Nobunaga unquestionably had the gift of endearing himself to his retainers, though there are records which show that he was subject to outbursts of fierce anger. Even his most trusted generals were not exempt from bitter words or even blows, and we shall presently see that to this fault in his character was approximately due his tragic end. Nevertheless, he did not lack the faculty of pity. On the occasion of a dispute between two of his vassals about the boundaries of a manor, the defeated litigant bribed one of Nobunaga's principal staff-officers to appeal for reversal of the judgment. This officer adduced reasons of a sufficiently specious character, but Nobunaga detected their fallacy, and appeared about to take some precipitate action when he happened to observe the wrinkles which time had written on the suppliant's face. He recovered his sang-froid and contented himself with sending the officer from his presence and subsequently causing to be handed to him a couplet setting forth the evils of bribery and corruption. He forgave the guilty man in consideration of his advanced age, and the incident is said to have closed with the suicide of the old officer. Frugality was another trait of Nobunaga's character. But he did not save money for money's sake. He spent with lavish hand when the occasion called for munificence; as when he contributed a great sum for the rebuilding of the Ise shrines. Perhaps nothing constitutes a better clue to his disposition than the verses he habitually quoted:
Life is short; the world is a mere dream to the idle.
Only the fool fears death, for what is there of life that does
Not die once, sooner or later?
Man has to die once and once only;
He should make his death glorious.
It is recorded that Nobunaga's demeanour in battle truly reflected the spirit of these verses.
ENGRAVING: TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI
HIDEYOSHI
Nobunaga certainly deserved the success he achieved, but that he achieved it must be attributed in part to accident. That accident was his association with Hideyoshi.* It has been sometimes said that circumstances beget the men to deal with them. Fallacious as such a doctrine is, it almost compels belief when we observe that the second half of the sixteenth century in Japan produced three of the greatest men the world has ever seen, and that they joined hands to accomplish the stupendous task of restoring peace and order to an empire which had been almost continuously torn by war throughout five consecutive centuries. These three men were born within an interval of eight years: Nobunaga, in 1534; Hideyoshi, in 1536, and Ieyasu, in 1542.
*To avoid needless difficulty the name "Hideyoshi" is used solely throughout this history. But, as a matter of fact, the great statesman and general was called in his childhood Nakamura Hiyoshi; his adult name was Tokichi; afterwards he changed this to Hashiba and ultimately, he was known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
There are many stories about Hideyoshi's early days, but the details are obscured by a record called the Taikoki, which undoubtedly makes many excursions into the region of romance. The plain facts appear to be that Hideyoshi was the son of a humble farmer named Kinoshita Yaemon, who lived in the Aichi district of Owari province, and who preferred the life of a foot-soldier (ashigaru) to the pursuit of agriculture. Yaemon served the Oda family, and died when Hideyoshi was still a youth. In Owari province, at a homestead called Icho-mura from the name of the tree (maiden-hair tree) that flourishes there in abundance, there stands a temple built in the year 1616 on the site of the house where Hideyoshi was born. This temple is known as Taiko-zan—"Taiko" having been the title of Hideyoshi in the latter years of his life—and in the grounds of the temple may be seen the well from which water was drawn to wash the newly born baby. The child grew up to be a youth of dimunitive stature, monkey-like face, extraordinary precocity, and boundless ambition. Everything was against him—personal appearance, obscurity of lineage, and absence of scholarship. Yet he never seems to have doubted that a great future lay before him.
Many curious legends are grouped about his childhood. They are for the most part clumsily constructed and unconvincing, though probably we shall be justified in accepting the evidence they bear of a mind singularly well ordered and resourceful. At the age of sixteen he was employed by a Buddhist priest to assist in distributing amulets, and by the agency of this priest he obtained an introduction to Matsushita Yukitsuna, commandant of the castle of Kuno at Hamamatsu, in Totomi province. This Matsushita was a vassal of Imagawa Yoshimoto. He controlled the provinces of Mikawa, Totomi, and Suruga, which lie along the coast eastward of Owari, and he represented one of the most powerful families in the country. Hideyoshi served in the castle of Kuno for a period variously reckoned at from one year to five. Tradition says that he abused the trust placed in him by his employer, and absconded with the sum of six ryo wherewith he had been commissioned to purchase a new kind of armour which had recently come into vogue in Owari province. But though this alleged theft becomes in certain annals the basis of a picturesque story as to Hideyoshi repaying Matsushita a thousandfold in later years, the unadorned truth seems to be that Hideyoshi was obliged to leave Kuno on account of the jealousy of his fellow retainers, who slandered him to Yukitsuna and procured his dismissal.
Returning to Owari, he obtained admission to the ranks of Oda Nobunaga in the humble capacity of sandal-bearer. He deliberately chose Nobunaga through faith in the greatness of his destiny, and again the reader of Japanese history is confronted by ingenious tales as to Hideyoshi's devices for obtaining admission to Nobunaga's house. But the most credible explanation is, at the same time, the simplest, namely, that Hideyoshi's father, having been borne on the military roll of Nobunaga's father, little difficulty offered in obtaining a similar favour for Hideyoshi.