Three Princesses

At about noon, the soldiers at the castle gate started to yell.

"They're coming!"

The gunners on the walls jostled one another, searching out targets. But the only enemy who was approaching was a solitary rider, and he was ambling up to the gate in a very nonchalant way. If he were an envoy, he would be arriving with an escort of mounted men. Filled with doubt, the defenders watched the man approach.

As he came closer, one of the commanders spoke to a soldier with a rifle. "He's got to be an enemy general. He doesn't look like an envoy, and he's being very audacious. Fire on him once."

The commander had meant for one man to fire a warning shot, but three or four men fired together.

As they fired, the man stopped, as if surprised. He then held up a war fan with a red sun on a gold background, waved it over his head, and shouted, "Hey, soldiers! Wait a minute! Is Kinoshita Hideyoshi a man you want to shoot? Do it after I've talked to Lord Nagamasa." He ran as he yelled, until he was almost directly under the castle gate.

"Well, it's Kinoshita Hideyoshi of the Oda, all right. I wonder what he wants." The Asai general who peered down at him was skeptical about his reason for coming, but forgot about trying to shoot him.

Hideyoshi looked up at the castle gate. "I would like you to convey a message to the citadel," he shouted again.

What was going on? Voices that seemed to be deliberating noisily could be heard, on a derisive laugh mixed with the voices, and a general from the Asai stuck his head out over the parapet.

"Forget it. I suppose you're one more advocate coming as an envoy from Lord Nobunaga. You're just wasting your time once again. Go away!"

Hideyoshi raised his voice. "Silence! Where is the rule allowing a man with the status of a retainer to drive away his lord's guest without ever inquiring into his lord's inten­tions? This castle is as good as taken already, and I'm not so stupid as to take the time and trouble to come here playing the role of an envoy to hurry its destruction." His words were not exactly humble. "I've come here as Lord Nobunaga's representative, to offer in­cense in front of Lord Nagamasa's mortuary tablet. If we've heard correctly, Lord Nagamasa is resolved to die and has had his own funeral conducted while he is yet alive. They were friends during this life, so shouldn't Lord Nobunaga be allowed to offer in­cense too? Isn't there still grace enough here for men to exchange that kind of courtesy and friendship? Is the resolution of Lord Nagamasa and his retainers nothing but an af­fectation? Is it a bluff or the false courage of a coward?"

The face over the castle gate withdrew, perhaps out of embarrassment. No answer came for a little while, but finally the gate opened a little.

"General Fujikake Mikawa has agreed to speak with you for a few moments," the man said as he beckoned Hideyoshi in. But then he added, "Lord Nagamasa has refused to see you."

Hideyoshi nodded. "That's only natural. I consider Lord Nagamasa to have already passed away, and I am not going to press the point."

As he spoke, he walked in without looking to the right or left. How could this man walk into the midst of the enemy so calmly?

As Hideyoshi walked up the long sloping path from the first gate to the central gate, he paid absolutely no attention to the man who was leading him. When he approached the entrance to the citadel, Mikawa came out to meet him.

"It's been a long time," Hideyoshi said, as though it were nothing more than a normal greeting.

They had met once before, and Mikawa returned the greeting with a smile. "Yes, it certainly has been a long time. Meeting you in these circumstances is quite unexpected, Lord Hideyoshi."

The men in the castle all had bloodshot eyes, but the face of the old general did not look hard-pressed at all.

"General Mikawa, I haven't seen you since Lady Oichi's wedding day, have I? It's been quite a long time."

"That's right."

"That was a splendid day for both our clans."

"It's hard to tell what fate has in store. But when you look at the disturbances and cataclysms of the past, even this situation is not so unusual. Well, come inside. I can't give you much of a reception, but can I offer you at least a bowl of tea?"

Mikawa led him to a teahouse. Looking at the back of the old, white-haired general, it was clear that he had already transcended life and death.

It was a small, secluded teahouse, down a lane through the trees. Hideyoshi sat down and felt that he was in a different world entirely. In the quiet of the teahouse, both host and guest were temporarily cleansed of the bloodiness of the outside world.

It was the end of autumn. The leaves of the trees fluttered outside, but not a speck of dust settled on the polished wooden floor.

"I hear that Lord Nobunaga's retainers have recently taken up the art of tea." Making amiable conversation, Mikawa lifted the ladle toward the iron kettle.

Hideyoshi noted the man's decorum and hastily apologized. "Lord Nobunaga and his retainers are well versed in tea, but I'm a dullard by nature and don't know the first thing about it. I only like the taste."

Mikawa put down the bowl and stirred the tea with the whisk. His graceful move­ments were almost feminine in nature. The hands and body that had been hardened by armor did not seem cramped in the least. In this room furnished with nothing more than a tea bowl and a simple kettle, the gaudiness of the old general's armor looked out of place.

I've met a good man, Hideyoshi thought, and he drank in the man's character more than his tea. But how was he going to get Oichi out of the castle? Nobunaga's distress was his own. Since his plan had been employed so far, he felt responsible for solving this problem too.

The castle would probably fall on any day they wanted it to, but it would not do to bungle the job now and have to pick through the ashes for the gem. Furthermore, Nagamasa had let both parties know that he was determined to die, and that his wife was ofthe same mind.

Nobunaga's impossible hope was to win the battle and recover Oichi without harm.

"Please don't worry about formalities," Mikawa said, offering him the tea bowl from where he knelt in front of the hearth.

Sitting crossed-legged in the warrior style, Hideyoshi artlessly received the tea and drank it down in three gulps.

"Ah, that was good. I didn't think tea could taste this good. And I'm not trying to flatter you."

"How about another bowl?"

"No, my thirst has been quenched. The thirst in my mouth, at least. But I don't know how to quench the thirst in my heart. General Mikawa, you seem to be someone I can talk to. Would you hear me out?"

"I'm a retainer of the Asai, and you're an envoy of the Oda. I'll listen to you from that standpoint."

"I'd like you to arrange for me to meet with Lord Nagamasa."

"Such a thing was refused when you were at the castle gate. You were let in because you said that you had not come to meet Lord Nagamasa. Coming this far and then going back on your word is a dishonorable trick. I can't put myself in that position and allow you to meet him."

"No, no. I'm not talking about meeting the living Lord Nagamasa. As Nobunaga's presentative, I would like to salute the soul of Lord Nagamasa."

"Stop playing with words. Even if I did convey your intentions to him, there's no reason to think that Lord Nagamasa would consent to see you. I had hoped to partake in the highest warrior etiquette by sharing a bowl of tea with you. If you have any sense of shame, leave now while you haven't dishonored yourself."

Don't move. Refuse to go. Hideyoshi had resolved not to budge until he had achieved his goal. He sat there in silence. Mere words were clearly not going to be any kind of strategy against this seasoned old general.