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.