attendees but left an embarrassing spot of pus after his mouthful. Keeping true to the ceremony, he was forced to pass it on to others. The attendees shied away from their traditional gulp and respectfully moved it along the line. When it came to Mitsunari, he drank the entire contents without faltering and commented that the tea was superbly delicious. Yoshitsugu was touched by his friend's gesture, commonly said to have led to his determination to fight for the Western army. There is also a legend of the two being romantically involved with one another due to their close ties, sometimes argued to have started due to this event. While the tea ceremony incident was recorded by people actually alive during the time period (Kamiya Sōtan and Tsuda Sōgyū being among them), the subject of their actual friendship is under speculation. To be more precise, Yoshitsugu himself is put under eye of skepticism. Stories from the Edo Period will appraise Yoshitsugu as an honorable and talented retainer since his youth, but nothing in historical records offers details to support their claims. His father is said to either have been Ōtani Yoshifusa (retainer to Hideyoshi) or Ōtani Moriharu (a vassal of the Ōtomo family) since they both shared the same family name. Both men are of unknown origin and have little recorded for them beside a few notes and their names. It is often said that he was born in Ōmi Province; his mother was one of Kōdai-In's maids and was how Yoshitsugu became favored by Hideyoshi. However, if one is to believe his father was Moriharu, this defenestrates the story entirely since Yoshitsugu was also said to have only joined Hideyoshi after departing from the Ōtomo family in his late twenties. Since little is known about either Ōtani clans to completely verify the stories, Yoshitsugu's first meeting with the Taikō is a mystery. The unknown sections of his life create a twenty- or thirty-year gap often filled with stories and rumors. Among those put into question is his bonds with Mitsunari, since legends will proclaim they knew each other since they were serving under Hideyoshi in their youth. His age is at odds with the tales created for their relationship—romanticized to have occurred due to their close ages—and adds more mystery to Yoshitsugu. The contradictions have been so confusing that a rather radical theory has been emerging with a small