"Why, everybody says that you're the most intelligent man in Japan today."
"Me? No, I'm much too slow," the priest demurred.
"By no means," Hideyoshi assured him. "Your Reverence is quite knowledgeable in just about everything. The samurai's weakest points are in his dealings with the nobility or with powerful merchants, but no one surpasses you in shrewdness among the men of the Oda clan. Why, even Lord Katsuie is quite awestruck by your talents."
"But on the other hand, I've achieved no military exploits at all."
"In the construction of the Imperial Palace, in the administration of the capital, in various financial affairs, you have shown an uncanny genius."
"Are you praising or disparaging me?"
"Well now, you are both a prodigy and a good-for-nothing in the samurai class, and speaking honestly, I will both praise you and disparage you."
"I'm no match for you." Asayama laughed aloud, showing the gaps where he had lost two or three of his teeth. Though Asayama was much older than Hideyoshi—old enough to be his father—he thought of Hideyoshi as his senior.
Asayama could not accept Mitsuhide so easily. He recognized that Mitsuhide was intelligent, but he was unnerved by Mitsuhide's dry wit.
"I was thinking that it was just my own imagination," Asayama said, "but recently a person famous for discerning men's personalities from their features has expressed the same opinion."
"A physiognomist has made some sort of judgment about Mitsuhide?"
"He's not a physiognomist. Abbot Ekei is one of the most profound scholars of the age. He told me this in the utmost secrecy."
"Told you what?"
"That Mitsuhide has the look of a wise man who could drown in his own wisdom. Moreover, there are evil signs that he will supplant his own lord."
"Asayama."
"What?"
"You're not going to enjoy your old age if you let things like that out of your mouth,” Hideyoshi said sharply. "I've heard that Your Reverence is a shrewd politician, but I suspect that a political hobby should not be pushed as far as spreading such talk about one of His Lordship's retainers."
* * *
The pages had spread out a large map of Omi in the wide room.
"Here's the inner section of Lake Biwa!" one said.
"There's the Sojitsu Temple! And the Joraku Temple!" another exclaimed.
The pages sat together on one side and craned their necks to look, just like baby swallows. Ranmaru separated himself from the group and sat modestly on his own. He was not yet twenty, but he had long passed the age of a man's coming-of-age ceremony. If his forelock had been shaved, he would have had the appearance of a fine young samurai
"You just stay the way you are," Nobunaga had said. "I want you as a page, no matter how old you get."
Ranmaru could compete with other boys in terms of grace, and his topknot and silk garments were those of a child.
Nobunaga studied the map carefully. "It's well drawn." he said. "It's even more accurate than our military maps. Ranmaru, How did you come up with such a detailed map in such a short time?"
"My mother, who is now in holy orders, knew that there was a map in the secret storehouse of a certain temple."
Ranmaru's mother, who had taken the name Myoko when she had become a nun, was the widow of Mori Yoshinari. Her five sons had been taken in by Nobunaga as retainers. Ranmaru's two younger brothers, Bomaru and Rikimaru, were also pages. Everyone said that there was very little similarity among them. It wasn't that his brothers were dull children, but that Ranmaru was outstanding. And this was not just in the eyes of Nobunaga, whose affection for him was unending. It was obvious to anyone who saw him that Ranmaru's intelligence stood far above that of the others. When he frequented the generals of the field staff or the senior retainers, he was never treated like a child, regardless of his clothes.
"What? You got this from Myoko?" Nobunaga suddenly fixed an unusual stare on Ranmaru. "She's a nun, so it's natural that she should be going back and forth to a number of the temples, but she shouldn't be deceived by the spies of the warrior-monks who are still chanting curses against me. Perhaps you should look for the right time and then give her a warning."
“She's always been very careful. Even more so than I, my lord."
Nobunaga stooped down and studied the map of Azuchi intently. It was here that he would build a castle as his new residence and seat of government.
This was something of which Nobunaga had spoken only just recently, a decision he had made because the location of Gifu Castle no longer suited his purposes. The land that Nobunaga had really wanted was in Osaka. But on it stood the Honganji, the stronghold of his bitter enemies, the warrior-monks.
After studying the foolishness of the shoguns, Nobunaga did not even consider setting up a government in Kyoto. That had been the old state of affairs. Azuchi was closer to his ideal: from there he could guard against the provinces to the west as well as check the advances of Uesugi Kenshin from the north.
“Lord Mitsuhide is in the waiting room, and says he would like to speak with you before his departure," a samurai announced from the door.
'Mitsuhide?" Nobunaga said good-humoredly. "Show him in." And he continued studying the map of Azuchi.
Mitsuhide came in with a sigh of relief. There was no smell of sake in the place, after all, and his first thought was, Hideyoshi got me again.
“Mitsuhide, come over here."
Nobunaga ignored the man's courteous bow and beckoned him over to the map. Mitsuhide edged forward respectfully.
"I hear that you've been thinking of nothing but plans for a new castle, my lord," he said affably.
Nobunaga may have been a dreamer, but he was a dreamer who was second to none in executive ability.
"What do you think? Isn't this mountainous region facing the lake just right for a castle?"
Nobunaga, it seemed, had already designed the structure and scale of the castle in his head. He drew a line with his finger. "It's going to stretch from here to here. We'll build a town around the castle at the bottom of the mountain, with a quarter for the merchants that will be better organized than in any other province in Japan," he said. "I'm going to devote all the resources I have to this castle. I've got to have something here imposing enough to overawe all the other lords. It won't be extravagant, but it's going to be a castle that will have no equal in the Empire. My castle will combine beauty, function, and dignity."
Mitsuhide recognized that this project was not a product of Nobunaga's vanity nor some high-flown amusement, so he expressed his feelings honestly. His overly serious answer, however, did not suffice; Nobunaga was too accustomed to showy responses in total agreement with him and to witty statements that only echoed his own.
"What do you think? No good?" Nobunaga asked uncertainly.
"I wouldn't say that at all."
"Do you think this is the right time?"
"I'd say this is very timely."
Nobunaga was trying to bolster his self-confidence. There was no one who regarded Misuhide's intelligence more highly than he did. Not only did Mitsuhide have a modern intelligence, but he had also faced political problems too difficult to surmount on conviction alone. Thus, Nobunaga was even more aware of Mitsuhide's genius than was Hideyoshi, who praised him so highly.
"I've heard that you're quite conversant with the science of castle construction. Could you take care of this responsibility?"
"No, no. My knowledge is not sufficient to build a castle."