Chapter 6: Eccentric
“Mom, I’m back.”
Yayo brought the leftovers into the side room. The layout was the same as the main house, just smaller. The earthen seat was also not as clean, tidy, or exquisite as in the main house. This was actually where Jikuro’s family lived primarily. The main house was more for entertaining the lord’s vassals and important figures from various places. Otherwise, at least the earthen floor room would have a floor-standing spinning wheel like this one.
There were no oil lamps lit in the room, only the hearth fire. A-ping, Yayo’s mother, was sitting nearby, using the firelight to pick out barnyard grass seeds – rice barnyard grass. In the Modern Era, this was a type of paddy field weed. The seeds were black or purplish-blue, edible, but had a poor texture. Eating too much could also cause indigestion, leading to difficulty in defecating, which was very painful.
Although Japanese farmers in the Medieval Period spent more than half the year planting rice, they themselves hardly ate rice. Rice was mainly used to pay annual tribute, provide rice for oxen, pay interest rice, and exchange for money to buy essential daily necessities like salt, ironware, and pottery. Their daily diet consisted mainly of buckwheat, various beans, radishes, wild vegetables, and dried fruits, mixed with rice bran and barnyard grass seeds.
A few regions also cultivated wheat and millet, but due to climate, seeds, and related agricultural techniques, the cultivation area was not large, and the yield was not good.
A-ping’s hands were busy rubbing barnyard grass seeds, and she was lost in thought. Hearing her daughter’s voice, she startled awake and quickly got up to greet her, asking with concern, “Is the noble person alright?”
“Everything is fine,” Yayo replied, looking at the dark earthen seat. “Where is Father? Is he feeling any better?”
“Much better. He hasn’t had a fever since, and he’s been sleeping. He should recover soon,” A-ping said with relief, also glancing at the dark earthen seat where her husband was sleeping soundly under his clothes. He had likely passed the danger.
“That’s good, that’s good.” Yayo let out a long sigh of relief. If her father were to pass away, leaving only her and her mother, their lives would change drastically in an instant. Her mother would likely remarry, and she would probably be sent to the Whale House in the city to become a maidservant or a prostitute, unless her stepfather was willing to support an extra person.
Generally speaking, in the rural areas of Japan during the Medieval Period, it was rare for a stepfather to be willing to do so. After all, even if they raised her, she wouldn’t be able to contribute labor, and they wouldn’t receive a bride price if she got married, making it a pure loss.
Feeling relieved, Yayo quickly held up the leftovers and said excitedly to her mother, “Mom, Lord Nohara left so much food! Please have some!”
“Why is there so much left?!” A-ping was surprised. Only a little more than half of the brown rice was eaten, the meat from the belly of the fish was gone, and the kelp and radish soup and soy sauce were barely touched.
She began to worry again, “Does he find the food too simple?”
Yayo quickly comforted her, “No, Mom. Lord Nohara was very gentle and didn’t get angry.”
“It’s good that he wasn’t angry, it’s good that he wasn’t angry,” A-ping felt a little relieved, but still worried. The main concern was the medicine money. She had personally seen her husband on the verge of death, and after taking just a little medicine, he had recovered instantly. She assumed the medicine must be very precious. If Yuan Ye were to ask her for the medicine money, she might not be able to afford it even if she sold her entire family.
As for her not having said she would pay…
If a samurai speaks reason, is he still a samurai? Who has ever seen a noble person speak reason with a commoner?
If she tried to renege on the debt, Yuan Ye, as a “noble samurai,” wouldn’t even have to do anything. He could just write a letter to Aragiko Castle to seek justice, and then shout and curse a few times. For the sake of its reputation, Aragiko Castle would definitely hand over their entire family. Their family was insignificant, and paying for medicine was only natural. No one would speak up for them.
Therefore, all she could do now was hope that Yuan Ye was in a good enough mood to be merciful and not mention the medicine money.
Although Yayo was precocious, she was still young. She had chatted with Yuan Ye and found it quite pleasant. She didn’t think he was a harsh person, not as much as her mother imagined. She raised the leftovers again and said happily, “Mom, please have some!”
In the Medieval Period of Japan, farmers, family retainers, followers, and even some low-ranking samurai usually ate only two meals a day: breakfast and lunch. This was because they had to perform physical labor in the morning and afternoon, and without food, they wouldn’t have the energy to work. They couldn’t skip meals. However, in the evening, they had little to do and could endure hunger. Once they fell asleep, they wouldn’t feel hungry, so there was no need to eat dinner.
If men were like this, women and children were even less so. Their rations would only be less than the men’s. In fact, women and children wouldn’t even get to the table or touch their rice bowls until the strong laborers had finished eating.
For Yayo, dinner and brown rice were rare treats. When Yuan Ye had given her dinner before, it was proper brown rice, with fish, eggs, soy sauce, and kelp. She had to force herself not to gobble it down, wanting to save some to share with her mother.
A-ping hesitated for a moment, took the leftovers but didn’t eat them, and turned to put them away. “No, save it for your father. He needs to regain his strength now.”
Yayo licked her lips. She was still hungry, but she also knew that without her father, the family would collapse. Only men could rent fields. In ancient times, women’s farming efficiency was very low. When farming, it was difficult to resist attacks from wild animals. If thieves came to rob them, they could only flee. She didn’t say anything more.
After putting things away, A-ping pulled her daughter to sit by the hearth to warm themselves. She rubbed her daughter’s small hands and asked, “Did you just call him Lord Nohara?”
“Yes,” Yayo replied. “Lord Nohara Saburo Ieyoshi. The other lord hadn’t woken up yet, so I don’t know his name.”
“The Nohara family?” A-ping frowned and pondered for a moment, unable to recall any important figure with the family name Nohara. But then she stopped trying to recall, as knowing he was of noble status was enough. Matters concerning court nobles and samurai were forever beyond the understanding of commoners.
She then asked, “Anything else?”
Yayo thought for a moment and said, “They seem to have come from a very distant place and are not very familiar with Owari Province.”
Perhaps they came from Iga, Omi, or Iga. Or perhaps they had finished their pilgrimage to Ise Shrine and were on their way to Atsuta Shrine. A-ping had personally seen Yuan Ye emerge from the mountains, and his accent was strange. He must be an outsider who had forcibly crossed the mountains and arrived in Owari Province. She figured his martial arts must be very good. The Mount Ise Range was rampant with wild boars, bears, and wolves. Japanese wolves had not yet gone extinct at this time. Without great strength, one could easily die while crossing the mountains. Those who dared to cross the mountains in this era were not to be trifled with. Moreover, Yuan Ye could carry someone on his back while his companion was injured, traversing mountains and ridges, and successfully brought the person out. He was definitely an extraordinary warrior.
Theoretically, if a companion was seriously injured in the deep mountains, the most viable strategy for survival would be to abandon the companion and leave immediately. Otherwise, the sheer expenditure of energy could lead to the death of even an ordinary person.
A-ping pondered this in her mind and looked at her daughter, her gaze continuing to inquire.
Yayo thought again and shook her head, “Nothing else. Lord Nohara’s clothes are very good, very smooth and very thick, comfortable and warm to the touch. They also have gold threads and small ornaments, very exquisite and beautiful.”
In reality, they were copper alloy zippers and buttons, which she didn’t recognize.
“Perhaps it’s Ming Dynasty silk?” A-ping guessed casually.
She had heard that Maeda Toshiharu had a silk belt, which was said to be very magnificent, shimmering in the sunlight, and slightly reflective. However, she, a mere servant, had never seen it. She imagined the material must be like Yuan Ye’s clothes – a fabric so fine it had a sheen and could reflect light slightly. She could only think of the luxurious silk from the Ming Dynasty.
Yayo yearned for it. She also wished she had such beautiful and warm clothes, even if it meant living a few years less. She couldn’t help but murmur, “It’s just that the style isn’t very good, it’s too strange, such a pity.”
A-ping was unconcerned. “Lord Nohara is probably an eccentric. It’s not unusual for them to dress strangely.”
“Eccentric?” Yayo heard a new word and became very curious.
A-ping, having worked in a samurai household as a former servant, had some experience. She always paid attention to cultivating her daughter’s knowledge, demeanor, and speech, hoping that in the future, she might have the opportunity to send her to work at Aragiko Castle. It would be best if she could marry locally. After all, life for Japanese farmers was truly too hard. Being confined to Hibitsu Village and marrying a farmer would likely mean enduring hunger and starvation for a lifetime. She herself was relatively fortunate, having married a “low-ranking magistrate, one who acts on imperial orders,” a “servant husband” responsible for managing rural labor. She was already an object of envy for the women in the village. She could occasionally eat her fill. Ordinary peasant women were even more miserable, constantly starving and gaunt.
She patiently imparted knowledge to her daughter: “An eccentric is someone whose words, actions, and attire are beyond ordinary. Generally, the stranger their dress, the nobler their status. You must pay attention to this in the future and not offend these noble people. They usually have bad tempers.”
The “eccentrics” she spoke of evolved from people like the “Basara.”
The word “Basara” originally referred to one of the twelve divine generals under Yakushi Nyorai, who had a strange appearance and luxurious attire. Later, during the Nanboku-cho period of Japan, the term was extended to refer to excessively extravagant clothing, behavior, and people.
For example, the Kenmu Shikimoku records: “Recently, those called Basara are fond of luxury. Brocades and silks, finely crafted silver swords, are dazzling to behold, truly madmen.”
So, if they were mad, what kind of good people could they be?
These people often adhered to the philosophy of “everyone else is muddled, I alone am clear,” wanting to “embody the elegance of Basara,” to “be different,” and to “display personal freedom.” They feared their clothing would not be exquisite enough, their armor not conspicuous enough, and their behavior not bizarre enough.
This included wearing clothes only halfway, being half-naked (and not necessarily the upper body), having various strange hairstyles, creating swords inlaid with gold and silver, painting totems and talismans on their armor, and installing bizarre decorations like crescent moons, ox horns, tiger fangs, halos, and flowering trees on their helmets. It even extended to bizarre acts for amusement, such as teasing high officials, burning maple forests, throwing feces at temples, and parading on horseback while holding an entire flowering tree.
At one point, the fashion in Kyoto, Japan, became extremely wild. Without doing so, one could not gain fame. Without fame, one could not become a Shugodai in the provinces. Without becoming a Shugodai in the provinces, one could not engage in extortion. Without extortion, one could not become rich.
By the end of the Muromachi Shogunate, the “elegance of Basara” intensified, becoming the “eccentric fashion.”
For example, armor styles became increasingly strange, with many useless decorations added. Haori and Horo became more brightly colored. Items like “water-dot patterned sheer jinbaori” appeared, which were semi-transparent and it was unclear if they should be considered military uniforms. Some helmets even had front crests two meters high, made of paper-mâché and painted with silver, shaped like crescent moons.
The helmets were taller than people; this could no longer be described as merely strange.
Hairstyles were similar: bald heads, spiky buns, and the “reverse sakayari” style, where only the front of the forehead had hair and the rest was shaved. All sorts of bizarre styles, a chaotic dance of demons.
The social atmosphere was also similar. For example, Okuni, a shrine maiden from Izumo Shrine, to raise money for rebuilding the shrine, created a performance based on “Nembutsu Odori,” a religious dance for prayer and blessings. She incorporated storylines, cross-dressed as a man, and took in a large number of “yujo,” women who engaged in prostitution, to perform for money. Her bold and flamboyant style was renowned. This would have been impossible before the Muromachi period. Traditional ethics would not have accepted it, and Okuni would have been beheaded immediately instead of being widely welcomed.
Okuni later even became the founder of Japanese Kabuki, although the development process of Kabuki was a bit convoluted:
“Yujo Kabuki” was banned due to issues involving large-scale public sexual performances. While Okuni’s performances were relatively decent, with a strong religious atmosphere and targeting the high-end market, the yujo, under the guise of storytelling, would strip naked on market town stages, simulating marital life between women, and engaging in organized prostitution privately. This caused numerous public order problems and many deaths, leading to its prohibition.
It was then forced to change to “Wakashu Kabuki,” where young boys cross-dressed as women for performances. As a result, the young boys were handsome and delicate, and their female attire was even more alluring than that of ordinary women, leading to widespread homosexual relationships and extensive affairs with the wives of samurai left behind. This incurred the wrath of the public and was banned again.
Finally, it could only change to “Yaro Kabuki,” which only allowed adult men as actors. They would then wear masks, emphasizing acting skills and disregarding the actors themselves. This is how it developed into modern Japanese Kabuki performances.
In short, from any perspective, the daily life of the common people during the Japanese Warring States period was quite chaotic, bizarre, and open. Yuan Ye wearing hiking clothes and boots, with short hair, these were trivial matters. How could it be stranger than someone with their hair in small braids, riding a horse naked, carrying a tree?
A-ping told Yayo some stories about “eccentrics” she had heard. Her daughter had never seen them, but she had seen a few when she was at Aragiko Castle, and they had left a deep impression. Yayo listened, dumbfounded, her pupils wide. Her young mind was greatly shaken. She never expected that Yuan Ye, such a seemingly gentle and approachable noble person, was actually a madman on the inside, suffering from delusions. No wonder he would often space out.
When A-ping finished speaking, feeling her throat dry, and thinking she had sufficiently broadened her daughter’s horizons, and as the night grew late, she urged her to rest: “Alright, I won’t say anymore. You go to sleep for a while. We’ll take turns keeping watch tonight.”
Yayo was still unsatisfied and wanted to hear more of these strange and wondrous eccentric stories. But she was a good and obedient child, so she honestly agreed and went to sleep, leaving A-ping to continue picking barnyard grass seeds by the hearth, watching over the long night.
There was no other way. With noble guests in the house, to prevent them from suddenly needing something in the night and not finding anyone, which could lead to their fury and their family’s ruin, it was best for one of them to stay awake at all times.
Hopefully, these two noble guests will leave soon!
