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

Katsuie. Moreover, he was uneasy because his army would be unable to move until the spring. Nobutaka's isolation in Gifu and Takigawa's in Ise troubled him even more. Therefore the envoy's mission was crucial to the success of the entire strategy.

A few days later Inuchiyo arrived at Kitanosho. He would be forty-four that year—a year younger than Hideyoshi. He had been tempered by his years on the battlefield, and even with the loss of one eye, he looked cool and self-possessed.

When he received Katsuie's warm reception, he smiled at its excess. Lady Oichi was also there to greet him, but Inuchiyo said gallantly, 'It must be unpleasant for you to be in this cold room with a group of coarse samurai, my lady.'

Urged to withdraw, Lady Oichi left for her own apartments. Katsuie mistook this for deference, but Inuchiyo had intended it as a gesture of sympathy for Oichi, in whom he saw Nobunaga, her dead brother.

'You're living up to your old reputation. I've heard you were an old hand at this,' Katsuie said.

'You mean sake?”

'I mean a lot of sake'

Inuchiyo laughed heartily, his one eye blinking in the light of the candles. He was still the handsome man Hideyoshi had known in his youth.

'Hideyoshi was never much of a drinker,' Katsuie said.

'That's true. His face turned red right away.'

'But I recall that when you were young, the two of you often spent the whole night drinking together.'

'Yes, as far as debauchery went, that young Monkey never got tired. He was an ex­pert. Whenever I drank too much, I would just fall down and sleep anywhere.'

'I imagine you're still close friends.'

“Not really. No one is less reliable than a former drinking partner.'

“Is that so?'

“Surely you must remember, Lord Katsuie, those days of eating, drinking, and singing until dawn. Friends will put their arms around each other's shoulders, revealing things they wouldn't even talk to their own brothers about. At the time, you think that person is the best friend you ever had, but later you both get involved in the real world and you have a lord or a wife and children. When you both look back at the feelings you had when you were living together in the barracks, you find that they've changed quite a bit.  The way you see the world, the eyes with which you look at others—you've grown up.  Your friend is not the same, and neither are you. The really true, pure, and devoted friends are the men we meet in the midst of adversity.'

“Well then, I've been under the wrong impression.'

“What do you mean, my lord?'

“I thought that you and Hideyoshi had a deeper relationship, and I was about to ask you do me a favor.'

“If you're going to fight with Hideyoshi,' Inuchiyo said, 'I will not raise my spear against him, but if you're going to hold peace talks, I'd like to take it upon myself to be in the vanguard. Or is it something different?'

Inuichiyo had hit the mark. Without saying anything further, he smiled and raised his cup.

How had the plan leaked out to him? Katsuie's eyes showed his confusion. After thinking it over for a moment, however, he realized it had been he himself who had been testing out Inuchiyo on the subject of Hideyoshi from the very beginning.

Even though he was living in the provinces, Inuchiyo was not the kind of man who lived in a corner. Certainly he would know what was going on in Kyoto, and he would have a clear understanding of the trouble between Hideyoshi and Katsuie. Furthermore, Inuchiyo had received Katsuie's urgent summons and come quickly, despite the snow.

As Katsuie reflected on the matter, he had to rethink his view of Inuchiyo, in order to know how to control him. Inuchiyo was a man whose power would grow with the years  Like Sassa Narimasa, he was under Katsuie's command on Nobunaga's orders. During the five years of the northern campaign, Katsuie had treated Inuchiyo like one of his own retainers, and Inuchiyo had obeyed Katsuie. But now that Nobunaga was dead, Katsuie wondered if the relationship would continue unchanged. It came down to this: Katsuie's authority had depended on Nobunaga. With Nobunaga dead, Katsuie was only one general aong many.

“I have no desire to fight with Hideyoshi, but I fear that rumor may have it otherwise,” Katsuie said with a laugh.

As a man matures, he becomes practiced in a in way of laughing that draws a veil over his true feelings. 'It seems strange,' Katsuie continued, 'to send an envoy to Hideyoshi when we are not at war, but I've received a number of letters from both Lord Nobutaka and Takigawa urging me to send someone. It's been less than six months since Lord Nobunaga died, and already there are rumors that his surviving retainers are fighting among themselves. This is a disgraceful state of affairs. Besides, I don't think we should give the Uesugi, the Hojo, and the Mori the chance they're looking for.'

'I understand, my lord,' Inuchiyo said.

Katsuie had never been very good at explanations, and Inuchiyo summarily accepted his assignment, as though it were unnecessary to listen to the tedious details. Inuchiyo left Kitanosho on the following day. He was accompanied by two men, Fuwa Hikozo and Kanamori Gorohachi. Both were trusted retainers of the Shibata clan, and while they went along as envoys, they were really there to keep an eye on Inuchiyo.

On the twenty-seventh of the Tenth Month, the three men arrived at Nagahama to collect Katsutoyo. Unfortunately, the young man was ill. The envoys counseled him to stay behind, but Katsutoyo insisted on coming, and the party traveled from Nagahama to Otsu by boat. Spending one night in the capital, they arrived at Takaradera Castle the fol­lowing day.

This was the battlefield where Mitsuhide had been defeated that past summer. Where before there had been nothing more than a poor village with a decaying post station, now a prosperous castle town was springing up. After the envoys had crossed the Yodo River, they could see scaffolding covering the castle. The road was deeply rutted with the tracks of oxen and horses, and everything they saw spoke of Hideyoshi's energetic plans.

Even Inuchiyo was beginning to question Hideyoshi's intentions. Katsuie, Takigawa, and Nobutaka accused Hideyoshi of neglecting Lord Samboshi and of working for his own advantage. In Kyoto he was building up his power base, while outside of the capital he was expending huge amounts on castle construction. These projects had nothing to do with enemy clans in the west or north, so against whom was he preparing his army in the very heart of the nation?

What had Hideyoshi said in his defense? He, too, had several complaints: There was the unfulfilled promise made at the Kiyosu conference to move Samboshi to Azuchi, and there was the memorial service for Nobunaga that Nobutaka and Katsuie had failed to attend.

The meeting between Hideyoshi and the envoys took place in the partially reconstructed main citadel. A meal and tea were served before the negotiations began. It was the first time Hideyoshi and Inuchiyo had met since the death of Nobunaga.

'Inuchiyo, how old are you now?' Hideyoshi asked.

'I'll be forty-five soon.'

'We're both becoming old men.'

'What do you mean? I'm still a year younger than you, aren't I?'

'Ah, that's right. Like a little brother—a year younger. But looking at the two of us now, you look the more mature.'

'You're the one who looks old for your age.'

Hideyoshi shrugged. 'I've looked old since my youth. But frankly speaking, no matter how old I get, I still don't feel like much of an adult, and that worries me.'

'Someone said that a man should be unwavering after the age of forty.'

'It's a lie.'

'You think so?'

'A gentleman is unwavering—that's how the saying goes. It would be more true in our case that forty is the age of our first wavering. Isn't that pretty much true for you, Inuchiyo?'

'You're still playing the fool, Lord Monkey. Don't you agree, gentlemen?'