A Tour of Japan's Warring States Period

Chapter 235 9. Persimmon Lacquer Is Good but Hard to Find

The spacious and bright room was filled with people, and hundreds of warriors from the Yamauchi clan were sitting inside and outside according to their status. At the head of the table is Yamauchi Yoshiharu, who is in formal attire, and the man next to him is Dr. Tsunaki Hosokawa, who has been away from Yamauchi for several years.

As the elder of the pen family, he ranks second among the daimyo. Even a general like Chief Accountant Yamauchi can only be ranked second, let alone the others. Isshiki Miyauchi's assistant Kenichi acted as a pen and recorded the outline of the meeting in the second seat.

Of course, the meeting has not started yet, because there was a private fight in the street in the morning, and now Xiaopingtai and uncle Tsunaliang are kneeling in the middle hall of His Highness. This incident has spread throughout Yamauchi Fuchu Town. The samurai present looked at it without looking away, but in fact they laughed out loud in their hearts.

Yamauchi Yoshiharu casually asked Hosokawa Harumiya, who was sitting in the second lieutenant, "In our shogunate samurai family's law, if a local master with a thousand kan or above fights with weapons in the street, how should we judge him?"

Hosokawa Harugong looked at Koheita with a smile on her face: "Noisy success or failure, all should commit seppuku."

Xiao Pingtai immediately became anxious when he heard the word "harassment". The little daughter we had promised to me had been promised to me for a long time. How could I let him, a big-headed son-in-law, commit suicide? Isn't this a joke? Do you still want to be the father-in-law of a young man like Xiao Pingtai?

"Oh? Commit seppuku? That's okay." Yamauchi Yoshiharu still looked like he was, as if he was about to accept this ghost legal judgment from hundreds of years ago.

"Your Highness, Your Highness, I didn't fight with Xiao Heita, it was just a joke." Uncle Tsunaliang was also anxious. He beat his eldest nephew and committed hara-kiri?

"Zaemon, do you have any questions about this verdict? Then tell me what's going on first." The folding fan in Yamauchi Yoshiji's hand casually hit the support table twice, and then pointed directly at Uncle Tsunaliang.

"Your Highness, your Majesty is just urging him to get up early and exercise because he saw that Heitai has grown fat recently." After saying this, uncle Tsunliang quickly signaled to Hetai to stop talking nonsense and kicked him.

"What do you think, Heita?" No dog would believe this kind of nonsense. He was telling lies with his eyes open so early in the morning. Uncle Tsunade was thick-skinned, so of course Yoshiharu Yamauchi wouldn't think that Uncle Tsuna was really urging Heita to run.

"I borrowed a thousand taels of gold from my uncle, and spent it all in three days. That's why what happened early this morning." Xiao Ping thought it would be better to tell the truth.

Hearing the number of one thousand taels of gold, the crowd of warriors burst into flames. This amount of money was considered a huge sum of money, and it was actually spent by Mrs. Xiaoping in three days. Xiaoping makes a lot of money, but spending money is really tight.

"Nonsense! Even if you go to Dr. Kougao (Kabuki) every day, you only need five kanmon for one day, and one thousand taels of gold is enough for you to go for half a year. How can you spend so much in three days!" Yamauchi Yoshiharu himself It is estimated that no one has spent such a lavish amount of one thousand taels of gold in three days. According to him, he goes to whoring every day, and the prostitute's oiran only has one hundred and fifty taels of gold in a month.

In this era, there were no poisonous things except for things like Five Stone Powder. If you were to eat them, it wouldn't cost a lot to transport a sea bream Pegasus from the sea to the mountains. What's more, no one eats sea bream every day. It can't be because they eat dragon liver and phoenix gallbladder.

"When I was chatting with someone, I talked about persimmons, so I thought of a business. Because the required capital was too large and my own savings were not enough, I used my uncle's money." Xiaopingtai is a bachelor, so she can't hide it anyway. .

"Persimmons? What kind of business are you doing with persimmons? How much money do you need?" "I want to make persimmon lacquer." Xiao Pingtai said a very unfamiliar word.

"Kaki Lacquer?" Yamauchi Yoshiharu was not short-sighted, he just touched on his blind spot of knowledge. He had never heard of this thing before, and he even had to pronounce the word twice before he could speak it smoothly.

Of course there must be knowledgeable people here. Hosokawa Harugong is turning sixty and has eaten several bowls more rice than the samurai here. He must have seen a lot of them, everyone looked at him one after another.

Hosokawa Harugong shook his head and said, "I'm a hen." Yamauchi Yoshiharu glanced at Isshiki Miyauchi, Kitahata University, Oishi Saburo, and Konishiharazaemon who were sitting in the front row one by one. Everyone looked like I don’t know even if you don’t ask me, and they were completely indifferent.

At this time, in the second row, Yamauchi Yoshikatsu, who had just returned from Kyoto, suddenly said: "Father, the persimmon lacquer that Koheita mentioned seems to be a Kampo medicinal material."

Everyone looked at the young master in unison. Sure enough, he was someone who had been around Kyoto for several years and knew all about this kind of thing.

"Taro, please come." Yamauchi Yoshiharu just gave Yamauchi Yoshikatsu a chance to show his knowledge.

"Persimmon lacquer, also known as persimmon astringent, is rarely produced in China. When I was in Rakujing, a merchant from Tsuruga once sold this product in Beijing. It is said that it has the effect of calming the liver and smoothing the liver (mainly treating high blood pressure). But the price is a bit expensive, and every day It costs less than a hundred dollars per pound. Furthermore, most of them are trafficked to Chaju by merchants in Dongnae, North Korea, and transported to Beijing via Lake Biwa. The source is very unstable, so it is not widely available."

Yamauchi Yoshikatsu said it briefly, but he probably said it all, and everyone basically had an impression. It turns out that it is a kind of Chinese medicinal material, and it is very expensive and cannot be sold.

"This doesn't seem to be a good business." Yamauchi Yoshiharu pondered.

"What the young master said is certainly true, but does His Highness know about the mulberry paper fan? Persimmon lacquer is not produced in the country, nor can it only be used as medicinal materials. Not to mention the mulberry paper, the natural fragrance on the fan, if there is any coloring, is not , I used persimmon paint to get a smooth paint surface! ”

"So, persimmon lacquer can replace raw lacquer?" Not only Yamanouchi Yoshiharu, but everyone in the palace's eyes lit up. One pound of raw lacquer usually costs two or three hundred coins, or even more. If persimmon lacquer can replace raw lacquer, that money is simply thrown from the sky to the ground.

How much is a persimmon worth? A thousand pounds of persimmons are almost worth one pound of raw lacquer, which is equivalent to free money.

Everyone temporarily forgot about the discussion of the Yamanouchi samurai reserve fund today, and began to discuss this business enthusiastically. The originally quiet large hall was very lively, and the buzzing sound never stopped.

Hosokawa Harumiya couldn't stand it anymore, and shouted "Silence!" The whole palace was quiet again.

"Koheita, please continue." Yamanouchi Yoshiharu became more interested and wanted to hear Koheita continue.

"The quality of persimmon lacquer is slightly inferior to that of raw lacquer, but it is easy to adjust the color, the raw materials are extremely cheap, and it has good weather resistance. It has been proven to be used in manufacturing and construction."

"Unfortunately, there is a big problem with persimmon lacquer, and this problem is very expensive. Most people can't afford it. So far, although the benefits of persimmon lacquer have been known in China, it cannot be mass-produced."

Chapter 235/759
30.96%
A Tour of Japan's Warring States PeriodCh.235/759 [30.96%]