Kampaku, p.37
Kampaku, page 37
“I am sorry, old friend, but I do not want another death on my conscience,” said Mitsunari, placing his sword, Jiko, alongside Yaemon’s unconscious body. “Lord Hideyoshi gave this sword to me on my Genpuku. You should know, you were there. It is a Muramasa blade. Legend has it that Sengo Muramasa once prayed to the Kami to make his swords ‘great destroyers’. It is said that demons overheard his prayer and granted his wish. Look after it for me, old friend, and return it to me in the next life.” Mitsunari then picked up the reins of his horse and headed east towards Gifu.
It was five days later when a sick Mitsunari crawled out of the rock cave behind the Hokekyo Sanju-in temple. He had reached the village of Furuhashi, which lay close to what was left of Gifu Castle, sick with dysentery, and had thrown himself at the mercy of the temple priest. Today, he gladly accepted and eagerly drank the water offered by the temple priest who had hidden him. Covering his eyes from the glare of the morning sun, Mitsunari quickly gulped down the gourd of water. Once finished, he squinted as he looked up to find the Tokugawa general, Asano Yoshinaga, standing over him. He had recognised Yoshinaga as the eldest son of Lady Nene’s brother, Asano Nagamasa, and thought to inquire as to Lady Nene’s wellbeing, but stayed his tongue. Instead, with the help of two Tokugawa samurai, he slid quietly onto a makeshift litter, tied to a horse that Nagamasa had provided. Weak and still reeling from his bout of dysentery, Mitsunari waited to be dragged to Otsu on the southern shores of Lake Biwako, to face judgement by Ieyasu. In appreciation of Yoshinaga’s kindness, Mitsunari presented him with Jiro, his wakizashi, the last of his Muramasa blades.
News of Mitsunari’s western army defeat at Sekigahara spread quickly and many of the fortresses still garrisoned by Mitsunari loyalists surrendered without a fight. One such fortress was Otsu Castle, which controlled the northern approaches to the capital. While damaged by siege and with Fushimi in ruins, it was at Otsu that Ieyasu based himself while he sorted out the upheaval created by Mitsunari’s rebellion. And it was here that Asano Yoshinaga delivered his captive to Lord Ieyasu in what remained of Otsu’s audience hall. The castle had originally fallen to Mitsunari’s western army under the command of Mori Motoyasu, who levelled much of the fortress with cannon fire. But it also tied up some fifteen thousand of Mitsunari’s western army, preventing them from participating at Sekigahara.
With their hands bound with rope and tied to one another, Mitsunari, along with Konishi Yukinaga, and Ankokuji Ekei, were dragged into the audience hall of Otsu Castle into Ieyasu’s presence. A nervous Ieyasu who was busy biting his nails waved his war fan and barked an order.
“Take these two away and clear the room,” said Ieyasu, pointing to Yukinaga and Ekei. Still conscious of his surroundings, a weak Mitsunari lifted his head off the floor and attempted to kneel, only to collapse again.
“Bring a kyosoku—armrest,” Ieyasu shouted out to an attendant. Mitsunari, still weak from dysentery, struggled to support himself on the kyosoku, prompting Ieyasu to have him lifted into position.
“So, it has come to this,” said Ieyasu, continuing to bite his nails. “Look at you, if I do not take your head, you will be dead anyway within the week.” Mitsunari, struggling to lean on the kyosoku, opened his tired eyes to look at Ieyasu.
“I will have my physicians attend to you, for I cannot have you pass into the void so peacefully,” said Ieyasu with a barely perceptible grin. “Now, son of Shingen, what would your father say, seeing you here like this?” Try as he could reply, Mitsunari’s raspy voice collapsed along with his body, supported only by the kyosoku.
“Our clans have been enemies for as long as I can remember,” said Ieyasu, scrutinising Mitsunari’s face for signs of life. “Yet even with the shame of defeat, you still live. Your father would rather slit his belly open than end up like this.” Frustrated with no reaction from Mitsunari, Ieyasu continued with his aggressive speech.
“No matter,” Ieyasu said. “I know you can still hear me. Your loyalty to the young heir is commendable, but it has always struck me as odd that the late Taiko, who as we all know, was very fond of women and had no less than a hundred concubines to service his desires. Yet Ocha was the only one able to conceive a child with him. Even Lady Nene, his principal wife, could not bear him any children. Could it be that Hideyori is someone else’s offspring?” Mitsunari, who had heard every word, summoned the last of his strength to raise his head. He looked directly at Ieyasu, somehow managing a stifled laugh before collapsing.
I will die, but my son will achieve what Shingen failed to do. A Takeda will rule this land.
Mitsunari was taken to a sparse but comfortable room in the bailey of Otsu Castle where he was attended to by Ieyasu’s physicians. After a five-day diet of clean water and rice gruel laced with ginger and cinnamon bark, he recovered sufficiently to have an iron ring placed around his neck and, along with Konishi Yukinaga, and Ankokuji Ekei, taken to Osaka where they were paraded for ridicule.
#
Kyoto: Sixth Day of the Eleventh Month
Despite the early morning sunshine, a wintery chill hung in the air over Kyoto and the first snow of the season appeared on nearby Mount Atago. Hundreds of spectators had converged on the Sanjo Ohashi bridge to cross the Kamo River to their destination, the execution grounds of the Rokujo-gawara. Among them was Yaemon, who quietly blended in with the crowds and followed them down the embankment towards the dry riverbeds, where the morning’s entertainment would be held. The assembled crowd of nobles, samurai, merchants, and peasants, including their wives and children, jostled for the best viewing position. Singers, acrobats, and even melon vendors came hoping to turn a profit.
Yaemon had woken up, still concussed at Mount Ibuki, to find Mitsunari and both horses gone. He found the sword left by Mitsunari and immediately recognised it as Jiko, which he carefully placed in his obi. Believing his friend would not be stupid enough to take the eastern trail into hostile territory, Yaemon followed the trail west towards Nagahama, where he heard the news of Mitsunari’s capture. And having learnt he had been taken to Otsu Castle, Yaemon set out to find him. He had bought from a woman scavenger who made a lucrative living robbing the battlefield dead, a change of clothes and discarded the torn and blood-stained priestly robes he wore. He had slept that night under the Sanjo Ohashi bridge and had woken to see officials posting signs announcing the schedule of executions for the day. Konishi Yukinaga, Ankokuji Ekei and Mitsunari were to be executed during the mid-morning hour of the dragon. He noticed the pungent odour of death grew stronger as the riverbank suddenly came alive with the ‘non-human’ Hinin, going about their labour.
The riverbanks of the Rokujo-gawara were inhabited by people they also called the ‘untouchables’. They were the lowest of the social castes who were classified as Eta, an unclean stratum of society that performed the distasteful but necessary tasks of butchering animals, preparing the dead for burial, tanning hides, and executing condemned criminals. One such Hinin was a young man who called himself Danzaemon. He was the son of O-zaemon, an executioner who had risen above his Eta status and achieve samurai status with a modest stipend. His family also inherited his status on the condition that his line continued to act as official executioners. Danzaemon had two sisters who were both sold off to brothels, and he was the youngest of his siblings. His father, O-zaemon, fearful his wife could only produce daughters, divorced her, and he quickly took another wife who gave birth to a boy, Danzaemon. O-zaemon taught his son his skills as an executioner, and Danzaemon became proficient in his new craft. Now at forty-two years, Danzaemon displayed the musculature of a man half his age.
In the distance, the sound of five bells could be heard ringing out, announcing the hour of the dragon and, on the fifth stroke, the crowd fell silent. Yaemon, who was standing at the back of the crowd beneath an old cryptomeria tree, looked on as Danzaemon entered a cordoned-off area with his two assistants. He was stripped to the waist and wore soiled grey hakama pants, and he carried a naked blade resting on his shoulder. Kneeling on the dirt in front of him were Yukinaga, Ekei, and Mitsunari. In the cryptomeria tree above Yaemon, children clung to its branches like ripe, low-hanging fruit, eager to get the best view. And at the base of the tree hidden from Yaemon’s view, a fox poked its head out and sniffed the air. Tears welled up in Yaemon’s eyes and he gripped the hilt of Jiko in his obi ever so tightly.
If only I could do something, He thought, quickly abandoning his futile intention to save his friend. He had thought about leaving, but despite the pain of what he was about to witness, he resolved to stay with his friend to the end.
On the execution ground, only the warrior monk Ekei knelt on the coarse gravel with his hands bound behind his back. Yukinaga clutched a crucifix to his face and prayed while Mitsunari, who appeared to be at peace with himself, smiled. Danzaemon wasted no time, and without warning, struck first at Ekei, quickly decapitating him. Almost immediately Yukinaga was next, his head coming to rest in front of Mitsunari. His eyes were still open as if in bewilderment and, unusually, the assembled crowd remained silent.
“I see you still have your skills,” said Mitsunari, interrupting Danzaemon’s momentum. “I bore witness to your skills when you despatched Lord Hidetsugu’s family at the Sanjogawara execution grounds some five years ago.” Danzaemon paused as he recognised Mitsunari. He had paid no attention to the names or crimes of his victims; he had a job to do, and that was all that mattered.
“I take no pleasure in what I do,” said Danzaemon, “But it is the only work I am suited for.”
“Then despatch me with a clear conscience,” said Mitsunari. Oddly, Danzaemon bowed before his victim, and Mitsunari’s head quickly left his body falling to the gravel face down. Again, the crowd remained silent, and the only sound that was heard was the scream of a fox echoing along the riverbank. Meanwhile, some distance away on the grounds of Osaka Castle, a white fox poked its head out from the bushes and locked eyes with the seven-year-old heir to the Toyotomi clan, Hideyori. The fox screamed and Hideyori ran for the comforting protection of his mother, Lady Ocha, who was taking tea on a nearby veranda.
The End
Epilogue
Kodai-Ji Temple, Kyoto
Winter: Twentieth Year of Keichoi (1615)
My Buddhist dharma name is Kodai-in Kogetsuni, but in a past life, I was known simply as Nene. It was a long time ago in the summer of Keichoi three (1598) when my husband the Taiko passed away after a brief illness at sixty-one, and with his death, the spectre of war again rose its head. After the calamity that was Sekigahara, the emperor bestowed on the Tokugawa lord Ieyasu, the title of Seii-Tai-Shogun and he established a new capital at Edo. With his protection and my husband’s inheritance, I grew wealthy trading silk to the merchants of Kyoto in exchange for silver. This was used as currency to provide refuge for the families of the defeated western army and to provide loans for many of the daimyos. Lord Ieyasu abolished the Tairo, created by my husband to protect the son he thought was his, and Hideyori along with his mother were confined to Osaka Castle where they remain at Lord Ieyasu’s pleasure.
This letter is penned for those that will come after me and lament the fall of the Toyotomi clan. The small brazier here beside my writing table barely soothes the pain in these ageing hands and is insufficient to warm the room. I am also disappointed in the quality of my writing, for the roughness of my brush strokes tells me I have made the ink too thick, but it will have to do until I make more. The doors here have been firmly shuttered against the wind and snow that rage outside and the icy air here inside reminds me that the spring thaws are a long way off. It is then, when the mountain passes are free of snow, that the ronin will gather in Osaka to answer Hideyori’s call to arms. Spurred on by his mother, Hideyori has foolishly signalled his intention to rebel against the shogunate. Even now armies from the east and west are amassing for another war, and for what you might ask. Power, of course, would be the answer, for that is the way things have been for millennia. Thanks to Lady Ocha’s continuous meddling, many will die to support the Taiko’s cuckoo, while the head of his real father has long since rotted away on the Sanjo Ohashi bridge.
Lady Ocha, having recently taken Ono Harunaga, one of Hideyori’s generals as her new lover continues to be tormented by Mitsunari’s spirit, which she says still haunts Osaka Castle. It is also said she has banished her old lover, Hideyori’s tutor, Katagiri Katsumoto, to appoint a Kannushi priest by the name of Takatsuki Yaemon in his stead. Kodai in Ne Seventeenth day of the first month, Keichoi twenty.
Character List
Akechi Mitsuhide: General to Nobunaga and his Assassin
Anayama Nobutada: Samurai retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu
Ankokuji Ekei: Military monk in the service of the Mori clan.
Asano Nagamasa: Brother-in-law to Hideyoshi. Lord of Sakamoto Castle. Sibling of Nene.
Azai Nagamasa: Head of Azai clan. Daimyo of Omi province, brother-in-law and enemy of Oda Nobunaga, husband of Oichi.
Date Masamune: Head of Date clan in Tohoku region.
Fujibayashi Nagato: Iga Shinobi clan leader.
Hajikano Masatsugu: Takeda Shingen General
Hirokohime: Principal wife of Akechi Mitsuhide
Hojo Masako: Wife to Takeda Katsuyori
Hojo Ujinao: Eldest son of Hojo Ujimasa
Hojo Ujimasa: Daimyo of Sagami province.
Honda Masanobu: Daimyo of Tamanawa, in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lord of Otaki, in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Honda Tadakatsu: Lord of Otaki. Loyal retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Hosokawa Garasha: Formerly Akechi Tama, daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide. Catholic baptismal name is Gracia.
Hosokawa Tadaoki: Head of Kumamoto-Hosokawa clan. Husband of Hosokawa Garasha.
Ii Naomasa: Head of Ii clan. Daimyo of Takasaki, in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Imai Sokyu: Tea master and Sakai merchant.
Ishida Masatsugu: Adoptive parent of Mitsunari.
Ishida Masazumi: Eldest son of Ishida Masatsugu.
Ishida Mitsunari: Administrator. One of Hideyoshi’s Go-Bugyo (five commissioners).
Kensho-in: Second daughter of Takeda Shingen. Widow of Anayama Nobutada. Kunoichi alias Hatsume no Tsubone.
Kikkawa Hiroie: Lord of Iwakuni. Head of Kikkawa clan. Allegiance to Mori clan.
Kobayakawa Hideaki: Fifth son of Kinoshita Iesada (Nene’s brother) and nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Kobayakawa Takakage: Head of Kobayakawa clan. One of Hideyoshi’s Council of Five Elders.
Konishi Yukinaga: Christian Daimyo of Southern Higo.
Li Rusong: Ming dynasty general.
Luis Frois: Portuguese missionary.
Maeda Gen’i: One of Hideyoshi’s Go-Bugyo (Five Commissioners).
Maeda Toshie: Head of Maeda clan. Allegiance to the Toyotomi clan.
Manpukumaru: Son of Ochi. Brother to Ocha.
Mashita Nagamori: One of Hideyoshi’s Go-Bugyo (Five Commissioners).
Mochizuki Chiyo: Leader of Takeda Kunoichi.
Mori Hidemoto: Military commander for Mori Terumoto (Cousin).
Mori Terumoto: Head of Mori clan. One of Hideyoshi’s Council of Five Elders.
Nene: Principal wife of Hideyoshi. Known as Nei or O’Nei, “Kita no mandokoro”.
Ocha: Concubine of Hideyoshi. Mother to Tsurmatsu and Hideyori. Also known as Yodo-dono, Chacha.
Oda Nobunaga: Head of Oda clan. First “Great Unifier” of Japan.
Oda Nobukatsu: Second son of Nobunaga.
Oda Nobutaka: Third son of Nobunaga.
Oichi: Wife to Azai Nagamasa. Sister to Oda Nobunaga. Mother to Ocha & Manpukumaru.
Omandokoro: Hideyoshi’s mother.
Sasabe Shigemasa: Warrior priest and advisor to Toyotomi Hidetsugu.
Sen No Rikyu: Noted tea master.
Shen Weijing: Ming envoy.
Shibata Katsuie: Former retainer of Oda Nobunaga & husband of Oichi.
Takatsuki Yaemon: Friend of Mitsunari. Formerly known as Tanaka Yoshimasa.
Takeda Katsuyori: Son of Shingen by concubine Suwa Goryonin.
Takeda Shingen: Pre-eminent Daimyo of Kai province. Also known as Harunobu.
Tokugawa Ieyasu: Head of Matsudaira & Tokugawa clans. Last of the three “Great Unifiers” of Japan.
Tama: See Hosokawa Garasha.
Tomoe: Kunoichi of Mochizuki Chiyo’s network.
Toyotomi Hidenaga: Stepbrother of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Toyotomi Hideyori: Son and heir of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Childhood name was Hiroimaru.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Kampaku (Kampaku) Taiko (retired Kampaku). Also known as Kinoshita Tokichiro, then Hashiba Hideyoshi. Second of the three “Great Unifiers” of Japan.
Toyotomi Hidetsugu: Nephew and retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Later adopted as his son.
Tsurmatsu: First son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Also known as Sute.
Uesugi Kagekatsu: Head of Uesugi clan. Lord of Aizu. One of Hideyoshi’s Council of Five Elders.
Ukita Hideie: Head of Ukita clan. Daimyo of Bizen and Mimasaka Provinces. One of Hideyoshi’s councils of Five Elders.
Yi Sun-sin: Korean Admiral.
Yoshino: Also known as Kasumi. Mother of Mitsunari.
Glossary
Ashigaru: Foot-soldiers who were employed by the samurai class.
Atakebune: Class of warship. Around 200-feet comprising 3 to 4 decks. Made of wood, they were sometimes reinforced with large iron or copper plates. Earlier Atakebune ships did not have a sail system and propulsion was achieved by 2 to 3 decks of oarsmen.
Burei-Uchi: Known also as Kiri-sute gomen. The right of samurai to kill commoners for perceived affronts.
