My master gained two great achievements in the battle and I wanted to show how well I had done and took out the nose from the musket bag, but what I was told was this: when you cut off the nose, you should cut off the lips with it as well. If you only cut off the nose and it does not have a moustache (or stubble) you cannot tell if it is from a man or woman. So it cannot be proof of you having taken a man’s head. My master told me off, saying this while goggling his eyes like a crab! This means that having that nose was useless and so I threw it away, my credit and achievement vanished with it. Thus, with effort, I had to give up the prestige of taking the head, what a shame! If I had not been injured, I would have picked up twenty packs or so of heads! Then I would ask for this musket to be given to me as a reward and I would have offered it to the gods to pray for the heads I would have taken. This is a matter of great regret!
Also, I cannot see my master’s spear holder anywhere. He gave the musket back to me and took the spear but the holder has gone and I cannot see him anywhere. Now that the battle has ended he should reappear soon.
Look! I am now not classed as a coward but please pull the arrow out of my head carefully! If you try to pull it out roughly, there shall be lots of blood42 and pain. Secure my head to a tree then pull it out. Remember do not pull out an arrowhead with your hands. You should use pliers or pincers if they are available. (Fig 11)
Bumaru
Labourer
By
Yasuke
Sasuke-dono, Sasuke-dono, you have performed a great feat! Calm down, sit and relax now. I will take off your tannin43 clothes and put my gown on you instead. As I have got no Haori jacket, I have been wearing a Nunoko quilted coat with its hem tied up and tucked under the sash so it looks like a Haori jacket. As you are only chugen, a servant, it is no surprise you might not know you should not wear something dyed with persimmon tannin. Even the great samurai people have brought tannin dyed clothes such as Tenugui cloths or arm or leg wear.44 The arm and leg wear that Sasuke is wearing is dyed with persimmon and tannin, but you, Sasuke-dono, have white cloth as a Tasuki band around your shoulders. Why are you wearing that?
Sasuke replies: I cut white cloth to the length of a fathom45 and made a Tasuki cloth so that if my master gets injured, I can secure him on my back with this cloth.
Well, well, it is really admirable for you to know the ancient ways that well. It is very sensible of you to do the above. I have heard of some bow or musket ashigaru and spear carrying servants that have a white sash on their armour for that very purpose. In case anyone gets injured, they will take off the sash on the armour and hold the injured one on their back by securing them with it. They can also untie the Tenugui cloth they have put around their head and use it as a sash instead. In case you do not use a Tenugui cloth as a sash, you should use the string of your quiver, bullet satchel, or your ration bag to tie around your body, above your armour, so that you can get your breastplate secured and move more easily. I am afraid I am about to make an uninvited remark, however I will continue. I think there are two different ways to retrieve an injured person from a battle, dependent on the time and opportunity. When the enemy is close and you have a hail of bullets or arrows, you should carry the injured one on your breast, so that you can carry him while protecting him with your body against enemy arrows or bullets. Even if an arrow or a bullet hits you, they will not hit the injured man. When you return with an injured person at a distance from the enemy it is difficult to carry him at your breast, so you may hold him on your back instead.
Also, Sasuke-dono, the string of your armoured skirts will snap early on, I think it is because the leather string was dyed black. Many people prefer black attachments for their armour as it looks great, but some people say that black dyed material, apart from lacquer ware, should not be used on armour.
Sasuke-dono, sit with your legs crossed firmly. I used to work for a surgeon carrying his medicine box, so I have learned a little about wounds by observing him. Do not bend right back or forward and do not lie down. Do not expose yourself to wind and do not talk in a loud voice, laugh or get angry and never fall asleep. If you fall asleep, I will stroke the tip of your nose with a paper string. You should not take hot or cold water, you should not even eat porridge. However, softly cooked rice will be fine. If the wound hurts too much, drink your own urine and it will relieve pain. Keep your urine in your battle hat or anything like this and cool it down. Then warm it later when you want to clean your wound with it, so that it will relieve the pain that the wound causes.
Bumaru
Labourer
By
Mosuke
I am starving; this is because we had to run about hard all this morning. So I say, let us cook some food! Hey, you undo one bead from your ration bag that you have around your neck and put it in here. Put it as it is, I mean in the cloth bag. If it is only a two- or three-day battle, we can do without eating anything. However, if it is a five- to seven-day battle, then eating uncooked rice will also do. However, when in battle we don’t know how long it will take. Also, all ashigaru and servants have a ‘pan’ on their heads,46 so remember that we have to cook rice until it is soft, so that it will not give us stomach trouble.
My master does not have a wooden lunch box because he was called for war in haste, and he could not get his box prepared at such short notice. So he took the bowl that he would usually use for meals by chopping off the foot-stand47 and wrapping the bowl with a Tenugui cloth and put it on his horse. I will offer him the meal in this bowl.
Kasuke-dono, Kasuke-dono, even though you are injured and have become faint, remember not to drink water or hot water as usual. First you should calm yourself down. You have been talking too long about your own bravery, so much so that you are getting tense, so that a lot of blood is oozing from the injury on your body and you also bleed internally. If you boil the dung of a grey horse, mix it in water and drink it, then the blood will exit your body and the wound will soon get better. It is said that drinking the blood of a grey horse will also do to ease the blood spilt in your abdomen. However, horse blood is not always available whenever you want it to be, so it would be better to eat dung. Thinking of this, you should take a grey horse when you go to war.
It is of no wonder to me that your blood is spurting from the wound, as I now see you are wearing a persimmon tannin dyed Hitoemono, which is a single layered kimono. Persimmon tannin dyeing used on your clothes makes you bleed more and is not good for sword or arrow wounds. Put on Yasuke’s coat instead (as it is not dyed in this way).
After we finish eating the rice we are now cooking, we should boil the roots of the rice plants we dug up and got in enemy lands and feed the horses with those roots. But remember that we should not dig up rice fields in our allied territory as it would damage next year’s harvest! However, when in the enemy territory, dig them up whenever you see them.
Yari Katsugi
The Spear Carrying Servant
By
Koroku
When spear fighting in today’s battle began, our allies overwhelmed the enemy and clashed hard and then gave chase. My master was on the front line and on the left flank, while I was on the right flank, taking a respite. However, I was pushed forward in the advance. I wanted to stay put but could not and managed to stop myself by clasping to a hackberry tree. At this point I had been pushed forward a distance of 5 or 6 cho and I am now crouching down here, in this spot. They probably thought I had fled but it has turned out that in fact I have advanced!
Shinroku says: Koroku, Koroku, why are you carrying that sword? It seems to be a sword for a samurai, one who is attending the lord’s palanquin, that is those who wear a long Haori Jacket, so I ask you why are you carrying it?
Koroku says: Well, I tried to look [like a samurai], those who wear a long Haori Jacket48 but I had a scabbard that was too long for my sword, this is because while fighting this morning, I was jostled and broke the tip of the scabbard so that the end of the blade is now sticking
out. What a pity! Shinroku, what do you think I should do?
Shinroku says: Well Koroku there’s a good way to get a new scabbard.49 In today’s battle, lots of people took the heads of those running away and from those people who were detached from their groups.50 Each of the fallen have a sword upon them, take a scabbard from them and use it for your own sword.
Koroku says: Yes I will do that! I remember one samurai – from another troop – he was detached from his troop, like I am lost now, but in the end he found his own troop and tried to re-join them. However, he had only been wearing one identifying mark on his shoulder but it had been torn off save for only a little bit of the cloth. Also, he did not have the other two kinds of identifying marks and when asked to say the password, as he was flustered, he could not remember the code-word and each troop he came to shunned him and moved him on. In time they began saying that the enemy had mixed in with us, and he was beheaded in the end. If he had had marks all around on the head, forehead, neck, backbone, or arse, or tail like me, he could have got back in his own troop safely with no trouble. But he only had one mark and it was torn off and he had no other marks to identify him. Unfortunately, he forgot the password as well and was therefore beheaded by his allies, quite unexpectedly for him. The law says you should not get mixed in with other troops and this is why. Also, throwing away your identifying marks or forgetting the password is a seriously stupid thing to do, and it is a grave violation of the laws. This makes me wish I could pierce my nose, my ears, my jaw and put rings there to fix these identifying marks in place, what do you think?
Shinroku says: No, no, even with these four or five identifying marks here and there upon me, I am worried that I might drop and lose them and thus they may be taken by the enemy. So I do not want to be responsible for any more than these that I have!
Koroku says: Yes I agree. Looking at the battlefield yesterday and today, I saw countless numbers of musket bags, saddle covers, blankets, stirrups, horse ladle and so on that have their clan crests upon them. This is extremely dishonourable. These days it is popular to have a war-screen (board) that is covered in gold leaf with the lord’s crest in black upon it or a war-curtain (cloth) with pictures drawn or also the crest on it. This way was not followed by samurai families in former days. If you have crests upon such things and if a fire breaks out, you just cannot leave them behind. The war curtains are light-weight so you can fold them and place them on your back. The folded screens will take at least four or five people to carry just one of the pair of them on their backs, and they have to go around among the crowd with it like a Yakaragane51 performer. What’s the point of this? Is it to save the gold leaf of that crest?52
Shinroku says: Well I have no idea of the answer. Instead of the crest, it is better to draw a kite, pig, turnip, Japanese radish, Japanese chestnut, Japanese honey locust, or anything like this, so you can leave the screens behind in the case of fire. This way you can take a sack of rice or other such things instead of the crested items, and then when you return to the remains of the fire, you can enclose yourselves with the war-curtain and you can enjoy a rice meal beneath its protection.53 Apart from Hata-flags or Umajirushi standards,54 it is best not to put crests on such things as helmets or helmet-hats, armour, sashimono-standards, Kasajirushi hat identifying ‘ribbons’, Sodejirushi sleeve markings, stirrups, satchels that lower soldiers carry – this is because they may well be captured by the enemy and used. It is disrespectful to put the lord’s crest onto those items that could be discarded and taken up by the enemy.
[Unknown speaker]:55 I am saying this because, in the event of an unparalleled fire like that of Edo which took place on the eighteenth and nineteenth days of the first month, and of Meiryaku 3 [1657], bits of burnt paper were blown so far from Edo that they were scattered as far as the coasts of Boshu. It even happened that a local peasant happened to see a bit of burnt paper and was frightened out of his wits to find it was an accounting book of an honourable Jito estate steward. Concluding that Edo was on fire he went to the capital to see if the Jito estate steward was ok and carried with him – on his horse – rice, soy beans, straw, bran, etc. Thinking of this story, you must understand, if a screen with the lord’s crest is abandoned and left behind and is burnt and blown away by wind, people will create rumours that the screen was once used in the guard house of the lord, which would be a great shame.
Nami Chugen
The Middle Servant
By
Shinroku
Koroku, Koroku, what you said is quite right. We all have three or even four identifying marks so I believe none of us will suffer the fate of the man in your story who was beheaded before even fighting the enemy.
Now I will tell you about when we beat and crushed the enemy. First it began with a fight with muskets between the vanguards of both sides. Then it was followed by arrow launching and Banaka-no-Shobu duels.56 To be Ichibanyari or first spear, you have to be the person who won the first spear fight and it is regarded as the greatest achievement in battle, and is then followed by Nibanyari the second spear, who is the second person to win a spear fight. Then came those who have achieved the Yarishita,57 which is to kill an opponent with a spear and Kuzushigiwa58 that is those who kill by taking advantage of the gaps created in the enemy. All these were locked in a fierce struggle, grappling59 and stabbing and so heads were cut off or plucked, what a great clash it was today! Some people – to cover up the fact that they may have killed their own allies – collect as many heads as possible and cut off only the nose, one after another, and some thread these noses and wear them around the neck like prayer beads, as they have too many to put under their breast plate!
While those who were all fighting on fiercely, thinking it was their last moments to either die or achieve, thirty of the [mounted] samurai from eastern provinces joined the fierce battle at the correct place and with the correct timing. Then, before the second troop could begin to advance and fight, the flank attack [of our side] was halted and the thirty mounted warriors charged the enemy, some carrying spears, others a sword, a bow or a musket.
As the thirty warriors attacked from the enemy’s right, thus the enemy could not make any thrusts or shots. If they had attacked from their left60 side they could have given a counter with at least some thrust or fought back; but as they had the cavalry coming from the right they just fell into confusion and panic.
As soon as the mounted warriors attacked from the right, the rest of the vanguard began shooting muskets from the flank and they did not have any way to defend against it and their formation collapsed completely. In today’s warfare everyone gets off their horse when fighting and fighting on horseback has been out of use for a long time, so the samurai from the Kamigata western provinces are different from those from Kanto eastern provinces and are not so well trained in horse riding, meaning that they were not well prepared to defend against these ways, this is my guess anyway.
Koroku: Shinroku, Shinroku, do not defame the Kamigata people so much! As we all saw, while passing the coast yesterday, a ship of seventy or eighty oars, though we don’t know where it is from, was trying to fight against a middle-sized boat that was getting close to them, they were moving back and forth from the starboard to the larboard. They did not have enough ballast and they had too many people on board and had miscalculated the capacity. The ship keeled over and did not recover so everybody ended up dying a dog’s death. They were those samurai from the eastern provinces and did not know much about how to sail, so they all died for nothing. If it were the western samurai, they would balance the ship by dividing the troops into groups on both sides, so while those on one side were taking a nap, those on the other side would fight in defence, thus keeping the boat in balance. So those from the east, while knowing well how to ride a horse, do not know how to sail a boat, it is like an angler fish climbing up a tree. That is why I say you should not slander the Kamigata people so much. (See Fig 12)
Umatori
The Groom
&nbs
p; By
Magohachi
As it seems we won in today’s battle, I guess we are going to have to cross the river for sure. The river will rise because it rained yesterday and the current will be even faster than an arrow. So I have twisted the reins hard, tightened the girth firmly and tied the stirrups up with a rope. I was thinking of removing and throwing away the saddle skirt, but put it onto the rear saddle rings like the cover on the horse’s arse. I did this because I can use this as a mat for my master as he has none. When going in the enemy lands, as it is a time when the wheat has an ear [and is ripe], we can cut it and collect it in a metal helmet, then we rub the wheat with the back side of the skirt between where it is folded over, we do this so the spikes will be gone. So, this skirt is useful and I have put it on the rear saddle rings, which I think is a very good idea.
The Groom
By
Hikohachi
Magohachi, you did a good job. However, before, I brought up a point at the riverside, did you hear what I said? (See Fig 13)
Magohachi says: As there was too much noise, that of shooting muskets, I was almost deaf so I could not hear anything. Tell me what happened.
Hikohachi says: We two grooms can swim a little bit so we should grab both sides of the horse’s bit and make the horse swim by pulling it into the water. If we are tired, we will be able to use the horse’s bit as an aid which will help us swim with ease. When you ride the horse into the river, it will always try to rear up on its hind legs. To deal with this, the sandal carrying servant can swim a little – well, by swim I mean at least swim in the depth of a trench, you should have him hold onto the horse’s tail, so if the horse tries to rear up, he will lift the tail up (which forces it down) and, therefore, it will make it swim. If you do it like this, the horse will swim as flat as a large wooden chest when it floats in water. The two Wakato retainers and the spear carrying servant do not float on water, [some people sink] like a bullet sinks, so, we should make them grab the ends of the straps of the crupper – after shortening the straps of course.61
Samurai War Stories Page 5
