Nobunaga's List of Valets

While browsing the internet I found a page dedicated to Nobunaga that offerend some lists on interest.
One of them regarded the many kosho (valets) that serviced Nobunaga during his life. It's a subject that intrigues me, so I'm going to "decypher" this page for you guys, adding further infos when possible.
Regarding this, the original article doesn't list the pages employed in Nagoya Castle (那古野城) because the author said that besides the "big names" they couldn't find infos about it. I decided to include them anyway for the sake of completion.
Following the format of the original article, I'm going to categorize them "by castle", implying their period of service as valets.
A gruesome portrait of Mori Rikimaru by Yoshitoshi for his collection of muzan-e "Selection of One-Hundred Warriors" --Just to remind you that valets were not just pretty boys!

Nagoya Castle
► Ikeda Tsuneoki (1536 – 1584) - Also known as Nobuteru, Tsuneoki was pretty much Nobunaga's "first retainer" ever. Since his mother was Nobunaga's foster mother, they shared a strong bond and intimate relationship, as strong as to make Nobunaga recognize him as his brother. His father, Toshitsune, was one of the direct retainers of Nobuhide (Nobunaga's father).
► Niwa Nagahide (1535 - 1585) - Nagahide entered Nobunaga's service as a kosho in 1550, when he was around 15 years old.
Nobunaga trusted him enormously: he's frequently mentioned as taking care of Nobunaga's administrative duties or PR affairs.
He was allowed to marry Nobunaga's adopter daughter Keihou'in in 1563, and his son Nagashige would marry Nobunaga's fifth daughter Houon'in in 1580, as another proof of the strong bond between the two clans.
► Maeda Toshiie (1538 – 1599) - Toshiie moved from Arago village to Nagoya to serve Nobunaga as a valet in 1551, at the age of 13.
He was known for sharing the eccentric tastes of his lord, being a kabukimono in his youth.
Toshiie entered Nobunaga's akahoro elite corps in 1558 and he's famous for mentions about his wakashudo relationship with Nobunaga.
For his loyalty he was allowed to become the heir of the Maeda clan despite being the fourth of six sons.
► Sassa Narimasa (1536 – 1588) - Narimasa entered Nobunaga's service as a page in 1552 at the age of 16 (but according to other sources he was born in 1538, making him 14 at the time of his employment). He was the third of five brothers, and he inherited the Sassa household when his two older brothers died at the Battle of Okehazama.

Kiyosu Castle
► Iwamuro Shigeyasu (?? – 1561) - Also known as Nagato-no-kami, he was Nobunaga's favourite during his stay in Kiyosu. In 1559 he managed to be promoted in akahoro ranks but he still served as Nobunaga's valet.
He survived the Battle of Okehazama where he accompanied Nobunaga but he met his end at Oguchi Castle in 1561, during a battle against the Saito in Mino.
It's said that Nobunaga mourned his death grievously.
► Kato Yasaburou (?? – 1573) - The son of Kato Kiyomori, like Shigeyasu above, he took part in the Battle of Okehazama in the same unit. He was dismissed by Nobunaga in 1563, so he served under Ieyasu Tokugawa. He died in the Battle of Mikatagahara.
► Sawaki Yoshiyuki (?? – 1573) - Also known as Touhachi (藤八), he was the son of Maeda Toshiharu and the younger brother of Toshiie. As above, he took part in the Battle of Okehazama in the same unit (he entered it in 1558, though, with his brother). He was dismissed by Nobunaga in 1563, so he served under Ieyasu Tokugawa. He died in the Battle of Mikatagahara.
► Hasegawa Kyousuke (?? – 1573) - Also known as Ukon (右近). In 1552 he took part in the Battle of Akatsuka, against an Imagawa force in Owari, he entered the akahoro in 1558 and took part in the Battle of Okehazama.
He was dismissed by Nobunaga in 1564, entered in Ieyasu's service and died in the Battle of Mikatagahara.
► Yamaguchi Hida-no-kami (?? – 1573) - He entered the akahoro in 1558, he took part in the Battle of Okehazama in 1560 and he was dismissed in 1563 too.
He joined the ranks of Ieyasu yet he took part in the siege of Okawachi Castle in 1569 as a member of the the Oda army against the Kitabatake clan of Ise.
He died in the Battle of Mikatagahara.

Gifu/Azuchi Castle
► Aoki Tsuru (??) - He escorted Takayama Tomoteru to the north in the custody of Shibata Katsuie after the Takayama betrayed Nobunaga by siding with Araki in 1578.
► Ichiwaka (??) - He took part in the Battle of Saika (1577) and in the umazoroe in Kyoto of 1581.
► Kanamori Shinjirou (?? – 1579) - He's mentioned because of his fight with Saji Shintarou. He was stabbed by his fellow valet.
► Saji Shintarou (?? – 1579) - See above. After he killed Shinjirou in a fit of rage, he committed seppuku to take responsibility for his crime.
► Nakanishi Gonbee (??) - He assisted Ranmaru when he was sent as an envoy to Shiokawa Nagamitsu to compensate him with 1000 pieces of silver. He had his residence at Azuchi Castle (1579).
► Hasegawa Hidekazu (?? – 1594) - Also known as Take (竹). The nephew of Hasegawa Kyousuke, mentioned above. He served Nobunaga during the campaign of Harima in 1578 and he kept serving him as his emissary, supervisor, messenger and administrative deputy. During the Incident of Honnoji he was assigned by Nobunaga to take care of Tokugawa Ieyasu during his trip to Osaka. Later he'd enter into Toyotomi Hideyoshi's service. He met his death during the Invasion of Korea.
► Hori Hidemasa (1553 – 1590) - Also known as Kikuchiyo (菊千代) and Kyuutarou. Originally serving Hideyoshi, he entered in Nobunaga's service as a valet in 1566 at the age of 13. He was extremely capable in both administrative and military fields. He was granted the fief of Sakata, in Omi province, in 1581.
He took part in many battles, and after Nobunaga's death he joined Hideyoshi's army, where he kept fighting. He died of illness in 1590.
► Manmi Shigemoto (?? – 1578) - Also known as Senchiyo. He served Nobunaga in the Harima campaign in 1578 and on the same year he was one of the envoys who were asked to inquiry to Araki Murashige about his betrayal.
He died in the attack of Arioka Castle.
► Mori Naritoshi (1565 - 1582) - The famous Ranmaru (蘭丸), also referred to as Ran (乱), third son of Mori Yoshinari, entered Nobunaga's service in 1577. He's probably the most rapresentative valet of the Sengoku era, and his name is still a metaphor for an extremely beautiful young man.
He assisted Nobunaga his whole life, on the battlefield as with administrative duties.
He died by his side at Honnoji.
► Mori Boumaru (1566 - 1582) - Ranmaru's younger brother and Yoshinari's fourth son. He entered Nobunaga's service together with his older brother in 1577. He died at Honnoji.
► Mori Rikimaru (1567 - 1582) - Ranmaru's younger brother and Yoshinari's fifth son. He entered Nobunaga's service together with his older brothers in 1577. He died at Honnoji.
► Ogura Shoujo (1567 - 1582) - Also known as Matsuchiyo. Son of Ogura Sanefusa. When his father died in 1570, his mother Onabe-no-kata served Nobunaga as his concubine. Nobunaga took her sons as his valets. He died at Honnoji.
► Ogura Jingorou (?? - 1582) Younger brother of Shoujo. He died at Honnoji.
► Takahashi Toramatsu (?? - 1582) - He moved to Azuchi in the late 1570s. In 1579 he was given the old residence of Hasegawa Hidekazu in Azuchi. In 1581 he was presented a fief by Nobunaga after the victory of Nobukatsu against Iga. He died at Honnouji.

List of Valets who died at Honnoji (this is just a list of the valets who died during the Incident of Honnoji, besides those above mentioned, about which I [and the original author of the article] couldn't find any certain, further informations)
► Iikawa Miyamatsu (飯河 宮松)
► Itou Hikosaku (伊藤 彦作)
► Imagawa Magosaburou (今川 孫三郎)
► Uozumi Shoushichi(魚住 勝七)
► Oida Kame (種田 亀)
► Ootsuka Magouzo (大塚 孫三)
► Ogawa Aihei (小河 愛平)
► Ochiai Kohachirou (落合　小八郎)
► Kanamori Ginyou (金森　義入)
► Kashiwabara Nabemaru (柏原　鍋丸)
► Kashiwabara's little brother
► Kanou Matakuurou (狩野　又九郎)
► Kukuri Kame (久々利　亀)
► Sugaya Kakuzou (菅谷　角蔵)
► Susukita Yogorou (薄田　与五郎)
► Sobue Mago (祖父江　孫)
► Takeda Kitarou (武田　喜太郎)
► Yamada Yatarou (山田　弥太郎)

The original article also mentions the valets of Nobutada who died with him at Nijo castle... But maybe we can talk about it another time!

Oda Nobunaga - The Fool who conquered Japan (1998)

And here I am to talk about a TV movie dedicated to Nobunaga, this time focusing exclusively on his youth.
The Fool who conquered Japan is quite famous around because of his protagonist, the idol Kimura Takuya, here playing the main role of Nobunaga.

[Again, sorry for the crappy quality of the screenshots]
The performance of Kimura is quite popular around, but must be noted that the most of these enthusiastic comments come from genuine fans of the guy (that problably watched a bit too many Japanese dramas and too few good movies).
Since everything connected with Japanese boys bands and the like disgust me, you can count on a honest opinion here XD

Well, I do think that Kimura shines in the shoes of a young Nobunaga.
But I also think that such a performance is not a big deal: you can compare Kimura's acting to that of any other young actor playing the role of the school delinquent, and the result is pretty much the same. Still, it's undeniable that the overall impression is quite enjoyable.

As I really enjoyed the body language of the actor, I found his expressivity a bit over the top: you know, those grimaces and those annoying "fluttering" eyebrows to suggest practically every kind of emotion..? Yeah, exactly like that.
It's kinda bothering the fact that when Nobunaga "played" the fool he looked quite natural and realistic but when he's supposed to show his "true" emotions he turned into some kind of kabuki parody.

Apparently this movie is based on the homonymous novel by Sakaguchi Ango dated 1953, that from what we could get from the movie, it takes quite a lot of liberties when it comes to the historical source.

According to Ango those plotting Nobunaga's demise in favor of Nobuyuki were mostly Dota Gozen, Nobunaga's mother, and Hayashi Hidesada, one of Nobunaga's guardians, here painted as vicious villain straight from a Disney's movie.
As the plot against Nobunaga sounds plausible, the idea of Dota and Hayashi conspiring to kill Nobuhide, Nobunaga's father, makes very little sense.

In the movie instead of the "throwing of the incense" scene, we are shown Nobunaga nailing his sword next to his dead father to show his disappointment and signify "his father's rage" for being unable to die on the battlefield as he wished, smelling the betrayal of his mother.
Apparently 20 men couldn't extract the sword from the floor and they had to remove and replace the whole thing.

After this, we're shown Hirate's seppuku.
For a retainer to kill himself to remonstrate against the wrong actions of his lord was a rare yet testified occurrence.
In the movie, Hirate is rappresented as the only one who understood Nobunaga and his actions (together with Nobuhide, who never doubted Nobunaga's role as the heir of the Oda clan). If this was the case, I doubt that he would have killed himself to remonstrate.

A few words of plause for the "teammates" of Nobunaga, protagonists together with Kimura of some of the funniest scenes of the movie.

Fujimaru, the chubby one, is played by hilarious Taguchi Hiromasa, Senkuro, the boy doing the most of the talk, is played by Takezawa Kazuma while pretty Senchiyo (Niwa Nagahide) is played by Isaki Mitsunori.

The relationship and portrait of Nobuyuki is quite vapid.

Nobuyuki respected his brother, then suddenly we're told that he actually despised him.
It's a bit unnatural to show us a Nobuyuki that started to hate his brother in the span of a few months. One of the explanations provided for this sudden change of heart, is that of Nobuyuki being in love with Nouhime.
The part where Dota Gozen tried to encourage Nobuyuki's betrayal by promising him to let him marry Nouhime (that the boy has a crush for) is ridiculous, but I can see such things being popular in the 50s.

In the movie both Kitsuno and her brother Hachiemon (Ikoma Ienaga) appear since the beginning and quite frequently.
It's suggested that the Ikoma mansion worked like some kind of "refuge" for Nobunaga, who went there to escape his family's conspiracies and find some peace of mind.

This movie embraced the theory that Nobunaga knew Kitsuno since his youth, even if here he's still uncertain about his feelings for the woman, at least consciously.

Speaking of women, I enjoyed the portrait of Nouhime by Nakatani Miki, but I didn't like how easily the character went "head over the heels" for Nobunaga.
We have Nouhime being presented a short sword so to kill Nobunaga in case he's a real fool (I wonder if it ever happened for a wife to kill her husband during Sengoku era... It's a danger that it's always mentioned in movies and novels, but I never read of such an occurence) and the duty to spy on him in the best shinobi fashion, but during the most of time Nou is busy being in love and being ignored systematically by her young husband.

It's implied that Dousan trusted the judgement of his daughter, but at a certain point he decided to kill his son-in-law anyway.
The meeting between Dousan and Nobunaga in 1553 is presented as a conspiracy to kill Nobunaga on the border of Mino... When Dosan spotted the armament of Nobunaga's men he was impressed by the long spears and the muskets, and when he showed up all cleaned-up and cool at the banquet, every attempt to Nobunaga's life was fast forgotten.

I liked this rendition of Dousan, the actor was peculiarly effective.

At this point of the story, marking its conclusion, a chronological delirium ensued.
Profitting of Nobunaga's absence to meet Dousan, Nobuyuki & Co. decided to attack Nobunaga's castle in Nagoya, sure that Dousan killed him, so to allow Nobuyuki to claim the Oda heirship and face Dousan's invasion.

In an insane rush of events, we're shown Nobunaga defeating the Nobuyuki Team, then receiving Nobuyuki to kill him after getting the proof of his betrayal.
In reality, the Battle of Ino happened in 1556, three years after Nobunaga's meeting with Dousan, and Nobuyuki was killed in 1558, after another failed coup.

So, as the movie may be entertaining, I wouldn't call it all all the best movie about Nobunaga around, neither the movie featuring the best Nobunaga.
Despite the fun and refreshing first part, it suffers of a rushed and ineffective final part that lowers the quality and enjoyment of the movie.

Nobunaga - King of Zipangu (1992)

I was thinking, I'm reviewing the dramas and movies where Nobunaga makes just a brief appearance, I could as well talk a bit about dramas and movies that focus exclusively on Nobunaga, no?
So, today I'm here to tell you about one of the taiga drama about Nobunaga that I had the chance to watch in its entirety and with English subs, NOBUNAGA - King of Zipangu, directed by Shigemitsu Yukihiko and based on the historical novel by Tamukai Seiken.

[I excuse myself for the bad quality of the screenshots, but this is what I could get]
This series followed three lines of narration: the first one, the main line, is obviously about Nobunaga life. The two other narrations are those of the whereabouts of Luis Frois during his missioni (Frois is also the "narrator" of the whole story), and that of Zuiten's.

--Who's Zuiten, you ask? This guy here:

An original character coming directly from the novel, that everyone found unbearable from the beginning to the end of the drama and whose adventures where definitely uncalled for (a shark was jumped when we see him lusting after Dota Gozen, Nobunaga's mother, and sleeping with her-- MY EYES!! MY BRAIN!!!!).

I think that he was there to signify the "end of an era" of "superstitions", compared to the "modernity" that Nobunaga suggested with his reforms, just like Frois and his fellow bateren are depicted as "refreshing news" compared to the warrior-minded Buddhists monks but even to Japanese "mindset" as a whole, for example when Frois explains the habits of eating meat or when he compares Japanese warfare to Western warfare to Nobunaga's concerned vassals.
The defy of Zuiten's skills as a fortune-teller, once vital for Nobuhide's battles, and the gradual degeneration that turned him into a wretched creature --yet "kept" by Nobunaga, seems to go in this sense.
In the end, during the death of Nobunaga at Honnoji, Zuiten decided to die with his lord, once spited and now revered, and Nobunaga's words before his seppuku are cristalline about it: "Perhaps my contribution to the new world now is just to die".

But let's go in order.
I rewatched this quickly for this review focusing on certain episodes of interests, so sorry if I'm not offering a complete summary of events.

Let's start with the actors playing Nobunaga, then!
Nobunaga as a child was played by Morita Kousuke.

He's first shown to us wearing a woman's kosode and playing around with it, for the discomfort of his nannies.
He's also shown being randomly kicked and thrown around by his father Nobuhide, who follows a very peculiar way to show his concern for the making of his son in a fine leader D:
It's said that the young Kipposhi was an expecially untamed child, making it a torture to deal with for the various nannies and ladies-in-wait that had the misfortune to be put in his service.

Nobunaga as a young lad was played by Yamane Takaaki.

Facing his playmates in fights and innovative war tactics and most importantly being harshly rebuked by his vassals, Hirate Masahide and Naito Katsusuke in primis, is what you'll see him doing the most of his screentime.
At this point Nobunaga is the lord of Nagoya castle, but still taken into his childish ways.

The "Fool of Owari" period, where Nobunaga is shown while facing his first important "steps" into society, saw the introduction of Ogata Naoto as the lead actor for this role.

He's the actor that played Nobunaga in his whole adulthood, and sure it's a bit shocking to see him jumping from the "wild look" of his youth to the proper chonmage after his meeting with Dousan.

I'm not fond of the style of Japanese acting, so it's difficult for me to approach the performance of Ogata without the required honesty and knowledge.
I assume that it's difficult for a Japanese actor to approach such a legendary figure and to face the stress of offering an adeguate portrayal. As a boy, Nobunaga was not as different from any lively youngster, but the anguish of living a life under attack from his very relatives since childhood and the "importance" of his figure in Japanese imagination sure are a heavy toll on the freedom of interpretation of an actor. Willing or not, some of the "humanity" of a rendition is going to be sacrificed on the altar of historiography.
So, as I enjoyed the acting of Ogata in many parts, I found it "restrained" and somehow "stiff" when it came to portray Nobunaga in his maturity (a flaw that many actors experienced in this role), also if the intensity of the interpretation is still palpable.

Nobuyuki, the difficult little brother of Nobunaga, and Kichou, his unruly wife, are respectively played by Oizumi Tsubasa and Kikuchi Momoko.

I liked a lot the rendition of these characters.
The portrayal of female characters is always an infinite boredom, but I enjoyed the "outrageous" interpretation of Kichou, here shown as a rebelious wife, a strong-headed woman, and her highly improbable but no less entertaining "break" as a merchant in Sakai.
On the contrary, I found the portrayal of Onabe as "the goddess of death" and that of Oichi as a neverending remonstrating pain in the ass to be quite over the top.
The vicious conflict of emotions of Nobuyuki, who turned the admiration for his older brother into rivalry first and loathe later, offered a wonderful psychological rendition of the historical person.
I enjoyed this same psychological intensity consisting of conflictual feelings, expectations and wishes in the portrayal of Nobunaga, too.
Its climax is probably in the original interpretation of the famous Atsumori during the episodes dedicated to the Battle of Okehazama.

Here the author decided to play the whole scene under a distressing yet dreamlike mood, making us feel the conflicting feelings of Nobunaga during his first step in history.
Instead of dancing then, Nobunaga just recites the famous verses of the play, as to ponder about the uselessness of human ambitions rather than as to encourage himself before a reckless venture.

Nobunaga didn't dance before Okehazama, but he did in his youth, gaining mouths open in adoration from his fellow kabukimono (expecially from Ikeda Tsuneoki!), and when he realized his "divine nature", after thriumping over all his enemies, while enjoying the view from "above the Heavens" at Azuchi.

It's really interesting that Nobunaga didn't dance Atsumori in this drama. A peculiar choice since in every movie he's shown doing it almost at every turning point of his life (for example, in the Kagemusha movie, he did so as he got the news of Shingen's death).

The series follows pretty much the reports of Frois in its narration, so I wasn't surprised to see it embracing completely the the theory of Nobunaga's self-deification.

Nobunaga is portrayed as a "twisted altruist" during this drama. At first it's him worrying about the shogun and how he forced him to follow his orders to grant him a decent and comfy life. Then there's a scene when Nobunaga got furious over the complaints of people for his requests to build extra bridges and roads: he's extremely frustrated by how people couldn't understand his considerations for their development.
The self-deification thing is tied to this manner of thinking: Nobunaga realized that his success and good luck are a proof of his "divinity", so he decided to put his "avatar" in Sokenji at Azuchi, so people could get some of his luck off him and have their wishes granted.
Obviously, this whole thing made him look like a psycho to his vassals (and to the viewers too!). According to the tv series, the Sakuma were banished because Nobumori openly remonstrated against this idea.

We're then to Akechi's betrayal and the Honnoji Incident.

I liked how Akechi's motivations for his betrayal were explained. Even if quite obvious and simple, I'm keen to believe that they still offer the best interpretation of the whole deal.
Basically, Mitsuhide was sick of fighting and wanted to live in peace as the lord of his province. It's the result of the "petty mind" that Mitsuhide developed while being a ronin, and most importantly of his, despite his strenght in battle, little tollerance for the kind of stress that Nobunaga forced on his vassals. It kept people like Hideyoshi or Shibata motivated, but sure it didn't sort the same positive effects on everyone. The fact that one of these exceptions was his trusted Akechi, sure marked the end of Nobunaga's "divine" lucky stride.
The battle happening in the temple's precints, like the most of the battles depicted in the drama, is painful, confused, messy and dramatic. There are many historical inaccuracies (like that of Nobutada dying there while trying to give assistance to his father) but what you get is quite a genuine feeling out of the whole mess.

My general opinion of this drama is positive, then.
It's a dark, painful rendition of Nobunaga's life that takes some big liberties with history, but still enjoyable and acceptable.

Too bad for Zuiten, though.

Nobunaga in Kabuki

Here's a second post dedicated to my "ukiyo-e digest", this time focusing on kabuki and the actors whose performance made Nobunaga popular (or unpopular!) with the masses.

The most of the pictures that I found refer to two plays.
The first one is what the website of kabuki 21 describe as "Badarai no Mitsuhide" ("Mitsuhide's Tub", the badarai was a lacquer tub used to wash the horses' legs).
Known in many variants and titles, it's the story that tries to explain Mitsuhide's rebellion and it doesn't hesitate to portray Nobunaga as bullying brute who spent most of his time degrading his retainer, apparently just to get a "reaction" out of the meek man.

In Meiji times this play was reduced in three acts, and it usually goes as "Toki-ha Ima Kikyô no Hataage" ("When the Bellflower of the Toki launched its attack", the "Bellflower" refers to the Akechi crest, and "Toki Clan" is the ancestor of Mitsuhide's clan).

The first act is called "The Banquet".
Mitsuhide was asked to take care of the preparations for a banquet at Honnoji to celebrate Nobunaga's promotion to Minister by the Imperial court.
Once Nobunaga came to inspect, though, he was bothered by the fact that Mitsuhide used the banner of his clan, portraying a bellflower, to decorate the place.

In one version, the first thing that Nobunaga did, was ripping the banners apart, as he felt that Mitsuhide was trying to overcome his authority.

In this print of 1834, we can see the actor Sawamura Tossho in one of Nobunaga's iconic moment.
Note the colourful attire, too, typical of kabuki plays: Nobunaga's is wearing an archery attire with tiger's pelts on his hips. It's something borrowed from the descriptions of his childhood, to emphasize his fiery attitude.

In another version, Nobunaga kicked away the food that Mitsuhide prepared for him.

Here's a powerful rendition by actor Bandou Mitsugorou on a print dated 1829. Note the similar attire as in the picture above.

The most of prints, though, like to depict this scene in its climax, when Nobunaga ordered Ranmaru to beat Mitsuhide with a metal fan between his eyebrows, or on his forehead, depending on the version.
The scene is usually arranged in a tryptic, and Nobunaga is usually sitting in the middle of it.

In this interpretation dated 1825, actor Ichikawa Danjuurou decided to show all of Nobunaga's rage in his features.

Here, instead, Seki Sanjuurou is enjoying the punishment of Mitsuhide, on a print dated 1858.

The second act of the play is usually known as "The badarai scene at Honnoji".
Hideyoshi and Mitsuhide's sister, Kikyo, were competing in flower arrangement. Kikyo wished to restore her brother's good name in front of his lord.
Nobunaga came to inspect the works, and was touched by Hideyoshi's composition, that made original use of a badarai. He was bothered by Kikyo's work, though, who used hydrangea flowers, that since they tended to change color, Nobunaga interpreted them as a way to say that to unify the country the leadership would change continuosly.
Nobunaga destroyed Kikyo's composition, then called Mitsuhide: both Ranmaru and Kikyo tried to calm him down, but Nobunaga first forced Mitsuhide to drink from the badarai, then ordered him to follow Hideyoshi in his campaign as a horse, then stripped him of his domains, and not yet satisfied, he made fun of how Mitsuhide's wife sold him her hair so to give employement to her husband.

Also this scene is usually depicted in a tryptic, with Mitsuhide facing the badarai as Hideyoshi and Nobunaga enjoyed the view, but for this scene I decided to pick prints that show Nobunaga dealing with Kikyo's flower composition, instead, as I was intrigued by the character of Mitsuhide's younger sister.

In this version, Nobunaga is depicted as a laid-off guy, making fun of Kikyo's composition as Mitsuhide spied from behind the scenes.
The actor here is Ichimura Uzaemon.

This is the interpretation of the same scene by Seki Sanjuurou (since this print is dated 1812, it's obvious that this actor is another generation from the one previously mentioned):

Here Nobunaga is shown in all his fury, as he destroyed Kikyo's composition with his fan.

The second plays where Nobunaga can be found are those called Taikoki, that as you can guess refer to the feats of Hideyoshi as the unifier of the country.
The one featuring Nobunaga for a brief moment is called "Ehon Taikoki", and it covers the period of 13 days when Mitsuhide managed to take control of the land after his betrayal and before his execution.
This is usually connected to the "Badarai" play, and is usually presented as its natural development.

In this play, Nobunaga usually appears on the first act only, where he's shown being assaulted at Honnoji.
He was usually portrayed as he held a bow, trying to defeat as many enemies as possible.
In this print I found him as he's holding a spear, facing his enemy Mitsuhide, portrayed by actor Jitsukawa Ezaburou.

This print deserves a few extra words, because it's a kamigata-e, a "picture from Kamigata" (a city by Osaka, famous for its prints).

Kamigata-e are peculiar because they tended to be very realistic, so they portrayed the actors with their defects and flaws, thus to made them recognizable for the fans.
Most of these prints were in fact self-printed, in a modern doujinshi fashion.

Here's another nice example, always from a Taikoki play, this time portraying Nobunaga while holding his bow as he realized Mitsuhide's betrayal:

The actor here is Ichikawa Danzou.

Sure the focus on these prints are not the historical character of Nobunaga (usually rendered as "Harunaga" because of Tokugawa censorship) but the actors that impersonated him.

Here I found two interesting prints, showing Nobunaga as portrayed by the same actor in two different renditions of the "Badarai" play:

The actor is Ichimura Uzaemon in both pics, but it's fun to see the different clothes and renditions of the character.
Look at how Nobunaga is dressed in the first print: his clothes are somehow "Barbarian-flavored".
That kind of collar shows on many prints on this page, and it rappresents Nobunaga's eccentric tastes, as to suggest the "randomness" of his character.

As we keep on talking about actors, we enter my favourite branch of ukiyo-e prints, the one dedicated to touristic and promotional themes, where the authors give their best when it comes to interpretations and inspirations.

Let's start with this print, dated 1852 and portraying actor Sukedakaya Takasuke as Nobunaga in the print collection "Rokujūyoshū", dedicated to the 60+ Old Provinces of Japan, as interpreted by artist Toyokuni:

Obviousdly Nobunaga was chosen to sponsor the depiction of "Owari", that you should recognize elegantly framed at the top-left of the print.

This print comes from the collection "Mitate Iroha Awase" by artist Kunichika, and it portrays actor Bandou Hikosaburou as Nobunaga.

This collection of prints is dedicated to the 48 divisions of Edo firefighting brigades.
Each division was rappresented by a kana, a letter of the Japanese phonetic alphabet: this print is dedicated to the sixth division, recognized with the kana "O"... Each print rappresents a character whose name starts with the kana of each brigade... So, "O" stands for "Oda Nobunaga (Harunaga)".

And to end this article, here's one of my favourite prints.
This comes from the collection "Chimei Juni ka Getsu no Uchi" ("Twelve Months of Geographical Names") by, again, Kunichika.
It portraits actor Nakamura Shikan as Nobunaga (here the name is spelled correctly, but "Oda" is rendered with different kanji).

This collection merged the months of the lunar calendar with a location where something important happened on that month.
This print depicts the "Sixth Month" and the "landscape" refers to Honnoji.
Note the bow that Nobunaga is holding, as in the kabuki plays that refer to the event!

References for 花の香は撞く (Hana no Ka wa tsugu) - Pt.II

And here's the second part of my HanaNoKa's characters!
I don't even know if all of them will appear here, but here's the post dedicated to the girls!

Back in the days living in Feudal Japan wasn't much of a hype for a woman.
While browsing the internet you probably read about onna bugeisha, about how Japanese women trained with naginata to protect their household, how they could inherit lands or assume political roles... Well, forget the most of it.
In Feudal Japan, those were nothing but mere exceptions, and women rarely got some relevance.
Sure, we have some illustrious examples, but the great majority of women lived a simply a submissive existence, and whenever they got to shine or sport some biographical data, it's just because of their fathers, husbands, brothers or sons' feats.

By taking a glance of the lives of the ladies that I'm about to introduce you, you'd see that the life of a woman was pretty much standardized at the time, even if it wasn't free of strong emotions.

TOKU (徳), also Gotoku, Tokuhime, Toku-no-kata, Okazaki-dono (1559-1636)
The older daughter of ODA Nobunaga, famous for the so-called "Tsukiyama Incident".
Toku, at the age of 9, was sent over to MATSUDAIRA Ieyasu so that she could marry his son, MATSUDAIRA Nobuyasu, as a mean to strenghten the tie between the two clans.
The "story" went like this: Tsukiyama, Ieyasu's wife of Imagawa discent, couldn't stand Toku because her father Nobunaga was the one who destroyed her clan, so she came with the idea of ruining her marriage with her son by bringing in a concubine for Nobuyasu, affiliated with the Takeda. The Takeda were historical allies of the Imagawa, and enemies of the Oda. In a few years she managed to separate Nobuyasu from Toku, making the life of the girl miserable. Toku couldn't stand it anymore, so she wrote a letter to her father, accusing Tsukiyama of complotting against the Oda with the help of the Takeda: Nobunaga then ordered Ieyasu to kill both his wife and his son to remove any doubt about his loyalty, and Ieyasu, shockingly enough, obeyed.
As there are evidences of Toku's letter as mentions of "Twelve Clauses of Nobunaga" ("信長の十二ヶ条"), odering Ieyasu to deal with the conspiracy, it's not very plausible that a concubine would be a reason for such a thing to happen, expecially because wife and mother-in-law rarely shared the same quarters.
The idea of Ieyasu obeying Nobunaga's demands because his relationships with both his son and his wife got sour is getting more and more accepted by historians as time goes by.
While staying at Okazaki castle, Toku gave birth to two girls, Toku (登久) in 1576 and Kuma (熊) in 1577.
After Nobuyasu's death in 1580, she left Okazaki to stay with her brother Nobutada in Gifu but she had to leave her daughters behind because they were considered of Matsudaira descent (they got to marry OGASAWARA Hidemasa and HONDA Tadamasa respectively). Both girls would be raised by their grandfather Ieyasu.
After the death of Nobunaga and Nobutada in 1582, Toku moved under the protection of Nobukatsu, that at the moment was living at Kiyosu castle, but after the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute and the alliance between Hideyoshi and Nobukatsu (1584), she moved to Kyoto as an hostage of Hideyoshi, where she died.
It's worth mentioning that despite being a hostage, Toku was granted some freedom: in 1590 she moved to the Ikoma mansion in Owari, so to be closer to Nobukatsu. She went back to Kyoto in 1600, after the Battle of Sekigahara, though.

Because of the "Tsukiyama Incident" I like to characterize Toku as a bit of an introvert, someone who chose not to show her emotions clearly, giving the impression of a timid and fearful woman.
I like to think that she loved Nobuyasu and she felt responsible for his death... In that occasion she learned that misplaced words can kill, so for the sake of a peaceful life she would keep her mouth shut from there on.


MATSU (松), also Matsuhime (1561-1616)
A daughter of TAKEDA Shingen, famous for being married to ODA Nobutada while being still a child for political reasons.
Contrary to Toku, though, she would never "consume her wedding" because the marriage would be broken in 1572, with the start of the hostilities between the Oda/Matsudaira alliance and the Takeda.
The engagement was declared in 1567, but since then Matsu kept living in the Takeda household because of her young age: she'd be called as "the entrusted lawful wife of Nobutada", her new title being Niitachi Goryonin (新館御料人).
It's worth noting that after this event, both Nobutada and Matsu didn't marry anyone, both figuring as "unmarried" in their biographies.
After Shingen's death in 1574, she moved to a house in the castle town of Takato Castle under the patronage of her older brother NISHINA Morinobu, as Katsuyori inherited the Takeda household in Kofu.
In late 1581, however, ODA Nobutada would invade Shinano during the final acts of the war against the Takeda, besieging Takato castle and forcing Morinobu to seppuku.
The fact that Nobutada and Matsu may have met each other again in this occasion, as women were allowed to leave the castle and not taken as hostages, has been highly dramatized, leading to the legend of Nobutada sending to Matsu a message to reach him at Honnoji with the promise of finally getting together, but the love of the two being interrupted for ever because of the "Honnoji's Incident"... It looks as if Morinobu ordered the evacuation of the castle BEFORE the siege took place, so it seems as if Matsu left the castle before the arrival of Nobutada.
After the fall of Takato, Matsu found protection at Kaitouji, in Yamanashi prefecture, but probably she didn't stop there, and kept wandering around to search for protection.
She wasn't alone in her trips: apparently the daughter of her brother Morinobu, Toku (督), the daughter of her brother Katsuyori, Sada (貞) and the daughter of the Takeda retainer OYAMADA Nobushige, Kogu (香具), followed her in her wandering. The little girls were around 4 years of age at the time.
After Nobutada's death in 1582, Matsu became a nun, living the rest of her days at Shingen'in, in Tokyo.

--I confess you that I really like the idea of Matsu and Nobutada being in love despite the rivalry of their families, it's a very "Romeo & Juliet" situation, but I'll be serious and I won't indulge myself in such a thing. Maybe.
As a woman of the Takeda, Matsu looks very strong-willed, as her dangerous trip looking for safety tells. I'll try to characterize her as a strong woman, but also quite aware of the limits of her situation.


SUZU (寿々), also Suzuhime (鈴姫) (??-1633)
A daughter of SHIOKAWA Nagamitsu, famous for being the mother of ODA Nobutada's first son, Hidenobu, and his concubine.
Nagamitsu was one of ODA Nobunaga's retainers, but once Nobunaga made Nobutada the head of the clan, he went over to Gifu to serve Nobutada as his retainer.
We don't know much about this woman, and all we know comes from a tomb in Shoku-Raikoji, a buddhist temple in Omi Province where she spent her last years; at the moment is even a mystery who her father is, other options being MORI Yoshinari (the father of Ranmaru) or other retainers of the Oda Clan.
Apparently she spent the most of her life in Gifu, first close to Nobutada, then following her son Hidenobu.
She joined monastic life in 1600 under the name Tokujuin and met her death in 1633.

Since so little is known of this elusive girl, I imagined her as not very noticeable and kinda naive, but very sweet and kind, somehow endearing.
I decided to give her those big eyes as a trait of her ingenuity. She's been pretty much a plaything for Nobutada, pressed about producing a heir as soon as possible, following the suggestion of his advisor on the matter.


In the picture above you can see also Ichi, the younger sister of ODA Nobunaga, famous in popular culture for her determination and beauty (AND for her marriage with AZAI Nagamasa, AND for being the mother of Chacha, Hatsu and Go).
--I just wanted to draw her, though, she's not going to star in the comic so-- No bio for her x'D !

As for the references, besides the usual Wikipedia, I found further infos on these girls here and here.

Goemon (2009)

I started to watch the taiga drama (again, I don't know how much of it I'll manage to watch, but expect a review of its Nobunaga) Gunshi Kanbei, and noticing that Eguchi Yosuke, who's playing Nobunaga there, starred in another movie featuring Nobunaga and ninjas, I had to give it a try.

This movie follows the typical plots of ninja-based jidaigeki movies: you have a poor boy who becomes a ninja to save himself from some miserable situation, gets superstrong, then realizes that joy is in other things, tries to get out of the ninja world but for some external circumstance independent from his will he can't do it and has to fight again for his rights, while behind the scenes the powerful guys keep pulling the strings to toy with the lives of "commoners" who can't get the "big picture".

The amusing things of this movie are two: the photography and scenography are both WONDERFUL, detailed, luxurious and extravagant enough to please me to no end (I even forgot to care about the invasive CG), and most importantly, for once Nobunaga is not portrayed as the villanious psycho, on the contrary, he's the patron and motivator of the protagonist.

Nobunaga here is played by Nakamura Hashinosuke.
I can't really say that I like or dislike his acting, 'cause the Nobunaga that he plays has such a hieratic and "divine" vibe that it's difficult to understand the skills of the actor: one is just expected to be IN AWE whatever Nobunaga does, and under this aspect, Nakamura is pretty good in delivering the right gestus when needed.
Portrayed as an inspiring warrior and a patron, Nobunaga in this movie is a rolemodel for the young Goemon: not only the boy looks up to him to get encouraged and inspired, but even when he turns into a thief, he tries to "save" the little Koheita using the same words that Nobunaga used with him.

The story is set during the rule of Hideyoshi (here portrayed as the super-villain of the story, followed by his traitorous retainer Ishida Mitsunari), but Nobunaga is shown during the flashbacks of Goemon, who uses to remember about his happy times while being in his service (and Chacha's).

There are many cool moments where this character shines, and one of my personal favourites is obviously the scene of the Atsumori dance, one of the most inspiring and poetic moments of the movie:

Long story short, I enjoyed watching this movie, and I liked its portrayal of Nobunaga.
It isn't something that one may expect from the genre, and I can see many wrinkling their noses to the excessive use of CG (sometimes it feels like watching a music video of Lady Gaga) and absolute lack of realism of any kind, but it entertained me just fine, even if it made me also a little more ignorant on Japanese story∼