1560 - 10 years of relative peace ensue after the final removal of the Uesugi. There is word of a Uesugi fief in southern Japan, perhaps in Kyushu, but they are too far to trouble Daimyo Hojo Ujitsuna's thoughts at present. Now 69 years old the great lord has overseen many social and economic changes during his time, not in the least important of these, the widespread adoption of the jesuit religion imported by the european traders along with the guns that are now commonly seen carried by the ashigaru through the streets of Edo, Kofu and other towns. The Kanto region is now a rich "trading belt" with the merchant class of all of Japan and the rest of the world passing through to peddle their wares. The sake shops are numerous, the temples even more so and the whore houses, well, infamous and every kind of weapon, armour, textile, spice or oddment can be bought and sold.

Apart from some successful raids into Kozuke, Shimotsuke and Hitachi in the last few years to wipe out the troublesome bandits that have plagued the border towns there, there has been an uneasy peace in the southern lands, the relationship with the Oda clan seems cool at best, but war seems even more unlikely. Shimazu is too far away to worry about. The arrival of a new clan, the Tokugawa has generated some idle gossip in the sake shops of Edo and Odawara - in Mikawa and Shinano the peasants along the bordering villages are already packing up and moving out. At present the Tokugawa are focusing their attentions on the Oda clan, with the siege of Inabayama being on every peasant's lips.

Ujitsuna puts down his brush to reflect on all of this. It has been more than a year since he'd heard from Ujiyasu, the intended recipient of, the communication he has been busy penning. A war with the Oda would be a big step, but the opportunity seemed too good to miss out on. The new Tokugawa fief in Echigo had already expanded northwards, young Ujimasa in Shimosa was more than capable, and is safe for now, but it again would fall to Ujiyasu in Shinano to fight the Tokugawa as he had the Uesugi 12 years before.

Ujitsuna again set to writing, finished the letter and called the servant in.