face.
Chokansai turned to Mitsuhide and said, 'It will soon be the Hour of the Rooster, so that must be the drum summoning your troops to the assembly ground.'
Mitsuhide's mood seemed to sink even more. 'I know,' he said in what sounded like a bitter tone of voice, and he drained the last cup.
He was mounted within the hour. Beneath a sky of pale stars, three thousand men carrying torches left the lakeside castle in a meandering line and disappeared into the foothills of Shimeigatake. It was the evening of the twenty-sixth.
From the top of the castle Mitsuharu watched them go. He would form a regiment made up only of retainers from Sakamoto, and go on to join the main army at Kameyama later.
The army under Mitsuhide walked on without stopping. It was exactly midnight when the men looked from just south of Shimeigatake and saw the sleeping city of Kyoto.
To cross the Shirakawa River, they would descend the ridge of Mount Uriyu and come out on the road south of the Ichijo Temple. They had been climbing steadily, but from that point on the path would be all downhill.
'Take a rest!'
Mitsutada passed Mitsuhide's command on to the troops.
Mitsuhide dismounted as well and rested for a short while. If it had been daytime, he would have been able to look out over the various streets of the capital. But now the contours of the city were sunk in darkness, and only the distinctive features of the temple roofs and pagodas and the large river could be distinguished.
'Hasn't Yomoda Matabei overtaken us?'
'I haven't seen him since last night. Did you send him off on some mission, my lord?'
'That's right.'
'Where did he go?'
'You'll know soon enough. If he comes back, send him to me. Even if we're en route.'
'Yes, my lord.'
In the second he fell silent, Mitsuhide's eyes were again looking eagerly out over the black roofs of the capital. Perhaps because the night mist would keep thickening and then thinning out, or because his eyes were becoming used to the night, he was gradually able to distinguish the buildings in the capital. The white walls of the Nijo Palace were brighter than anything else.
Naturally, Mitsuhide's gaze was captured by this one white point. It was there that Nobunaga's son, Nobutada, was staying. There also was Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had left Azuchi some days before and gone to the capital.
Lord Ieyasu has probably left the capital already, Mitsuhide thought.
Finally he quickly stood up, making all his generals jump.
'Let's go. My horse.'
The dismay of his subordinates was like a wave that rippled out from the fitful actions of his isolated mind. For the last few days he had periodically secluded himself from his retainers, and he had behaved more like an orphan than like the leader of a samurai clan.
Although the soldiers who followed Mitsuhide had difficulty finding their way in the dark—surrounding him and yelling warnings back and forth—they gradually descended and approached the outskirts of the capital.
When the line of three thousand men and horses arrived at the Kamo River and paused momentarily, the soldiers all turned and looked to the rear, and Mitsuhide did the same: having observed the red waves on the river, they knew that the morning sun was rising over the ridges behind them.
The officer in charge of the army's provisions came up to Mitsutada and asked him about breakfast. 'Shall we make the morning's preparations here or go on to Nishijin?'
Mitsutada was going to ask Mitsuhide what his intentions were, but at that moment Yomoda Masataka had pulled his horse alongside of Mitsuhide's, and the two men seemed to be gazing steadily at the Shirakawa, which they had crossed. Mitsutada held back for a moment.
'Masataka, is that Matabei?'
'I believe it is.'
Mitsuhide and Masataka were watching a horseman hurriedly approaching through the morning mist.
'Matabei.' While Mitsuhide waited right where he was for the man he had been expecing, he turned and spoke to the commanders around him. 'Go ahead and cross the river. I'll follow you momentarily.'
The advance guard had already waded across the shallows of the Kamo to the far bank. As the other commanders left Mitsuhide's side, their horses kicked up a white foam in the middle of the clear water. One by one they crossed the stream.
Mitsutada took this opportunity to ask, 'Where shall we have our meal? Would it be convenient to have it at Nishijin?'
'Everyone's stomach must be empty, but we shouldn't stop in the city limits. Let's go as far as Kitano,' Mitsuhide replied.
At a distance of about twenty yards, the approaching Yomoda Matabei dismounted and wound his horse's reins around a piling in the riverbed.
'Mitsutada and Masataka, the two of you cross the river as well, and wait for me on the other side. I'll follow soon.'
After these last two men had gone some distance, Mitsuhide turned in the direction of Matabei for the first time and beckoned him over with a look.
'Yes, my lord!'
'What's going on in Azuchi?'
'The report you heard previously from Amano Genemon seems to be without error.'
'The reason I sent you a second time was to get positive information on Lord Nobunaga's departure for the capital on the twenty-ninth, and on what kind of force he was taking with him. To give me some vague response about there being no mistakes in a former report is worthless. Make a clear report: was it reliable information or not?'
'It is certain that he will leave Azuchi on the twenty-ninth. I couldn't get the names of the main generals who will accompany him, and it was announced that forty or fifty pages and close attendants will be with him.'
'What about his lodgings in the capital?'
'He'll be at the Honno Temple.'
'What! The Honno Temple?
'Yes, my lord.'
'Not Nijo Palace?'
'All of the reports said that he would be staying at the Honno Temple,' Matabei answered quite clearly, careful to avoid being scolded again.
The Shrine of the Fire God
There was a huge gate at the very center of the compound's mud wall, and each of the sub-temples had its own enclosure and gate. The pine forest seemed to have been swept clean, and itself looked like a Zen garden. Birdsong, and the sunlight streaming through the treetops, added to the peace of the scene.
After tethering their horses, Mitsuhide and his retainers ate the meals they had packed for both breakfast and lunch. Although they had planned on having breakfast near the Kamo River, they had waited to eat until they had arrived at Kitano.
The soldiers carried a day's worth of provisions: a simple meal of uncooked bean paste, pickled plums, and brown rice. They had not eaten since the night before, and they now breakfasted happily.
Three or four monks from the nearby Myoshin Temple, who had recognized the men as members of the Akechi clan, had invited them into the temple compound.
