Now Kaze was dealing with something that was neither creation nor destruction. He was supposed to find out what happened to Noguchi Mototane, a man he knew neither by appearance nor by character.
Elder Grandma was convinced that Mototane was dead because he had not killed Hishigawa and he wasn’t in Kamakura. Yet, he was a man and therefore he could be diverted from his duty by drink or women. For all her fierceness, would Elder Grandma have the objective knowledge to see these flaws in her own blood?
Mototane’s absence could also be explained by something as simple as a slip or fall. Perhaps he was laid up in some roadside teahouse waiting for a broken bone to heal. Perhaps he was dead. But also, perhaps his death had nothing to do with Hishigawa, and he was a victim of the countless brigands, bandits, and thieves who now inhabited Japan.
Enomoto had denied that Hishigawa had been attacked at the villa. Was that a lie? If Enomoto had killed Mototane under orders from Hishigawa, that would be a serious offense-a merchant ordering the death of a samurai. Yet Enomoto could also claim he had simply killed Mototane in a duel, and the authorities would think nothing of the event, except to record it officially. Kaze did not think it wise for him to deal with the Tokugawa officials. To check on this possibility, he would have Elder Grandma inquire with the Kamakura authorities.
Kaze had an interesting spot to look at in the villa grounds, but what if Hishigawa had had Mototane killed and buried somewhere outside the villa? The hills of Kamakura were full of secluded spots and caves, and it would be easy enough to hide a body. How could Kaze find such a spot? He had wandered Japan for almost three years looking for the Lady’s daughter. Would he now have to wander the hills of Kamakura looking for the hidden grave of a man he did not know?
CHAPTER 18
There! Then quickly gone.
You blend with a cloudy day.
Elusive shadow!
Kaze walked through the streets of Kamakura methodically checking each neighborhood to see if there was a nine-year-old girl that fitted the circumstances of the Lady’s daughter.
As he walked down a wide side street, a dozen men walked out of an inn. They were wearing black armor, and several had banners in their hands. The banners were black with a white diamond, surrounded by eight bent bamboo leaves. It looked more like a spider than what it was supposed to represent-a square well surrounded by a bamboo grove. They were Okubo’s men.
Kaze stopped to look at the merchandise in front of a vegetable stand, slouching his shoulders and trying to look like a henpecked samurai husband shopping for dinner, a job usually done by the wife. The stand had small purple eggplants, large white daikon radishes, and green leafy vegetables of all types displayed in shallow wooden trays. Kaze lifted a few vegetables to examine them, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the soldiers coming out of the inn. He was trying to blend into the background instead of calling attention to himself.
The merchant came out of the shop, bowing obsequiously and saying, “What can I get for you, Samurai-sama?”
Kaze pointed to a few small purple eggplants, then hunted in his sleeve for a copper coin. As he did this, the vegetable merchant took some rice straw and expertly tied it into a sling to hold the eggplants. Merchants had special ties to hold all sorts of vegetables, fruits, and produce. There were even special slings to hold one, two, three, or four eggs, all twisted from rice straw when the merchandise was selected.
As Kaze paid for the eggplants, more of Okubo’s troops came out of the inn, including some officers. Catching a glimpse of the officers, Kaze realized he could no longer rely on playing a part to masquerade his identity. He turned and started walking away from the inn, negligently swinging the eggplants from one hand.
“You!” One of the officers was calling to him. Kaze didn’t turn around. He kept walking, not increasing his pace, but not slowing down, either.
“Get him!” The officer commanded his men. The officer shouted Kaze’s real name. He had been recognized.
Kaze started running down the streets of the neighborhood, keeping one hand on the hilt of his sword to steady it. Behind, he could hear the sound that came from men running in armor, the metal plates of the armor, sewn to a leather backing, banging against each other.
The street was narrow but straight because they were in a part of the city laid out in a grid. This made following Kaze easy for his pursuers and made it harder for him to elude them. He cut down a side street, then ducked into an alley. He ran behind a shop past a privy occupied by a man. Although the privy had only a half door, made of woven reeds in a bamboo frame, the man ignored Kaze, as if he weren’t there, and Kaze did the same. Kaze briefly thought how convenient it would be if he could actually make himself as invisible as Japanese etiquette demanded people act they were when presented with potentially awkward situations.
Emerging from the alley, he continued down a street. He looked over his shoulder. Although he had outpaced the men chasing him, he had not lost them. He turned down another side street and had run half its length before he realized it was a dead end, terminating at the gate of a large cooper’s yard instead of at another street.
Quickly glancing around, Kaze realized he would not have time to escape out of the cul-de-sac without being caught by Okubo’s men.
The cooper’s yard was large and bustling. At the gate was a large piece of wood with a picture of a painted barrel, a sign easily understood by both literate and illiterate customers. At the front of the yard, just inside the gate, several men were busy finishing large barrels for bulk sakè storage and manufacture. In the back of the yard, pre-made barrels of all sizes and shapes were stored, waiting for shipment or sale.
Kaze ran up to a large, burly man who seemed to have an air of command. The man looked at Kaze with a raised eyebrow, curious about a ronin bursting into the yard carrying eggplants.
Kaze said just one word. “Toyotomi.”
It was a calculated gamble. Tokugawa Ieyasu had been ruler of Japan for less than three years, and he had been ruler of the Kanto area for only a dozen years. Ieyasu had been given the Kanto, the rich area around Edo, as a reward and ploy by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Ieyasu’s hereditary fief was Mikawa, the province of the three rivers. By offering him the richer Kanto, the wily Hideyoshi had simultaneously rewarded his most important ally and moved him to a new base of power, which would temporarily weaken him as he gained control of his new domain.
Although they had ruled the Kanto for a dozen years, Ieyasu’s men still referred to themselves as Mikawa-bushi, Mikawa warriors. They lacked deep ties to the Kanto, and Kaze was gambling that the feeling was mutual. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, on the other hand, had a special place in the hearts of peasants because Hideyoshi had been a peasant himself. He had come from nowhere and ascended to command based on his intelligence and ability, not his family.