Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [393]
“Yes, I met him on the introduction of Hon’ami Kōetsu. For a nobleman, he seemed remarkably full of life.”
Looking somewhat dissatisfied, Geki asked, “Is that your only impression? If you’d talked with him at any length, I’d think you’d have been struck by his intelligence and sincerity.”
“Well, we were in the licensed quarter at the time.”
“In that case, I suppose he refrained from revealing his true self.” “What’s he really like?”
Geki settled himself in more formal fashion and in a rather grave tone said, “He’s a troubled man. A man of sorrows, if you will. The shogunate’s dictatorial ways disturb him greatly.”
For a moment, Musashi was conscious of a lilting sound coming from the lake and the shadows cast by the white light of the lamp.
Abruptly Geki asked, “Musashi, my friend, for whose sake are you trying to perfect your swordsmanship?”
Never having considered the question, Musashi replied with guileless candor, “For my own.”
“That’s all right as far as it goes, but for whose sake are you trying to improve yourself? Surely your aim is not merely personal honor and glory. That’s hardly sufficient for a man of your stature.” By accident or design, Geki had come around to the subject he really wanted to talk about. “Now that the whole country’s under Ieyasu’s control,” he declared, “we have a semblance of peace and prosperity. But is it real? Can the people actually live happily under the present system?
“Over the centuries, we’ve had the Hōjōs, the Ashikagas, Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi—a long string of military rulers consistently oppressing not only the people but the Emperor and the court as well. The imperial government has been taken advantage of, and the people mercilessly exploited. All the benefits have gone to the military class. This has been going on since Minamoto no Yoritomo, hasn’t it? And the situation today is unchanged.
“Nobunaga seems to have had some idea of the injustice involved; at least he built a new palace for the Emperor. Hideyoshi not only honored the Emperor Go-Yōzei by requiring all the daimyō to pay obeisance to him, but even tried to provide a measure of welfare and happiness for the common people. But what of Ieyasu? To all intents and purposes, he has no interest beyond the fortunes of his own clan. So again, the happiness of the people and the wellbeing of the imperial family are being sacrificed to create wealth and power for a military dictatorship. We seem to be at the threshold of another age of tyranny. No one worries about this state of affairs more than Lord Date Masamune or, among the nobility, Lord Karasumaru.”
Geki paused, waiting for a response, but none was forthcoming except for a barely articulate, “I see.”
Like anyone else, Musashi was aware of the drastic political changes that had occurred since the Battle of Sekigahara. Yet he had never paid any attention to activities of the daimyō in the Osaka faction, or the ulterior motives of the Tokugawas, or the stands taken by powerful outside lords like Date and Shimazu. All he knew about Date was that his fief officially had an income of three million bushels per year but in fact probably yielded five million, as Geki had mentioned.
“Twice every year,” Geki went on, “Lord Date sends produce from our fief to Lord Konoe in Kyoto for presentation to the Emperor. He’s never failed to do this, even in times of war. That’s why I was in Kyoto.
“Aoba Castle is the only one in the country to have a special room reserved for the Emperor. It’s unlikely, of course, that it’ll ever be used, but Lord Date set it aside for him anyway, built it out of wood taken from the old Imperial Palace when that was rebuilt. He had the wood brought from Kyoto to Sendai by boat.
“And let me tell you about the war in Korea. During the campaigns there, Katō, Konishi and other generals were competing for personal fame and triumph. Not Lord Date. Instead of his own family crest, he wore the crest of the rising sun and told everyone he’d never have led his men to Korea for the