[Moo] To his Excellency, a dispatch by rider

[Sigrune at aol.com]

Dispatch from Niwamura estate in Okamizu district, to His Excellency the Governor (Baron) of Oshikawa (Stierbach) :

I have received reports of the brigands in the southern reaches of your Domain, and have heard your call to arms.

It is a source of great distress to me that such lawlessness threatens to undermine your Just Leadership of the Province. Such activities are the acts of scoundrels and miscreants which threaten to undermine Righteous Governance, the Imperial Authority, and Buddhist Law. It is with a heavy heart in these, the latter days of the law, that we must take up arms to defend our own lands; but it inspires young warriors, and it is clearly a Noble Virtue to take up arms in the line of duty. May it appease the Bodhisattvas and Kami alike to do so with the aim of defending those that cannot take up arms for themselves.  

I humbly beg pardon for taking the time to put my affairs and estate in order, and turning out my retainers with the necessary dispatches, this will not delay my progress south, I will be there to answer your summons, as I will be leaving closely behind this message, and rally those warriors as I can draw.  The insult of these brigands to the Province will be avenged, and we will have cause for celebration upon defeating these miscreants.

In the Hour of the Goat, 15th day, 4th month of Eimei (Reign of Robert and Denise) 
Lord Takeda Sanjuichiro Akimasa