In a memo in the possession of the Ikarugadera, a temple near
Himeji, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ( 1536- 1598) outlines troop mobiliza-
tions in the advance on Himeji, part of a campaign that climaxed in
the Battle of Takamatsu ( 1582). Hideyoshi, who personally led the
Himeji attack, was still merely a general in Oda Nobunaga's forces.
He had risen to this position from his origins in rural Owari, and his
rustic, unrefined exuberance was still evident at every turn. The
memo at the temple was written in wartime, of course, but its
scrawled script can hardly fail to surprise the reader. Such scribbling
stands in sharp contrast to Hideyoshi's later calligraphy. During the
Korean campaign, he would send beautifully penned letters to his
wife from his camp in Kyūshū. One can only wonder when he found
the time to acquire such calligraphic skills.

From fine brushwork to the luxury of a gorgeous castle com-
pound, Hideyoshi's tastes, like those of other daimyo, gradually
turned aristocratic. But though Hideyoshi and the daimyo imitated
aristocratic ways, they still valued the rural home town and exhibited
much democratic goodwill. In the tenth month of 1587, for exam-
ple, Hideyoshi held a grand tea ceremony at Kitano, to which he
invited even ordinary commoners. This lavish party included both
high and low, rich and poor.

A tale recorded in the Jōzan kidan (Memoirs of [Yuasa] Jōzan),
published in 1738, suggests that the cuisine of the high-ranking war-
riors was at first not at all aristocratic. ¹ Here we read that one Tsubo-
uchi, a retainer and renowned chef of the Miyoshi family, was taken
captive around the time of the Miyoshi house's fall in the 1560 s. Sev-
eral years later, a vassal named Ichihara Goemon reported to Oda
Nobunaga ( 1534- 1582) that "Tsubouchi is skilled in the cutting of

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