Yasushi Inoue - The Samurai Banner of Furin Kazan

“How do they differ?”

“Above Bishu, in other words, in the eastern areas, people are rarely courteous, but are violent and oppressive. When relationships are good, they admire the people who are not worth admiring, but when their relationships turn sour, they speak ill of the people who excel.”

Once he started speaking, he was eloquent. No matter what questions were asked, he answered effusively although nobody knew where he had acquired this knowledge. Since Itagaki was Kansuke’s patron, he was satisfied with his eloquence, but Amari kept silent with an expression as if he had bitten into a sour grape. For him, everything that Kansuke said was fabricated.

Kansuke answered everything in detail, as he was asked about diverse subjects, such as provincial geography, human feelings, customs, and military structures.

“Are there any ways to cause your enemy to surrender within one or two years of your conquest of their territory?” Harunobu asked.

“Hire the famous or well-liked samurai from the enemy, give them half or all the information you have according to the situation, and arrange marriages with your close retainers. In addition, invite some priests, townsmen, and leaders of the peasantry into your presence and comfort them and ask them about their living conditions. It is not that good an idea to hold a feast. Mori Motonari, Lord of Aki, who started archery lessons in early childhood, conquered Chugoku and extended his power to Shikoku and Kyushu. To place those countries under his control, he used this method.”

From seven to ten o’clock, he talked with Harunobu. When they heard strong winds outside, they retired from the castle.

Kansuke left the castle a little before Itagaki and Amari.

He came out of the eastern gate of the castle and crossed the bridge over the moat. It was pitch black. The branches of the old trees in the castle were creaking in the blowing wind. Kansuke was walking along the moat ready to turn toward the samurai residence.

Suddenly, the naked point of a sword appeared in front of him. It was totally unexpected! Kansuke quickly jumped back.

The shimmering point of the sword followed him. He backed up one step at a time all the way to the end of the enclosure, which was at the northeast end of the castle. Still the point of the sword followed him. Then, Kansuke spoke for the first time.

“Who are you?”

“Since you desired a match with a real sword, I came here to offer you the chance.”

“Absurd!” said Kansuke.

Kansuke realized that the person who stood in front of him was his opponent from the afternoon match. Kansuke said, “The result was obvious. You are stronger than I am.”

“What! I have no intention to listen to you babbling.”

In a split second, Kansuke leaped back about a meter and said repeatedly, “Absurd!” Then he continued, “don’t lose your mind. I was there simply to answer the lord’s invitation….”

Then, Kansuke heard his opponent’s laughter.

“Lose my mind? I won’t. I shall kill you here and after that simply run away. Is your life so dear to you? Too bad. No matter how much you value your life, unfortunately, I intend to kill you.”

“And run away after?”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Do you want to kill me that much?”

“Yes, I do.”

With this answer, Kansuke made up his mind.

“In that case, I shall kill you instead.”

Kansuke drew his sword and said, “Come!”

Kansuke shortened the distance between them inch by inch.

He stepped forward one step. The tip of his sword cut between his opponent’s eyes.

“Uh!” This time his opponent stepped backward. Kansuke continued to close the distance. Again he stepped forward. Since it was his shorter leg that led, his body swayed. Instantly his opponent let out a yell.

“Gyaa!” It resembled the cry of a night bird. The challenger’s shoulder was sliced open. Kansuke continued to step forward.

“Wait! Please wait.”

Kansuke did not wait. He continued to follow him. Suddenly, another voice came from the dark. The shadow of two or three figures moved. Then, a torch brightened the area. Without knowing, the two of them were fighting in front of the main gate of the castle. Itagaki, Amari, and several others appeared.

“Wait, wait a minute,” somebody said loudly. Kansuke ignored the voice completely and continued to step forward.

The cry of the night bird came from his opponent again.

Kansuke quietly sheathed his sword and remained standing in the darkness. In the circle of the torch, his larger opponent stood there for a second, and then fell backward. The master of the Shintoryu School was lying with his skull split in half.

Amari glanced at the dead body, then looked at Kansuke. His eyes held an expression as if he had seen something menacing and incomprehensible.

“Are you Yamamoto Kansuke?”

“Yes.”

“Is it you who killed him?”

“Yes.”

“You are truly the one who killed him?”

“Yes, sir.”

Amari abruptly turned his back on Kansuke and disappeared out of the torchlight, leaving alone. Then he turned around and yelled, “Yamamoto Kansuke!”

When there was no response, he continued walking quickly away. To Amari, Kansuke had become in that instant nothing but a monster.

Kansuke proceeded toward the samurai residence with Itagaki. Halfway through the estate, the road descended.

“It is not good to kill a person unless it is in battle.”

“Yes,” Kansuke said and listened to the horrible sound of the wind. Just like the time he killed Aoki Daizen, he felt slightly tired. He did not find it strange that once he drew his sword and was determined to kill, he could kill his opponent without fail.

He felt that he held that kind of power and was that kind of person.

“Starting next month, we will face battles for a long time. I will place twenty-five foot soldiers under you. Serve your master faithfully.” Only these words came to Kansuke’s ears. He was not listening to what was said before or after.

“A leader of the foot soldiers is…”

Kansuke heard Itagaki’s voice again, but was not really interested in anything about his new post.

“Capturing castles, capturing castles,” he murmured. He felt as if every time there was a battle he could capture a castle. He felt it was such an enjoyable thing to go into battle with a young lord like Takeda Harunobu and capture castles, one after another.

Kansuke felt battle was something which was very quiet. That was because he had never experienced a battle before. He heard nothing of the sound of arms and weapons.

After he left Itagaki, he walked alone toward his residence.

Sand blew up from the bottom of the slope. He covered his good eye with his right hand, of which his middle finger was missing.

He lifted his face a little, and then he saw the cold, bluish stars which he had never seen on the east coast. They looked so close that he thought he might be able to touch them. Kansuke continued down the slope one step at a time.

IN FEBRUARY OF THE thirteenth year of the Tenbun, Takeda Harunobu set up his battle camp with 20,000 warriors on Mount Misa on the plains of Shinano. Harunobu’s intention was to attack the powerful clan of Suwa Yorishige in the Suwa fiefdom.

Since the reign of Harunobu’s father, it had been a long-standing plan for the Takeda family to attack the Suwa, the first step in ruling Shinano Province. However, while Nobutora was busy sending warriors to the provinces of Suruga and Sagami, he was reluctant to proclaim war on the Lord of Suwa. Instead, he sent his sixth daughter to the Suwa leader, Yorishige, as his wife and thus placed Suwa under his influence. Nobutora’s daughter was called Nene and was noted for her beauty. Unfortunately, two years later, in the twelfth year of Tenbun, she passed away at the age of sixteen.