'The western provinces should not just be given over into the hands of the invader,' Odera told them. "We should make the Mori clan our rallying point, reorganize our forces, and strike down these outsiders."

Odera Masamoto was Kanbei's father's lord and, therefore, Kanbei's as well. Kanbei therefore, was placed in a dilemma: on the one hand were Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, on the other were his father and his overlord.

Araki Murashige was a man known for his courage, but he was also one who bragged about it. Sensitivity and a clear understanding of the times were far beyond him. He was at the age described by Confucius as "free from vacillation," that is, he was about forty, the age when a man should be mature, but it seemed that Murashige's character had not changed much from what it had been ten years before. Lacking the qualities of thoughtfulness and refinement that he should naturally have possessed, even though he was the lord of a castle he had not advanced a single step from what he was formerly: a fearsome samurai warrior.

It could be said that in attaching him to Hideyoshi as second-in-command, Nobu­naga had made up for Hideyoshi's deficiencies. Murashige, however, did not think of himself in that way. He was always very free with his advice, yet neither Hideyoshi nor Nobutada ever employed his ideas.

He found Hideyoshi annoying. But his feckless thoughts aside, he never showed his antipathy when he met Hideyoshi face to face.

From time to time he would expose his resentment and even laugh out loud before his own retainers. There are some men in this world you can't offend, no matter how angry you get, and to Murashige, Hideyoshi was one of them. At the time of the attack on Kozuki Castle, Murashige had been on the front lines. Yet, when the time was right for the battle and Hideyoshi had given him the order to attack, he had sat there with folded arms and would not budge.

"Why didn't you go out and fight?" Hideyoshi had reprimanded him later.

"I don't participate in a battle I'm not interested in," Murashige had replied without flinching.

Since Hideyoshi had laughed good-naturedly at the time, Murashige had forced a smile too. The matter was closed, but the rumors that passed among the generals in camp were extremely uncomplimentary.

Mitsuhide censured Murashige's conduct heavily. Murashige held in contempt gener­als like Akechi Mitsuhide and Hosokawa Fujitaka, who had the scent of cultured men. He liked to characterize such men as effeminate. This judgment was based on his abhorrence of the poetry parties and tea ceremonies they held in camp. The only thing that did im­press Murashige was that Hideyoshi appeared not to have made a report of his behavior to either Nobunaga or Nobutada.

Murashige looked down on Hideyoshi as a warrior who was more soft-hearted than he, and yet he figured Hideyoshi a hard man to handle precisely because of this. At any rate, the people who really understood his attitude while he was in the field were his ene­mies, the Mori. To them it appeared that Murashige held some grievances, and that if they could talk to him, there was a good possibility they could get him to change sides.

The fact that the secret messengers from both the Mori and the Honganji were able to avoid detection and repeatedly slip in and out of his camp, and even Itami Castle, would indicate that they were not unwelcomed guests. The enemy had already been en­couraged by Murashige, and his actions had been a wordless invitation to them.

When a man without real substance or resourcefulness begins to play at being clever, he is playing with fire. His advisers cautioned their lord any number of times that such a plot could never succeed, but Murashige turned a deaf ear.

"Don't talk foolishness! Especially when the Mori clan has sent me a written pledge."

Having such absolute faith in a written pledge, he very quickly and clearly demonstrated his spirit of rebellion toward Nobunaga. How highly could a written pledge from the Mori—who had been enemies until yesterday—be regarded in these chaotic times, when men tossed aside a pledge between lord and retainer like a pair of worn-out san­dals? Murashige neither thought that far ahead nor felt such a large contradiction to be a contradiction at all.

"He's a fool—an honest man with whom it isn't worth getting angry," Hideyoshi had said to Nobunaga to calm him down, and it was probably the best thing he could have said at the time.

Nobunaga, however, could not look at the situation lightly, and cautioned, "But he's a strong man."

Added to this were the important questions of how the revolt would affect the other generals under his command and what its psychological influence might be. For these reasons, Nobunaga had tried everything, including sending Akechi Mitsuhide to pacify Murashige.

In the end, however, Murashige responded with all the more suspicion, and in the meanwhile strengthened his preparations for war, saying, "I've already demonstrated my hostility, so if I were to fall for Nobunaga's sweet words and respond to Azuchi's sum­mons, I have no doubt that I would be murdered or thrown into prison."

Nobunaga was outraged. Finally, the decision to fight Murashige was announced, and on the ninth day of the Eleventh Month, Nobunaga himself led a force as far as Yamazaki. The army of Azuchi was divided into three parts. The first army, composed of the forces of Takigawa Kazumasu, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Niwa Nagahide, surrounded Ibaragi Cas­tle; the second, made up of the forces under Fuwa, Maeda, Sassa, and Kanamori, besieged Takatsuki Castle.

Nobunaga's headquarters was at Mount Amano. And, while his resplendent line-up was unfolding itself, he still had a faint hope of subjugating the rebellious army without bloodshed. That hope was tied to Hideyoshi, who had now returned to Harima and from whom a message had just arrived.

"I have one more idea," Hideyoshi had written. Behind his words was Hideyoshi's friendship for the man as well as his feeling that Murashige's valor was too valuable to waste, and he appealed earnestly to Nobunaga to wait just a little longer. Hideyoshi's right-hand man, Kuroda Kanbei, had suddenly left the camp at Mount Hirai one night.

The following day, Kanbei hurried to Gochaku Castle, where he met with Odera Masamoto.

There is a rumor that you are supporting Lord Murashige's revolt, and that this castle has turned it back on the Oda clan." He spoke simply and directly, and first appealed to the man heart-to-heart.

A thin smile floated to Masamoto's lips as he listened. In terms of years, Kanbei was the age of his own son; and even in status, he was nothing more than the son of a senior retainer. Thus, his answer was, not surprisingly, extremely arrogant.

"Kanbei, you appear to be serious, but think for a moment. Since this clan became Nobunaga's ally, what have we gotten in return? Nothing."

"I don't think it's just a problem of profit and loss anymore."

"Well then, what is it?"

"It's a matter of loyalty. You are the head of a well-known clan, and have been an ally of the Oda in Harima. Suddenly to join Araki Murashige's revolt and betray your former allies would be a blow to the ideal of loyalty."

"What are you saying?" Masamoto asked. He treated Kanbei as an inexperienced negotiator, and the more fervent Kanbei became, the more coolly Masamoto behaved toward him.

"My reliance on Nobunaga was never a matter of loyalty," he said. "You and your father seem to think that the future of this country is in Nobunaga's hands; and when he took the capital, it was expedient to collude with him. At least that's the way the situation was presented to me, and even I was persuaded. But the truth is that there are many dan­gers facing Nobunaga from now on. Think of it as looking at a large ship out at sea. From the shore it looks safe; you think that if you boarded it, you would have no fear of sailing through turbulent seas. But then you actually get on board and tie your own fate to that of the ship. Now that you've put yourself into its keeping, instead of peace of mind, you find yourself without confidence. Every time you're battered by the waves, you feel uneasy and have doubts about the boat's endurance. This is human nature."