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

Ignoring the presence of the others, the two younger princesses clapped their hands and pointed, unable to stop laughing. As might be expected, the eldest sister, Chacha, reprimanded them. 'You shouldn't point. Just watch quietly,' she said. She did her best to sit modestly, but Hideyoshi's antics were so funny that, in the end, Chacha hid her mouth behind her sleeve and laughed as though her sides would burst.

“What's this? When we laugh, we get scolded. But you're laughing now.'

With her two sisters poking fun at her, Chacha could only laugh more and more.

Hideyoshi's mother also laughed from time to time as she watched her son's comic dance, but Nene, used to her husband's antics and his constant joking inside the family circle, did not look particularly amused.

What interested Nene today was the peaceful observation of her husband's concubines, who were sitting here and there, surrounded by maids.

While they were still in Nagahama, he had had only two mistresses, but after they had moved to Osaka Castle, before she knew it there was a concubine in the second citadel, and another in the third.

It was hard to believe, but in his triumphal return from the siege of the north, he had brought back Asai Nagamasa's three orphaned daughters and was lovingly raising them in the second citadel.

It pained the ladies who served Nene—Hideyoshi's true wife, after all—that the eldest sister, Chacha, was even more beautiful than her mother.

“Lady Chacha is already seventeen years old. Why does His Lordship gaze at her the way he'd look at a flower in a vase?'

They only added fuel to the fire with comments like that, but Nene simply laughed.

'There's nothing to be done; it's like a scratch on a pearl,' she'd say.

Formerly, she, too, had been as jealous as any other wife might be, and when she was living in Nagahama she had gone as far as to complain to Nobunaga, who had sent her a written reply:

You were born a woman, and have chanced to meet an extremely unusual man. I imagine that there must be faults in such a man, but his good points are numerous. When you are looking out from the midst of a large mountain, you can't understand how big that mountain truly is. Be at peace, and enjoy living with this man in the way he wants to live. I am not saying that jealousy is a bad thing. To a certain extent, jealousy adds depth to the life of a married couple.

So in the end, it was she who had been reprimanded. Having learned by that experience, Nene had set her mind on self-control and had planned on becoming a woman who could overlook her husband's affairs. Recently, however, there were days when she felt threatened, wondering if her husband wasn't beginning to indulge himself too much.

At any rate, he was now approaching the age of forty-seven, the most prosperous time for a man. While he had his hands full with external problems like the battle at Mount Komaki, he was also very busy with internal affairs like the administration of his bedroom. And so he lived insatiably, day by day, with the vitality of a healthy man—so much so that an observer might have wondered how he was able to sort out the common from the uncommon, the magnanimous gesture from the discreet, and grand public actions from the ones that should be totally hidden away.

'Watching the dance is amusing, but when I go out and perform on stage, it's not so much fun at all. In fact, it's hard.'

Hideyoshi had come up behind his mother and Nene. He had just a moment ago left the stage at the applause of the spectators and appeared not to have sobered up from the excitement of the act.

'Nene,' he said, 'let's spend a quiet evening in your room tonight. Would you prepare a banquet?'

As the performance ended, the bright light of the lamps flooded the area, and the guests made their way back to the third and second citadels.

Hideyoshi now dropped in at Nene's room, accompanied by a large crowd of actors and musicians. His mother had retired to her quarters, so husband and wife were alone with their guests.

It was customary for Nene to pay attention to such people and their servants, and to all her subordinates. Especially after today's gathering, she enjoyed thanking them for their services and seeing them frivolously exchanging sake cups, and making conversation with their audience.

Hideyoshi had been sitting by himself from the very beginning, and since everyone seemed to be ignoring him, he looked a little morose.

'Nene, I suppose it would be all right if I had a cup too,' he said.

'Do you think you should?'

'Do you think I'm not going to drink? Why do you think I came to your room?'

'Well, your mother said, 'That boy will be heading for Mount Komaki again the day after tomorrow,' and she strictly ordered me to apply the usual moxa to your shins and hips before you leave for the front.'

'What! She said to apply moxa ?'

'She worries that the lingering heat of autumn will still be over the battlefield, and if you drink bad water, your liable to fall ill. I'll apply the moxa and give you a cup of sake after that.'

'That's ridiculous. I don't like moxa!'

'Whether you like it or not, those are your mother's orders.'

'Well, just for that I'm staying away from your room. Of all the people watching my performance this afternoon, you were the only one who didn't laugh. You looked so serious.'

'That's my nature. Even if you tell me to behave like the pretty girls, I can't.' Nene showed a little anger. Then, suddenly, tears welled up in her eyes as she recalled the old days when she herself was Chacha's age and Hideyoshi was the twenty-five-year-old Tokichiro.

Hideyoshi looked curiously at his wife and asked, 'Why are you crying?'

'I don't know,' Nene said, looking away, and Hideyoshi turned to face her directly.

'Are you saying that it's going to be lonely when I go to the front again?'

'Since the beginning of our married life, how many days have you spent at home?'

'There's nothing to be done until we put the world at peace, even if you don't like war,' Hideyoshi replied. 'And if the unforeseen hadn't happened to Lord Nobunaga, I'd probably be in charge of some countryside castle, sitting out my life and forced to be at your side exactly the way you like it.'

'People are going to hear the nasty things you're saying. I understand exactly what's in a man's heart.'

'And I understand a woman's heart too!'

'You always make fun of me. I'm not speaking out of jealousy, like some ordinary woman.'

'Any wife would say that.'

'Will you listen to me without making this into a joke?'

'All right. I'm listening with great respect.'

'I resigned myself a long time ago. So I'm hardly going to tell you that I'm lonely taking care of your castie when you're on a campaign.'

'A virtuous woman, a faithful wife! This is why the Tokichiro of so long ago put his mark on you.'

'Don't carry your joking too far! That is why your mother spoke to me.'

'What did my mother say?'

'She said I was so submissive that you were going to get carried away and become dissipated. She told me I should speak up to you from time to time.'

'Is that the reason for the moxa?' Hideyoshi laughed.

'You don't have a thought about her worries. Your self-indulgent intemperance has led you to be unfilial.'

'When was I intemperate?'

'Weren't you making a lot of noise about something in Lady Sanjo's room right up until dawn two nights ago?'

The attendants and actors drinking in the next room pretended not to listen to this rare—well, perhaps not so rare—argument between husband and wife. Just at that point however, Hideyoshi raised his voice and yelled, 'Hey, now! What does the audience think of this couple's performance?'