6 SEVENTH YEAR OF TENSHO 1579

Characters and places

Shojumaru, Kuroda Kanbei's son

Kumataro, retainer of Takenaka Hanbei

Bessho Nagaharu, lord of Miki Castle

Goto Motokuni, senior Bessho retainer

Ikeda Shonyu, senior Oda retainer

Anayama Baisetsu, senior Takeda retainer

Nishina Nobumori, Takeda Katsuyori's brother

Saito Toshimitsu, senior Akechi retainer

Yusho, painter

Miki, Bessho Nagaharu's castle

Nirasaki, new capital of Kai

Takato, Nishina Nobumori's castle

A Retainer's Duty

Hideyoshi's campaign in the western provinces, Mitsuhide's campaign in Tamba, and the long siege of Itami Castle were Nobunaga's real work. The campaign in the western provinces and the siege of Itami were still stalemated, and only in Tamba was there some minor action. Day by day, a vast number of letters and reports arrived from these three areas. The documents were screened by staff officers and private secretaries, so that Nobunaga saw only the most important ones.

Among them was a letter from Sakuma Nobumori. Nobunaga read it and tossed it aside with an expression of extreme displeasure. The person whose job it was to pick up any discarded letters was Nobunaga's trusted page, Ranmaru. Thinking that Nobunaga's orders had been disobeyed, he surreptitiously read the letter. There was nothing in it that should have upset Nobunaga. It read:

To my surprise, Hanbei has not yet taken any action to carry out your orders. As your messenger, I impressed upon him the error of his ways, informing him that if he disobeyed the order, I would be accused of negligence. I think your order will be carried out soon. This has been extremely trying for me, and I humbly request your magnanimity in this matter.

Behind Nobumori's words one sensed that he was, more than anything else, trying to justify his own faults. In fact, his intention really was nothing more than that. Ranmaru was not able to read more meaning into it.

Nobunaga's anger at the letter, and his perception that Nobumori had changed, would not be manifested until later on. Until then, it would have been difficult for anyone other than Nobunaga to have understood his own true feelings. The only hints presaging the future that did not go unnoticed were that Nobunaga did not seem angry about Hanbei's disobedience and negligence—even after he received such a letter from Nobumori—and that after this event, the matter was ignored. Nobunaga himself certainly did not press it. But there was no reason for Hanbei to be aware of such complicated changes in Nobunaga's thinking. It was not Hanbei, however, but Oyu and the retainers who were taking care of him, who thought that Hanbei should do something. It seemed he had not yet decided what to do about the problem.

A month went by. The plum trees were blossoming at the main gate of the Nanzen Temple and around Hanbei's retreat. As the days went by the sun became warmer, but Hanbei's condition did not improve.

He could not bear uncleanliness, so every day he would have the sickroom swept clean and then, bathing himself in the sunlight on bright mornings, he would sit on the veranda.

His sister would prepare tea for him, and his one pleasure during his illness was to watch the steam rise from the tea bowl in the bright morning sun.

"Your color has improved a little this morning, brother," Oyu said brightly.

Hanbei rubbed his cheek with a thin hand. "Spring has come to me, too, it seems. This is pleasant. For the last two or three days I've felt rather well," he answered with a smile.

Both his mood and color had indeed become much better in the past two or three days, and Oyu felt the greatest pleasure in looking at him this fine morning. But suddenly she felt a sense of desolation as she recalled the doctor's words: "There is little hope of recovery." But she was not going to give in to her feeling. How many patients had recovered after their doctors had given them up for dead? She promised herself that she would nurse Hanbei back to health—to see him healthy was a goal she shared with Hideyoshi, who the day before had written from Harima to encourage him.

"If you continue to get better at this rate, you'll be able to get out of bed by the time the cherry trees are blooming."

"Oyu, I've been nothing but trouble, haven't I?"

"What nonsense are you talking now?"

Hanbei laughed weakly. "I haven't thanked you before, because we're brother and sister, but this morning somehow I feel I should say something. I wonder if it's because I'm feeling so much better."

"It makes me happy to think it might be so."

"It's already been ten years since we left Mount Bodai."

"Time passes quickly. When you look back, you realize life goes by just like a dream.”

"You've been at my side since then—and me, nothing but a mountain hermit—cooking my meals morning and night, taking care of me, even preparing my medicine."

"No, it's only been for a little while. Back then, you kept saying that you would never get better. But as soon as your health improved, you joined Lord Hideyoshi, fought at the Ane River, Nagashino, and Echizen. You were in pretty good health then, weren't you?

"I suppose you're right. This sick body has stood up pretty well."

"So if you take care of yourself, you'll certainly get better this time, too. I'm determined that you're going to become your old self again."

"It's not that I want to die."

"You're not going to die!"

"I want to keep living. I want to live to make sure this violent world finds peace again. Ah, if only I were healthy, I'd be able to help my lord to the best of my ability.” Suddenly Hanbei's voice fell. "But the length of a man's life is beyond his control. What can I do in this condition?"

Looking into his eyes, Oyu was suffused with pain. Was there something that her brother was keeping from her?

The bell of the Nanzen Temple announced the hour of noon. Although the country was still in a state of civil war, people could be seen viewing the flowering plum trees, and the song of the nightingales could be heard among the falling blossoms.

That spring was considered to be a pleasant one, but it was still only the Second Month. When night fell, and the lamps began to flicker coldly, Hanbei began to cough again. During the night, Oyu would have to get up several times to rub his back. There were other retainers nearby, but Hanbei was unwilling to let them take care of him in this way.

"They are all men who will ride out with me into battle. It wouldn't be right to ask them to rub a sick man's back," he explained.

That night, too, she got up to massage her brother's back. Going into the kitchen to prepare his medicine, she suddenly heard a noise outside the kitchen door that sounded as if someone was brushing past the old bamboo of the hedge. Oyu listened carefully. She could hear whispering outside.

"I can see a light. Wait just a moment. Somebody must be up." The voices outside gradually came closer to the house. Then someone tapped lightly on the rain shutter.

"Who is it?" Oyu asked.

"Is that you, Lady Oyu? It's Kumataro from Kurihara. I've just come back from Itami."

"It's Kumataro!" she called excitedly to Hanbei. She slid open the door to the kitchen and saw three men standing in the starlight.

Kumataro stretched out his hand took the bucket Oyu offered him. He called the other two men, and all three went to the well.

Oyu wondered who the other two men were. Kumataro was the retainer they had brought up on Mount Kurihara. At that time he had been called Kokuma, but now he was a fine young samurai. After Kumataro drew up the well bucket and poured the water into the bucket he had taken from Oyu, the other two men washed the mud from their hands and feet and the blood from their sleeves.