Harano was montarily stunned. He quickly tried to recall Hoyoshimaru’s appearance, but no matter how hard he thought about it, the kid always looked pretty pleasant—could even be called handso in a way. He certainly didn’t have arms that reached past his knees, nor a hairy face, and definitely not big protruding ears. There was nothing monkey-like about him at all.
Maeda Toshie saw him staring there blankly, and got even more puzzled. He cautiously asked, "What’s wrong, Saburo?"
Harano snapped back to himself, thought for a second, then laughed, "It’s nothing. I just think giving people nicknas isn’t very nice."
Maeda Toshie didn’t quite agree, but Harano was a few years older than him, and supposedly a "legendary character." So he nodded obediently, "Guess I was being rude."
"It’s not that serious," Harano replied vaguely, then promptly asked, "Who gave him that nickna, anyway? And why do they call him ’Monkey’?"
"It was this jerk Shiuami from Lord’s side—he likes pretending to be crazy and clowning around, making fun of people all the ti," Maeda Toshie answered, then thought a bit and hesitated, "As for why Hizi gets called Monkey—probably ’cause his na’s Hizi, and because he stays in the Horse Hall!"
"What do you an?" Harano didn’t get it.
"Because of Hikawa Taisha! Hizi just happens to share the sa na, and Hikawa Taisha is known for worshipping the sacred monkey... well, it was originally for the sacred monkey, now it’s just an attendant god at Mount Hiei." Maeda Toshie wasn’t sure why Harano cared about this trivial crap but did his best to recall, "And supposedly, according to the Beast Scripture or so book, tying a monkey up in the stable keeps the horses from getting sick. Hizi works super hard, almost sleeps in the Horse Hall every night, so that Shiuami guy just teases him, saying he’s like a monkey tied up in the stables all day." (Note 1)
Harano nodded slowly. With Maeda Toshie’s reminder, he rembered reading that in ancient China people really believed "monkeys keep horses from getting sick" and had a tradition of keeping monkeys in horse stables.
For example, in Essential Techniques for the People it’s ntioned: "Always tether a macaque in the stable, so horses are fearless, evils are warded off, and all illnesses are cured."
In the Four Seasons Essentials, too, it says, "Always tie a macaque in the horse barn, to ward off evil, cure all ailnts, and keep the horses from getting mange," or sothing like that.
And in the Compendium of Materia dica, under "macaques," there’s a citation from Beast Scripture: "Keep a female monkey in the stable to prevent horse epidemics," and it ntions "each month, when Tian Gui’s dew falls on the grass and horses eat it, they’ll never get sick," etc.
Then there are books like the Tiger Seal Scripture and Yunlu Notes with similar records. This even made its way into so storybooks in the Yuan and Ming dynasties—like in Journey to the West, Sun Wukong’s first job in the Celestial Court is "Stable Cleaner," which literally just ans "plague-warder-offer for horses."
So, it turned out Kinoshita Fumijiro was called "Monkey" not because he looked like one, but because he took care of horses and lived in the stables—so people started calling him monkey.
Honestly, Harano had never even thought about this before. For days, hanging around Oda Nobunaga’s mansion, he kept looking for soone with a hairy face, arms past his knees, monkey-like features. Even after chatting with Hoyoshimaru, he didn’t make the connection—Hoyoshimaru just seed like a competent, motivated kid who wanted to beco a Samurai. But these days, there were loads of competent people wanting to be Samurai. If Harano suspected every one of them, he’d never get anything done—just spend all his ti guessing.
But now, with this "Monkey" nickna as evidence, Hoyoshimaru was 99.99% sure to be the future Kinoshita Fumijiro, Hashiba Hideyoshi, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Thank god—after years of hardship, and with Oda Nobunaga finally uniting the Eight Provinces of Owari, he had finally found the monkey. Or maybe, the monkey had finally shown up, now working for Oda Nobunaga as a Lang Faction mber, not yet a Samurai.
Now that he had the right person, things would be easy. Harano wasn’t in any rush to run to the stables and stab Hoyoshimaru there and then; he kept a poker face, harshly criticized that rude guy Shiuami, and then smoothly steered the conversation to ask about Hoyoshimaru’s background—because honestly, he really couldn’t rember anything about monkey’s origins. He only recalled he ca from humble beginnings, but now that seed off; a plain commoner’s son would hardly have been to temple school, or held the post of Chief of Planning in so noble’s household, and after leaving, still manage to slip right into Oda Nobunaga’s house and shoot up to head of the Horse Hall.
Maeda Toshie actually knew all this well, and seeing Harano interested in Hoyoshimaru made him happy, so he imdiately said, "Hoyoshimaru’s background—his father was Lord Shinshu’s Fellowship mber. People called him Chikuami. He used to be very trusted by Lord Shinshu, but now he’s retired and lives in Nakamura just outside Hibi Village.
Hoyoshimaru also adventured outside for a few years. I heard things didn’t go well, though. He was capable, but aroused so jealousy in the Matsushita family and had to leave. After that, he stayed in Minoh, Omi, and Kyoto for a while, and ca back just last year, when his father recomnded him to the lord."
So that’s how it was?
Harano felt that explained things, and he nodded lightly. "Ah, so his dad was a Fellowship mber..."
The Fellowship’s main job was to keep the Daimyo company, providing entertainnt and social services. Like, in a Daimyo’s daily life, the Fellowship would play chess, cards, do ball gas, help the lord relax and unwind from political and military stress. At important social events or banquets, they’d also perform, tell jokes, and spice up the atmosphere, helping socializing along.
Lately, Harano had seen quite a few of Oda Nobunaga’s Fellowship showing off their talents, but he never realized that monkey actually ca from an "artist family." In a sense, you could say monkey did co from the grassroots—the Fellowship were like playthings, not respectable at all, and their status was always far below the Samurai.
Maeda Toshie felt that Harano was acting oddly today, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He just went along: "Yeah, Fellowship is right. That jerk Shiuami probably keeps teasing Hoyoshimaru because his dad once made fun of him. But Hoyoshimaru never really takes it to heart."
Harano nodded again, bashed Shiuami so more for being petty, and then after a few casual remarks, claid he was tired and wanted to relax with a bath, directly shooing Maeda Toshie away.
But he didn’t actually go bathe—he wasn’t in the mood. Instead, he called over Ah Man, who was loudly scolding the Oda Family maids for moving the bath barrel too slowly, and sent the maids away. Softly, he told Ah Man and Ah Qing, "I’m planning to murder soone. Can you two help figure out the best way to do it?"
Murder was out of his experience range—had to get expert advice.
Ah Man and Ah Qing were both stunned. Harano was always pretty mild-mannered. Even on the battlefield, he’d never hesitated, but in daily life, he’d never said, "I’m going to kill soone" before—this was definitely a first.
......
Note 1: This is just my guess. I checked out a bunch of pictures of Hashiba Hideyoshi—he does look all wrinkly like a preserved radish, but he never looked like a monkey to . I couldn’t find any solid explanation in the sources, so I just speculated. If there’s a different explanation, then please take that instead.
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