Chapter 82: Can’t find the Monkey, finding his wife will do!
A Man pondered for a long time, wanting to slay the villain but unable to turn the tide. Just as she was about to ask Yuan Ye if there were any other clues, she saw him stroking his chin and frowning in deep thought.
He had been doing this gesture frequently lately. It was mainly because shaving manually in ancient times made his chin uncomfortable, and he couldn’t help but touch it. A Man had a strong learning ability and liked to imitate him, unconsciously picking up the habit. However, after touching her own chin for a while with no particular feeling, she became curious seeing him so engrossed. She leaned over to touch his chin—her chin felt smooth, like A Qing’s backside. She wondered what his chin felt like.
There must be something wonderful about it, otherwise, he wouldn’t always be touching it. She wanted to try the feel of it too!
Yuan Ye slapped her hand away with a “snap” and glared at her—Presumptuous! The Lord’s chin, is that something a mere vassal like you can touch?
Even generosity has its limits. Let’s aim for Chief Senior Retainer first!
A Man was a bit displeased at not being able to touch it, but seeing how worried he was, she didn’t argue. She still focused on the important matter: “You’ve been thinking for so long, do you have any other clues? If you do, I’ll go run around again right away! I’m also very annoyed that we can’t find the person. I can’t even do anything else!”
“Don’t rush, let me think again!” Yuan Ye was actually getting a hint, but his thoughts were interrupted by A Man’s unruly behavior, so he had to start over.
Historically, there must have been a person called Monkey, but he couldn’t be found now… He wasn’t farming in the village, nor was he a follower of Oda Danjō no Chū. So, he had to search for him from other angles. For example, after the Battle of Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga bestowed upon him the name “Kinoshita Tōkichirō,” so “Kinoshita” would be his family name.
Theoretically, family names couldn’t be chosen arbitrarily. Especially since the Warring States period in Japan already had the family name “Kinoshita,” Oda Nobunaga couldn’t just casually point and force Monkey to join a certain family—such an action would easily cause misunderstandings, giving the impression that he intended to send his own vassal to forcibly inherit the Kinoshita family.
Thinking of this, Yuan Ye asked A Man, “Are there any Kinoshita family members in Owari? Is the Kinoshita family’s influence significant?”
A Man was stunned for a moment, not understanding why he was asking this, but immediately replied, “Of course, there are no Kinoshita family members in Owari now, have they not died out? The residence we are living in now used to belong to the Kinoshita family!”
Yuan Ye was reminded by her words. The family name of the original owner of this residence was indeed Kinoshita, who had been killed by a stray matchlock gun fired by Oda Nobunaga.
He patted his head, punishing himself, and quickly asked again, “Then is there no other Kinoshita family in the entire Owari province?”
“There shouldn’t be any. At least, I haven’t heard of any.” A Man was very familiar with family lineages and directly stated, “The Kinoshita family was mainly active in the Kinki region. There are more people in Kyoto. There wouldn’t be many in a remote place like Owari. I’d be surprised to find even one here.”
Yuan Ye nodded slowly, recalling what Okuruku Kiyobee had said when they moved in. It seemed the Kinoshita family had indeed died out, leaving only two young daughters, with plans to find husbands for them and adopt them as heirs to continue the family name when they grew up…
So, did Oda Nobunaga assign Monkey to marry one of the two sisters, thereby continuing the Owari Kinoshita family name?
Doesn’t that mean one of those two sisters is the future “One of the Three Wives of the Warring States,” Nene?
Was I living in Nene’s house before? And I was even planning to renovate her ancestral home?
The world is so small. I really didn’t expect this before…
Yuan Ye thought for a while and felt this was highly probable, but it needed verification. He immediately instructed A Man, “Go find the two daughters of the Kinoshita family and inquire about their situation! Be detailed!”
“Huh?” A Man was confused again. Wasn’t he looking for someone who resembled Monkey? Why was he looking for the two daughters of the Kinoshita family now? Even if he was going crazy, he’d gone too far. Did A Qing not keep a good eye on that second-hand donkey, or was that second-hand donkey so skilled in martial arts that it could still sneak into the house every night and kick his head, despite A Qing’s strict guard?
That shouldn’t be possible!
She really couldn’t understand what Yuan Ye was thinking. She asked in confusion, “Why? Why are you looking for the two daughters of the Kinoshita family again? What’s your relationship with them? What do you want to do by looking for them?”
Yuan Ye held back for a moment, unable to explain. He could only sigh leisurely, looking troubled, and remained silent.
“Alright, alright, don’t sigh. I’ll go right away!” A Man surrendered when she saw him like that. Yuan Ye’s sigh and troubled expression made her feel uncomfortable, as if she owed him a lot of money and hadn’t repaid it. She felt a deep sense of guilt and couldn’t feel at ease without doing something for him.
She relented, asked no more questions, and turned to leave. But as she walked, she muttered, “Today is truly like a dung beetle eating a steamed bun, utterly bizarre! What is all this about!”
…………
A Man spent another full day investigating and even enlisted the help of her “drinking and eating friends” from before. She quickly gathered all the information about the two Kinoshita sisters and rushed back home. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she began to report to Yuan Ye: “The people have been found. They are now in Nagoya Castle. Their adoptive father is Asano Nagamasa. The elder is named Nene, and the younger is named A Cheng.”
After reporting, she plopped down on the ground and shouted for Yayoi to bring her water. She had been exhausted for the past half month and was determined to eat two chickens tonight to replenish her strength—one stewed for soup, and one fried for meat, to enjoy herself!
Yuan Ye savored the pronunciation of “Nene” and felt that the Chinese characters could be written as”Ningning.” It was highly likely to be her, the future “Kitano Mandokoro,” the “Onna Taikō” of the Toyotomi clan, and one of the three pillars controlling the world for the Toyotomi clan.
After savoring it, he looked at A Man again and quickly showed her respect, personally fanning her with a book and handing her the tea that Yayoi had brought. He asked, “So, the Kinoshita wife’s maternal family is the Asano family?”
“That’s not it! *Hiccup*!” A Man gulped down three cups of water, her stomach sloshing. She said with a hiccup, “The Kinoshita wife’s maternal family is the Aihara family, but the Aihara family was in dire straits with too many children to care for. So, they sent the two of them to the Asano family as adopted daughters, but…”
“But what?”
“But I heard that Asano Nagamasa himself requested it, and it seems he even paid some money, possibly with Oda Nobunaga’s private instruction. But this is just hearsay, I can’t guarantee its accuracy.” A Man replied, then hesitated slightly. “When the two Kinoshita sisters arrived at the Aihara family, they had some money with them, likely from selling their house, or at least part of it. That money reportedly disappeared after reaching the Aihara family, and some say the two Kinoshita sisters were treated poorly at the Aihara family, being housed in the woodshed. But this is also hearsay, and it’s hard to say if it’s true.”
“Then, are the two sisters doing well at the Asano family now?”
“They are doing very well!” A Man had inquired very thoroughly, and it wasn’t for nothing that she ate so much of Yuan Ye’s rice. “Asano Nagamasa is a kind-hearted old man, and his status and position are good. You’ve met him before; he was a Samurai General during campaigns, with a high annual salary and many rewards. He also has no children of his own, so he dotes on the two sisters like his own daughters. I heard the sisters have grown up beautifully, and many families are already considering marriage proposals.”
Yuan Ye nodded slowly, feeling that everything could be connected.
Oda Nobunaga was playing with a matchlock gun, and a stray shot hit the thigh of his vassal, Kinoshita. It didn’t seem serious at the time, and Oda Nobunaga probably didn’t consider it a big deal, letting Kinoshita recover on his own. However, after more than twenty days, Kinoshita inexplicably died. The vassal families immediately felt a sense of shared grief and outrage, feeling that their Lord was truly heartless and intended to rebel. Oda Nobunaga, perhaps out of defiance, completely ignored the Kinoshita family’s affairs at the time.
It wasn’t until the incident gradually subsided that he began to feel somewhat sorry for his vassals—Oda Nobunaga was quite good to his own people, not excessively cruel, especially since he was only fourteen or fifteen at the time. He probably wanted to compensate them and sent people to secretly search for Kinoshita’s surviving family. He found that the Kinoshita sisters were not doing well and arranged for Asano Nagamasa, a suitable candidate, to adopt them. He also made good arrangements—the elder could be used to continue the Kinoshita family name, and the younger could be married off to an adopted son to inherit the Asano family name, achieving two goals at once without making Asano Nagamasa’s efforts in vain.
Moreover, thinking about it carefully, Nene’s relationship with Oda Nobunaga was indeed extraordinary in history. It seemed that after Kinoshita Tōkichirō became a Lord of a Castle, he madly took concubines, to the point where Nene couldn’t stand it anymore. She directly sent a letter to Oda Nobunaga, who became furious and wrote a letter scolding Monkey as a “bald rat who can only see an inch ahead.” He even ordered that Monkey not come to see him that year, and that Nene should come in his stead, acting like a family member supporting their married daughter.
At the same time, Nene seemed to hold a very high position in the Kinoshita family. According to later historical records, the maids often heard Nene scolding Monkey, and she could even make Monkey blush and apologize in Owari dialect, showing considerable confidence.
So, looking at it this way, it is highly probable that Kinoshita Tōkichirō was indeed an adopted son assigned by Oda Nobunaga to the Kinoshita family. As for why he became this adopted son…
Yuan Ye began pacing around the desk again, stroking his chin and continuing his conspiracy theory—could it be that Oda Nobunaga intentionally supported him?
Oda Nobunaga wanted to establish a dictatorship in Owari and deeply detested the “dual system” of vassals’ vassals not being his vassals, and vassals’ peasants not being his peasants. He wanted to control all the local lords in Owari province, but the local lords of Owari were not people who would sit and wait for death; they would surely resist openly and secretly.
This should be a long-term process. At this time, someone completely unrelated to the Owari lords would be needed to compete with them and create various checks and balances. Therefore, Oda Nobunaga supported grassroots samurai and rōnin like Kinoshita Tōkichirō and Akechi Mitsuhide?
《In Taikō 2》, samurai from powerful families like Shibata Katsuie and Sassa Narimasa would often confront Monkey for no reason. Even though Monkey was polite to them, they would still chase and confront him. This is highly likely due to this reason.
Of course, things in games can’t be taken as absolute truth, but historically, Monkey was indeed greatly resented by Shibata Katsuie and others. After Oda Nobunaga died, they simply fought amongst themselves, clearly forming two factions. This should be fine.
Then Oda Nobunaga needed to use grassroots individuals like Kinoshita Tōkichirō. So, to give him a legitimate samurai status, or to reduce opposition from the powerful families, it’s not impossible that he simply had him continue the Kinoshita family name and marry Nene.
As for the later accounts of Kinoshita Tōkichirō and Nene being in love… A proper daughter of a samurai, and the daughter of the Asano family head treated like his own, falling in love with a grassroots follower—it doesn’t seem likely! A 13-year-old girl and a 26-year-old man falling in love… this sounds a bit fantastical, and also unlikely!
Yuan Ye pondered over and over and felt that it was highly probable that this was how things happened. He immediately had an idea and said to A Man, “Accompany me tomorrow to visit Lord Asano Nagamasa.”
He was very curious about Nene and wanted to see the real person tomorrow, considering it a form of unconventional archaeology. And since he couldn’t find Monkey, finding his wife first would be fine!
