"Yes… but this time it wasn't addressed to you; it came just for me."
"Either way is just fine. Well, is everything as usual? Is he all right? We haven't received any news for a while, and I thought this must be due to His Lordship moving to Gifu."
"That's right. In the letter he asked me to tell you that His Lordship has made him the governor of a castle, so he thinks the time is right for us to join him. He asked me to persuade you to come, and said that you should definitely move to Sunomata Castle in a few days' time."
"Oh… that's wonderful news. That he should become the lord of a castle is like a dream, but he shouldn't go too far and overstep himself."
As she listened to happy news about her son, her mother's heart worried lest his good fortune should prove to be short-lived. The old lady and her daughter-in-law worked together in the garden, picking eggplants. Soon the baskets were full of the bright purple vegetables.
"Mother, doesn't your back hurt?"
"What? Why, to the contrary. If I work bit by bit like this all day, my body stays fit."
"I'm learning from you, too. Since you've let me help you in the garden off and on, I’ve learned to enjoy picking the greens for the soup in the mornings, and working with he cucumbers and eggplants. Even after we move to Sunomata Castle, there's bound to be a place somewhere on the grounds to plant a vegetable patch. We'll be able to work all we want."
The old lady covered her mouth with her earth-stained hand and chuckled. "You're just as clever as Hideyoshi. You decided to move to Sunomata even before I knew what was happening."
"Mother." Nene prostrated herself, pressing her fingertips to the earth. "Please grant my husband's wish!" The old lady hastily took Nene's hands and tried to put them to her forehead.
"Don't do that! I'm just a selfish old woman."
"No, you're not. I understand your thoughtfulness very well."
"Please don't get mad at an old lady's willfulness. It's for that boy's sake that I don’t want to go to Sunomata. And so he won't be lacking in his service to His Lordship."
"My husband understands that well."
"Even if that's true, Hideyoshi will be among people jealous of his early success, an they'll call him things like 'the monkey from Nakamura,' or 'the son of a farmer,' if shabby farm woman is working a vegetable plot in the middle of the castle grounds. Eve his own retainers will laugh at him."
"No, Mother. You're worrying about the future needlessly. That might be for someone whose character it is to dress up appearances and to worry about what people say but my husband's heart is not controlled by public censure. And as for his retainers…"
"I wonder. The mother of a castle lord who looks like me—wouldn't it harm his reputation?"
"My husband's character is not that small." Nene's words were so frank that the old lady was surprised, and finally her eyes filled with tears of joy.
"I've said unpardonable things. Nene, please forgive me."
"Well, Mother, the sun's going down. Wash your hands and feet." Nene walked ahead carrying the two heavy baskets.
Together with the servants, Nene took a broom and swept. She was especially diligent in the old lady's room, which she cleaned herself. The lamps were lit, and the dishes for the evening meal prepared. In addition to places for the two of them, a place was set both morning and evening for Hideyoshi.
"Shall I massage your hip?" Nene asked.
The old lady had a chronic condition that troubled her from time to time. When the evening winds blew in the early fall, she often complained of the pain. As Nene massaged her legs for her, the old lady seemed to slip gently into sleep, but during that time she must have been thinking something over. Finally she sat up and spoke to Nene.
"Listen, my dear. You want to be reunited with your husband. I'm sorry to have been so selfish. Tell my son that his mother would like to move to Sunomata."
The day before Hideyoshi's mother was due to arrive, an unexpected but very welcome guest came through the gate of Sunomata. The guest was dressed in plain clothes with a sedge hat pulled over his eyes, and was accompanied by only two attendants, young woman and a boy.
“When he sees me, he'll understand," the man said to the guard, who relayed word to Hideyoshi.
Hideyoshi hurried out to the castle gate to greet his guests, Takenaka Hanbei, Kokuma, and Oyu.
"These are my only followers," Hanbei told him. "I have a fair-sized household living in my castle on Mount Bodai, but I cut my ties with them when I withdrew from the world. As for my previous promise to you, my lord, I thought that perhaps the time had come, so I left my mountain retreat and came down to be among men once again. Would you please take in these three wanderers as the lowest of your attendants?"
Hideyoshi bowed with his hands to his knees and said, "You are much too modest. If you had sent me just a note beforehand, I would have come to the mountain myself to greet you."
"What? You'd come to greet a worthless mountain ronin who has come to serve you?"
"Well, anyway, please come in." Leading the way, he beckoned Hanbei inside; but when Hideyoshi tried to give him the seat of honor, Hanbei absolutely refused, saying, “That would be contrary to my intention of being your retainer."
Hideyoshi responded with his innermost feelings. "No, no. I don't have the talent to place myself over you. I'm thinking of recommending you to Lord Nobunaga."
Hanbei shook his head and refused adamantly. "As I said from the very first, I haven't the least intention of serving Lord Nobunaga. And it isn't just a matter of loyalty to the Saito clan. If I were to serve Lord Nobunaga, it would not be long before I would be forced to leave his service. When I consider my own imperfect personality together with what I have heard about his character, my intuition is that a master-retainer relationship would not be mutually beneficial. But with you I don't have to temper my disposition, you can tolerate my innate selfishness and willfulness. I'd like you to consider me the lowest of your retainers."
"Well, then, will you teach strategy not just to me but to all my retainers?"
With that, the two men seemed to arrive at a compromise, and that night they shared sake, talking happily until a late hour, with no thought of the time. The next day was the day of Hideyoshi's mother's arrival at Sunomata. Accompanied by attendants, he traveled a little more than a league from the castle to the outskirts of the village of Masaki to greet his mother's palanquin.
There was an azure sky, the chrysanthemums at the rough-woven fences around the people's houses gave off their fragrance, and shrikes sang their shrill songs in the branches of the ginkgo trees.
"Your honored mother's procession has come into view," announced a retainer.
Hideyoshi's face shone with a pleasure he was unable to conceal. His wife's and mother's palanquins finally arrived. When the escorting samurai saw their master coming out to greet them, they immediately dismounted. Hachisuka Hikoemon quickly drew near to the side of the old lady's palanquin and informed her that Hideyoshi had come to neet her.
Inside the palanquin, the voice of the old lady could be heard asking them to let her down. The palanquins were brought to a halt and lowered to the ground. The warriors knelt at either side of the road and bowed. Nene got out first and, going over to the old lady's palanquin, took her hand. When she glanced at the face of the samurai who had quickly placed straw sandals at the old woman's feet, she saw that it was Hideyoshi.
Deeply moved and with no time to say a word, Nene greeted her husband with a quick glance.
Taking her son's hand, the old lady pressed it to her forehead reverently and said, "As the lord of a castle, you are much too gracious. Please don't be so solicitous in front of your retainers."
"I'm relieved to see that you look so healthy. You tell me not to be solicitous, but, Mother, my very own Mother, I did not come out to greet you today as a samurai. Please don't worry."
The old lady stepped out of the palanquin. The other samurai had all prostrated themselves on the ground, and she felt too dazed to walk.
"You must be tired," Hideyoshi said. "Rest here for a little while. It's no more than a league to the castle." Taking his mother by the hand, he led her to a stool under the eaves of a house. The old lady sat down and gazed at the autumn sky that spread above the solid yellow line of ginkgo trees.
"It's just like a dream," she whispered. The words made Hideyoshi reflect on the years. He was unable to feel that this moment was like a dream. He saw very clearly the steps connecting the present reality and the past. And he felt that this moment was a natural milestone in his career.
The following month, after Hideyoshi's mother and wife had moved to Sunomata, they were followed by his twenty-nine-year-old sister, Otsumi, his twenty-three-year-old half brother, Kochiku, and his twenty-year-old half sister.
Otsumi was still unmarried. Long before, Hideyoshi had promised that if she looked after their mother, when he became successful, he would find her a husband. The following year, Otsumi married a relative of Hideyoshi's wife in the castle.
"They've all grown up," Hideyoshi said to his mother, looking at the satisfaction in her face. This was his happiness, and his great incentive for the future.
It was late spring. Cherry blossoms fell in profusion from the eaves onto the armrest on which Nobunaga was napping.