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

'Cotton Tokichi'—Kinoshita Tokichiro—was riding out as the general of a small army. Although the soldiers should have been marching out in splendid array, the morale was low, and they lacked spirit. When Shibata Katsuie and Sakuma Nobumo had left for Sunomata, the army had marched out to the sound of drums, with a flourish of banners. In comparison, Tokichiro looked like the leader of an inspection tour of the province, or perhaps of a relief detachment for the front.

A couple of leagues from Kiyosu, a lone rider came chasing after them from the castle, calling to them to wait.

The man leading the packhorse train looked back and said, 'It's Master Maeda Inichiyo.' He sent a man to the head of the column to inform Tokichiro.

The order to rest was passed along the line. They had hardly walked far enough to work up a sweat, but the officers and men were halfhearted about the whole affair. It was an army that did not believe in the possibility of victory. And if one looked at the faces of the rank and file, one could see they were uneasy and showed no trace of a will to fight.

Inuchiyo dismounted and walked through the ranks, listening to the soldiers' talk.

'Hey! We can rest.'

'Already?'

'Don't say that. A rest is all right anytime.'

'Inuchiyo?'

As soon as Tokichiro saw his friend, he dismounted and rushed to greet him.

'The battle you're headed for will be the turning point for the Oda clan,' Inuchiyo said suddenly. 'I have absolute faith in you, but the expedition is unpopular among the retainers, and the unease in the town is extraordinary. I chased after you to say good-bye. But listen, Tokichiro, becoming a general and leading an army is very different from your previous jobs. Come on, Tokichiro, are you really prepared?'

'Don't worry.' Tokichiro showed his resolve with a firm nod of the head, and added, 'I have a plan.'

When Inuchiyo learned what that plan was, however, he frowned. 'I had heard you sent Gonzo with a message to Hachisuka, right after you received His Lordship's orders.'

'You know about that? It was absolutely secret.'

'The truth is, I heard it from Nene.'

'A woman's mouth always leaks, doesn't it? That's a little scary.'

'No. Just as I was looking in through the gate to congratulate you on your appoint­ment, I overheard Nene talking to Gonzo. She had just come back from a visit to Atsuta Shrine to pray for your success.'

'In that case, you have some idea of what I'm going to do.'

'Well, do you think these bandits you're asking to be your allies are reliable? What happens if you don't pull it off?'

'I will.'

'Well, I don't know what you're using as bait, but did their chief give any indication that he agreed to your proposal?'

'I don't want the others to hear.'

'It's a secret, is it?'

'Look at this.' Tokichiro took out a letter from under his armor and handed it silently to Inuchiyo. It was the answer from Hachisuka Koroku that Gonzo had brought back the night before. Inuchiyo read it silently, but as he returned it, he looked at Toki­chiro in surprise. For a while he did not know what to say.

'You understand, I guess.'

'Tokichiro, isn't this a letter of refusal? It says that the Hachisuka clan has had a relationship with the Saito clan for generations, and to break with them now and support the Oda clan would be immoral. It's clearly a refusal. How do you read it?'

'Just as it is written.' Tokichiro suddenly hung his head. 'It troubles me to speak so bluntly after you've shown your friendship by coming after me this far. But if you have the least bit of consideration, please just do your duty at the castle while I'm gone and don't worry.'

'If you can say that, you must have faith in yourself. Well then, take care.'

'I'm obliged.' Tokichiro ordered the samurai at his side to bring Inuchiyo's horse.

'No, don't stand on formality. Go on ahead.'

As Tokichiro remounted, Inuchiyo's steed was led up as well. 'Until we meet again.' Once more waving from horseback, Tokichiro rode straight ahead.

Several unmarked red banners passed before Inuchiyo's eyes. Tokichiro turned and smiled at him. Red dragonflies peacefully flitted through the blue sky. Without another word, Inuchiyo turned his horse in the direction of Kiyosu Castle.

*   *   *

The moss was surprisingly thick. One might look into the spacious garden of the Hachisuka clan's mansion, so like the temple gardens that one is forbidden to enter, and wonder how many centuries old the green moss actually was. Thickets of bamboo stood in the shade of large rocks. It was a fall afternoon, and absolutely quiet.

It's survived, that's for sure, Hachisuka Koroku would reflect when he went into the garden. It reminded him of the link with his ancestors, who had lived in Hachisuka for generations. Is my generation, too, going to pass without establishing a respectable family name? On the other hand, he consoled himself, in such times as these, my ancestors might appreciate my holding on to what I have. But there was always one part of his character that refused to be persuaded.

On such peaceful days, when one gazed at this old house that was just like a castle, surrounded on all four sides by thick, luxuriant greenery, it was impossible to believe that the lord of this place was just the master of a band of ronin, leading several thousand wolflike warriors who haunted the backroads of an unsettled land. Working secretly in both Owari and Mino, Koroku had managed to secure a power base and enough influence to resist the will of Nobunaga.

Walking across the garden, Koroku suddenly turned toward the main house and called out, 'Kameichi! Get ready and come out here.'

Koroku's eldest son, Kameichi, was eleven years old. When he heard his father's voice he took two practice spears and went out into the garden.

'What were you doing?'

'Reading.'

'If you're addicted to reading books, you're going to neglect the martial arts, are you?'

Kameichi averted his eyes. The boy was different from his powerfully built father, a his character leaned toward the intellectual and gentle. As far as the world could tell, Koroku had a worthy heir, but he was actually unhappy with his son. The more than two thousand ronin under his command were mostly uneducated, wild country warriors.  If the clan's leader was not able to control them, the Hachisuka would vanish. It is a natural principle among wild animals that the weak become meals for the strong.

Every time Koroku looked at this son, who resembled him so little, he feared that this was the end of his family line, and deplored Kameichi's gentle nature and scholarly bent. Whenever he had even a little leisure, he would call the boy into the garden and try to pour some of his own fierce fighting spirit into him through the martial arts.

'Take a spear.'

“Yes, sir.”

“Adopt the usual stance and strike without thinking of me as your father.' Koroku leveled his own spear and charged toward his son as though he were an adult.

Kameichi's weak-spirited eyes shrank at his father's terrifying voice, and he retreated, Koroku's unmerciful spear struck Kameichi's shoulder hard. Kameichi screamed and dopped to the ground in a dead faint.

Running into the garden from the house, Koroku's wife, Matsunami, was beside herself. 'Where did he hit you? Kameichi! Kameichi!' Obviously angered at her husband's rough treatment of her son, she called abruptly to the servants for water and medicine.

'You fool!' Koroku scolded her. 'Why are you crying and consoling him? Kameichi is weakling because you've brought him up that way. He's not going to die. Get away from him!