Bomaru's voice could be heard in the pages' room. His older brother, Ranmaru, seemed to be scolding him for something or other. By this time, all of Mori Yoshinari's children were adults. It had been rumored recently that Ranmaru hoped to receive Sakamoto—presently an Akechi castle—which had been his father's domain. The report was circulating widely, and even Nobunaga was outraged by the thought of it. So to dissi[ate the public rumor, he now rethought his own rather unseemly policy of keeping Ranmaru dressed as a page and having him constantly at his side. To amend this would be for his own sake as well.

"Will you be going out into the garden?" Ranmaru asked.

Nobunaga had been standing on the veranda, and Ranmaru quickly ran out from the pages' room to place some sandals on the steppingstone. It was good to have someone so quick-witted and gentle in his service, Nobunaga thought; he had grown used to that kind of solicitude over ten or so years.

"No, I'm not going into the garden. It's been hot today, hasn't it?"

"Yes, the sun really burned down on us."

"Are the horses in the stable all healthy?"

"They seem to be a little low-spirited."

Nobunaga looked up and strained his eyes at the evening star, perhaps having sudden thoughts of the faraway western provinces. Ranmaru stared up blankly at Nobunaga's profile. Nobutada had also come in and was standing behind the two men, but Ranmaru's gaze showed that he had forgotten about the younger man's very existence. It was almost as though he were looking at his master for the last time. If his spirit had had the power of self-consciousness, he might have been even more aware of his strange intuition of that moment, and of the goose bumps that were even now appearing on his skin. It was just about the time Akechi Mitsuhide was arriving at Oinosaka.

The smoke from the stoves in the huge kitchen began to envelop the inside of the temple. Firewood was alight not only in the stoves but also in the baths. And not just at the Honno Temple: in the hour just before nightfall, smoke from cooking fires trailed off into the sky both inside and outside of the capital.

Nobunaga poured water over himself in the bath. A single white flower on a vine showed itself through the bamboo lattice of a high window cut out of the wall. After his hair was arranged and he had donned fresh clothes, Nobunaga walked back along the bridged corridor.

Ranmaru came up and announced that Sotan and Soshitsu of Hakata were waiting for him in the tearoom.

"They've been here since before dark, and the two of them swept the path from the tearoom to the entrance and polished the veranda themselves. Then Master Soshitsu wa­tered the path and made a flower arrangement, while Master Sotan went to the kitchen and gave instructions for the dishes they would present to you."

"Why wasn't I informed earlier?"

"Well, they said that since they were the hosts, we should wait until everything was ready."

"It appears they have some sort of plan. Was Nobutada told about this? And Nagato?"

"I'll invite them right away."

When Ranmaru left, Nobunaga went to his quarters but very quickly redirected his steps toward the tearoom.

The building did not have the appearance of a tearoom. The building had been de­signed as a drawing room, and a smaller space had been created for the tea ceremony by the placement of folding screens.

The guests were Nobunaga, Nobutada, and Nagato and his son. The lamps added a refreshing atmosphere to the room. After the tea ceremony had been concluded, the hosts and their guests moved to a larger room, where they talked late into the night.

Nobunaga was still very hungry. He devoured the dishes placed before him, drank wine—which appeared as if it had been made of melted rubies—and occasionally took a European cake from the well-stocked plate, all the while conversing nonstop.

"I'd like to take a tour of the southern lands, with you and Sotan as my guides. Surely you've traveled to those places a number of times."

"I think about it all the time but haven't been able to go," Soshitsu answered.

"Sotan, you're young and healthy. Have you been there?"

"Not yet, my lord."

"Neither of you have been there?"

"No, even though our employees are constantly going back and forth."

"Well, I would think that would be a disadvantage for your trade. Even if someone like me had such hopes, there would never be a good time to leave Japan, so there's really nothing to be done. But you own ships and branch stores and are always free to travel. Why haven't you gone yet?"

"The rush of work you have with the affairs of the country is of a different nature than ours, but somehow we've been prevented in one way or another by our household affairs and will be unable to leave for one year or so. Nevertheless, on the day Your Lordship settles all of the many affairs you attend to, I'd like to go with you and Sotan and give you a grand tour."

"Let's do that! That's been one of my desires for such a long time. But Soshitsu, are you going to live that long?"

As the page poured out the wine, Nobunaga joked with the old man, but Soshitsu was not to be bested.

"Well now, rather than worrying about that, can you assure me that you're going to put everything in order of before I die? If you're the one that's too slow, I may not be able wait."

"It should be soon," Nobunaga said, smiling, delighted by the old man's banter.

Soshitsu was able to speak his mind in a way that Nobunaga's generals could not. From time to time during the conversation, Nobutada and Nagato would feel uneasy about that, wondering if it was truly all right for these merchants to be speaking as frankly as they were. At the same time they wondered why these commoners had Nobunaga's favor. It was highly unlikely that Nobunaga tolerated them as friends just because they were tea masters.

Nobutada was bored by the conversation. Only when the talk between his father and the two merchants turned to the subject of the southern lands was Nobutada's interest engaged. Those things were all new to his ears, and inspired him to youthful dreams and ambitions.

Regardless of whether their understanding of the southern lands was deep or not, the intellectuals at that time had an interest in them. The very essence of Japanese culture was being rocked by a tidal wave of innovations from overseas, foremost among which was the gun.

Much of what was known about the south was brought by missionaries from Spain and Portugal; but men like Soshitsu and Sotan had started their trade without waiting for the missionaries. Their ships crossed to Korea and traded with China, Amoy, and Cambodia. The men who had told them of the wealth beyond the sea were not the missionaries, but Japanese pirates who made their lair near Hakata, in Kyushu.

Sotan had inherited his business from his father and had established branches in Luzon, Siam, and Cambodia. It is said that he is the man who imported waxtree nuts from south China and who developed a method of manufacturing wax, thereby making the lamp fuel that caused the nights in Japan to shine so much brighter. Improving the metallurgical techniques brought in from overseas, he is also credited with bringing about the refinement of iron smelting.

Soshitsu was also involved in overseas trade and was related to Sotan. There was not a lord on the island of Kyushu who had not borrowed money from him. He owned ten or more large ocean-going ships and a hundred smaller vessels.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Nobunaga had picked up almost all of his knowledge about the world beyond Japan while drinking tea with these two men. Even now Nobunaga was absorbed in conversation, reaching out for one European cake after another. Soshitsu observed how many he was eating and remarked, "Those are made with something called sugar, so you should be careful about eating too many of them before you go to bed."