Hideyoshi glared at them and the two children glared back, trying to see who could last the longest.

Hideyoshi burst out laughing, conceding defeat.

Manju and Chacha laughed excitedly. Scratching his head, Hideyoshi beckoned them with a wave to come over and play another game.

The two children were intrigued by his invitation, and stealthily pushed open the brushwood gate.

"Where did you come from, mister?"

Hideyoshi came down from the veranda and began to tie the cords of his straw sandals. Half in fun, Manju tickled the back of Hideyoshi's neck with a stalk of pampas gra.s.s. Enduring this mischief, Hideyoshi finished tying the cords.

But when he stood up to his full height, and they saw the look on his face, they lost heart and tried to run away.

For his part, Hideyoshi was taken by surprise. As soon as the boy began to run away, he caught him by the collar. At the same time, he tried to grab Chacha with his other hand, but she screamed at the top of her voice and ran off crying. Manju was so shocked at being caught that he did not let out a whimper. But, falling down, he looked up underneath Hideyoshi, and seeing the man's face and the entire sky upside down, he finally screarmed.

Fujikake Mikawa had left Hideyoshi alone in the teahouse and was walking along the garden path. He was the first to hear Chacha's cries as she fled and Manju's screams, Alarmed, he ran back to see what the matter was.

"What! You wretch!" He let out a horrified shout, and his hand instinctively grasped the hilt of his sword.

Standing astride Manju, Hideyoshi shouted in a commanding voice for the old man to stop. It was a difficult moment. Mikawa was about to strike Hideyoshi with his sword, but shrank back in fear when he saw what Hideyoshi was ready to do. For Hideyoshi's eyes and the sword he held in his hand both showed that he was ready to cut Manju's throat without the least hesitation.

The skin of the self-possessed old general turned to gooseflesh, and his white hair stood on end.

"Y-you wretch! What are you going to do with the boy?" Mikawa's voice was almost plaintive. He edged closer, his whole body shaking with regret and anger. When the retainers who had accompanied the general understood what was happening, they yelled for all they were worth, waving their hands, informing everyone of the situation immediately.

The guards from the central gate and the inner citadel had also heard Chacha's cries and now hurried toward the scene.

Around this bizarre enemy who glared at them while holding his sword at Manju's throat, the samurai formed a steel circle of armor. They remained at a distance, frightened perhaps at what they saw in Hideyoshi's eyes. They had no idea what to do, other than raise an uproar.

"General Mikawa!" Hideyoshi called out at one face among them. "What is your answer? This method is a bit violent, but if I don't do this, I don't see any other way of not embarra.s.sing my lord. If you don't give me an answer, I'm going to kill Master Manju!" He looked around with big fiery eyes and went on, "General Mikawa, have these warriors withdraw! Then we'll talk. Is it so difficult to see what to do? Your understanding is slow. It would be difficult, after all, to kill me and save the boy's life without causing him injury. It's exactly the same as Lord n.o.bunaga taking this castle and wanting to save Oichi. How could you save Master Manju's life? Even if you shot me with a musket, this blade would be likely to pierce his throat in that very moment."

For some time it was only his tongue that was enlivened, and it had been like a rushing stream. But now his eyes were moving as well as his tongue, and along with his eloquence, all of the extremities of his body were keenly and constantly attentive to the enemy on all sides.

No one was able to do a thing. Mikawa felt the immensity of his mistake, and seemed to be listening carefully to what Hideyoshi was saying. He had recovered from his temporary shock and returned to the calm he had displayed in the teahouse. Mikawa could move at last; he waved his hand at the men around Hideyoshi. "Move away from him. Leave this to me. Even if I have to take his place, the young lord must not be harmed. Each of you return to your posts." Then he turned to Hideyoshi and said, "As you wished, the crowd has dispersed. Now, would you please hand over young Manju to me?"

"Absolutely not!" Hideyoshi shook his head forcefully, but then changed his tone of voice. "I will return the young lord, but I want to return him to Lord Nagamasa in person. Will you please see about getting me an audience with Lord Nagamasa and Lady Oichi?"

Nagamasa had been standing in the crowd that had dispersed a little before. When he heard Hideyoshi, he lost his self-control. Overcome with his love for his son, he ran forward, screaming abuse at Hideyoshi.

"What kind of foul play is this, holding an innocent child's fate in your hands, just so you can talk! If you're really the Oda general Kinos.h.i.ta Hideyoshi, you should be ashamed of such a sinister scheme. All right! If you'll hand Manju over to me, we'll talk."

Oh! Lord Nagamasa, were you here?" Hideyoshi said, politely bowing to Nagamasa despite the man's expression. But he still straddled Manju and held the point of his short sword to the boy's throat.

Fujikake Mikawa spoke from one side in a quavering voice. "Lord Hideyoshi! Please release him! Isn't His Lordship's word sufficient? Put Master Manju into my hands."

Hideyoshi took no notice of what he was saying, and looked in the direction of Asai Nagamasa. Staring straight at Nagamasa's pale face and desperate eyes, he finally gave a deep sigh.

"Ah. So you too know what it is to love a blood relative? You actually understand compa.s.sion toward a loved one? I didn't think you understood that at all."

"Aren't you going to give him to me, you sc.u.m? Are you going to murder this young boy?"

"I haven't the least intention of doing that. But you, who are a father, don't have any respect for family affections."

"Don't talk foolishness! Doesn't every parent love his child?"

"That's right. Even the birds and beasts," Hideyoshi agreed. "And if that's the case, I suppose you cannot ridicule as foolish the fact that Lord n.o.bunaga, because of his desire to save Oichi, cannot destroy this castle. And what about you? You're Oichi's husband, after all. Aren't you taking advantage of Lord n.o.bunaga's weakness by tying the lives of a mother and her children to the fate of your castle? That's exactly the same as the way I now hold down Lord Manju and press this sword to his throat so that I can talk with you. Before you declare my method to be cowardly, please consider whether your own strategy isn't just as cowardly and cruel."

As he spoke, Hideyoshi picked up Manju and held him in his arms. Seeing the relief spreading over Nagamasa's face, he abruptly stepped toward him, put Manju into his arms, and prostrated himself at his feet. "I fervently beg forgiveness for this violent and rude act; from the very beginning, my heart was not in it. I took such a measure first of all to try to lessen the plight of Lord n.o.bunaga. But also I thought it regrettable that you, a samurai who has shown such admirable resolution to the end, might hereafter be spoken of as someone who lost control of himself in his final moments. Make no mistake; this was partly for your own sake, my lord. Please grant me the release of Oichi and her children."

He did not really feel as though he were appealing to the enemy commander. He faced the man's soul and completely divulged his true emotions. His palms were folded at his breast and he was kneeling respectfully in front of Nagamasa; it was obvious that this gesture arose from complete sincerity.

Nagamasa closed his eyes and listened silently. He folded his arms, his feet planted firmly. He looked just like a statue in full armor. Hideyoshi seemed to be mouthing a prayer to the soul of Nagamasa, who seemed to have become, as Hideyoshi had declared when he entered the castle, a living corpse.

The hearts of the two men-one intent on prayer, the other intent on dying-came into contact for just a moment. The barrier between enemies was lifted, and the complex emotions that Nagamasa felt toward n.o.bunaga suddenly fell away from his body like flaking whitewash.

"Mikawa, take Lord Hideyoshi somewhere and entertain him for a while. I would like time to make my farewells."

"Your farewells?"

"I'm leaving this world and I want to tell my wife and children good-bye. I'm already antic.i.p.ating death and have even had a funeral service for myself, but... can separation during life be worse than separation at the moment of death? I think Lord n.o.bunaga envoy will agree that it is worse."

Shocked, Hideyoshi lifted up his face and looked at the man. Are you saying that Oichi and her children can go?"

"To embrace my wife and children in the arms of death and let them perish with this castle was ign.o.ble. I had resolved that my body was already dead, and yet my shallow prejudices and evil pa.s.sions remained. What you've said has made me feel a sense of shame. I earnestly beg you to look after Oichi, who is still so young, and my children."

"With my life, my lord." Hideyoshi bowed his head to the ground. In that instant he could imagine n.o.bunaga's happy face.

"Well then, I'll meet with you later," Nagamasa said as he turned to leave, and he walked back toward the keep in long strides.

Mikawa led Hideyoshi to a guest room, this time as n.o.bunaga's formal envoy.

Relief could be seen in Hideyoshi's eyes. Then he turned and spoke to Mikawa. "I'm sorry, but would you wait a moment while I send a signal to the men outside the castle; "A signal?" Mikawa was suspicious, and not unreasonably so.

Hideyoshi, however, spoke as though his request were natural. "That's right. I promised to do that when I came here at Lord n.o.bunaga's command. In case things did not go well, I was to set a fire as a signal of Lord Nagamasa's rejection, even at the cost of my life. Lord n.o.bunaga would then attack the castle at once. On the other hand, if everything went well and I was able to meet Lord Nagamasa, I was to raise a banner. In any case, we agreed that the troops would simply wait until a signal was given."

Mikawa looked surprised at the man's preparations. But what surprised him even more was the signal sh.e.l.l that Hideyoshi had hidden near the hearth in the teahouse.

After raising the banner and returning to the guest room, Hideyoshi laughed and said, "If I had seen that the situation was not going well, I had planned to run as fast as possible to the teahouse and kick the signal-fire sh.e.l.l into the hearth. That would have been some tea ceremony!"

Hideyoshi was left on his own. It had been well over three hours since Mikawa had brought him to the guest room and asked him to wait for just a moment.

He certainly is taking his time, Hideyoshi thought, bored. The evening shadows were already darkening the fretwork ceiling of the empty room. It was dark enough in the room for lamps to be lit, and when he looked outside he could see the setting sun of late fall turning the mountains around the castle a deep crimson.

The plate in front of him was empty. At last he heard the sound of footsteps. A tea master walked into the room.

"As the castle is under siege, I'm afraid I have little to offer you, but His Lordship has asked me to prepare you an evening meal." The tea master cheered the guest by lighting couple of lamps.

"Well now, under the circ.u.mstances you don't have to worry about a meal for me. Rather than that, I'd like to talk with General Mikawa. I'm sorry to trouble you, but could you call him?"

Mikawa appeared soon afterward. In a little under four hours he had aged ten years; he seemed to have lost all vigor, and his eyelids showed the traces of tears. "I'm sorry," he said, "I've been terribly rude."

"This is really no time to be thinking about normal etiquette," Hideyoshi replied, but I am wondering what Lord Nagamasa is doing. Has he said his farewells to Oichi and the children? It's getting late."

"You're absolutely right. But what Lord Nagamasa said so bravely at first... well, now that he's telling his wife and children that they must leave him forever... I think you can imagine..." The old general looked down and wiped his eyes with his fingers. "Lady Oichi says that she does not want to leave her husband's side to return to her brother. She keeps pleading with him, so it's difficult to see when they'll be finished."

"Yes, well..."

"She's even pleaded with me. She said that when she was married, she resolved that this castle would be her grave. Even little Chacha seems to understand what is happening to her mother and father, and she's crying pitifully, asking why she has to leave her father and why he has to die. General Hideyoshi... forgive me, I'm being rude." He dabbed his eyes, cleared his throat, and broke down crying.

Hideyoshi sympathized with what Mikawa was going through and could understand only too well Nagamasa and Oichi's grief. Hideyoshi was more easily moved to tears than other men, and now they quickly streaked down his face. He sniffled repeatedly and looked up toward the ceiling. But he did not forget his mission and reprimanded himself -he must not be led astray by mere emotion. He wiped away his tears and pressed ahead.

"I promised to wait, but we can't wait forever. I would like to request that a time limit be put on their leave-taking. You might say until what hour, for example."

"Of course. Well... I'll make this my own responsibility, but I'd like to ask you to wait until the Hour of the Boar. I can declare that mother and children will have left the castle by then."

Hideyoshi did not refuse. Yet there was no time for such leisure: n.o.bunaga was determined to take Odani before sunset. The entire army was waiting expectantly. Although Hideyoshi had flown the banner signaling that the rescue attempt had been successful, too much time was pa.s.sing. There was no way for n.o.bunaga or any of his generals to now what was going on inside the castle. During this time, Hideyoshi could imagine their perplexity, the various opinions going around headquarters, the indecision and confusion on n.o.bunaga's face as he listened to the voices of doubt.

"No, that's not unreasonable," Hideyoshi agreed. "So be it. Let them make their unhurried farewells until the Hour of the Boar."

Cheered by Hideyoshi's consent, Mikawa went back to the keep. By that time the colors of evening were already deepening. Servants and the tea master served Hideyoshi delicacies and sake that would not ordinarily have been found inside a besieged castle.

When the servants withdrew, Hideyoshi drank by himself. It seemed as though his entire body was soaking up the autumn from the thin-edged lacquer cup. It was a sake on which you could not get drunk-cold and slightly bitter. Well, I should drink this with gusto, too. How much difference is there between those going to their deaths and those left behind? I suppose you could say only an instant, when you take the long-term philosophical view, considering the flow of thousands of years. He did his best to laugh out loud. But every time he drank, the sake chilled his heart. Somehow, he felt as if sobbing were pressing in on him in the oppressive silence.

Oichi's sobs and sorrow; Nagamasa; the innocent faces of the children: he could imagine what was taking place in the keep. What would it be like if I were Asai Nagamasa? he asked himself. After thinking this way, his emotions took a sudden swing, and he remembered his last words to Nene: "I am a samurai. I might die in some battle this time. If I am killed, you should marry again before you are thirty years old. After you reach thirty, your beauty is going to wane, and the possibility of a happy match is going to be dim. You are capable of discretion, and it is better for a human being to be prepared with discrimination in this life. So if you've pa.s.sed thirty, choose a good path with your own sense of discrimination. I'm not going to order you to remarry. And again, if we have a child, plan a future for that child to be your mainstay, whether you're young or on in years. Don't give yourself up to the complaints of women. Think as a mother, and use your mother's discrimination in everything you do."

At some point Hideyoshi had fallen asleep. Which is not to say that he had lain down; he just sat there and looked as though he were practicing meditation. From time to time he nodded his head. He was good at sleeping. He had developed this ability during the unfavorable circ.u.mstances of his youth, and was so disciplined that he could nod off whenever he wanted to, regardless of time or place.

He awoke to the sound of a hand drum. The food trays and sake had been taken away. Only the lamps still flickered with a white light. His lightheadedness had cleared away, and the fatigue had left his body. Hideyoshi realized that he must have slept for quite a while. At the same time he somehow felt a sense of cheer wrapping his entire being. Before he had gone to sleep, the atmosphere in the castle had been one of gloom and melancholy; but now it had changed with the sounds of the drum and laughing voices, and strangely, a genial warmth seemed to be floating in from somewhere.

He couldn't help feeling as though he had been bewitched. He was clearly awake, however, and everything was real. He could hear the sound of a hand drum, and someone was singing. The sounds were coming from the keep and were far away and indistinct, but he was sure someone had burst out laughing.

Hideyoshi suddenly wanted to be with people and went out onto the veranda. He could see a great number of lamps as well as people in the lord's residence on the other side of the wide central garden. A light breeze carried the smell of sake, and when the wind blew in his direction, he could hear the samurai beating time and singing.

The flowers are crimson, The plums are scented.

The willows are green, And a man's worth is decided by his heart.

Men among men, Samurai that we are; Flowers among flowers, Samurai that we are.

Human life pa.s.ses like this.

What is it without some pleasure?

Even if you'll never see tomorrow.

No, especially if you'll never see tomorrow. This was Hideyoshi's cherished theory. He, who despised the dark and loved the light, had found something that was a blessing in this world. Almost unconsciously he ambled in the direction of the gaiety, pulled along by the singing voices. Servants went running by in a hurry. They were carrying large trays piled high with food, and a barrel of sake.

They hurried with the same kind of eagerness they would probably show in the battle for the castle. It was certainly a gay party, and the vigor of life appeared on every face. It s enough to make Hideyoshi a little doubtful. "Hey! Isn't that Lord Hideyoshi?"

"Oh, General Mikawa."

"I wasn't able to find you in the guest room and was looking all over for you." Mikawa had the blush of sake on his cheeks too, and he no longer looked so haggard.

"Why all this gaiety in the keep?" Hideyoshi asked.

"Don't worry. As I promised you, it will end at the Hour of the Boar. It is said that since we must all die, the manner of our dying should be glorious. Lord Nagamasa and all his men are in high spirits, so he opened up all the sake vats in the castle and let it be known that there would be an a.s.sembly of the Samurai. This way they're going to drink their farewells to each other before they leave this world."

"What about his farewell to his wife and children?"

"That's been taken care of." Through his intoxication, tears once again began to well up in Mikawa's eyes. An a.s.sembly of the Samurai-this was a common affair in any clan, a time when the iron-clad divisions between cla.s.ses and between lord and retainers were relaxed, and everyone enjoyed themselves with drunken song.

The a.s.sembly served a dual purpose: it was Nagamasa's farewell to his retainers, who were going to their deaths, and to his wife and children, who would live.

"But it's going to be boring for me just to hide away until the Hour of the Boar," Hideyoshi said. "With your permission, I'd like to attend the banquet."

"That's exactly why I was looking around for you. It's what His Lordship desires as well."

"What! Lord Nagamasa wants me to come?"

"He says that if he's entrusting his wife and children to the Oda clan, you must look after them from now on. Especially his young children."

"He shouldn't worry! And I'd like to tell him that in person. Would you take me to him?"

Hideyoshi followed Mikawa into a large banqueting hall. Every eye in the room turned toward him. The smell of sake filled the air. Naturally, everyone was in full armor, and every man there had resolved to die. They were going to die together; like blossoms taking in the wind, they were ready to fall all at once. But now, as they were having the best time they could, suddenly here was the enemy! Most of them glared at Hideyoshi with bloodshot eyes-eyes that would make most men cower.

"Excuse me," Hideyoshi said to no one in particular. He entered, walking with small steps, and advanced right up to Nagamasa, in front of whom he prostrated himself.

"I have come, grateful that you've commanded that a cup should be extended even to me. Concerning the future of your son and three daughters, I will protect them even at the cost of my own life," Hideyoshi said in one breath. Had he paused or appeared to be in the least bit afraid, the samurai around him might have been driven to some unfortunate action through their inebriation and hatred.

"That is my request, General Hideyoshi." Nagamasa took a cup and pa.s.sed it directly to him.

Hideyoshi took the cup and drank.

Nagamasa seemed satisfied. Hideyoshi had not dared to mention the name of Oichi or n.o.bunaga. Nagamasa's beautiful young wife was sitting with her children off to the side, hidden by a silver folding screen. They huddled together like irises blooming at the edge of a pond. Hideyoshi looked at the flickering of the silver lantern from the corner of his eye, but did not look at them directly. He returned the cup respectfully to Nagamasa.

"For the time being, we should forget that we are enemies," Hideyoshi said. "Having accepted this sake at your a.s.sembly, with your permission, I would like to perform a short dance."

"You want to dance?" Nagamasa said, expressing the surprise of all the men present. They were a little overawed by this little man.

Oichi drew her children to her knee, just as a mother hen might protect her chicks. "Don't be frightened. Mother is here," she whispered.

Having received Nagamasa's permission to dance, Hideyoshi got up and walked to the middle of the room. He was just about to begin when Manju cried out, "It's him!"

Manju and Chacha held fast to their mother's lap. They were looking at the man who earlier had been so frightening. Hideyoshi began to beat the time with his foot. At the same time, he slapped open a fan that showed a red circle on a golden field.

Having so much leisure, I gaze at the gourd at the gate.

Now and then, a gentle breeze Unexpectedly there, by chance here; Unexpectedly, by chance, The gourd vine, how amusing.