It was early in the morning of the twenty-first day of the Third Month. The wrens sang their high-pitched songs in the reeds of Osaka. Cherry blossoms fell, and in the streets, the fallen blooms swirled around the long procession of armored men and horses, making it appear as though nature itself were sending them off. The townspeople who had come to watch formed an endless fence along the roadside.

The army following Hideyoshi that day numbered more than thirty thousand men. Everyone strained to catch a glimpse of Hideyoshi in their midst, but he was so small and ordinary-looking that, surrounded by his mounted generals, he easily escaped notice.

But Hideyoshi looked at the crowd and secretly smiled with assurance. Osaka is going to prosper, he thought. It seems to be flourishing already, and that's the best omen of all.  The crowd wore bright colors and bold patterns, and there were no indications of a town in decline. Was it because they had faith in the new castle at its very center?

We'll win. This time we can win. That is how Hideyoshi divined the future.

That night the army camped at Hirakata, and early on the following morning, the thirty-thousand-man army continued east, following a serpentine path along the Yodo

When they arrived in Fushimi, about four hundred men came forward to meet them at the river crossing.

“Whose banners are those?" Hideyoshi asked.

The generals narrowed their eyes suspiciously. Nobody could identify the huge banners of black Chinese characters on a field of red. There were also five golden pendants commander's standard with insignias of eight smaller circles around a large central one on a golden fan. Beneath those banners thirty mounted warriors, thirty spearmen, thirty gunners, twenty archers, and a corps of foot soldiers waited in full formation, their clothing rustling brilliantly in the river breeze.

“Go find out who they are," Hideyoshi ordered a retainer.

The man quickly returned and said, "It's Ishida Sakichi."

Hideyoshi lightly struck his saddle.

"Sakichi? Well, well, that's who it had to be," he said in a happy voice, as though something had just occurred to him.

Approaching Hideyoshi's horse, Ishida Sakichi greeted his lord. "I made a promise to you before, and today I have prepared for your use a force financed with the money I earned from clearing the unused land in this area."

"Well, come along, Sakichi. Get in with the supply train at the rear."

More than ten thousand bushels' worth of men and horses—Hideyoshi was impressed with Sakichi's ingenuity.

That day the majority of the troops passed through Kyoto and took the Omi Road. For Hideyoshi, there were memories of the reverses of his youth in every tree and blade of grass.

"There's Mount Bodai," Hideyoshi muttered. Looking up at the mountain, he remembered its lord, Takenaka Hanbei, the hermit of Mount Kurihara. When he reflected on it now, he was thankful that he had not spent a single day in idleness during that short springtime of life. The reverses of his youth and the struggles of that time had made him what he was today, and he felt that he had actually been blessed by that dark world and the muddy currents of its streets.

Hanbei, who called Hideyoshi his lord, had been a true friend whom he had been unable to forget. Even after Hanbei's death, whenever Hideyoshi encountered troubles he would think to himself, If only Hanbei were here. Yet he had allowed the man to die without any reward whatsoever. Suddenly Hideyoshi's eyelids were warm with tears of sadness, blurring his view of the peak of Mount Bodai.

And he thought of Hanbei's sister, Oyu…

Just at that moment he saw the white hood of a Buddhist nun in the shadow of the pines at the side of the road. The nun's eyes momentarily met Hideyoshi's. He reined in his horse and seemed about to give out an order, but the woman beneath the pines had already vanished.

That night in camp Hideyoshi received a plate of rice cakes. The man who delivered it said that it had been brought by a nun who had not given her name.

"These are delicious," Hideyoshi said, eating a couple of the cakes even though he had already taken his evening meal. As he commented on the cakes, there were tears in his eyes.

Later on, the quick-eyed page mentioned Hideyoshi's strange mood to the generals who were attending him. All of them looked surprised and appeared as though they couldn't even guess the reason for their lord's behavior. They worried about his grief, but as soon as his head was on the pillow, Hideyoshi's high-pitched snore was the same as usual. He slept happily for just four hours. In the morning, when the sky was still dark, he got up and departed. During that day, the first and second detachments arrived at Gifu. Hideyoshi was greeted by Shonyu and his son, and soon the castle was overflowing with the huge army, both inside and out.

Torches and bonfires lit the night sky over the Nagara River. Far away, the third and fourth units could be seen flowing continually east all night long.

"It's been a long time!"

Their voices broke out in unison the moment Hideyoshi and Shonyu met.

"It really pleases me that both you and your son are united with me at this time. And I can’tt even express what you've done for me with the gift of Inuyama Castle. No, even I was impressed with your speed and how alert you were to that opportunity."

Hideyoshi was outspoken in his praise of Shonyu's achievements, but said nothing about the great defeat of his son-in-law after the victory at Inuyama.

But even if Hideyoshi was saying nothing about it, Shonyu was ashamed. He seemed be deeply embarrassed that his victory at Inuyama could not atone for the defeat and loss that Nagayoshi had incurred. The letter from Hideyoshi delivered to him by Bito Jinemon had particularly warned against being drawn into a challenge from Ieyasu, but it id come too late.

Shonyu now spoke about that event. "I hardly know how to apologize for our defeat, cause of my son-in-law's foolishness."

"You're too concerned about that," Hideyoshi said, laughing. "That's not like the Ikeda Shonyu I know."

Should I blame Shonyu or just let it alone? Hideyoshi wondered when he awoke the following morning. Regardless of anything else, however, the advantage of having Inuyama Castle in his hands before the coming great battle was extraordinary. Hideyoshi praised Shonyu for his meritorious deed over and over again, and not just to console him.

On the twenty-fifth Hideyoshi rested and assembled his army, which numbered more than eighty thousand men.

Leaving Gifu the next morning, he arrived at Unuma at noon and immediately had a bridge of boats constructed across the Kiso River. The army then camped for the night. On the morning of the twenty-seventh it broke camp and headed toward Inuyama. Hideyoshi entered Inuyama Castle exactly at noon.

"Bring me a horse with strong legs," he ordered, and immediately after finishing his lunch, he galloped from the castle gate, accompanied by only a few mounted men in light armor.

"Where will you be going, my lord?" a general asked, chasing after him at full gallop.

"Just a few of you should come along," Hideyoshi replied. "If there are too many of us, we'll be spotted by the enemy."

Hurrying through the village of Haguro, where Nagayoshi had reportedly been killed, they climbed Mount Ninomiya. From there Hideyoshi could look down into the enemy's main camp at Mount Komaki.

The combined forces of Nobuo and Ieyasu were said to number about sixty-one thousand men. Hideyoshi narrowed his eyes and looked far into the distance. The sun at midday was glaringly bright. Silently put his hand over his eyes, he quietly gazed out over Mount Komaki, which was covered with the enemy forces.

On that day Ieyasu was still in Kiyosu. He had gone to Mount Komaki, given his instructions for the battle lineup, and quickly returned. It was as though a go master were moving a single stone on the board with extreme care.