THE LIFE OF ODA NOBUNAGA (1534-82), who started the process of unifying war-torn Japan but was assassinated before achieving his goal, is linked to verse in a fascinating way: No versifier himself, he made his debut as a warlord singing a song about the transience of life; and his assassin, who in effect helped fulfill that prophecy, took that step after participating in a verse-composing session.
One of the most inspiring battles in Japan’s “age of warring states” is the one at Okehazama. In it, Nobunaga, leading less
than 2,000 men, attacked Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519-60), leading 25,000, and won. In the fifth month of 1560, Yoshimoto, the
most powerful warlord along the Pacific Coast (“The Number One Bowman of the Eastern Sea”), headed west for Kyoto with an
army combining the forces of the three provinces of Suruga, T
tmi, and Mikawa. Nobunaga, situated in Owari, was in his way
but was not regarded as capable of putting up a credible fight. Indeed, by the morning of the nineteenth of the fifth month,
only a day after arriving in Owari, Yoshimoto brought down two of the five forts built against him: Marune Fort, commanded
by Sakuma Daigaku Morishige, and Washizu Fort, commanded by Oda Genba, with both commanders killed.
How Nobunaga faced an invader with overwhelming forces and mounted a successful counterattack is memorably told by 
ta Gy
ichi
(1527-1610?) in his Shinch
-k Ki (Biography of Lord Nobunaga), which he is said to have written on the basis of notes he took while still “running about on
active duty” as a bowman under Nobunaga.
On the eighteenth, when he received news of Yoshimoto’s arrival in his territory, Nobunaga was in his main fort, Kiyosu Castle.
His conversations that night contained nothing remotely related to military matters, as they consisted of social gossip. When he found it was very late, he gave his men leave to go home. His house administrators derided him among themselves as they left, saying, “Well, the adage, ‘When luck runs out, the mirror of one’s wisdom clouds up, too,’ is meant for this kind of behavior.”
As expected, toward daybreak, messages from Sakuma Daigaku and Oda Genba arrived, one following the other, reporting that the enemy had already begun attacking Mt. Washizu and Mt. Marune.
On hearing this, Nobunaga danced the Atsumori dance, singing:
A man lives for fifty years.
When compared with the Lowest Heaven,1
it’s like a dream, an illusion.
Is there anyone who, given life once,
never fades away?
This done, he commanded, “Blow the conch shell! Give me my equipment!” He then put on his armor, ate his breakfast standing,
put on his helmet, and sallied forth. Accompanying him at that moment were his pages, Nagato Governor Iwamuro, Hasegawa Hashisuke,
Sawaki Thachi, Hida Governor Yamaguchi, and Gat Yasabur.
The six of them, master and retainers together, galloped straight over the seven miles to Atsuta, where, in front of Genday
Shrine, he looked east and saw smoke rising from Washizu and Marune, both forts evidently fallen. At the time there were six
men on horseback and about 200 foot soldiers. If he pushed forward from the beach side, that would have been the shortest
way, but the tides were up and would not have allowed horses to pass. So he and his men galloped through the hillside road
from Atsuta, first arriving at the fort at Tange, then at the fort at Zensh Temple where Sakuma [Uemon] had set up camp.
There he counted his men and reviewed the situation. The reports said:
His enemy Imagawa Yoshimoto, leading an army of 45,000 men,2 was resting his men and horses on Mt. Okehazama. At noon on the nineteenth, he lined up his men to face northwest and said,
“I couldn’t be more pleased that you men attacked and brought down Washizu and Marune.” He then had three rounds of no chanting
performed. This time Ieyasu3 was the first to attack; leading men in red coats, he carried provisions into taka Castle, struggled at Washizu and Marune,
and, because of all the difficulties he had had, was now resting his men and horses at taka, where he set up camp.
Seeing Nobunaga going to Zensh Temple, the two commanders Sasa Hayato no Sh and Chiaki Shir headed toward Yoshimoto with
a light brigade of 300 men, but they were swamped in a sudden onslaught, both men, along with fifty riders, killed in battle.
Yoshimoto saw this as a sign that even Heaven’s demon or devils or gods would not be able to bear the brunt of his might.
Feeling delighted about this, he had no chanting performed in leisurely fashion as he laid out his camp.
These reports heard, Nobunaga decided to move to Nakajima. His house administrators loudly protested, holding on to the bit of his horse, saying, “Sir, the road there is flanked by deep paddies. Once you step into them, you won’t be able to move. Besides, you’ll be forced to march in a single file. That will make the puny size of our forces perfectly visible to the enemy. This is out of the question, sir!” But Nobunaga wrung himself free and moved to Nakajima. At the time his men are said to have numbered less than 2,000.
At Nakajima he again tried to move his men forward. This time, his administrators held on to him and succeeded in stopping him. Thereupon, he harangued his men:
“All of you, listen to me carefully. The enemy soldier came here, eating food in the evening and marching throughout the night.
He had to carry his provisions into taka, worked hard at Washizu and Marune, and is exhausted with all the difficulties he’s
had. We, on the other hand, are a fresh army. Besides, you all know the saying, don’t you, ‘Don’t be afraid of a large enemy
because your forces are small. Luck resides in Heaven.’
“If the enemy attacks, retreat. If he retreats, give chase. The idea is to wrestle him down and destroy him in the chase. Don’t capture anybody. Just leave him alone. If we win in this battle, those of you taking part will bring honor to your houses, your reputation assured in generations to come. So do your best!”
While he was making this harangue, the following men–
Maeda Matazaemon, Mori Kawachi, Mri Jr, Kinoshita
Utanosuke, Nakagawa Kin’emon, Sakuma Yatar, Mori Kosuke,
Ajiki Yatar, and Uozumi Hayato
returned, each carrying the head or heads of the enemies he killed. After repeating his words to these men, Nobunaga took his forces to the hillside. Suddenly a downpour as fierce as catapulted ice stones struck the enemy in the face, Nobunaga’s troops from the rear. The rain was so powerful that the camphor tree growing near the pines on Kutsukake Pass that would have required two or three men with arms spread to surround it tipped east and fell. The fierceness of it was such that people wondered if the Great Deity of Atsuta had started his own war.
The moment the sky cleared, Nobunaga lifted his spear and shouted loudly, “Attack now! Attack!” The enemy, seeing an assault coming forward like black smoke, suddenly fell back like a wave rolling back. Bows, spears, guns, banners, and battle-markers were thrown into confusion, as the enemy fell back and retreated, abandoning even Yoshimoto’s lacquered palanquin.
Nobunaga barked a command, “That’s his camp. Attack!”
It was around two in the afternoon that he directed his attack east. At first about 300 riders made a complete circle around Yoshimoto as they retreated, but as they fought the assaulting forces two, three times, four, five times, their number gradually decreased, and in the end only about fifty riders were left.
Nobunaga himself dismounted and rushed forward with young warriors, felling enemies forward and backward, as young men in their fury attacked chaotically, blade clashing against blade, sword-guard splitting swordguard, sparks flying, fire spewing. In all this, enemy and friendly warriors never confused themselves with each other, distinguishing themselves by color. Many of Nobunaga’s horse-tenders [cavalrymen] and pages were wounded or killed.
Hashimoto Koheita attacked Yoshimoto, but, his knee slashed, fell down. Mri Shinsuke cut Yoshimoto down and took his head….
The place known as Okehazama is a valley, an extremely difficult terrain where deep paddies prevent mobility and high and low places are combined intricately. Those who fled into deep paddies could only crawl about, unable to get away. With these Nobunaga’s young soldiers caught up, each taking two or three heads, bringing them to him. Nobunaga announced that he would conduct formal inspection of the heads at Kiyosu but he was more than satisfied to see Yoshimoto’s head. He returned to his camp along the road he had taken earlier.
The “conversations” mentioned at the outset are o-hanashi, sometimes called o-togi. The conversations a master or a lord had with his ranking aides, though often idle or merely entertaining, formed a vital source of information or provided an occasion for assessment or analysis. This particular night Nobunaga’s aides who gathered around him must have expected him to discuss how to respond to Yoshimoto’s invasion, asking each one for his opinion. Instead, he whiled away most of the evening or most of the night, not talking about the pressing issues. That is why his house administrators were put off.
The verse Nobunaga sang as he danced is from a Kwaka dance called Atsumori. This dance-narrative is an extended version of a brief, affecting episode in the Heike Monogatari where Kumagae no Jir Naozane (1141-1208) is forced to kill Taira no Atsumori (1169-84), a teenage enemy commander his own
son’s age.4 The verse is part of Naozane’s thoughts as he realizes the transience of this world and decides to take Buddhist vows.
Such explanations aside, imagine a modern-day general dancing a dance expressing the transience of life, accompanied by his own singing, before leading his men into battle!
Nobunaga is known to have often sung this particular verse from Atsumori. But his love of songs was obvious. For example, he is said to have encouraged his soldiers to follow him and sing a song three times before springing out of their positions for assault on a battlefield. Still, as noted, he himself evidently did not compose much verse. There is, however, one episode where he appears as a versifier.
The episode, which forms a part of Shinch Ki (Biography of Nobunaga) by Oze Hoan (1564-1640),5 describes the time when Nobunaga entered Kyoto as the first official military backer of the fifteenth and last Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiaki (1537-97). Some decades before then
the Ashikaga shogunate had come to exist in name only. Yoshiaki’s own brother, the thirteenth shogun Yoshiteru (1536-65),
was attacked and killed by his aides, and he himself became a refugee. (How Yoshiteru refused to flee from an on-coming army
and, by implanting a number of drawn swords in the floor of the middle of his room, fought, wielding one sword after another,
until he was overwhelmed and killed, is part of samurai lore.)
The shogunate had come to exist in name only, but it had one vital reason for existence. Ever since Japan became the so-called warrior’s domain in the mid-twelfth century, anyone willing to engage in struggles for hegemony, provincial or national, faced a dilemma: if you say you can do anything you please to grab the position you want, you’re also allowing that anyone can usurp your position. To deal with this dilemma, most warlords issued stern injunctions against violating the master-subject relationships, while strongly affirming the ultimate one – that between emperor and his top aide in charge of military affairs, the shogun.
So Yoshiaki, even while leading a precarious life as refugee, could still make shogunate claims as he sought from warlords
military support to enable him to become shogun. In the second month of 1568 some of those who had assassinated Yoshiteru
installed Yoshihide (1540-68), Yoshiaki’s nephew, as fourteenth shogun. But Yoshihide was obviously a puppet and lineally
not legitimate. In the end, in the seventh month of the same year, one of Yoshiaki’s chief vassals, Hosokawa Fujitaka (better
known by his later name, Ysai: 1534-1610), persuaded Nobunaga, the rising star then, to back Yoshiaki.
Here’s the episode in question from Shinch Ki.
When Lord Nobunaga reached Kj-in, of Mii Temple, whispers spread here and there and people throughout Kyoto, both noble
and base, high and low, who had often heard that he had defeated all his enemies, no matter how strong, and pacified a number
of provinces, wondered how much more terrifying than a demon or a god he must be; and, now that he was about to enter Kyoto,
they became fearful of all sorts of calamities that might befall them.
Indeed, their fears seemed to far exceed those of children who scare themselves by talking about demons who cross the oceans
from a foreign country, strike and kill them with pebbles,6 and devour them as their only food. Some people fled to such neighboring provinces as Tanba and Wakasa, whether they had
relatives or not there, while others boarded riverboats on Yodo to go to distant islands. Still others, especially those with
names to protect, sent away their wives and children as well as furniture and other valuables to acquaintances they thought
trustworthy, while themselves staying home so they might congratulate Lord Nobunaga on his entry into Kyoto. However, even
these people continued to worry, as those who knew one another got together and wondered what might befall them, some trying
to convince themselves by thinking aloud, “Well, who knows, something good may happen to us because we’re staying here.” Finally,
on the twenty-eighth of the ninth month, Lord Nobunaga arrived at Tfuku Temple, and all the assessments made earlier proved
useless.
At once the renga masters, Shha and Shshitsu Shinzen, and among doctors, Nakarai Roan and Suichiku-in Dz, and those who’d
established their reputations, each in his own field, plus the so-called elders, of Upper and Lower Kyoto, who would take
part in any council at a moment’s notice, all came to thank Lord Nobunaga with various presents. Among them Shha went straight
to him, with two tip-spreading fans on a tray. Everyone held his breath, thinking, What in the world is he doing? when Shha,
kneeling in front of the lord, and even before adjusting his formal attire, said:
Nihon te ni iru ky no yorokobi
two held in your hands, the joy today
Lord Nobunaga followed it with:
mai asobu chiyo yorozuyo no gi nite
these are the fans with which to dance and play for thousands of generations!
When they heard this story, the old and the young throughout Kyoto were so impressed they couldn’t say anything more. “This gentleman is such a ferocious warrior that we had expected him to behave the way Kiso did when he entered Kyoto in the ancient Juei era,7 but he’s turned out to be such an elegant person, hasn’t he? Now we can expect nice things from him perhaps,” people said, encouraged in their hearts, and breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Here, what I have translated as “tip-spreading fan” is sue-hirogari no gi. This translation, no less than the original expression, is redundant in a way: When you open a fan, its outer end spreads
out. But sue of suehiro also means “the future,” and suehiro or suehirogari is a celebratory name of the fan. By presenting Nobunaga with suehirogari no gi the renga master Shha (also known as Jha; the family name, Satomura: 1524-1602) was congratulating the warlord for entering
Kyoto as shogunate military supporter. Evidently everyone saw that by making this move, Nobunaga, in effect, placed himself
in the position of “issuing orders to the world under heaven,” as the expression of the day went.
However, Shha’s real trick lay in bringing two fans or gi nihon, for nihon also means “Japan.” In other words, by saying “two of these propitious things held in your hands, today you must be overjoyed,”
Shha also meant “Japan held in your hands, today you truly deserve our congratulations!” In response to this invitation to
take part in the composition of a renga, Nobunaga tactfully ignored the blatantly flattering pun and said that the fans-in
a traditional Japanese dance an indispensable prop–were only proper for a celebratory dance. The phrase, mai asobu, “dance and play,” conjures the images of the crane and the tortoise, two creatures inherited from China as symbols of longevity,
and the phrase, chiyo yorozuyo, “a thousand, ten thousand generations,” is a congratulatory set phrase.
Shha may have been a remote relative of one of Nobunaga’s commanders, Akechi Mitsuhide (1524?–82), who killed his lord fourteen
years later, in 1582. By that year Nobunaga had gained control of one third of the country, by one estimate. Even though not
all the warlords may have had the ambition to “issue orders to the world under heaven,” he still had a number of powerful
contenders to subdue.
In the third month of the year, Nobunaga destroyed Takeda Katsuyori (1546-82), a menace to the northeast, and turned his attention
to the west. He ordered his ablest commander, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), to start a massive campaign to subjugate the western
warlords who had not yet pledged allegiance. Hideyoshi brought down one fort after another, until he reached Takamatsu Castle,
in Bitch Province. It was a difficult castle to scale, so he surrounded it with water to starve them out. But then Mori Terumoto
(1153-1625) came to the rescue with an army estimated to be six times as large as Hideyoshi’s. Hideyoshi sent a request to
Nobunaga for reinforcements. Nobunaga, apparently deciding to use this opportunity to subjugate not only the warlords of Chgoku,
but also those of Shikoku and Kyushu, first ordered Mitsuhide and five other commanders to repair to their home provinces
and raise armies. He himself planned to lead an army.
For Mitsuhide’s subsequent action, we turn to Shinch Ki. In both Sakamoto and Kameyama he had a fort, and the one in Kameyama was his residential castle.
On the twenty-sixth of the fifth month of the tenth year of Tensh [1582], Koret, Governor of Hyga [Akechi Mitsuhide], before
leading an army to Chgoku, went from Sakamoto to Kameyama Castle, in Tamba. The next day he climbed Mt. Atago and while staying
at the shrine that night he is said to have drawn a sacred lot8 two or three times. On the twenty-eighth of the same month he held a renga session at the Nishi no Bo. It began:
Toki wa ima ame ga shita shiru satsuki kana
Mitsuhide
Now is the time to rule the world: It’s the fifth month!
minakami masaru niwa no natsuyama
Nishi no B
the water upstream increases at the summer hill in the garden
hana otsuru ike no nagare wo seki-tomete
Shha
the brook from the flower-scattering pond having been dammed
This hundred-unit sequence finished, he returned to Kameyama. He must have drawn the sacred lot with something in mind as well; for from the make-up of the opening verse it was later guessed that this renga was planned as a prayer for [the successful execution of] a secret scheme….
On the first of the sixth month, Koret, Governor of Hyga Mitsuhide, in Kameyama Castle, summoned Akechi Samanosuke, Akechi
Jiemon no J, Fujita Dengo, Sait Kuranosuke, and Mizo’o Katsub
no Jo, and said to them secretly: “Gentlemen, I’d like you
to give me your lives. If you agree, we may continue our discussion. If not, behead me this instant.”
He said this so bluntly the five men were startled and their good spirits vanished. With their breathing quickening, they merely looked at one another. At last Samanosuke spoke up: “Sir, we have held you up as our master until today. Why, then, shouldn’t we see you through this grave crisis? No matter what you may have in mind, I, Sama-no-suke, will follow you.” At these encouraging words, the remaining four also gave consent.
When he heard this, Mitsuhide said, “Gentlemen, I’m pleased that you’ve agreed to work with me. To put the matter simply, I have several reasons to kill Lord Nobunaga. And I think the time is pressing. I’ve been driven into a corner from which there is no escape. This is why I’ve decided to revolt….”
That day, around seven in the evening, he left Kameyama, with those five men as spearheading generals. After passing Mt. e,
they pressed forward at utmost speed, so that by the daybreak of the second the forerunning groups arrived outside Kyoto.
As soon as they did, they surrounded Honn Temple, where Lord Nobunaga was staying and, after raising a great battle cry,
shot arrows and guns into the temple….
A number of reasons have been advanced to explain why Mitsuhide, who had served Nobunaga since as early as 1567, decided to revolt at that particular juncture. The most persuasive reason, according to the historian Kuwata Tadachika, is Mitsuhide’s accumulated resentment against his lord who often treated him, a commander of distinction, like a mere foot soldier, publicly insulting him on some important occasions. Considering Nobunaga’s tyrannical nature, recorded by his contemporary foreign observers such as the Jesuit priest Luis Frois (1532-97), some of the insults Nobunaga is said to have accorded Mitsuhide ring true.
At any rate, Nobunaga had left his main fort, Azuchi Castle – the most extravagant military structure ever built in Japan
till then – on the twenty-ninth of the fifth month, and arrived in Kyoto the following day. The purpose of his stay in Honn
Temple was to hold a tea ceremony to display the great Chinese tea utensils he had collected since his first official arrival
in Kyoto, in 1568. This partly explains why he took only about thirty pages along with him, but not a sizable group of armed
soldiers. In contrast, his son Nobutada, who had preceded him to Kyoto, had taken 2,000 cavalrymen.
On the first of the sixth month he had the tea meeting as planned, with Torii Sshitsu, a wealthy merchant from Hakata, Chikuzen,
as guest of honor. Along with a group of aristocrats as “companion guests,” Nobutada also took part. Following the tea ceremony,
Nobunaga played go with the master Hon’inb Sansa until late into the night. After Nobutada took his leave, he went to bed.
For the rest of what happened the following morning, we go back to Shinch-k Ki.
…. both Nobunaga and his pages at first thought that some lowly people were making the racket, but in time that proved not to be the case. There were battle cries, and gunshots flew into Nobunaga’s quarters. He asked, “Is this a revolt? Whose plot is this?” When Mori Ran[maru] said, “These appear to be Akechi’s men, sir,” he said, “There’s nothing we can do,” and, without a moment’s hesitation, withdrew into his quarters, with the men on duty there joining him.
Yashiro Katsusuke, Ban Tarzaemon, Ban Shrin, and Murata Kichigo ran out of the stables brandishing swords and were killed.
Other than these, a total of twenty-four ch
gen9 were killed in fighting at the stables, among them Tkur, Thachi, Iwa, Shinroku, Hikoichi, Yaroku, Kuma, Kogomawaka, Torawaka,
and his son Ko-Torawaka.
Those who were killed in the inner quarters were–
The three brothers of Mori Ran[maru], Mori Riki[maru], Mori
B[maru], Ogawa Aihei, Takahashi Toramatsu, Kanamori
Giny, Sugaya Kakuz, Ueozumi Katsushichi, Takeda Kitar,
tsuka Mataichir, Karino Matakur, Susukida Yogor,
Imagawa Magojir, Ochiai Kohachir, It Hikosaku, Kukuri
Kame, Oida Kame, Yamada Yotar, Iikawa Miyamatsu, Sofue
Mago[maru], Kashiwabaranabe Brothers, Hariami, Hirao
Kysuke, tsuka Magoz, Yuasa Jinsuke, Ogura Shju [maru].
These pages were killed while attacking repeatedly. Yuasa Jinsuke and Ogura Shoju[maru] – these two heard the news at an inn
in the town, mingled among the enemy, ran into Honn Temple, and were killed. At the entrance of the kitchen, Takahashi Toraz
put up a good defense for a while, doing incomparable work.
Nobunaga at first took up a bow and shot two or three times, but his time must have come: his bowstring snapped. Afterward he fought with a spear but was wounded at the elbow and withdrew. Then to the women who had been around him until then, he said, “There’s no need for you women to stay with me. Hurry out!” and chased them out. By then the fire set to the temple was coming close to him. He must have decided he shouldn’t show his body; he went into the innermost part, closed the door from inside, and pitilessly disemboweled himself.
It happens that Luis Frois, whose church, as he explained in his letter, was “situated only a street away from the place where Nobunaga was staying,” has left us a somewhat different account of Nobunaga’s last moments:
… some Christians came just as I was vesting to say an early Mass, and told me to wait because there was a commotion in front of the palace and that it seemed to be something serious as fighting had broken out there. We at once began to hear musket shots and see flames. After this another report came, and we learned that it had not been a brawl but that Akechi had turned traitor and enemy of Nobunaga and had him surrounded. When Akechi’s men reached the palace gates, they at once entered as nobody was there to resist them because there had been no suspicion of their treachery. Nobunaga had just washed his hands and face and was drying himself with a towel when they found him and forthwith shot him in the side with an arrow. Pulling the arrow out, he came out carrying a naginata, a weapon with a long blade made after the fashion of a scythe. He fought for some time, but after receiving a shot in the arm he retreated into his chamber and shut the doors.
Some say that he cut his belly, while others believe he set fire to the palace and perished in flames….10
Not long after Nobunaga’s assassination, some people began linking Mitsuhide’s opening verse to his action several days later, as Hoan did in his account. Toki, which means “time,” also was the name of the clan from which Akechi branched out, so one can be more explicit in interpretation and read a straightforward announcement in the verse: “Now’s the time for a Toki to rule the world: It’s the fifth month!”
Legend has it that the renga master Shha was taken to task by Hideyoshi, who hurried back from the west and attacked and
defeated Mitsuhide. Shha wriggled out of the predicament, it is said, by saying that someone had changed a single character
in the transcript of the renga session, from ame ga shita naru to ame ga shita shiru, thereby changing the meaning of the verse from “we’re in the rain” to “to rule the world.” It is also said that because
he immediately sensed what Mitsuhide meant in his opening verse, he tried to counsel against this with his link, by using
the word seki-tomu, which means “dam,” “block.”
Some have discounted the linkage, so to speak, arguing that a commander as cautious as Mitsuhide would not have revealed his rebellious intent in such a public forum. Still, to us of later generations, it is fascinating that Nobunaga, who made his debut as a warlord with a snatch of verse on his lips, should be linked to another verse in his death.
On the fifteenth of the following month Hosokawa Fujitaka, who had refused to respond to Mitsuhide’s invitation to join him,
held a renga session with Shha and others to commemorate Nobunaga’s death. The three opening verses of the hundred-unit sequence
are recorded in Sken-in Dono Tsuizen Ki (Record in Memorial to Lord Sken-in), which Hideyoshi’s scribe and ranking aide, mura Yko, wrote, following the grand
funeral Hideyoshi gave Nobunaga. Sken-in was a temple Nobunaga built next to Azuchi Castle;11 it was also his posthumous Buddhist name.
Tama-matsuru no no tsuki no akikaze
Rygo-in
over the field for the requiem, the moon, the autumn wind
wake-kaeru kage no matsumushi ne ni nakite
Shha
as I return, bell-crickets in the shadow cry out