Chapter 269: Uesugi's Grand Wedding

In late October, under the Roman-style arcade of the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, a lapis lazuli-colored carpet extended all the way to the lobby.

Before the gold-leaf folding screen at the reception area, Uesugi Kuninori, the current Head of the House of the Yonezawa Uesugi Clan, took up a wolf-hair brush to write the four characters "Snow, Moon, Immortal," his brushstrokes as vigorous as a blade; the golden bamboo-sparrow crest on his black kimono collided with the light and shadows of the bamboo-sparrow patterns floating on the screen, stirring up a wave of whispers.

An attendant bowed and presented a lacquer tray, upon which lay the Yonezawa Domain's secret "botamochi" rice cakes wrapped in glutinous rice paper, bearing the faint pattern of a cedar tree design from the Edo period.

Today was the joyous wedding day of Uesugi Muneyuki's older brother, Uesugi Sadanori, and Uesugi Muneyuki naturally attended alongside Watanabe Minami; as the successor of the Uesugi Clan and the designated heir for the generation after next, Uesugi Kuninori, who was already 73 and about to truly retire, had gone all out this time, and by virtue of his influence and the multiple bloodline buffs flowing through him, almost all the bigwigs of the old Peerage were in attendance.

Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Minami were together, responsible for receiving guests; today, Miss Minami stood beside Uesugi Muneyuki, who was dressed in a black kimono, her fingertips lightly brushing the floating silver-thread wisteria patterns on her furisode kimono, and as the late autumn breeze swept across the hem of her Tang-style woven outer robe, the hydrangea patterns secretly embroidered on the dark cyan silk shimmered with rippling light, as if the moonlight of all Tokyo had been cut into fabric.

Receiving the guests one by one, Miss Minami could not help but press her cypress fan to her lips, secretly smiling at Uesugi Muneyuki: "The descendants of the heroes of the Warring States period are still here!"

"They are naturally all here; when the domains were abolished and prefectures established, there were 1,100 families in the Peerage, and to this day, nearly 900 still survive," Uesugi Muneyuki said with a smile: "Today you will see an unprecedented feast of the Peerage."

Miss Minami naturally responded sweetly, full of anticipation to witness the glory of the old Peerage, but she did not notice the hint of playfulness on Uesugi Muneyuki's face.

Grandfather would officially retire from the University of Tokyo on April 1st in a year and a half, and from that moment on, the Yonezawa Uesugi Clan would truly fall onto his brother's shoulders; one wondered if his brother, who was so taciturn and loved archaeology, could really shoulder this heavy burden and maintain the influence the main family had in high society like Grandfather did?

Father certainly couldn't hold it up, Uesugi Muneyuki glanced at Uesugi Hironori, who was in the distance wearing a black kimono and entertaining guests.

Anyway, it has nothing to do with me; I'm going to start a new page in the genealogy and marry into the Watanabe family to be my own Head of the Watanabe Uesugi Clan~

The theme of today's wedding was "Snow, Moon, Flower," echoing the Uesugi family's "Heart of the Four Seasons" motto and the culture of the Yonezawa Domain, with white and gold as the main colors, accented with indigo.

Soon, the bigwigs arrived one after another.

The Head of the Tokugawa Shogun Clan, Director and Vice President of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, and Chairman of the Yokohama Port Promotion Association, Tokugawa Tsunenari.

The Head of the Owari Tokugawa Clan, one of the three Tokugawa branch families, President of Yagumo Industry and Director of the Tokugawa Art Museum, Tokugawa Yoshitaka.

The Head of the Kii Tokugawa Clan, one of the three Tokugawa branch families, the architect Tokugawa Noriko (female).

The Head of the Mito Tokugawa Clan, one of the three Tokugawa branch families, Chairman of the Tokugawa Museum, Chairman of the Tokugawa Art Museum, and Executive Officer of Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, Tokugawa Masanari.

There were also the three Tokugawa cadet families: the Tayasu Tokugawa Clan, the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa Clan, and the Shimizu Tokugawa Clan, as well as the Tokugawa family branches like the Echizen Matsudaira Clan, the Aizu Matsudaira Clan, and so on and so forth, which I won't mention here.

Besides the Shogun Clan, a bunch of other bigwigs from the old Feudal Lord Peerage also came.

The most noble among them were undoubtedly these families: the Head of the Kanazawa Maeda Clan, Commissioner of the Imperial Household Agency, and Standing Director of the Kasumi Kaikan, Maeda Toshisuke.

The Head of the Satsuma Shimazu Clan, Chairman of the Board of Shimazu Kogyo, and Chairman of the Shimazu Kenshokai, Shimazu Nobuhisa.

The Head of the Higo Hosokawa Clan, former Prime Minister Hosokawa Morihiro.

In addition, the Head of the Chōshū Mōri Clan, Mōri Motohide, the Head of the Sendai Date Clan, Date Yasumune, the Head of the Kai Takeda Clan, Takeda Hidenobu, and the Head of the Tosa Yamauchi Clan, Yamauchi Toyonori, also came.

I have to complain here that the 1987 Taiga Drama "One-Eyed Dragon Masamune" starring Ken Watanabe had the Head of the Date Clan, Date Yasumune, serve as the historical advisor and supervisor throughout, and this drama became the only masterpiece among all Taiga Dramas to feature the actual protagonist of the Taiga Drama himself.

(Referring to the fact that the Date Clan dug up Date Masamune's grave and took out his remains, not only measuring his height at approximately 159 centimeters, but also displaying the skull of Date Masamune himself below the title in the opening of the Taiga Drama.)

Also, the protagonist of the 2006 Taiga Drama "Kōmyō ga Tsuji" was the first Head of the Yamauchi Clan, Yamauchi Kazutoyo, but in fact, Yamauchi Kazutoyo was a small fry during the Japanese Warring States period, a small figure with only a few thousand koku, who relied on precise political positioning and good luck to eventually become a Daimyo Feudal Lord of the 200,000-koku Tosa Domain; however, the descendants of the Yamauchi Clan are doing very well in modern Japan and have made a lot of money, so after the descendants took out a large amount of real gold and silver, they actually sponsored NHK to film a Taiga Drama with him as the protagonist, and in this drama, they spoke so well of Yamauchi Kazutoyo that this guy seemed to have become a key figure in determining the course of Warring States history, and they even arranged for Oda Nobunaga to have Yamauchi Kazutoyo's image in his mind before he committed suicide at Honnō-ji.

So, having an excellent descendant to continuously whitewash the image of one's ancestors is also very important.

After the Shogun Peerage and the old Feudal Lord Peerage arrived, the Court Noble Peerage also arrived one after another; the Head of the Konoe Clan, Konoe Tadahiro, the Head of the Kujō Clan, Kujō Michikazu, the Head of the Nijō Clan, Nijō Etsuko, the Head of the Ichijō Clan, Ichijō Sanetaka, the Head of the Takatsukasa Family, Takatsukasa Naotake, and others all appeared.

However, compared to the relatively prominent lives of the Shogun Peerage and the old Feudal Lord Peerage, this group of Court Noble Peerage was much more destitute; among them, the Kujō, Nijō, and Takatsukasa families had already become ordinary families, and the most miserable one, Takatsukasa Naotake, was just an ordinary employee of a Japanese electronics company.

From this, it can be seen that the post-war reforms of Five-Star MacArthur were still powerful, powerful indeed!

The Meiji Restoration Peerage also arrived one after another; Uesugi Kuninori also had the blood of Itō Hirobumi flowing in him, and Uesugi Muneyuki's mother, Uesugi Tomoko, was originally named Saionji Tomoko—she was a descendant of Saionji Kinmochi.

Of course, President Komiyama of the University of Tokyo and others also arrived; these were, after all, Uesugi Kuninori's connections, and besides that, many people from the literary and artistic circles also came, but I will skip mentioning them.

As the current face of the Uesugi Clan, Uesugi Muneyuki entertained many bigwigs; benefiting from various big news stories over the past two years, almost everyone knew him and was happy to chat with him to build a connection.

Although Uesugi Muneyuki's abilities were somewhat specialized and might not necessarily be used, it didn't mean they wouldn't be used at all!

Uesugi Muneyuki received the distinguished guests, and a strange feeling emerged in the bottom of his heart.

Although today was like a reproduction of the Rokumeikan and a grand gathering of the Kasumi Kaikan, with heroes gathered and nobility beyond compare, it always gave Uesugi Muneyuki the feeling of the funeral of Qin Keqing in Dream of the Red Chamber, where although all the four kings and eight dukes were present and it was extremely prominent, it implied a sense of the sunset glow.

The dividends of one's ancestors would always be exhausted eventually.

Grandfather was already doing his best to pave the way for his brother.

Where would the future Yonezawa Uesugi Clan go?

"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Miss Minami pinched Uesugi Muneyuki's large hand and said with a mischievous smile: "Thinking about the scene of our engagement a month from now? Can it be as big as this one?"

"That certainly won't be as big as this one," Uesugi Muneyuki couldn't help but laugh, flicking Miss Minami's delicate and sweet little nose: "So many members of the Peerage came this time because of Grandfather's face, but I am destined to be branched out; most of the members of the Peerage here today won't come at that time."

"Aww~~~" Miss Minami had always liked pomp and grand scenes the most; hearing Uesugi Muneyuki say this, she was a little dissatisfied, but after thinking about it carefully, since their Watanabe family had stolen Uesugi Muneyuki's surname, it seemed there was nothing to be dissatisfied about: "It's okay, when the time comes, once the connections from Father's side arrive, I guarantee it will be even more prominent and heavyweight than your brother's!"

After speaking, Miss Minami, dressed in a gorgeous late-autumn-style furisode kimono, narrowed her eyes into crescent moons, waved her little fist at Uesugi Muneyuki, and smiled like a little fox that had stolen some meat.

Uesugi Muneyuki smiled honestly at these words, thinking that it wasn't just her connections; it wasn't as if I didn't have connections on my side.

But he didn't say anything more, instead taking Miss Minami's little hand and whispering a thank you.

Thanking Miss Minami for noticing him, paying attention to him, and supporting him early on, and also for being able to tolerate his philandering and absorbing Eirina and Asuka into the system.

Also thanking Miss Minami for taking care of his life and helping him handle his workplace and interpersonal relationships; these were all areas he didn't like, and fortunately, Miss Minami was there.

The two of them achieved things together and supported each other, and they were destined to walk through the long years together in the future.

The corridor was lined with the "Uesugi Residence Military Flag Scroll," displaying Uesugi Kenshin's sword, the "Azuki Nagamitsu"; the crystal chandelier in the Peacock Room was dimmed to its lowest setting, and the "Scenes in and around the Capital" on the thirty-six paper screens faded into silhouettes.

In the Peacock Room of the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, more than forty tables were set, and the newlyweds accepted the congratulations of the crowd.

The black crested haori and hakama worn by the groom, Uesugi Sadanori, were a masterpiece from "Echigoya," with Uesugi Yōzan's famous quote embroidered in gold thread inside the lapel, visible only as a line of gold when he raised his arms; the bride's white pure kimono looked simple, but through the close-up lens of the photographer on site, the noblewomen in the guest seats saw clearly—her horn-hiding hood was covered with specially embroidered "snow crystal" patterns, which refracted a halo like falling fine snow as she walked.

The only problem was that the bride didn't look very good; for some reason, Uesugi Muneyuki always felt that his sister-in-law looked a bit like Princess Aiko of the Imperial Family, and although it was the Promax version, that kind of winter-melon-shaped long face similar to ukiyo-e and her short, stout figure really made Uesugi Muneyuki suspect that Grandfather's aesthetic had some problems.

Sister Mikoto and the bride were both 157 centimeters tall, but the Forensic Beauty was particularly well-proportioned and slender, and she also had a pair of beautiful legs that Uesugi Muneyuki praised endlessly.

But Uesugi Muneyuki didn't care about these things anymore; he would soon marry into the Watanabe family and start a new life.

At the wedding scene, Uesugi Sadanori's face was a bit dark and he didn't look happy, while the bride was being handled like a doll, but her face was filled with a faint joy, as if she were satisfied that she had finally been married off and her life's mission had been completed.

Happy wedding, brother!

Watching the newlyweds on the stage from afar, Uesugi Muneyuki thought to himself.

You get married and have children, and my pressure will no longer exist; the Yonezawa Uesugi Clan is left to you, and as for my Watanabe Uesugi Clan, I will be the one in charge.

This is quite good.

And it was at this moment that a guy blocked Uesugi Muneyuki's path.

It is the head of the Sendai Date Clan, Date Yasumune.

"Uesugi-kun, could we step aside to talk?" Date Yasumune was about 50 years old, with graying hair at his temples and a somewhat portly build: "And Chief Minami of the Special Mission Unit, would you please join us as well?"

"There are some matters I hope to discuss with the two of you."

(End of chapter)