The road between northern Omi and Echizen is one you've traveled many times before, so I assume you know the way. Nevertheless, I am sending my foster son, Hidekatsu, to guide you. There is a baseless rumor abroad, unworthy of our notice, that Nagahama would be an advantageous place from which to hinder your return home. In order to contradict such mean-spirited reports, I have sent my foster son to greet you, and you may take him as a hostage until you have passed through with peace of mind. I would have liked to entertain you at Nagahama, but I have been sick since leaving Kiyosu…

Reassured by the words of the envoy and the letter, Katsuie could not help reflecting his own timidity. He had been cowering before what might have been in Hideyoshi's heart, and now he was relieved. For some time he had been regarded as a clever strategist, and was acknowledged to be so full of intrigue that whenever he did anything, people were quick to say that Katsuie was up to his old tricks again. At moments like these, however, he was not even going to bother to cover up his emotions with a feigned nonchalance. It was that part of his character that the late Nobunaga had understood well. He considered Katsuie's courage, conspiratorial mind, and honesty to be distinctive features that could be put to good use. Thus he had given Katsuie the heavy responsibility of being commander-in-chief of the northern campaign, had put numerous warriors and a large province into his charge, and had relied upon him fully. Now, when Katsuie thought about the lord who had known him better than anyone else and contemplated the fact he was no longer in the world, he felt that there was no one in whom he could put his trust.

But now he was suddenly touched by Hideyoshi's letter, and the emotions he had harbored toward his rival were completely reversed in an instant. He now frankly reflected on the fact that their enmity had been based entirely on his own suspicions and timidity.

So Katsuie rethought the situation.

“Now that our lord is gone, Hideyoshi will be the man in whom to put our trust." That night he talked warmly with Hidekatsu. The following day he crossed Fuwa with the young man and entered Nagahama, still holding on to his new warm impressions. But in Nagahama, after he and his senior retainers had accompanied Hidekatsu as far as the castle gate, he was shaken once again, when he found out that Hideyoshi had not been in Nagahama for some time. He had gone on to Kyoto, where he had been involved in important state affairs.

“I've been taken in by Hideyoshi again!" Katsuie said, his irritation quickly returning, and he hurried to start out again on the road home.

*  *  *

It was the end of the Seventh Month. Fulfilling the promise he had made, Hideyoshi surrendered the castle and lands of Nagahama to Katsuie, who gave it to his foster son, Katsutoyo.

Katsuie still did not know why Hideyoshi had insisted at the conference of Kiyosu that the castle be given to Katsutoyo. And neither the men at the conference nor the pub­lic at large were suspicious about the condition or even stopped to consider what Hideyoshi had in mind.

Katsuie had another foster son, Katsutoshi, a boy who would be fifteen years old that year. Those members of the Shibata clan who had any feelings about it at all lamented that if the relationship between Katsuie and Katsutoyo was that cold, they could only fear for the future of the clan.

"Katsutoyo is so irresolute," Katsuie complained. "He never does anything with real clarity and decision. He doesn't even have the proper disposition to be my son. Katsu­toshi, on the other hand, has no trace of malice in him at all. He's really taken to me as his father."

But if Katsuie preferred Katsutoshi to Katsutoyo, he favored his nephew, Genba, even more. His love for Genba went beyond that felt naturally for a nephew or son, and he had an inclination to indulge the emotion. Thus Katsuie kept a watchful eye on Genba's younger brothers, Yasumasa and Katsumasa, installing each of them in strategic castles while they were still only in their twenties.

In the midst of all that deep affection between family members and retainers, only Katsutoyo felt dissatisfied with his foster father and the Sakuma brothers.

Once, during the New Year's celebrations, for example, when Katsuie's family and retainers had come to congratulate him on the New Year, the first toast was offered by Katsuie. Katsutoyo had naturally assumed that it would be offered to him, and had advanced respectfully on his knees.

"It's not for you, Katsutoyo, it's for Genba," Katsuie said, holding the cup back.

It became known in other quarters that this slight was a matter of discontent for Katsutoyo, and the story was doubtless heard by spies from other provinces. Certainly such information reached Hideyoshi's ears.

Before surrendering Nagahama to Katsutoyo, it was necessary for Hideyoshi to move his own family to a new home.

"We'll be moving to Himeji in just a little while. It's mild in winter, and there's fish from the Inland Sea."

With these orders, Hideyoshi's mother, wife, and the entire household moved to his castle in Harima. But Hideyoshi himself did not go.

There was no time to waste. He had the castle at Takaradera near Kyoto completely renovated. It had been Mitsuhide's stronghold at the time of the battle of Yamazaki, and there was a reason Hideyoshi did not send his mother and wife to live there. He went from Takaradera Castle to the capital on alternate days. When he returned, he supervised construction; when he was absent, he was seeing to the government of the nation.

He was now taking the responsibility upon himself for safeguarding the Imperial Palace, for the administration of the city, and for overseeing the various provinces. According to the original decision of the Kiyosu conference, all phases of the government of Kyoto were to be managed equally by the four regents—Katsuie, Niwa, Shonyu, and Hideyoshi—and were never supposed to be Hideyoshi's responsibility alone. But Katsuie was far away in Echizen, carrying on some secret maneuvers with Nobutaka and others in Gifu and Ise; Niwa, though close by in Sakamoto, seemed already to have given over his responsisibility entirely to Hideyoshi; and Shonyu had quite gallantly declared that, al­though he had been given a tide, the problems of dealing with the administration and the nobility were beyond his abilities, and he would have nothing more to do with either.

It was in just these areas that Hideyoshi had true ability. His talents were far more administrative than anything else. Hideyoshi knew that battle was not his main talent. But he understood clearly that if a man held high ideals but was defeated on the battlefield, great administrative works would not go forward. Thus he risked everything on a battle, and once he had started a campaign, he fought to the bitter end.

In rewarding his martial accomplishments, the Imperial Court informed Hideyoshi would be given the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Imperial Guard. Hideyoshi declined, protesting that his merits did not deserve such an honor, but the Court graciously insisted, and he finally accepted a lesser title.

How many there are who are quick to find fault when they witness those who do good in the world! How many of the mean-spirited ones talk against those who work with upright hearts!

This is always true, and whenever great changes occur, the flood of gossip is liable to be especially violent.

“Hideyoshi is exposing his arrogance quickly. Even his subordinates are grasping authority.

“They're ignoring Lord Katsuie. It's as though there were no one else to serve."

“When you look at the influence he's gained recently, it's as though they're proclaiming that Lord Hideyoshi is Lord Nobunaga's successor."

The criticism aimed at him was noisy indeed. But, as always in such cases, the identies of the accusers remained unknown.