SHIBATA KATSUIE OBTAINS THE KETTLE UBAGUCHI
柴田勝家、姥口の釜を手に入れる
Shibata Shuri-no-Shin Katsuie was one of Nobunaga's generals.
柴田修理亮勝家は信長の家来の一人です。
For many years he governed the Hokuriku district, and eventually was allotted the two provinces of Kaga and Echizen.
長年に渡り北陸の地を支配していて、ついに、越前と加賀を手に入れました。
On the twenty-fourth of January on the ninth year of Tensho (1582) Katsuie with his son-in-law Iga-no-kami Kazutoyo and his nephew Sazaemon Katsunari came up to Azuchi and was received in audience by Nobunaga, when he returned thanks for the gift of the two provinces and offered as a present a sword, a thousand pieces of silver for horses, three hundred ryo of gold, a thousand candles, a thousand bundles of thick paper, a thousand bales of cotton and five hundred lengths of silk.
天正九年（西暦１５８２年）の一月二十四日、勝家は長男の勝豊と甥の勝也を伴い信長の居城安土へ上洛しました。領土拝領のお礼、それに伴い献上品、刀、白銀の馬、三千両の金、千本の蝋燭、千束の和紙、千束の綿と五百束の絹を献上しました。
On the twenty-fifth Nobunaga entertained him in appreciation of his great merit and served him with tea with his own hand.
二十五日間、信長はその論功に感謝し自ら茶を点て彼らをもてなしました。
Katsuie was deeply moved by his lord's condescension, and after a while said :
勝家は心から忠誠を誓い言います。
“It is entirely owing to the martial prowess of my lord that I have obtained the two provinces of Kaga and Echizen.
「越前と加賀の制覇は殿の対する忠義による結果でございます。」
My own small services are of no account.
「私の手柄など価値に値しません。」
Still, now that the whole Empire comes to incline like a reed in the wind that the waving of your banner moves, and opportunities for proving my loyalty in battle will be few, if you would deign to present me with that Old Hag Mouth Tea Kettle that I have longed foe all my life I should feel that in my old age I had nothing more to desire.”
「殿の天下統一の御旗の風は我が方にふき、我の力はその為に捧げます。もし、私が長い間切望いたしております殿がお持ちの姥口の釜を拝領出来ましたら、生涯二度と望みは申し上げません。」
He spoke with great earnestness, and it was not the first time that he had asked for it, and on a former occasion Nobunaga had promised, “when you have given proof of great loyalty I will consider it.”
彼は切望しました、今回が初めてではなく事あるごとに懇願をしていたのです。信長はその度に「手柄たてた折りには必ずやる。」っと約束していました。
So he thought that this was a very suitable time to present it, and rising with alacrity he went into an inner apartment and brought forth the kettle with his own hand and gave it to Katsuie, murmuring the while this extemporary stanza :
信長は本日だと思い、水屋へ入りすぐ釜を持って出てきました。そして、勝家にそれを渡しながら即興の詩を口ずさみました。
“Hardly can I bear
Thus to give away to you
The Hag's Mouth Kettle.
‘Tis an old familiar friend
That long use has never staled.”
その時が来た
そちに授けよう
この姥口の釜
古くからの親愛なる友よ
この釜は朽ちることなく続くであろう
Katsuie's joy was too deep for words at thus having attained his long cherished wish.
勝家の長年の願いは成就し、この詩と共に心に刻まれました。
Now this kettle was one of the most precious heirlooms of the house of Oda, and when Nobuhide handed it over to his son Nobunaga he charged him, “This is a great treasure to be kept most carefully; still, even so, where an act of great loyalty to our house is in question, you must do as you think suitable to the occasion.”
この釜は織田家伝来の貴重な家宝であり、父信秀が信長に託しました。
「これは我家の宝であり大切にするように、もし
織田家に大事ある時は、そちの判断で最良の選択をせよ。」
It is said, “Under the bait there is always a fish and under the reward there is always a corpse,” and truly men will always fight to the death where there is something worth having.
父は、「餌あるところ魚群がり、褒美あるところに軍隊がむらがる。」真の軍人とは、その価値の為に戦い、生死を賭けるのである
But there is a limit to fiefs that can be given away though there is no limit to man's boundless desires.
領地には限界がある、しかし人の望みには際限がない。
So that making such presents as Tea-vessels is a good way of stimulating the courage of retainers and also of keeping leaders in the way they should go.
茶道具はその解決方として便利であった。手柄を獲る為の奮起力や支配者が他を管理するために利用しました。
When Oda Nobunaga was in Kiyosu in the province of Owari he made a tea-room in the castle there that was wrought in very fine taste.
織田信長は尾張の清洲に城を作り、素晴らしい茶室を造って運営していたのです。
On the pillar of the Tokonoma was a knot that looked like a Monkey-face Tea-room.
その床柱は猿楽の茶室として集団の絆を意味したのです。
This Tea-room with the Rokuso-an at Nara and the Hasso-an at Osaka are called the Three Famous Tea-rooms of Japan .
奈良の六窓庵、大阪の八窓庵とあわせ、日本の三大茶室に数えられています。
It is still preserved in the garden of the Commercial Museum of the Province of Aichi in the street Monzen-cho at Nagoya .
今でも、愛知県の名古屋市門前町にある県立博物館の庭に保存されています。