"Look at that," he said. "That's just like Ieyasu. No one else would have been able to swallow this painful blow as though it were simply hot tea."
As the man who had made Ieyasu drink molten iron, Hideyoshi appreciated his feelings very well. Putting himself in Ieyasu's place, he asked himself if he would have been able to react in the same way.
As these days passed, one man who felt quite happy with himself was Nobuo. After the meeting at Yadagawara, he became Hideyoshi's perfect puppet. Regardless of the situation, he would ask himself, "I wonder what Hideyoshi would think about this."
Just as he had formerly relied on Ieyasu, he now worried about how Hideyoshi would react to whatever he did.
He therefore was inclined to go along with exactly what Hideyoshi had desired in fulfilling the conditions laid down in the peace treaty. Portions of his lands, the hostages, and the written pledges were all presented without exception.
At that point Hideyoshi relaxed a little. Nevertheless, thinking that the army should remain at Nawabu until the following year, he sent a messenger to the men in charge at Osaka and made preparations to spend the winter in the field.
It goes without saying that from the very beginning Hideyoshi's object of concern had been Ieyasu, not Nobuo. Since he had not yet concluded matters with Ieyasu, he could not say that the situation was under control, and his aims were only half-fulfilled. One day Hideyoshi visited Kuwana Castle, and after talking with Nobuo about various subjects, he asked, "How have you been feeling recently?"
"I'm in great health! And I'm sure it's because I have no unpleasant thoughts. I've recovered from the exhaustion of the battlefield, and my mind is completely at ease."
Nobuo displayed a bright and cheerful laughter, and Hideyoshi nodded a number of times, as though he were holding a child on his knee.
"Yes, yes. I imagine that that meaningless war wore you out, my lord. But you know, there a still are few remaining difficulties."
"What do you mean, Hideyoshi?"
"If Lord Ieyasu is left just as he is, he may cause you some trouble."
"Really? But he sent a retainer here with a message of congratulations."
"Well, he certainly wouldn't have wanted to go against your will."
"To be sure."
"So you'll have to say something first. In his heart, Lord Tokugawa would clearly like to make peace with me, but if he gave in on his own, he would lose face. Since there's no reason to confront me, he's probably perplexed. Why don't you help him out?"
There are many men among the sons of famous families who are extremely selfish, quite probably because of the illusion that everyone around them exits for their sake. Never would they think about serving someone else. But, being spoken to in that way by Hideyoshi, even Nobuo was able to conceive of something greater than his own interest.
So, several days later, he suggested that he himself act as a mediator between Hideyoshi and Ieyasu. That was his natural responsibility, but he hadn't thought of taking it on until Hideyoshi had suggested it.
"If he'll agree to our conditions, we'll forgive his armed action in deference to your handling the situation."
Hideyoshi was taking the position of a victor but wanted to convey the terms for peace through Nobuo's mouth.
The conditions were that Ieyasu's son, Ogimaru, was to be adopted by Hideyoshi, and that Kazumasa's son, Katsuchiyo, and Honda's son, Senchiyo, were to be delivered as hostages.
Other than the destruction of the fortifications, the division of lands formerly agreed upon by Nobuo, and the confirmation of the status-quo by the Tokugawa clan, Hideyoshi did not seek any further changes.
"There is some resentment in my heart concerning Lord Ieyasu that will not easily be cleared away, but I can endure it for the sake of your honor. And since you've decided to take on this task, it would be distressing to delay it too long. Why don't you send a messenger to Okazaki right away?"
Thus instructed, Nobuo sent two of his senior retainers as representatives to Okazaki that very day.
The conditions could not really be called severe, but when he heard them, even Ieyasu had to call on his reserves patience.
Even though Ogimaru was said to be adopted, he was truly a hostage. And sending the sons of senior retainers to Osaka was clearly a pledge of the defeated. Though his retainers were upset, Ieyasu remained calm so that Okazaki would remain calm as well.
"I agree to the conditions, and I'll ask you to take care of the matter," he replied to the envoys.
Back and forth they went, a number of times. Then, on the twenty-first day of the Eleventh Month, Tomita Tomonobu and Tsuda Nobukatsu came to Okazaki to sign a peace treaty.
On the twelfth day of the Twelfth Month, Ieyasu's son was sent to Osaka. Kazumasa and Honda's sons went with him. The warriors who saw off the hostages lined up along the streets and wept. Their action at Mount Komaki—an action that had temporarily shaken the entire nation—had ended in this.
Nobuo came to Okazaki on the fourteenth, toward the year's end, and stayed until the twenty-fifth. Ieyasu did not say one unpleasant word. For ten days he entertained that good-natured man whose future was so obvious, and then sent him home again.
The eleventh year of Tensho came to a close. People had an inordinate number of feelings about the passing year. Among the things they felt keenly was the certainty that the world had changed. It had been only a year and a half since Nobunaga's death in the tenth year of Tensho. Everyone was surprised that such sweeping changes had come so quickly.
The exalted position, the popularity, and the mission that had formerly been Nobunaga's had quickly become Hideyoshi's. Indeed, the liberality of Hideyoshi's character wa in accord with the times, and helped create subtle revolutions and advances in society and government.
Watching the trends of the day, even Ieyasu could not help scolding himself for the stupidity of rowing against them. Of the men who had gone against the tide of fortune not one had escaped with his life since time immemorial, as he knew very well. At the foundation of his thinking was the cardinal rule that the observer should distinguish between the smallness of man and the vastness of time, and not resist the man who had grasped the moment. Thus he deferred at each step to Hideyoshi.
At any rate, the man who saw in the New Year while he was at the very height of prosperity was Hideyoshi. He was now in his forty-ninth year. At the age of fifty, in one more year, he would be in the prime of manhood.
The New Year's guests numbered many times more than they had the year before, and, dressed in their finery, they filled Osaka Castle, bringing with them the feeling of the springtime that was close at hand.
Ieyasu, of course, did not come, and a small number of provincial lords who paid deference to Ieyasu followed suit. Moreover, there were certain forces that even now decried Hideyoshi and rushed around making military preparations and gathering secret intelligence. Those men also refrained from tying up their horses at the gate of Osaka Castle.
Hideyoshi observed all that as he continued to greet guest after guest.
As the year entered the Second Month, Nobuo visited from Ise. If he had come at New Year's with all the other provincial lords, it would have been as though he were making a New Year's call on Hideyoshi, and that would have been beneath his dignity. Or so he reasoned.
There was nothing easier than satisfying Nobuo's conceit. Using the same courtesy he had shown when he knelt in front of Nobuo at Yadagawara, Hideyoshi demonstrated a perfect sincerity in his hearty welcome. What Hideyoshi had said at Yadagawara was not a lie, Nobuo thought. When rumors surfaced about Ieyasu, Nobuo criticized the man's calculating nature because he thought it would please Hideyoshi. But Hideyoshi simply nodded silently.