Samurai Wisdom Stories: Tales From the Golden Age of Bushido by Pascal Fauliot

Author:Pascal Fauliot [Fauliot, Pascal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781611804133
Google: cc0cDgAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1611804132
Barnesnoble: 1611804132
Goodreads: 31170860
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2017-04-30T05:00:00+00:00

14 | The Revenge of the Samurai Wife

IN A SECLUDED ROOM at the end of a corridor in Iwakura Castle in Owari Province, a man and a woman were conversing in low voices, their mutterings masked by the croaking of the frogs in the moat. He was one of the oldest vassals of the master of the castle, Lord Oda Nobuyuki. He was a man about fifty, a much-feared warrior, with a fierce, haughty, and aggressive temperament who was the terror of his subordinates. She was the duenna of the ladies-in-waiting to the chatelaine—a harsh, jealous, grasping woman with a viper’s tongue who tyrannized those under her supervision. True birds of ill omen, these two conspired together, spreading their poison and attemptinng to assuage their thirst for power. His name was Sakuma Shichiroyemon and hers, Tora no Kata.

“You are suggesting that our lord is planning to make that inexperienced lout Hachiya his number-one counselor. That’s incredible!” he said.

“That’s what I thought I heard this morning,” she replied. “And that’s not everything. It’s also being bruited about that he intends to marry him to that featherbrain Katsuno who is our mistress’s favorite. I really don’t know what she sees in that girl!”

But her interlocutor found the young beauty she was referring to totally to his taste. He had been a widower for a while and had wooed her assiduously in secret without success.

“That’s just too much!” he exploded. “I know just what I have to do. As for you, Lady Tora, try to get Katsuno disgraced so I can pluck that flower for myself. You will be well rewarded for it. In the meantime, here’s something for your information.”

And he handed her a small purse before disappearing with muted step down the corridor.

The following day as the ladies-in-waiting were gossiping in the garden, the old duenna burst into their midst like an enraged dog into a flock of sheep.

“Come, come, ladies,” she barked, “enough blabbing! It’s time to get back to work. Katsunosan, did you remember to feed the bird Takane?”

“Not yet, Lady Tora.”

“Come on, then, get a move on! I don’t hear him singing. He must be starving!”

The young woman ran to get some birdseed and returned to the garden. She stopped under a plum tree in flower from which a large gilded cage was hanging. As she was trying to unhook the cage so she could feed the bird inside, the ring from which it was suspended broke and the cage fell. When it hit the ground, its door sprung open, and the bird flew away.

“You bungling fool! What have you done!” cried the duenna. “You have let this priceless treasure given to our lord by the shogun escape. What an unforgivable blunder!” And the old woman dragged Katsuno behind her to go receive her punishment. Lord Oda Nobuyuki received her surrounded by his council of vassals.

“Do you realize what a stupid thing you’ve done!?” he shouted at her in his fury. “Suppose the shogun should visit me and

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