clean your house!" The man was one of his former colleagues in the kitchen. "Well, well. You've done rather well for yourself in no time at all." Tokichiro went in as if he were a guest in his own house. There was a new lacquered chest of drawers and a shelf. These were all gifts from friends who had heard of his promotion, but who, upon finding that the happy-go-lucky master of the house was out, had cleaned the place, moved in the furniture, and finally gotten around to washing the gate.
"Thank you. You're too kind." Embarrassed, Tokichiro quickly set about to help them with whatever he could do on his own. All that was left was to fill up the sake flasks and put them on the trays.
"Master Kinoshita," said one of the castle suppliers, who felt indebted to him from the time Tokichiro had worked as overseer for charcoal and firewood. Peeking into the kitchen, Tokichiro found a chubby maidservant washing and scrubbing. "This is a girl from our village. You must be busy these days, so why don't you employ her for the time being? Tokichiro took advantage of the offer and said, "I'd also like a manservant and a handyman, so if you know of anyone, I'd be most grateful." Then they sat down in a circle, and the housewarming party began.
It's a good thing I came here today. Imagine if I, the householder, had not shown up.
Tokichiro was ashamed of himself. He had not considered himself to be easygoing, but now he could see that he must be at least a bit. As they drank, the wives of his new colleagues in the neighborhood dropped by to congratulate Tokichiro on his promotion.
"Hey, Master Kinoshita! Master of the house!" one of the visitors called.
"What's up?"
"What do you mean, 'What's up?' Have you gone around to the other houses in the ghborhood to pay your respects?"
"No, not yet."
"What? Not yet? Are you the kind of person who dances and sings, waiting for people to come and pay their respects to you? Well, you'd better put on your best clothes and go on one round right away. You can take care of two problems at once by bowing to each house and telling them that you've moved to the neighborhood and that you've been appointed to the stables."
A few days later he had his help. A man from the same village as the maidservant came asking for work. And he employed another man. Somehow or another he had acquired a small residence and three servants, and was the master of his own house, despite his modest stipend. Now when Tokichiro left home—wearing, of course, his secondhand blue cotton coat with the white paulownia crest on the back—he was seen off by the maid and servants.
That morning, thinking that everything would be perfect if only Nene became his wife, he skirted the outer moat of the castle. As he walked along, Tokichiro failed to see the grinning man coming from the other direction. And although one might have imagined that he was still thinking of Nene, his head was really filled with thoughts of castle siege and defense: This is a moat in name only. It's so shallow that in ten days without rain you could see the bottom. In wartime, if you threw in a thousand sandbags, you could open up an avenue of attack. There isn't very much drinking water in the castle, either. The weak point of this castle, then, is water supply. There isn't enough for a good defense in case of a siege…. As he was mumbling to himself, a giant of a man approached and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Master Monkey. Are you on duty now?"
Tokichiro looked up at the face of the speaker, and in that instant hit upon a solution to his problem.
"No, this is a good time," he answered truthfully.
The man, of course, was Maeda Inuchiyo. That there had been no opportunity to talk since their former meeting, and that he now met him here by chance, outside the castle was a good omen. But before he was able to say anything, he was cut off by Inuchiyo.
"Master Monkey, in the castle you said something about a delicate matter you wanted to talk to me about. Since I'm not on duty, I'll hear you out."
"Well, what I want to say is…" Tokichiro looked around, and brushed the dust off a rock at the edge of the moat. "This is not a matter to chat about standing. Why don't you sit down?"
"What is this all about?"
Tokichiro spoke frankly, and his eagerness and sense of the subject's importance showed in his face. "Master Inuchiyo. Do you love Nene?"
"Nene?"
"Master Asano's daughter."
"Ah, her."
"You love her, I suppose."
"What's it to you?"
"Because if you do, I would like to warn you. It seems that, being ignorant of the situation, you've gone through a go-between and have asked the girl's father for permission to marry her."
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"There is."
"What is that?"
"Well, the fact is that Nene and I have been in love for many years now."
Inuchiyo stared fixedly at Tokichiro, and suddenly his whole body shook with laughter. Tokichiro could see by the man's expression that he was not going to take him seriously, and he looked even more serious.
"No, this is not a laughing matter. Nene is not the kind of woman who would betray me and give herself to another man, regardless of the cause."
"Is that so?"
“We've made firm promises to each other."
"Well, if that's the way it is, that's fine with me."
“There is one person, however, with whom it's not so fine, and that is Nene's father. If you don't withdraw your request, Master Mataemon is going to be caught between two sides and will be forced to commit ritual suicide."
"Seppuku?"
"It seems that Master Mataemon had no idea of the agreement between us, so he
ageed to your proposal. But because of the situation I've just explained to you, Nene is refusing to go through with it."
"Well then, whose wife will she be?"
With this challenge, Tokichiro pointed to himself and said, "Mine."
Inuchiyo laughed again, but not as loudly as before. "Put a limit on your jokes, Master Monkey. Have you ever looked in a mirror?"
"Are you calling me a liar?"
"Why should Nene be engaged to someone like you?"
"If it's true, what are you going to do?"
"If it is, I'll congratulate you."
"You mean you wouldn't object if Nene and I got married?"
"Master Monkey…"
"Yes?"