Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 56 - 31: Managing a Household Well

Chapter 56: Chapter 31: Managing a Household Well

After descending the hill, Nozawa and his party soon arrived before Hosokawa Castle.

It was not wartime at the moment, so the Hosokawa family’s defenses were not especially strict; they walked all the way to the moat before encountering some Lang Faction samurai of the Hosokawa Family. After explaining their purpose, they waited a short while, and soon an elderly samurai, looking to be in his fifties, came out to greet them. He lacked the forcefulness of a local bully; instead, he bowed warmly from a distance and said, "Lord Nozawa, I’m truly grateful—thank you so much for making this journey."

"Not at all, not at all, I should have come to pay my respects much earlier." Nozawa responded courteously, returning the greeting with polite formality.

"You are indeed just as the rumors say—such a handsome and capable gentleman!" Okumura Iefuku was short and stocky, sporting the trademark tonsured topknot hairstyle, wearing a plain samurai kimono and haori, a sword at his belt, and straw rope sandals on his feet. He looked every bit a traditional Muromachi-period samurai, yet his tone and the lines at the corners of his eyes softened his appearance, rendering him kindly. He scrutinized Nozawa a few times, a flash of surprise in his eyes, and then quickly gestured repeatedly to usher them in: "Forgive me, forgive me! Please, come inside, do come inside!"

"Then I shall impose upon you." Nozawa nodded his thanks, leading his group across the river and into Hosokawa Castle, experiencing for the first time in his life the interior of a Japanese Middle Ages fortress.

Much like its exterior walls, the interior of Hosokawa Castle was rather roughshod; unlike ancient Chinese city fortifications, where everything was meticulously paved with bluestone, and the earth tamped smooth with yellow clay, everything in perfect order, this place was little different from a typical village: uneven muddy ground, scattered and battered thatched huts with oversized eaves. Between the buildings, tufts of withered wild grass and small dugouts were sometimes visible.

Military structures were rarely seen, and hardly any soldiers were about—at most, there were a few extra warehouses, a row of horse and cattle sheds, and several connected wells. Beyond that, it looked like an ordinary residential area, unremarkable in every way.

Nozawa made polite conversation with Okumura Iefuku as he toured the grounds; the castle was not large, and they quickly arrived at the Maeda family residence.

Unlike the otherwise ordinary Hosokawa Castle, the Maeda residence itself was truly distinct.

The Maeda family residence had no courtyard; instead, four heavy timber longhouses formed a square enclosure. The round-log walls were reinforced with wattle and daub to improve their defenses and fire-resistance. The windows were of the "projecting samurai style" — constructed with an inner lattice of bamboo and paper, and fitted outside with a thick wooden shutter. When in use, the panel was propped up for light; when not needed, it could be dropped down for security, such that not even a strong bow or heavy crossbow could shoot through, nor could attackers easily break in through the windows.

The windows of the residence projected outwards, while the main door was set back into the wall.

On either side of the entrance, a narrow row of "viewing slits" allowed occupants to secretly observe visitors. Presumably, if necessary, they could also thrust long spears through these to kill anyone attempting to batter down the main gate.

In addition, there was a small watchtower on the roof, and the ground around the buildings appeared reinforced. The overall structure was quite distinct from an ordinary home, though it was impossible to inspect further in the moment.

Most likely, this was the emergency refuge for the womenfolk of Hosokawa Castle, or else the last bastion for the Hosokawa Family’s final resistance.

In peaceful times, it could probably be used to defend against sudden insurgencies?

Nozawa admired such thoroughly defensive and peculiar architecture, considering the prospect of living here himself. He thought it might be wise to reinforce the window shutters with a layer of iron sheet, and thus lingered at the entrance, peering over it several times. Okumura Iefuku, seeing his interest, wore a reminiscent expression and sighed, "This was the first house my lord had us build after leading us to settle here. Back then, it was all wilderness around, so it was named the Hosokawa Residence. Looking at it now, it’s already ten years past..."

Nozawa was suddenly enlightened: so this house was the 1.0 version of Hosokawa Castle. In those pioneering days, the entire Hosokawa Family squeezed into it, using it as their lifeline. No wonder it was built this way.

It made sense; most castles in the Japan Middle Ages probably began as a single family residence, gradually expanded over time.

Nozawa graciously offered a few words of praise, expressing his deep admiration for Maeda Toshimasa’s ability to blaze a trail and build from nothing, and then followed Okumura Iefuku into the "Hosokawa Residence."

The interior quickly reverted to being plain and unremarkable, much like at Yayoi’s home—mostly rough earthen floors, little decoration. At most, the guest room was a touch more refined: the straw curtain replaced with paper-sliding wooden doors and lifting partitions, the earthen seating layered with proper tatami, and a few two-panel folding screens and translucent partitions arranged to lend a bit of elegance to an otherwise simple space.

Okumura Iefuku was an old-fashioned and thoughtful samurai, hospitable and meticulously polite to his guests. He invited Nozawa into the tearoom and instructed someone to direct A-Qing and the two Momoi brothers to rest in another chamber, but A-Qing, eyes downcast and face serious, silently handed the Copper Ring Glaive to the Momoi brothers, then followed Nozawa with her medicine chest as if she had not heard anything.

Okumura Iefuku took no offense, and after settling down with Nozawa on the earthen seats, having tea served to them, he began to make polite conversation. He praised Nozawa’s compassionate medical skill in saving villagers, and then, by degrees, began probing into his origins, hoping to learn his past.

This was to be expected; after all, a newcomer operating in another’s domain was bound to arouse the local leader’s curiosity—he needed to weigh the abilities of the new arrival. Nozawa had been prepared for this.

He was well aware of their concerns. In this era, Chinese Confucian classics were essential reading for Japanese samurai, and knowledge of Chinese characters was a basic requirement — after all, almost all books, as well as daimyo proclamations, were written entirely in Chinese characters in this period. Without literacy in Chinese, one couldn’t even qualify as a low-ranking samurai.