More recently she had heard that there had been a battle at Yamazaki. When told about the event, her blood raced to the surface of her skin, flushing her complexion.

‘That’s very likely. It's just like that boy," Hideyoshi's mother said.

The old lady's hair had turned completely white, and now she sat in the main hall of the Daikichi Temple from the time she rose in the morning to the time she went to bed, hardly moving at all and praying devoutly for her son's victory. No matter how chaotic the world became, she believed absolutely that the child to whom she had given birth would not turn from the Great Way. Even now when she gossiped with Nene, she still fell into her old habit of referring to Hideyoshi as "that boy."

"Let him return victorious, even if it's in exchange for this old body." That was her single day-long prayer. From time to time she would look up with a sigh of relief at the statue of the goddess Kannon.

"Mother, I have a feeling we're going to be receiving good news soon," Nene said one day.

"I've been feeling that myself, but I don't know why," Hideyoshi's mother said.

"I felt it all of a sudden when I looked up at the face of Kannon," Nene said. "Yesterday more than the day before, today more than yesterday, she seems to be smiling at us."

It was on the morning of Hideyoshi's arrival that the two women had been talking in this way.

The setting sun was bringing the shadow of the valley across the village, and the walls of the temple were already colored by twilight. Nene was striking the flint to light the lamps in the dark of the inner sanctuary, while the old lady sat in prayer in front of the statue of Kannon.

Suddenly they heard warriors hurrying outside. Hideyoshi's mother turned around in surprise and Nene went out to the veranda.

"His Lordship is coming!"

The shouts of the sentinels echoed throughout the compound. Every day sentinels went downstream about two leagues to stand watch. They all looked as if they had fallen on their faces after running up to the main gate, but when they saw Nene on the veranda, they started yelling at her from where they were, as though there wasn't enough time to come closer.

"Mother!" Nene shouted out.

"Nene!"

The old lady and her daughter-in-law embraced in tears, hardly aware that their happy voices had become one. The old lady prostrated herself before the image of Kannon. Nene knelt next to her and bowed with all her heart.

"The boy hasn't seen you for a long time. You look a little tired. Go brush your hair."

"Yes, Mother."

Nene quickly retired to her room. She brushed her hair, cupped some water from the bamboo conduit to wash her face, and quickly applied some makeup.

All of the members of the household and the samurai were in front of the gate, lined up according to age and rank to greet Hideyoshi. The faces of both old and young, many of whom were villagers, peeked from between the trees. Their eyes were wide with curiosity about what would happen next. After a short while two warriors running ahead of the others came up to the gate and announced that their lord and his company would ar­rive soon. When they finished their report to Nene, they joined the line of men at the very end, and everyone became hushed. Every man waited for Hideyoshi to appear in the distance. As she stood in the shadow of the expectant men, Nene's eyes looked strangely opaque.

Very soon thereafter a group of men and horses arrived, and the air was filled with the smell of sweat and dust and the din and bustle of those who had come out to greet their lord. The front gate of the temple was temporarily hidden by the whinnying line ofhorses and people congratulating the men on their safe arrival.

Hideyoshi was among them. He had ridden the short distance from the village, but dismouted in front of the temple gate. Handing the reins of his horse to an attendant, he looked over at a group of children standing at the end of the line of people at his right.

‘There must be a lot of places to play in the mountains," he said. Then he patted the shoulders of the little boys and girls standing nearby. They were all children of his retainers, and their mothers, grandmothers, and grandfathers were there too. Hideyoshi smiled at each one of them as he walked toward the stone steps of the gate.

Well, well. I see that everyone's safe. I'm relieved." Then he turned to the people on his left,where the warriors of his clan stood silently. Hideyoshi raised his voice a little.

“I’ve come back. I understand the hardships you've suffered in my absence. You had to work very hard."

The warriors standing in line bowed low. Beneath the temple gate at the top of the steps, his main retainers and both young and old members of his immediate family waited to greet him. Hideyoshi merely looked to the right and left, demonstrating his own health with a smile. To his wife, Nene, he gave only a glance, and passed through the gate without speaking.

But from that point, the husband was accompanied by the figure of his modest wife.  The pages that followed in a crowd and the members of his family either went off to rest as Nene had instructed them or simply saluted him from the veranda, each then disappearing into his own quarters.

In the high-ceilinged main temple, a solitary lamp flickered on a low stand. Next to it sat a single woman with hair as white as a silkworm cocoon, wearing a russet-colored kimono.

She could hear her son's voice as he was led up to the veranda by his wife. Without making a sound, his mother stood up and moved to the edge of the room. Hideyoshi paused beneath the shutter and brushed the dust from his coat. His head, which he had shaved at Amagasaki, was still wrapped in a hood.

Nene came around from behind her husband and spoke in a quiet voice. "Your mother has come out to greet you."

Hideyoshi quickly went up to his mother and prostrated himself. "I've given you so much trouble, Mother. Please forgive me," was all he could say.

The old lady retreated a little on her knees, then repeated her greeting, prostrating herself in front of her son. The etiquette of the occasion required that a greeting be made to the lord of the clan upon his triumphal return; it was the tradition of the warrior class, not a simple, everyday matter between parent and child. But as soon as Hideyoshi saw his mother safe and sound, he was unable to feel anything but affection for his own flesh and blood.  Silently he approached his old mother. With modest manners, however, she resisted him.

“You've returned safely. But before you ask about my hardships or well-being, why don’t you tell me about Lord Nobunaga's death? And tell me if you've destroyed our hateful enemy, Mitsuhide?"Hideyoshi unconsciously straightened his collar. His mother continued, "I wonder if

you know that what your old mother worried about day after day was not whether you were alive or dead. I worried about whether you would act like the great General Hide­yoshi, a retainer of Lord Nobunaga. Even as I wondered about how you would manage after the death of our lord, I heard about your march on Amagasaki and Yamazaki. But after that, we heard nothing."

"I was slow in letting you know."

Her words seemed reserved and spoken without love, but Hideyoshi trembled with happiness, as though his blood were rushing through his entire body. Rather than being soothed by a natural motherly love, he felt that his mother's present admonishment showed a far greater love, and it gave him encouragement for the future.

He then told them in detail of the events that had happened since Nobunaga's death, and of the great deeds he wished to accomplish. He spoke about these things plainly so that his old mother would understand them well.

His mother now shed tears for the first time, and then praised her son. "You did well by destroying the Akechi in only a few days. Lord Nobunaga's soul must feel satisfied, and he should have no regrets about having given you his affection. To tell the truth, I was determined not to let you spend a single night here if you had come before seeing Mitsuhide's head."