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

garden.

'Who is it?' a servant asked the prankster.

Just then, a man outside the gate began to sing in a deep voice, mimicking a Noh actor, and walked toward the veranda. Completely forgetting himself, Tokichiro left his seat and walked unceremoniously to the veranda.

'Is that you, Inuchiyo?'

'Master Bridegroom!' Maeda Inuchiyo threw back the hood that was hiding his face. 'We've come to perform the water-pouring ceremony. May we come in?'

Tokichiro clapped his hands. 'I'm really glad you came. Come in, come in!'

'I came with friends. Is that all right?'

'Sure. We've finished the wedding ceremony, and from tonight, I'm the son-in-law of this house.'

'They have a good one. Perhaps I might receive a cup from Master Mataemon.' Inuchiyo turned and beckoned toward the darkness.

'Hey, everybody! They're going to let us do the water-pouring ceremony!'

Several men answered Inuchiyo's call at once and pushed their way in, filling the garden with their voices. Ikeda Shonyu was there, as was Maeda Tohachiro, Kato Yasaburo and his old friend Ganmaku. Even the pockmarked master carpenter was there.

The water-pouring ceremony was an ancient custom in which the old friends of the bridegroom went uninvited to his father-in-law's house. The bride's family was obliged to receive them cordially, and the gate- crashers would then drag the groom out into the garden and douse him with water.

Tonight's water-pouring ceremony was a little premature. As a rule, it was carried out from six months to a year after the wedding.

Mataemon's entire household and Niwa Hyozo were appalled. But the bridegroom was elated, and welcomed them.

'What? You, too?' he said, greeting men he hadn't seen for some time, and then told his white-robed wife, 'Nene, quick, bring some food. And sake. A lot of sake!'

'Right away.' Nene looked as if she had been expecting this visit. As Tokichiro's wife, she knew that she should not be surprised by such things. She accepted the situation without the slightest complaint. She took off her snow-white kimono and wrapped an everyday thick skirt around her waist. Tying up her long sleeves with a cord, she set to work.

'What kind of wedding is this?' complained an indignant wedding guest. Calming their relatives down, Mataemon and his wife bustled through the din and confusion of the crowd. When Mataemon had heard that the gate-crashers were led by Inuchiyo, he had been alarmed. But when he saw how Inuchiyo laughed and talked with Tokichiro, he was put at ease.

'Nene! Nene!' Mataemon said, 'if there's not enough sake, send someone out to buy some more. These men should drink as much as they want.' And then, to his wife, Okoi! Okoi! What are you doing, just standing around? The sake is here, but nobody has a cup. Even if it's no great feast, bring out whatever we have. I'm so happy that Inuchiyo has come here with all these people.'

When Okoi returned with the cups, Mataemon served Inuchiyo personally. He had very strong feelings for this man who might have become his son-in-law. But that fate had not been theirs. Strangely, though, their friendship had survived, the straightforward

comradeship of two samurai. Emotion swelled in Mataemon's breast, but he did not let it show in his face or words—they were two samurai together.

'Well, Mataemon, I'm happy too. You've got a good son-in-law. I congratulate you with all my heart,' Inuchiyo said. 'Listen, I know I barged in tonight. You're not put out, are you?'

'Not at all, not at all.' Mataemon himself was spurred on by this. 'We'll drink all night long!'

Inuchiyo laughed loudly. 'If we drink and sing all night, won't we make the bride angry?'

'Why? That's not the way she was brought up,' Tokichiro said. 'She's a very virtuous woman.'

Inuchiyo drew closer to Tokichiro and began to tease him. 'Well now, could you talk a little more about such shameful things?'

'No. I apologize. I've already said too much.'

'I'm not going to let you off so easily. Now here's a big sake cup.'

'You can spare me the big one. The little one will be just fine.'

'What kind of bridegroom are you? Don't you have any pride?'

They teased each other as though they were children. But even with so much sake around, Tokichiro did not drink to excess—not tonight or ever. Since childhood he had carried with him the vivid memory of the effects of excessive drinking, and now when he looked at the big sake cup being forced on him, he saw the face of his drunken stepfather, and then the face of his mother, who was made to grieve so often because of his stepfa­ther's drinking. Tokichiro knew his own limits well. He had grown up in great poverty, and his body was not strong compared to others. Although he was still a young man, he was careful.

'A big cup is too much for me. Give me a small one, please. In return, I'll sing some­thing for you.'

'What? You'll sing?'

Instead of giving an answer, Tokichiro had already begun to beat his lap as if it were a drum, and now started to sing.

To think that a man

Has only fifty years to live…

'No, stop.' Inuchiyo put his hand over Tokichiro's mouth in mid-verse. 'You shouldn't sing that. It's from Atsumori, the one His Lordship does so well.'

'Well, I have learned the dances and songs he performs by following his example. It's not a forbidden song, so is it so bad to sing it?'

'Yes, it is. It's not good at all.'

'What's so bad about it?'

'It's just inappropriate to perform at a wedding.'

'His Lordship danced to Atsumori the morning the army set out for Okehazama. From tonight, the two of us, a poverty-stricken husband and wife, are starting out in the world. So it's not altogether inappropriate.'

'The resolution to go out on the battlefield is one thing, and a wedding celebration isanother. True warriors set their minds on living a long life with their wives, until they’re white-haired old men and women.'

Tokichiro slapped his knee. 'That's right. To tell the truth, that's exactly what I hope. If there's a war, it can't be helped, but I don't want to die in vain. Fifty years is not enough. I'd like to live happy and faithful to Nene for a hundred years.'

'Bragging again. You'd better dance. Come on, dance.'

At Inuchiyo's urging, a great number of people egged Tokichiro on.

'Wait. Wait a moment. I'll dance.' Persuading his friends to let him off for a moment, Tokichiro turned toward the kitchen, clapped his hands, and called out, 'Nene! We're out of sake!'

'Coming,' Nene answered. She was not at all timid with the guests. Cheerfully carrying in the flasks, she served everyone just as Tokichiro had asked. The only people who were surprised were her parents and relatives, who had always regarded her as nothing more than a child. But Nene's heart had already become one with her husband's, and Tokichiro did not seem in the least awkward with his new wife. As might be expected, Inuchiyo, who was a little drunk, could not keep from blushing when she served him.

'Well, Nene, from tonight on, you're Master Tokichiro's wife. I should congratulate you again,' he said, moving the sake stand in front of her. 'There's something that all my friends know and that I haven't hidden from them. Rather than being ashamed and keeping it to myself, I'm going to make a clean breast of it. How about it, Tokichiro?'

'What is it?'

'I'd like to borrow your wife for a moment.'

Laughing, Tokichiro said, 'Go ahead.'

'Well, Nene. At one time it was on everyone's lips that I loved you. And there's been no change in that at