I
Maeda Narihiro, Lord of Kanazawa Castle in Ishikawa District of Kaga
Province, every time he went up to the Honmaru in Yedo Castle to
serve the Shōgun, was sure to take his favorite pipe along. Made by
Sumiyoshiya Shichibei, a then famous pipe maker, it was an elegant
piece of workmanship of pure gold with the plum-blossom-and-spear-point
crest scattered over it.
Under the system of the Tokugawa government, the Maedas, when on duty
at the Shōgun’s castle, had taken precedence immediately after the
three families of Owari, Kii and Mito ever since the time of the fifth
lord of Kaga, Tsunanori. Of course, in riches too they were practically
without a peer among the greater and lesser lords of the time. So it
was only to have an ornament suitable to his station that Narihiro, the
head of the family at that time, carried a pipe of pure gold.
But Narihiro was exceedingly proud of carrying that pipe. I should
explain, however, that his pride was due in no sense to a fondness for
the thing itself. He was delighted because the power which enabled him
to use such a pipe daily was superior to that of the other lords. In
short we may say that he was proud of being able to carry about with
him everywhere the million _koku_ of rice of Kaga Province in the form
of this pure gold pipe.
So Narihiro was almost never without his pipe while in attendance at
the Shōgun’s castle. Of course when conversing with others and even
when alone, he was sure to take it from the bosom of his kimono, and
putting it in his mouth vaingloriously, puff calmly away at Nagasaki or
some such fragrant tobacco.
Of course this feeling of pride may not have been of such an arrogant
nature as to make him deliberately show off the pipe and the million
_koku_ represented by it. But even though he did not show it off
himself, it was clearly evident that the attention of the whole palace
was concentrated on it. And the consciousness of that attention gave
Narihiro a rather pleasant feeling. Indeed after he had been asked
by other lords present just to show them the pipe, as it was such a
splendid one, he felt that even the familiar smoke of the tobacco bit
his tongue more agreeably.