NIMW Chapter 15: To become a person of the Azai (1)

Translator – Blue Bamboo
Editor – sora

E/N – While previous translator had translated first part of Ch 15, we decided to re-do it so that it would flow better with second part. We’ll be pulling off a Chapter/Part every week depending on our speed of translation.

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The Japanese archipelago is not a suitable place for a large population of people to reside in. I was convinced of that while looking at the map of Japan when my eighth grade syndrome was at its worst.

It wasn’t hard to arrive at my conclusion if one were to consider the topography of Japan. The entire archipelago is dotted with mountainous regions throughout.^[1]

Whilst Mountains are full of important elements that are necessary for the prosperity of human life; such as abundant fruits and plentiful spring water. Even so, the rough terrain meant that it was impossible for population to expand beyond a certain point.

To sustain large amounts of people, availability of flat land was of paramount importance.^[2]

Sadly though, Japan had too little flat land available thus leading to my conclusion.

The feudal lords ^[3] during the period of the Warring States were aware of this fact and thus the conquest of the plains was a priority for each major force in this troubled age. ^[4]

Luckily, even though a major part of Omi was covered by Lake Biwa it still had large tracts of flat land which encouraged settlement and growth.

That being said, the Azai domains in Omi were in fact divided into two parts, the east, and the west. One area was centered around the Odani Castle and the other was on the west side of Lake Biwa, centered around Shimizuyama Castle.

The western side of the Azai domains possessed spacious plains formed by both the Ado and Kamo rivers. On top of that, the Ado river, which was connected to Lake Biwa, was not only used as a means for transportation but also as a relay point from Kyoto to Odani Castle

In short, the Azai domains in the west and the east had their own core regions and thus development necessitated me taking reforms tailored to the circumstances of each. To implement my ideas, I would have to ensure that the power of the bureaucrats was firmly behind me.

It was a fact that unlike my idealized situation, the Azai clan of this period was suffering from an acute shortage of capable bureaucrats who could take care of administration effectively.

Of course, even though the Azai was short of people it wasn’t as if there was nobody available at all Ujitane Anyouji who was based in the west, for example, was a capable man responsible for setting up the Marriage alliance between the Oda and the Azai.

Still we couldn’t rely on Anyouji forever. Without training more capable people who could eventually take his place and show their own talent and initiative; my dream of propagating reform throughout the territory would remain just that, a dream.

One of the candidates who I had in my mind, my younger brother Masamoto Azai, who was undoubtedly the most talented bureaucrat in the East was right now facing me with his arms crossed.

He let out a groan as he furrowed his brows and leaned his chin on his clenched fist.

His posture then was quite comical, if I say so myself.

“So, in short…”

My younger brother scowled at me and Hisa intently as he twirled his fingers in thought, “Respected Brother wishes to have this little girl be taught in the Ways of Arithmetic and have her inducted as a retainer to the Azai Clan.”^[5]

“That is correct, “I answered.

Certainly, my proposal would have raised eyebrows even from my brother who was rather trustful of me.

In this era, the norm was to raise girls up to a certain age after which they were married off.

Even those who worked in the castle could only do trivial chores like laundry and sewing that were not taken up by the men. In short, women were not thought to be capable enough to manage vital affairs.

I could only sigh regarding this attitude lamenting that the actions of people were but victims of the times they lived in.

Even so, I who carried the memories of my past life was wishing that Hisa be tutored in Arithmetic, which meant that I had demanded the skills that had been regarded so far as the exclusive purview of men be imparted to this girl as well. In this troubled and old fashioned era, my brother’s sceptical response to my proposition could in fact be considered to be on the positive side.

Even the legendary Oda Nobunaga, hailed as the “Demon King from the Sixth Heaven” who had been praised for his innovation and flexibility by many hadn’t been free from this predisposition.

For he, famously had said this about Princess Oichi^[6] that if she were a man she would have made an excellent general.

Since even the great Feudal Lord Nobunaga was unable to comprehend the possibility of letting a woman learning skills restricted to men, it was quite natural for my brother Masomoto to be unable to as well.

Masomoto who was still sceptical asked, “But what is the purpose of respected brother to teach this young girl arithmetic?”

As expected, even Masamoto had a look that said, “If you don’t tell me your true intentions, it will be hard to comply…” on his face. It couldn’t be helped. As I spoke to him, I made sure not to tell any lies but avoided the absolute truth as well.

“Masamoto… This girl was able to touch Taishakutsukige.”^[7]

“What… is that true?”

Masamoto was surprised once more after hearing that. It was truly a statement that only the people of the Azai would understand.

“As you know, that girl Taishakutsukige^[8] only allowed me and Hikobe to touch her when he was still living. Surprisingly, she has taken a liking to this girl as well though it might be too early to tell she might turn out to be helpful for us in the long run. Since she has no next of kin, I have decided to take her in. “

“Is that so … I see …”

Masamoto fixated his gaze on Hisa as if trying to find a clue.

The fact that Taishakutsukige had become the leader of all the other horses as a queen with a reverse harem… had long been spread among all the retainers of the Azai Clan.

At the same time, finding someone to take care of the horses had started to be an issue as well.

Since all the other horses were sticking close to Taishakutsukige, the caretakers were forced to get close to Taishakutsukige as well when trying to groom the horses. And obviously, she disliked them getting close to her. This, in turn, riled up the horses surrounding her who ended up showing their caretakers killing intents. It was as if a bunch of street thugs were saying at the same time, “Hey you, are you molesting my girl, huh?!” to a poor passer-by.

Naturally, the caregivers were out of their league dealing with such a situation.　

As a result, the horses were left free to roam in the pastures outside the Odani castle walls.

As for the caretakers? To even get close enough to the horses, they needed to bait them with food.

In other words, ever since the capital execution of Hikobe by Hisamasa^[9] the management of horses had become a perilous situation.

Moreover, after the battle with the Rokkaku clan, the number of horses owned by the Azai family has been steadily increasing, mainly due to that girl Taishakutsukige who was relentless in the efforts to increase her ‘reverse harem’.

Thus most of the higher ups in the Azai had come to fear that, if there was to be a battle and the number of horses were to increase, without sufficient control of the horses the logistics of the Azai lines would be in a dire situation.^[10]

With everyone in the Azai Clan racking their brains over how to solve this problem, my words of “Hisa was able to touch Taishakutsukige,” resounded deeply with the bureaucrat.^[11]

“Respected Brother, Are you sure that this girl is able to touch Taishakutsukige?”

“Yes, which is why I brought her here.”

“If so then I understand Respected Brother’s will!”

“Your plan is to not only have this girl take care of Taishakutsukige and the rest of the horses but eventually, you wish to leave the supervision of the feeding and the maintenance of the facilities to her as well… correct? Up till now the management of the horses and their facilities has been a complete mess, and this has caused unnecessary expenses. However, if someone would be able to take on the role of supervisor our costs will decrease by a lot. “

Y-yeah… If I was being honest, I didn’t understand a single thing he said. It seemed Masamoto was overthinking the entire thing and started thinking of possibilities I hadn’t even thought of… oh well, this solved many of our future problems. (E/N: reminds me Ainz.)

I threw a fleeting look in Hisa’s direction, and it looked like she was confused. Her future was being planned out without her having any say in it. However, it was to ensure her safety as well, so I sought her forgiveness in my mind.

Not even Hisamasa would have been able to guess that under the current circumstances, Hikobe’s relative was being kept here at Odani Castle. After all when trying to hide something, the best place is right under the nose. When something is close to themselves, humans seldom tend to notice it.

“However, elder brother, there is one issue.”

“What is it?”

“This person’s, no I mean, Hisa’s birthplace.”

Right, society in the Warring States period was quite rigid. Despite the frequent uprising by peasants across the various territories, it was a fact that the hierarchy of the various classes was quite rigid and very few from the lower classes could manage to climb up the ladder of society.

To see an example of this strict hierarchy, to make an uprising legitimate the leaders of the said uprising would often do their best to gain the acknowledgement of the Emperor without which their rebellion would be considered as illegitimate.

In this era, heritage was often tied to worth. That is, had Hisa been a farmer’s daughter, she would be regarded as “the likes of a farmer” upon climbing upwards, but had she been the daughter of the Emperor’s chief advisor, she would be held as embodying the very idea of refinement.  

“Respected brother has picked her up, but… as one would expect, in her current state we would find it hard to employ her. Let us find an appropriate family to accept her as an adoptive daughter so that she can get started soon.”

After saying that, Masamoto flashed a smile towards me.

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E/N – Found an error? Leave them in comments. Second part of this will posted by next Monday. Also if you’re interested you can join our discord.

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Footnotes:

1. In fact, the word ‘Yamato’ with which Japanese refers to themselves translates to ‘people of the mountains. ↩

2. Regions with the highest population density in the world are present in alluvial plains so this logic does makes sense. ↩

3. Daimyo in earlier translations. ↩

4. Earlier translators preferred to keep the original Japanese name ‘Sengoku’ which directly translates to Thousand Kingdoms I prefer the official English name as it better represents the description of that era. ↩

5. Aniue, used in formal contexts and among ‘noble’ families I believe is best translated as this. Masamoto as you can gather is a person who is very respectful to Nagamasa due to his dual identity as an older brother and as head of the clan and has a tendency to speak formally. ↩

6. Nagamasa often refers to his wife as Oichi Hime or Princess Oichi befitting her identity as one of the princesses of the Odas. ↩

7. The name of Nagamasa’s horse literally translates to lending moon hair which can mean that the moon has lent it’s light/complexion to the hair making it white ↩

8. Nagamasa refers to the mare as Taishakutsukigeko the ko suffix used is often used to denote the fact that the person is a girl. The same kanji character is used in Mandarin for example with the same purpose, but it is read as ‘zi’. Nagamasa often anthropomorphises his mare as a girl and treats her as one. ↩

9. It is interesting how Nagamasa refers to his father by his name ‘Hisamasa’ throughout the story, the historical Nagamasa had a strained relationship with his father as well not to mention our traverser who seems to feel no sense of kinship. ↩

10. TL note: My explanation is this, there would be an enhanced difficulty in forming the cavalry regiments and in transport of vital supplies to the front which would lead to a shortcoming in both the offensive and the sustainability of the Azai side. A better explanation is always welcome in the comments.
E/N: Horses are increasing, caretaker need to bribe existing ones more food because of their hostility, and as author mentioned in beginning of ch. the land on which food can be cultivated is limited, thus a dire situation in which supply of food is insufficient, is how i understand this. ↩

11. The bureaucrat is obviously Masamoto here. ↩

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