon was beyond description, whether seen from the lake, from the streets of the town below, or even from within the castle grounds themselves.

“Hideyoshi, you've come.' Nobunaga's voice resounded from behind the closed slid­ing door. The room, set amid all the gold, red, and blue lacquer of Azuchi, was decorated with a simple ink painting.

Hideyoshi was still at some distance, prostrating himself in the next room.

'I suppose you've heard, Hideyoshi. I've set your punishment aside. Come in.'

Hideyoshi edged forward from the next room with his basket of eggplants.

Nobunaga looked at him suspiciously. 'What's that?'

'Well, I hope this will please you, my lord.' Hideyoshi moved forward and put the eggplants in front of him. 'My mother and wife grew these eggplants in the garden at the castle.'

'Eggplants?'

'You may consider them a silly, strange present, but since I was traveling by fast ship, I thought you would be able to see them before the dew evaporated. I picked them from the field this morning.'

'Hideyoshi, I suspect that what you wanted to show me was neither eggplants nor unevaporated dew. What exactly is it that you would like me to taste?'

'Please guess, my lord. I'm an unworthy servant and my merit is negligible, but you have elevated me from a simple farmer to a retainer who holds a domain of two hundred twenty thousand bushels. And yet my old mother never neglects taking up the hoe with her own hands, watering the vegetables, and putting manure around the gourds and eggplants. Every day I give thanks for the lessons she teaches me. Without even having to speak, she tells me, 'There's nothing more dangerous than a farmer rising up in the world, and you should get used to the fact that the envy and fault-finding of others comes from their own conceit. Don't forget your past in Nakamura, and always be mindful of the favors your lord has bestowed on you.''

Nobunaga nodded, and Hideyoshi went on, 'Do you think I could devise any strategy on a campaign that would not be to you benefit, my lord, when I have a mother like that? I consider her lessons as talismans. Even if I quarrel openly with the commander-in-chief, there is no duplicity in my breast.'

At that point, a guest at Nobunaga's side slapped his thigh and said, 'These eggplants are really a good present. We'll try them later on.'

For the first time Hideyoshi noticed that someone else was in the room: a samurai who looked to be in his early thirties. The man's large mouth indicated the strength of his will. His brow was prominent, and the bridge of his nose was somewhat wide. It was difficult to say whether he was of peasant stock or simply robustly built, but the light in his eyes and the luster of his dark red skin showed that he possessed a strong inner vitality.

'Have Hideyoshi's mother's home-grown eggplants pleased you, too, Kanbei? I'm pretty happy with them myself,' Nobunaga said, laughing, and then, growing serious, he introduced the guest to Hideyoshi.

'This is Kuroda Kanbei, the son of Kuroda Mototaka, chief retainer of Odera Masamoto in Harima.'

Hearing this, Hideyoshi was unable to conceal his surprise. Kuroda Kanbei was a name he had been hearing constantly. Moreover, he had often seen his letters.

'My goodness! So you're Kuroda Kanbei.'

'And you're the Lord Hideyoshi I'm always hearing about?'

'Always in letters.'

'Yes, but I can't think of this as our first meeting.'

'And now here I am, shamefully begging my lord for forgiveness. I'm afraid you're going to laugh at me: this is Hideyoshi, the man who's always being scolded by his lord. And he laughed with a voice that seemed to sweep everything away. Nobunaga laughed heartily, too. With Hideyoshi, he could laugh happily about things that were not actually very amusing.

The eggplants Hideyoshi had brought were quickly prepared, and very soon the three men were enjoying a drinking party. Kanbei was nine years younger than Hideyoshi, but was not the least bit inferior in his understanding of the current of the times or in his intuition of who would grasp supreme power in the land. He was nothing more than the son of a retainer of an influential clan in Harima, but he did possess a small castle in Himeji and had embraced a great ambition from early on in his life. Moreover, among all who lived in the western provinces, he was the only one who had gauged the trend of the times clearly enough to come to Nobunaga and secretly suggest the urgency of the conquest of that area.

The great power in the west was the Mori clan, whose sphere of influence extended over twenty provinces. Kanbei lived in the midst of them but was not overawed by their power. He perceived that the history of the nation was flowing in one direction. Armed with this insight, he had sought out one man: Nobunaga. From that point alone, it could hardly be said that he was a common man.

There is a saying that one great man will always recognize another. In their conversation at this one meeting, Hideyoshi and Kanbei were tied as tightly together as though they had known each other for a hundred years.