“Oh, yes. Almost as handsome as my husband.”
Iroha was just two years younger than Tadateru. Their marriage was, of course, political. Tadateru was the sixth son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the then-ruler of Japan, and Iroha the eldest daughter of Date Masamune, one of the most powerful daimyo, who had sworn allegiance to Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.
Iroha smiled as she remembered how, shortly before their wedding, Tadateru had shyly handed her a letter, which she had tucked into a fold of her kimono, and opened as soon as she had a moment’s privacy.
It read: “My esteemed father has written, ‘patience is the source of eternal peace, treat anger as an enemy.’ Unfortunately, my temper is easily aroused, and this has gotten me into trouble on several occasions. I can assure you that my anger is usually a fleeting thing and I am almost always sorry afterward.
“I promise not to scold you without just cause. If I violate this promise, please show me this letter.”
Iroha still had the letter, despite all that had happened since. During the years of their marriage, he did get angry with her from time to time—once he had even thrown a sake cup at her—but he had always apologized. Sometimes just minutes later.
In 1612, she and her husband had met Luis Sotelo, the Franciscan, who was then living in Sendai under her father’s protection. Christianity had already been banned in the Tokugawa domains, but not in the rest of Japan. He had secretly converted them both to the Catholic faith. This forged another bond between them.
All was well until the spring of 1615, when Tadateru was summoned to lead his troops to war, the final struggle between the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi for control of Japan.
She shuddered involuntarily, as she remembered what followed.
“Iroha-hime, are you all right?” Koya said anxiously.
“So, sorry, Koya, I am tired all of a sudden. I think I will rest now. Please put the game away.”
* * *
At last, Date Masamune, the grand governor of “New Nippon,” decided that the First Fleet couldn’t linger any longer; it would have to leave Lord Matsudaira Tadateru, and the “Golden Gate,” behind. Iroha came to Masamune’s flagship to say goodbye.
As he watched her boat approach, Date Masamune brooded over her future. As a wedding gift, the shogun had given Tadateru the rich fief of Takada. But then he had squandered his good fortune by acting quite imprudently. In 1613, he was implicated in the Okubo conspiracy, to overthrow the shogun with Christian assistance. In 1615, during the summer campaign against the Toyotomi, he permitted Sanada Yokimura to retreat into Osaka Castle. The final straw was when he refused to join his older brother Hidetada on a visit to the imperial palace, pleading illness, and went hunting instead.
Tadateru had been forced to shave his head and become a Buddhist monk, exiled to the monastery at Kodasan. He had, under orders, divorced his wife Iroha. Rather than become a Buddhist nun, or commit jigai—cutting her own throat—she had endured the ultimate embarrassment for a woman of the samurai class: returning to her father’s home. And she had refused to even consider the possibility of remarriage.
Iroha had been overjoyed to hear of Tadateru’s “rehabilitation,” however provisional, and eagerly agreed to join him for the journey to the New World, even though they had not lived as husband and wife for nearly two decades. They had set sail for California less than a month after their reunion .
Date Masamune respected Iroha’s sense of duty. But he couldn’t help but think that her obligations to Tadateru were severed long ago, and were best left that way. Was he coming to the New World so that he and Iroha could enjoy life together? So that they could worship the Christian God?
No! Lord Matsudaira was here to restore his honor. That was fine . . . commendable . . . for him. But it was doubtful, very doubtful, that he saw Iroha’s presence as more than evidence that his shame was finally expiated.
Date Masamune resolved to make one more attempt to dissuade her from continuing on a course that he was sure would lead to more suffering.
Fathers have duties, too.
* * *
“Iroha-chan, life will be difficult enough for you in a colony of several thousand Nihonjin.” Date Masamune grimaced. “But assuming that Tadateru finds this Golden Gate, and enters San Francisco Bay, to remain in his company you will eventually have to trust yourself to a small boat making its way up the American River. You and your maid would be the only women on board, and you wouldn’t have private quarters. Even in the captain’s launch, his largest boat.”
“I am prepared for the . . . inconvenience.”
“It is not mere inconvenience that you face. Please, Daughter, look here.” He gestured at a map that was fastened to the wall of his cabin. “You will be traveling through San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez Strait, and Suisun Bay, just to reach the Delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet. Then you must go about seventy miles upriver to the vicinity of the up-time town of Sacramento, and look for the mouth of the American River.