Chapter 25 of 100

Chapter 25

17 min read4,199 words

In the late April of the ninth year of Tenmon (1540), at the foot of Mount Yatake in Higashimatsuura District.

At this moment, Ro Shizunari stood on a high hill in his domain, gazing out over the entire territory. Behind him were Sa Hachiro and Kizaburo, who, due to their hard training and excellent performance, had been promoted by Ro Shizunari to his personal attendants, as he had promised.

"It's been more than half a month since we arrived here, and the domain is gradually stabilizing," Ro Shizunari muttered to himself while looking at the scenery below the hill.

As a new lord with no foundation, Ro Shizunari indeed spent a great deal of effort on the construction, development, and stabilization of the domain over the past half month. At the same time, his vassals played a crucial role in this process.

Togo Heiji, although once the head of a branch family of the Togo clan in Satsuma Province, was actually the lord of only a few dozen fields. During the busy farming season, he still had to participate in the agricultural work of the domain, so he was quite familiar with general civil disputes, farming, population censuses, and material statistics. Additionally, due to his higher education, he was well-versed in the overall situation in Kyushu and the daily work of a lord. He often provided a lot of advice to Ro Shizunari on major decision-making issues and was also his teacher in quickly adapting to the role of a lord.

Ogasawara Kuniharu, a native of the area, was said to be a refugee whose family had migrated from Honshu Island. Due to oppression by powerful clans, they moved to Hizen, and after many twists and turns, their family gradually declined, eventually becoming refugees and drifting to this place. He played a significant role in agricultural work and refugee management and was familiar with the local terrain, serving as Ro Shizunari's "living map."

Tsuda Masahide's family was originally a small blacksmith household in Ise. Due to a flood, only Tsuda Masahide, who was less than 13 years old, survived. Although he escaped with his life, the flood had taken everything from him, leaving him homeless and destitute. In his grief, he wandered from place to place, living a life of hunger and poverty. Later, he was taken in by an old monk and became a monk and a warrior monk at the temple. However, after a few years, the old monk passed away. Without any constraints, the temple fell into disarray, and its income declined. Eventually, Tsuda Masahide's senior brothers decided to join the Ikkoshu, but Tsuda Masahide was repulsed by their actions and split from his brothers, resuming his solitary wandering life. When he was at a dead end in Satsuma, he joined Shimazu Tadahisa as a ronin and met Togo Heiji. As a ronin, he had wandered through many places in Honshu and Kyushu, making him familiar with the local customs and traditions. He was also a straightforward person with good martial skills and a high level of understanding in military training, making him an excellent choice for maintaining law and order and training foot soldiers in Ro Shizunari's domain.

Under Ro Shizunari's decisions and the execution of these three men, the domain saw significant development over the past half month.

The arable land in the domain, through the efforts of everyone, expanded from less than 30 fields to 56 fields, with two-fifths being paddy fields. The land between Komura and Ogasawara Village was almost fully cultivated, with only some mountainous areas still under development. The newly cultivated land was immediately distributed to the households under the command of Togo Heiji and Ogasawara Kuniharu, and planting was organized. The fields that had been planted earlier were now lush and green.

As the cultivation work progressed, the food reserves were gradually depleted, especially with the need for a large amount of seeds for the newly cultivated land. Currently, the domain's food reserves were down to about 100 koku. Under increasing food pressure, Ro Shizunari had to increase hunting and fishing efforts.

When it came to hunting, the issue of eating meat inevitably arose. Why was eating meat a problem? This involved Buddhism and Shinto. At the time, Japan was known as a Buddhist country, and the veneration of Buddhism had reached a fanatical level. Even the emperor issued a "meat ban," declaring that according to Buddhist teachings, what you eat becomes what you are, and eating meat would lead to rebirth as an animal. Therefore, to benefit the people, eating the meat of four-legged animals was not allowed. Later, due to the prevalence of Shinto, eating animal carcasses was considered a defiling act, and eating meat was generally prohibited. Fish and birds, which were not four-legged animals, were allowed to be eaten, but most people did not eat birds because they were associated with Shinto messengers.

Ro Shizunari was indeed very concerned that this issue would hinder the hunting efforts in the domain. However, Togo Heiji's words dispelled this concern. Outlaws were allowed to eat meat. They were originally engaged in butchery and leather tanning. For example, when they slaughtered a cow, the leather would go to the samurai lords for making leather goods and saddles, while the meat, which the samurai did not eat, would be left to these outlaws. Later, due to their living conditions, outlaws and refugees, who had a similar status, also began to eat meat.

Although the meat issue was resolved, the problem of hunting large quantities of meat remained, as there were very few large animals in the vicinity of the domain. The largest animals nearby were wild boars, but the domain did not have the resources to deal with them at the moment and hoped they would not visit the domain, as they could destroy the crops. There were wild deer, but it took nearly two days of hiking through the mountains to find them, and there was the risk of encountering bandits. Wild rabbits were too small, and it was difficult to catch many in a day. As for pheasants, they were not like modern domestic chickens; these pheasants were extremely fast and could fly, making it difficult to hunt or capture them in large numbers in the forests using conventional methods.

Ro Shizunari also specifically asked Ogasawara Kuniharu if there were any wolves, as he had clearly heard the howling of wolves when he first arrived, which had even forced him to run for his life in the forest. He also remembered that there were native Japanese wolves in Japan, although they had become extinct by the end of the 15th century. Ogasawara Kuniharu confirmed that there were wolves, and even bears, but they were mostly concentrated in higher mountains or dense forests. There were wolves in the forests to the south of the domain. Generally, they avoided humans because wolf and bear skins were highly sought after by merchants. A single wolf skin could sell for at least 10 kan, equivalent to a farmer's annual income. Many hunters hoped to catch wolves. As for bear skins, Ogasawara Kuniharu said he had never heard of anyone successfully hunting a bear.

With hunting yields being low, the only option left was fishing. The domain had four large lakes, which were certainly teeming with fish.

Upon hearing Ro Shizunari's suggestion, Ogasawara Kuniharu immediately organized people to weave the domain's seven fishing nets together. After a day of work, a small trawl net, 5 meters deep and about 32 meters long, was finally completed.

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