Warring States Survival Guide
Chapter 61 - 34: Japanese monks are truly a group of talented individuals!

Chapter 61: Chapter 34: Japanese monks are truly a group of talented individuals!

Nozawa hadn’t expected that Hai Xin, the old monk, wasn’t looking for him to treat an illness—judging by the tone, the old guy actually wanted his medicine, and was trying to do business with him.

This caught him a bit off guard, but as his gaze swept over to Zhiru, who was quietly sitting on the side, he remembered the little monk could already "Amitabha, wild mushrooms are tasty," so this style from the old monk wasn’t so surprising—he’d heard about the Zen Sect before coming and thought he’d meet an enlightened high monk. Turns out, he couldn’t have been more wrong; the guy wasn’t even close.

Probably, the teachings were brought from China to Japan, but Japan’s feng shui must be terrible, since the Zen Sect has grown all crooked.

He thought about all those Zen riddles and Buddhist verses he’d tried to prepare along the way—all a waste. But that’s not important. If it’s business, then business it is!

He immediately followed the old monk’s lead and said, "What you say is very true, master—saving all beings is a wonderful thing, it’s just that I have the will but not the means—I can’t sell the medicine far and wide."

Hai Xin put his hands together and bowed low: "Namo Amitabha-bhaya, our humble temple can act as distributor."

"Distributor?" Nozawa was stunned, his face twitching a little. He really couldn’t figure out how "Namo Amitabha-bhaya" could be connected to "distribution partner."

"Our sect has temples throughout the eight districts of Owari, and most of the merchants in the towns and cities get their licenses from us as well." That look of benevolence and mercy on Hai Xin’s face was nearly gone, replaced by glittering eyes. "Our sect also has businesses in Kaido Town and Kyoto, so it’s no problem to sell everywhere."

Nozawa didn’t fully understand, and in hindsight he really should have dragged Ah Man over here. He still lacked common sense in this time and age, but he could sort of guess the main points—Guanyin Temple seemed to be a chain business, setting up branches everywhere, gathering believers, and just so happened to sell medicine on the side. Plus, they could sell it through local merchants, who had no choice but to cooperate—it seemed like the monks were the ones handing out the "business licenses" for merchants, so they had to be obedient!

But how the hell can monks issue "business licenses"—that doesn’t add up, does it?

Nozawa made a mental note to ask someone about that later, but for now, he set aside his confusion and focused on the present. After hesitating a moment, he shook his head: "If you want to distribute it like that, I can’t possibly make that much medicine... The medicine you mean is the antiparasitic pill, right?"

He honestly hadn’t expected such a tiny antiparasitic pill to be taken so seriously. Looks like parasitic infections were a really big deal in medieval Japan.

But that makes sense. Even modern Japan has major parasitic disease problems—it’s always been filthy.

"Yes, the antiparasitic pill!" said Hai Xin enthusiastically, pulling a few pills out of his sleeve—turns out they were the very same Dried Plum and Cypress Bark Pills that Nozawa himself had made. Apparently, there were Guanyin Temple believers in Hibi Village too—word traveled fast, no slower than in Hosokawa Castle.

"I really can’t make that many." Nozawa repeated, not really keen on turning into a full-time pill-maker, squatting at home kneading pills every day. Besides, he’d already priced this medicine pretty cheap, so it didn’t actually make much money—he wasn’t about to put in all that effort for nothing.

"I see..." Hai Xin sounded a bit disappointed, but he was persistent and hadn’t given up. "Well, Lord Nozawa, if you just have spare time occasionally—could you make some for our humble temple?"

"A small batch?"

"A small batch would be fine, too!"

"Then that’s no problem," Nozawa agreed. It was just some ordinary medicine—selling to the monks or anyone else made no difference at all. If he had the free time, making a few pills for them wasn’t a big deal anyway, as long as it didn’t eat up too much of his time.

"Thank you so much, Lord Nozawa." Hai Xin put his hands together and thanked him, having achieved at least part of his goal and looking really pleased.

He really admired this medicine—a couple tiny pills, dirt cheap, could get rid of parasites! Far better than those Vinaya monks with their massive bundles of herbs, brewing up a whole cauldron that wasn’t even guaranteed to work—this stuff was just worlds ahead.

The only downside was that there wasn’t enough available, but even scarcity wasn’t a problem. He could order more, repackage them a bit, roll them in honey, and send them far away as rare medicine, selling them at high prices to wealthy merchants and noble clans—it’d make a killing.

Or just use them as luxury gifts for networking—save money and still impressive as hell.

Nozawa could basically guess what Hai Xin had in mind—if he couldn’t profit off volume sales, he was probably thinking of selling them individually at a markup. But he didn’t really care—modern society works the same way. Manufacturers often don’t make as much as retailers.

And anyway, since he’d chosen to be a doctor, he’d guaranteed his own safety and enjoyed all kinds of perks, so he had to give up a few things. Situations like this were inevitable.

If you’re useless to other people, if you don’t bring them any benefit, then why should they treat you well? Why should they bother to be polite?

Unless you have serious power and can force people to bow to you—but he’d only been here a little over a month and was still down on his luck; he wasn’t getting powerful anytime soon.

So, let others have their share of the profits, whatever!

If you want it all to yourself, that’ll have to wait for another day!

When it comes to business, monks are way more motivated than noble samurai. Nozawa had just agreed, but Hai Xin immediately asked about his medical skills, and even suggested he develop some new proprietary medicines—for "male enhancement" and such—said it’d sell like hotcakes, especially in Kaido Town and Kyoto. The guy had a head full of business tricks!

After chatting for a while, Nozawa guessed there was nothing else, and really didn’t want to keep sipping tea and talking business with this greedy old monk, but since he’d come all this way, he was reluctant to just turn around and leave. So, he asked if he could have a look around the temple, do some sightseeing.

Hai Xin didn’t mind—he actually had pretty high status in all of Owari, even higher than Maeda Toshimasa. He’d gone out of his way to invite Nozawa because he wanted to build a good relationship—otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered to receive a wandering samurai from out of town in person.

He immediately instructed his little disciple: "Zhiru, show Lord Nozawa around the temple; entertain him well, and don’t be careless!"

He was in the middle of practicing seated zazen—he had to stay put and couldn’t move, so he had no choice but to send the little disciple along. It was a sign of respect, just like when he’d sent the kid out to greet him—ordinary believers wouldn’t get this treatment! Even though Zhiru was young, his status was pretty high; he was kind of a big shot in the Hosokawa Guanyin Temple.

Nozawa politely said a couple words and then took his leave.

After leaving the meditation room, he glanced back and saw Hai Xin the old monk had already resumed his sitting meditation, eyes closed, white brows and beard, no more golden glint—in full dignified Zen master mode again.

Nozawa had to hand it to Japanese monks—they could meditate and do business at the same time, and had just signed a contract for a shipment in between. If he wasn’t impressed, he’d be lying. He just wondered what sort of Zen this old guy was even practicing!

Multitasking at the master level—he figured maybe he ought to start practicing, too!

"Where would the kind patron like to go first?" Little Monk Zhiru, who was too young to notice Nozawa’s internal sarcastic barrage about his master, asked with real dedication where he wanted to play next.

Nozawa snapped back to focus and asked in return, "What do you think, Little Master Zhiru?"

"Of course the Dobao Pagoda!"

"Let’s go check out the Dobao Pagoda first, then." Nozawa had no objections—his purpose was to sightsee anyway, nothing serious.

"Alright, let’s go!" Zhiru immediately led the way west through the temple grounds—the Dobao Pagoda was over there.

There were a lot more ordinary monks in this area—Nozawa kept running into groups of them. Zhiru’s status really was high; even adult monks called him "Little Uncle Master." What’s more, Nozawa now realized just how enormous the Hosokawa Guanyin Temple was—seemed even bigger than Hosokawa Castle itself.

He strolled along casually, not bothering to bow or burn incense when passing the Buddhist Hall—he just glanced from a distance. He wasn’t the religious type; none of that interested him. But the Dobao Pagoda was actually pretty impressive, with lots of Tang-style elements—grand and elegant.

The Dobao Pagoda had three floors—or maybe two, depending how you counted.

The first floor was a raised platform with handrails. Stairs went up from the platform to the second level. The second floor was where people could enter and tour inside, with an outer gallery of Dougong-style brackets and many latticed windows—extremely delicate. The third floor had a circular corridor, plus a viewing terrace with a great view of the distance.

Looking at it as a whole, the two tiers of eaves on the Dobao Pagoda flared outwards, with a tall spire shaped like a bowl, topped with a Buddhist jewel—really eye-catching.

Ah Qing hadn’t visited temples much before either. Staring at the intricately built tower, she zoned out a little. Nozawa wandered up and down, feeling like he was back watching those TV shows from his old life. The engineer in him kicked in, and when he saw her confused look, he started pointing out features and explaining: "Look! That’s a moon beam—it holds up the double eaves and the flying rafters; those are the four heavenly pillars, giving extra support—very smart design; that’s a ’one block three rise’ timber piece, mostly decorative, but it’s got its uses; and those are the tail-hanging beams..."

He rambled on, analyzing all sorts of load-bearing structures. Ah Qing didn’t get any of it. She just cocked her head, gave him a cool glance, then turned back to look at the pagoda—as far as normal facts, Nozawa always drew blanks, but ask about some weird stuff, and he could go on forever. Ah Man was right—he really was kind of a weirdo.

Zhiru sort of half-understood, being more educated than Ah Qing, and couldn’t help but exclaim, "Lord Nozawa, you really are a kindred spirit to Lord Okabe! He said this was his proudest design, and he put his heart into it. Hearing you like it so much would make him so happy!"

Nozawa perked up and turned around, interested: "Okabe? He’s the architect who designed the Dobao Pagoda?"

"Yes! Lord Okabe Uemon Iyayama—he led the construction of the Dobao Pagoda. He’s built lots of buildings; the Eight Sword Palace at Atsuta Shrine was his work too."

An architectural master—so the future Azuchi Castle builder is named Okabe Iyayama? That’s someone to keep an eye on. If he ever needs to build something, he can ask this guy to look at the blueprints—better than risking a collapse halfway through.

Nozawa was getting more and more interested, so he asked Zhiru, "Do you know where he is now?"

Zhiru was just a kid, hadn’t really paid attention to stuff like that. He scratched his shiny head and hesitated: "I think he’s working for Lord Oda Danjo Chonosuke now—he’s the chief architect for Oda Danjo Chonosuke’s family."

"Hmm—so he’s a samurai of the Oda family!" Nozawa mused, didn’t seem hard to find him.

"Actually, I don’t think he’s a samurai." Zhiru scratched his little bald head again. "I think he just works for Lord Oda Danjo Chonosuke. He’s a clerk (that is, staff who don’t have to swear fealty, unlike retainers)."

But to Nozawa, clerk and retainer were all the same!

He figured he’d ask Maeda Toshie about this guy when he saw him next—Maeda should know him. As he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard a dull "thunk," like something being whacked, then splashing water sounds from nearby.

He followed the noise, puzzled: "What’s that? What’s going on?"

Zhiru wasn’t surprised one bit, didn’t even look. "It’s probably the dye-house changing water."

"Dye-house?"

"The place where we dye cloth."

"Place for dyeing cloth?" Nozawa was even more bewildered. "You guys dye your own cloth?"

Zhiru seemed a bit baffled at his surprise, confused, scratching his bald head: "Of course. The temple’s always dyed cloth! Not just dye it—we weave it, make paper, print books, brew sake, make soy products...there’s all sorts of things to do."

Nozawa was floored, and had to ask, "Can we check it out?"

"Of course you can!" There’s nothing secret about it—all the temples do this, just varies by size. Zhiru didn’t hesitate, led the two of them to the back mountain, and for convenience took them to a high spot with a good view.

And the moment Nozawa looked down the hillside, he felt numb—completely speechless.

The Japanese monks had set up a whole factory in the temple—no, not just one, but several! There were crowds of people, waterwheels, ponds, giant barrels everywhere, all in what looked like assembly line production—serious mass manufacturing!

These Japanese monks... really are a bunch of geniuses!