Tadakatsu knew that the Dutch had their own goals; he hadn’t wanted to rely on a Dutch translation of the up-time texts. Hence, he had located and enlisted Anjin.
Thanks to Anjin, Tadakatsu now knew several explosive secrets. First, that in 1637, secret Christians had revolted in the Shimabara peninsula. Disgruntled ronin had joined them, and it had taken an army of two hundred thousand to crush the rebels. Perhaps thirty thousand rebels had lost their lives, either in the fighting or in the mass beheadings that followed.
Secondly, the shogunate had reacted by kicking out the Portuguese traders, and limiting the Dutch to the tiny islet of Deshima, in Nagasaki harbor, save for an annual journey to the shogun’s court in Edo.
And thirdly, that while the policy of seclusion—sakoku—had bought Japan over two centuries of peace, during that time, the Western powers had grown knowledgeable and mighty, and had finally humiliated the Tokugawa by forcing open the Japanese ports. Leading, in turn, to the overthrow of the shogunate by “outside lords” allied with the once-powerless emperor.
Tadakatsu believed that Iemitsu had no deep-seated hatred of Christianity per se. The Tokugawa concern was that the Spanish and Portuguese had a reputation of using missionaries as a fifth column, subverting the people and the lords and preparing the way for invasion. When the Tokugawa were still at war, the trade contact with the West was useful, as a source of weaponry. Once they had pacified the country, they concluded that Western guns and cannon were more likely to strengthen the outside lords, who had only grudgingly accepted Tokugawa rule, and stopped the trade in weapons. The Western traders remained convenient for conveying silks from China to Japan, but there was little else that the Tokugawa had still wanted from them.
But that was beginning to change. Iemitsu was not the only one who was fascinated with the up-time artifacts. There was also the newest senior councillor, Abe Tadaaki. Tadakatsu was confident that Tadaaki would, if properly approached, support the new policy Tadakatsu was thinking of proposing. And that he would be willing to dare the displeasure of the shogun by voicing his position before Iemitsu himself announced a policy change. It was Tadaaki, after all, who had refused to throw a fencing match to the shogun, back in 1630.
Still, once Iemitsu heard of the Shimabara Rebellion, he might lose his new-found enthusiasm. But should he? Tadakatsu feared that, with the dissemination of up-time knowledge, there would be Spanish or Portuguese steam warships off the Japanese coast in a decade, rather than two centuries. In which case seclusion wasn’t the solution. But free intercourse with the West might be equally dangerous. Tadakatsu wasn’t sure what he should recommend to the shogun.
He decided to go to the Senso-ji temple and pray to the Bodhisattva Kannon for guidance. And then perhaps call on Abe Tadaaki.
* * *
“Great Lord,” said Tadakatsu. “I have been thinking.”
“About the game?” asked Iemitsu. They were playing Go.
“About the parable concerning the sound the hare heard.”
Iemitsu placed a stone, threatening one of Tadakatsu’s formations. “What parable is that?”
“In one of his incarnations, the Bodhisattva was a lion of the forest. A hare lived in that forest. He was something of a philosopher, as hares go, and was thinking about how the Earth might come to an end. At that very moment, a ripe fruit fell nearby, but out of sight, and it made a loud sound. ‘The Earth is crumbling!’ the hare cried, and he started to run, without even a glance back in the direction of the sound that had startled him. Another hare saw him running and asked, ‘What’s the matter?’ The philosopher-hare answered, ‘There’s no time to ask or answer questions; run for your life!’ And the second hare ran.”
Tadakatsu took a sip of sake. “Other animals saw their flight, and started running too, without questioning whether they fled a forest fire, a stream of lava, or a tsunami. Soon, all the animals of the forest were fleeing, save for the Lion Bodhisattva. He forced one after another to stop and explain why he ran, and each referred him to another animal for the answer. At last he was directed to the hares, and the first hare told him what he had heard. The great-souled Lion told the other animals to wait, while he and the hare investigated further. With the Bodhisattva by his side, the hare found the courage to return, and there the Wise One found the ripe fruit, and the untroubled ground, and realized what had happened.”
Tadakatsu counterattacked in another part of the board. “And thus it was that the animals of the forest learned that they must not listen to rumors, they must learn the truth before they act.”