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

'The soup is going to get cold.'

'Go ahead and eat by yourself. This kid is playing for keeps. We're having a good time. Ha, ha! He's a strange one.'

Danjo, totally absorbed, seemed to be taken in completely by Hiyoshi's artlessness. The boy, always quick to make friends, was almost leading his uncle by the nose. From arm-wrestling they went to finger puppets, then mimicry, playing children's games until njo was holding his sides with laughter.

The next day, as he was about to leave, Danjo said to his wife, who seemed depressed, “If his parents allow it, how about keeping him here? I doubt he'd be much use, but I suppose it'd be better than keeping a real monkey.'

Oetsu was less than pleased with the idea. Going with her husband as far as the garden1 gate, she said, 'No. He would annoy your mother. That would never do.'

'Whatever you say.'

Oetsu knew that whenever Danjo was away from home, his mind dwelt on his lord and on battles. Would he come back alive? she wondered. Was it such a big thing for a man to make a name for himself? Oetsu watched his retreating figure and thought of the many months of loneliness ahead. Then she finished her housework and set off with Hiyoshi for Nakamura.

'Good morning, madam,' said a man coming from the opposite direction. He seemed to be a merchant, probably the master of a large establishment. He wore a resplendent half coat, a short sword, and, on his feet, leather socks with a design of small cherry blossoms. He was about forty and genial-looking.

'Aren't you Master Kato's wife? Where are you off to?'

'To my sister's house in Nakamura, to take this child home.' She held Hiyoshi's hand tde tighter.

'Ah, this little gendeman. This is the lad expelled from the Komyoji.'

'You've heard already?'

'Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, I've just come from the temple.'

Hiyoshi looked around restlessly. Never before had he been called a 'little gentleman.'  Ashamed, he felt himself blush. Oh, my, you've been to the temple because of him?'

'Yes, the priests came to my house to apologize. I was told that an incense burner I had donated to the temple was broken in two.'

'This little devil did that!' said Oetsu.

'Come now, you shouldn't say such things. These things happen.'

'I heard it was a very rare, famous piece.'

'Most regrettably, it was the work of Gorodayu, whom I served during his travels to the country of the Ming.'

'Doesn't he also use the name Shonzui?'

'Yes, but he fell ill and passed away some time ago. In recent years, many pieces of blue-and-white porcelain bearing the seal 'Made by Shonzui Gorodayu' have been made, but they are fakes. The only man who has ever been to the country of the Ming and brought back their pottery-making techniques is now in the next world.'

'I've heard that you've adopted Master Shonzui's son, Ofuku.'

'That's right. Children tease him by calling him 'the Chinese kid.' Lately he's been refusing to go outside at all.' The merchant gazed down at Hiyoshi. The boy, unexpectedly hearing Ofuku's name, wondered about the man's business.

'You know,' the merchant continued, 'it turns out that Hiyoshi here is the only one who ever defended Ofuku. So when Ofuku heard about this latest incident, he asked me to intercede. Many other things are supposed to have happened. The priests told me about his bad behavior, and I couldn't persuade them to take him back again.' His chest puffed up with laughter.

'His parents must have ideas about what to do with him,' the man said, 'but when he's to be placed somewhere else again, if his parents think an establishment like mine would be appropriate, I'd like to be of assistance. Somehow, he seems to hold promise.'

With a polite farewell, he took his leave. Holding on to Oetsu's sleeve, Hiyoshi looked back at him several times.

'Tell me, Auntie, who was that man?'

'His name is Sutejiro. He's a wholesaler who handles pottery from many countries.'

Hiyoshi was silent for a while as they trudged along.

'The country of the Ming, where is that?' he asked suddenly, thinking of what he had just heard.

'That means China.'

'Where is it? How big is it? Are there castles and samurai and battles there, too?'

'Don't be such a nuisance. Be quiet, won't you?' Oetsu shook her sleeve irritably, but a scolding by his aunt had no more effect on Hiyoshi than a gentle breeze. He craned his neck upward and gazed fixedly at the blue sky. It was so wondrous he could hardly stand it. Why was it so incredibly blue? Why were human beings earthbound? If people were able to fly like birds, he himself could probably travel to the country of the Ming. Indeed, the birds depicted on the incense burner were the same as those in Owari. The people's clothes were different, he remembered, as were the shapes of the ships, but the birds were the same. It must be that birds had no countries; heaven and earth were all one country to them.

I'd like to visit different countries, he mused.

Hiyoshi had never noticed how small and poor a house he was returning to. But when he and Oetsu peered inside, he realized for the first time that even at midday it was as dark as a cellar. Chikuami was nowhere to be seen; maybe he was out attending to some business.

'Nothing but trouble,' Onaka said, after hearing of Hiyoshi's latest escapades. She let out a deep sigh. His expression was nonchalant. As she looked at him, there was no blame in her eyes. Rather, she was impressed by how much he had grown in two years, Suspiciously, Hiyoshi eyed the infant sucking at his mother's breast. At some point his family had increased by one member. Without warning, he took the child's head, wresting rom the nipple, and peered at it.

'When was this baby born?' he asked.

Instead of answering, his mother said, 'You've become a big brother. You'll have to behave.'

'What's his name?'

'Kochiku.'

'That's a strange name,' he said excitedly, at the same time experiencing a feeling of power over the small child: the will of an older brother could be imposed on a younger brother.

'Starting tomorrow, I'll carry you on my back, Kochiku,' he promised. But he was hadling the baby clumsily, and Kochiku began to cry.

His stepfather appeared just as Oetsu was leaving. Onaka had told her sister that Chikuami had grown tired of trying to wipe out their poverty. He sat around drinking sake, and his face was flushed now as he entered the house. Spying Hiyoshi, he let out a yel1.

'You scoundrel! You were expelled from the temple and you come back here?'

Tenzo the Bandit

Hiyoshi had been back home for more than a year. He was eleven. Whenever Chikuami lost sight of him, even for a moment, he'd charge around looking for him and roar at the top of his voice, 'Monkey? Have you chopped the firewood yet? Why not? Why did you leave the pail in the field?' If Hiyoshi so much as started to talk back, the rough, hard hol­low of his stepfather's hand would quickly ring against the side of the boy's head. At such times his mother, the baby strapped to her back while she trod barley or cooked, would force herself to look away and remain silent. Still, her face looked pained, as if she herself had been slapped.

'It's natural for any eleven-year-old brat to help with the work. If you think you can slip away and play all the time, I'll break your ass!'

The foulmouthed Chikuami drove Hiyoshi hard. But after being sent home from the temple, he worked