For the other, there seemed but a single course. He had exhausted, as it
would appear, all the avenues open to him but one. No such thing as
being born again had entered into Ieyasu's curriculum, and the very
tenets of his religion scorned the lesser beatitudes of a troubled soul.
Stoicism had survived mercy, and his goddess profaned the world must
answer.
"Concentrate at Fushima," commanded he, of Hidetada, now his favorite,
and most trusted commander.
"But Hideyasu is intractable: refuses to obey Hidetada, his younger,"
replied Esyo, before Hidetada, her husband, could make any answer.
"Then let him be humbled; I declare Hidetada my successor, and do invest
him with supreme authority under me," declared Ieyasu; Esyo withdrawing
to convey the intelligence, to her displaced brother-in-law, with all
the force and color at her tongue's end.
A thousand regiments stood ready to assemble and fight under Ieyasu's
colors, and no daimyo of position would raise the feeblest
protest--though fully cognizant of the motive and bitterly regretting
the coup--against the cry of:
"Out with the Christians!"
The edict had gone forth, and regardless of Ieyasu's intent no loyal
defender, not a supporter of the taiko's regime, much less any true
believer in the mikado, had failed to respond to a call so vital to
their existence, as obnoxious to their ways of living and welfare in
death. Those godly men, the priests, and their converts, by word and by
deed, had proven themselves marauders and evil-boding. They had reached
over men's consciences, struck at the state, and meddled with the
home--and for what? To substitute one religion for another--and why?
"To gratify ambition," replied Ieyasu, and for once Christianity found
a foe worthy its steel.
"This stupid pilot's inadvertent speech, he of the _San Felipe_, however
petty, but echoes the cornerstone of a philosophy, disguised and spread
as religion, intended to profit the sophisticated at the expense of the
confiding," continued he, reasoning with the court at Kyoto. "Why, they
are already sniffling at the largest treasury in the empire, seek under
the guise of patriots to invest the strongest fortress left us, and are
poisoning the mind, as they abused a reliance, of our departed taiko's
widow, the princess Yodogima; than whom, till their withering touch
defiled, none better, purer, or more faithful lived. Give me this
appointment, I say; influence our beloved mikado to make me
shogun--Yoshiaki is dead and Minamoto blood is in me--and I shall oust
them and close these doors to the world. Then, and not till then, shall
peace reign in this most favored and only blessed domain."
Enthusiasm bore them on, as it always does, when founded well, however
conceived, and Ieyasu thereat became shogun--an honor Hideyoshi had
striven all his life, yet died to see lowering upon another.
"It proves nothing," continued Ieyasu, shrugging his shoulders, "except
the value of blood, establishes the divinity of the mikado, and
preserves to us the religion we know resolves in practice what it
preaches. I pronounce it."
Not so at Ozaka; Yodogima had looked as far into the working of social,
religious, and political complexities as the sage of Yedo had thought to
enter; understood the _San Felipe_ threat equally as well, but regarded
it rather as a source, not as much as any sort of finality--Yodogima
knew better the hearts of men; as a woman, she had had an experience
that no man can have: she believed that Ieyasu's act in seeking the
shogunate were no less personal than had been Hideyoshi's purpose in
denying her the privileges of an inherent love; than the king of Spain's
motive was mercenary in speeding forth the missionaries.
"With transportation established, there is no end to greed, and Japan,
if she would live, must open, and not close her doors. Does Ieyasu
think that God in his wisdom were so narrow as to exempt this tiny spot
from the responsibilities and compensations everywhere else around us
borne?" said the princess, to Hideyori, who had grown to respect his
mother's advice, and now sought it, before answering Ieyasu's
importuning him to proceed thither and do homage to the newly made
shogun's attempted precedence.
"For every missionary sent to us," continued she, "let us send two to
them; as they build ships, then double their output; if it is with arms
they would grab, we have more than twice their number, the largest of
them, and discipline to spare. Go against them my child; possession is
the secret, and the fittest shall survive; it is God's law, and woe unto
him who disobeys--Ieyasu as well; he has denied me, and let come what
may your mother will be vindicated."
Hideyori had just arrived at earliest manhood, and little did he care
about anything so inane and deceptive as enforced peace, as unequal and
degrading as discriminative prosperity. The old stock, the spirit of an
age that did not lie, of men unstooped to a progress that would rob
Peter to pay Paul, a civilization that had brought the West's proudest
knocking at their doors, made them the coveted of all continents, these
aspirations burned at his finger tips.
A mother had been wronged: what more could have fired a lesser zeal?
Trained by a man whose only thought was of his best interests, loved
dearly by one who had given him being, applauded by a multitude, endowed
of an authority, heir to vast treasures and supported by men of
valor--who could have resisted the challenge to honor a name?
"Hideyori respects the honorable Ieyasu, but cannot concede him the
rank or authority claimed," was the modest though significant answer
returned, by the insulted heir to an exalted taiko's prestige.
"I am pleased," promised Ieyasu, to Kitagira, directly his own best
trusted intermediary; "Hideyori's refusal affords me the
opportunity--awaited all these barren years."