Amago no Miko – Chapter 4

Translator: Flowingcloud    Editor: Arocks141

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TERMS/THINGS TO NOTE:
Amenohohi – A god that was mentioned in chapter 1.
Lots of measurement units used this chapter:
Cho, Kan, Koku, Shaku, Sho, and Tan
Senbakoki – Ancient Japanese threshing tool

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Praise me, praise me!

 

September, 23rd year of the Tembun era (1554), Outskirts of Kitsuki-no-Oyashiro, Hishine Village, Izumo

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁

 

“Princess, it’s a great harvest!”

“Fuhahaha, it’s fine for you to praise me more!”

In front of me, who was laughing out loud, was a sea of golden ears of rice stretching as far as my eyes could see.
Who could hold back their laughter after seeing something like this?

There are none! Absolutely none!

Even if it wasn’t me, their laughter wouldn’t stop.

I never thought that it would turn out as smoothly as it did. I thought that it would increase by 20 or 30 percent, but in the field that harvested the most, they were able to harvest nearly twice as much as last year’s harvest.

After I made the rice nursery in the spring, I slightly marked off the rice paddies by one-tan each and tried planting the seedlings in various patterns.

In addition, the results of the paddy fields with free-range wild and domestic ducks and the fields where we tried spreading out oil, is the golden-colored sea before my eyes.

Well, it’s fun to see some of the rice-plants drooping over in some way due to the typhoon. Other than my rice paddies, a large number of rice-plants had fallen over, so it’s a luxury to complain.

To think that such a difference would occur just by figuring out a method to plant the seedlings. The day when one-tan one-koku will become one-tan two-koku is not far.

“Yes! As expected of Amenohohi-sama!”

Eh!? This achievement isn’t because of me but Amenohohi?

Grrrr…… I can’t comprehend!

But, well, I did say that it was divination from Amenohohi, so I guess it can’t be helped.

“It also seems like they’re also the ones that got harvested the most after the typhoon.”

“Typhoon? Ahh, you mean the ‘nowaki’?” ¹

Come to think of it, the word ‘typhoon’ didn’t exist in this era yet.

“Yeah that, I’ll spread this planting method, where the rice-plants didn’t fall over, to all the fields next year!”

“We only could employ this new seeding planting method on five-cho worth of land this year after all.”

That’s right. Of course, I wanted to switch over all 50-cho of rice paddies to the ‘divined’ planting method, but it couldn’t be helped. On top of rice planting taking manpower, it’s heavy labor that involves bending over.

Also, it seems like I gave various disconnected instructions like, “Plant them in one-shaku by one-shaku intervals, one-shaku by seven-shaku there, and eight-shaku by five-shaku here~”

Even if I said it’s the “oracle from Taisha-sama”, it is the rice we eat after all. If we tested out the new method and it fails, the harvest would decrease and the farmers would starve; it’s a matter of life or death.

With this and that, the farmers were more dubious and did not really cooperate, so it happens that only five-cho of rice paddies were employed with the new seedling planting method.

Well, the main reason it was the first time anyone did this method, so the means of going about it were poor and the overwhelming shortage of rice nurseries was the cause!

To think that there was so much was needed……

You didn’t make a mistake calculating in the “ones” column right?

“Well, this was our first time, and it can’t be helped since the rice nursery takes up extra space.”

“But after looking at princess’s rice paddies, there should be many people who will mimic this method next year.”

“After all, ‘a person will not move unless you show them, tell them, have them do it, and then praise them’.” ²

Well, the person who said this quote was a playful person who would believe a story where oil could be produced from water!

“I see. As expected of Princess!”

“Fuhahahaha, it’s fine to praise me more!”

On top of that, he went for a front line inspection saying, “If you don’t gratefully watch over what you’re doing, people won’t learn” then he went to the Bougainville airspace.

“Hmm? Princess, those were some wise words at first, weren’t they? I see, how admirable.”

“Hm? Old man Tako.”

Did Tako Tokitaka overhear us? Those were just some words I threw out, so isn’t it kind of embarrassing to praise me as something, like admirable? (T/N: For reference, he was mentioned in the first chapter. He’s important so remember him.)

Maybe it’s because my maid Haru is his granddaughter, but before I knew it, he shrewdly got some sort of position similar to guarding me. While monitoring the bunch of regional administrators too, probably.

Well, I meet him around once or twice a month.

“Grandfather, since when were you here?”

“I just got here. Before going back to report to my master Toda, I thought that I should drop in and meet the Princess before I go. Of course, Haru as well.”
³

Tako Tokitaka was different from the annoying bunch of Izumo regional administrators; one way or another, he was a follower that my father, Haruhisa, relied on. He was entrusted with protecting an important point, the Shiga-Iwayama Castle, located at Hane, the provincial border of Izumo and Iwami. Proof that he was trusted above all.

Although he was not the lord of the Shiga-Iwayama Castle but the chamberlain, Tako Tokitaka’s territory is near Iwami’s Ouchi County’s Nakano Village and Yakami Village.

Coincidentally, this Nakano Village’s territory was not received from the Amago, but the land was received from the Kyogoku clan and the shogunate by Tako Tokitaka’s grandfather due to his achievements in the Onin War, so it could also be said that he was the feudal lord of Iwami. ⁴

“Are the silver mines in Hane and Satsuma going to be fine?” ⁵

“I have left it to my son. He is long in his thirties, so I have to let him become independent sooner or later.”

“Is that so? It’ll be fine if it’s left with Shigemori-dono (Haru’s father).”

“Princess sure is prone to worrying. Ouchi, no, rather it’s the Sue; Sue and Mori will continue to skirmish around Suo and Aki, so for the time being, they don’t have the leisure to make a pass at Iwami.” ⁶

“If possible, I wish they would forever skirmish around Aki and Suo.”

However, the Battle of Miyajima should occur soon. From thereon, Mori’s steady advance should begin, so there was less time than I thought remaining, so I felt down. ⁷

That cheat old geezer, don’t come over here! That’s right, this is my true feeling.

“Hahaha, it’ll be settled one day. It is fine for us, the Amago, to just make our province wealthy in the time being and build up our power.”

“That’s right.”

“Yes. Allow me to help princess spread the new rice-plant planting method that was discovered by you.”

“Okay, I’ll write down the method on paper, so please bring it to Toda’s father.”

“This is an important task. Please leave it to me.”

However, at this rate, it’s scheduled that we’ll fall into ruins in ten years or so based on the shoddy history knowledge that I have……

Well, I don’t exactly know what year the 23rd Year of the Tembun era is in the Christan Era though.
But most likely, it should change to the Koji era in a few years, and several years later, we should change into the Eiroku era, so Okehazama should have occurred in 1560, the 3rd Year of the Eiroku era, thus currently in Christan Era, it should roughly match some period between 1553 and 1555.
⁸

If I remember correctly, Miyajima should have occurred five years before Okehazama, right?

It hurts that I don’t remember the year that Sue Harukata rebelled, but at any rate, he should have established himself a few years later, so let’s be patient until then.

That’s not it. There are about ten years left until my family in this life will be scheduled for ruin, so that’s why I’m desperately struggling like this.

Even more so, our opponent is the ringleader of western Japan. No, I fear that it’s not an exaggeration to call that old man—our opponent—the number one ringleader of Japan.

“By the way princess, even though this is called a ‘senbakoki’, it only has twenty teeth, so how about ‘nijyuhakogi’?” ⁹

“It’s fine! And if you line 50 of them up together, it’ll become a thousand teeth!”

“Princess, even if you increase the amount, it’ll only be three times at most?”

“Grandfather, in that case, there’ll be sixty teeth.”

“That’s right.”

“Kanayago-kami said it was a senbakoki!” ¹⁰

Princess, it’s said that Kanyago-kami hated women though……”

“Come to think of it, that was the case.”

“T-Then, it was Kanayamahiko-no-kami!” ¹¹

“It’s said that Kanayamahiko-no-kami has the same identity according to the legends though? Princess, it’s not good for you to lie.”

“That’s right.”

“It’s fine! I named it senbakoki, so it’s going to be senbakoki!”

“Well, it was created thanks to Princess, so I don’t particularly mind if it’s senbakoki.”

“That’s right.”

“Grrrr…… I feel like I lost.”

If you are reading from a pirate or aggregator site, please read from the translator’s site: yado-inn (dot) com I have to put the link like this or else the bots will remove it, sorry 🙁

1. Nowaki is the old name for typhoons.
2. A quote from:
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isoroku_Yamamoto
3. Toda clan: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%8C%E7%94%B0%E6%B0%8F
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Cnin_War
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma_Province
   The mine they are referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwami_Ginzan_Silver_Mine
6. Sue clan is one of Ouchi’s branch clans.
   https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%99%B6%E6%B0%8F
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su%C5%8D_Province
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Miyajima
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dji_(Muromachi_period)
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiroku
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Okehazama
9. A senbakoki is an ancient Japanese threshing tool. The name is literally ‘one thousand tooth root puller’ so Tako Tokitaka was wondering why it wasn’t called ‘twenty teeth root puller’. S*tty Japanese puns.
10. Another god: https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/Shinto/Kanayago-kami.html
11. She could become a pro scammer: https://japanese-wiki-corpus.github.io/Shinto/Kanayamahiko-no-kami.html