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a glancing blow to his thigh, and momentarily set off balance, he lowered his guard and exposed himself to a crippling thrust from directly in front, which landed squarely on the vital region of his chest. His downfall was greeted with wild cheering from the spectators’ seats, where the whole of Lord Tadanao’s household was gathered. Lord Tadanao, gasping a little for breath, stood quietly awaiting the apparance of the rival commander. He was experiencing, not for the first time in his life, a glow of sublime and exhilarating self-satisfaction.

The White commander was a young man called Onoda Ukon. At the age of twelve he had become a pupil of Gondō Saemon, the celebrated Kyoto master of spearmanship, and at the age of twenty, demonstrating the good use which he had made of his training, he had defeated his own teacher. But Lord Tadanao held no one in awe. At Ukon’s sharp cry of challenge—“Ei!”—he levelled his spear and went furiously in to the attack. There was more than the confidence of skill behind his onslaught. There was, it seemed to the onlookers, the whole power and majesty of the Lord of a Province, of the daimyō of a 670,000 koku fief. The battle was hotly contested for some twenty exchanges, and then, suddenly, Ukon staggered beneath a powerful blow to his right shoulder, retreated a few steps, and, prostrating himself before Lord Tadanao, signified his surrender.

The spectators cheered until the very walls of Kitanoshō castle trembled. Lord Tadanao felt, once more, that glow of sublime self-satisfaction. Returning to his seat of honour he announced, in a great voice:

“Gentlemen, my sincere thanks to you all. It is now my wish that, as some compensation for your labours, you should join me in a feast.”

He was in even greater spirits than usual. As the banquet proceeded his most trusted retainers came before him, one after another, and offered their compliments.

“My lord! Since your experiences amid the arrows in the Osaka campaign you have advanced yet further in your skill.