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• On the beach he gossiped with the fishermen of Okitsu, who daily delivered their catches to Hideyoshi’s commissariat, grumbling all the while. They had counted on these hostilities to make them rich, but the price of fish never did go up. Mochizuki’s Son said that the low prices were a sign of Hideyoshi’s generalship, and the same thought must have...
• In the inn’s entry, Ito and his companion each thrust his sword into his sash. They were commoners, but even a commoner was permitted to wear a sword while on a journey. A traveler had no choice but to carry all the money required for his trip: this made him a tempting target, and no one denied him the right to be armed against the perils of the ro...
• In addition to kago-bearers and pack horses, Denzaemon had eight fleet-footed runners to relay the Shogun’s letters and edicts. When runners from a neighboring village streaked in with such a message, secure in a black-lacquered box bearing the Tokugawa crest, Denzaemon’s men were ready to speed it on its way. They ran in pairs, in case one should ...
• The men who lived by their labors on the highway were a special breed, rough, tough, and magnificently tatooed. In summer their tattoos and their loincloths were all they wore. In midwinter they might tolerate a kimono, but even then they would, in one observer’s words, “for expedition’s sake tack their gowns quite up to their belt exposing their b...