NOBUNAGA BIRTHDAY PROJECT ② Nobunaga and the Cuckoo

Inspired by the online event of Nagoya Omotenashi Bushotai dedicated to the birthday of Nobunaga past year, I decided to join the celebrations this year too, providing a new post dedicated to Nobu every week, until June 23 😄For today's contribution I kept fiddling around with the King of Zipangu guidebook, this time focusing on the "Cuckoo Poem" that opens the previously analyzed article, that so effectively describes the Three Unifiers of Japan.
Browsing the web about it, I decided to share what I found about it online.

鳴かぬなら、殺してしまえほととぎす 信長
If the cuckoo doesn't sing, kill it. Nobunaga

鳴かぬなら、鳴かして見せようほととぎす 秀吉
If the cuckoo doesn't sing, make it sing. Hideyoshi

鳴かぬなら、鳴くまで待とうほととぎす 家康
If the cuckoo doesn't sing, wait for it to sing. Ieyasu

This senryu is as popular as mysterious. Still unauthored, its first version dates back the Edo times, when it started to circulate to celebrate the wisdom of Ieyasu, the Shinkun (神君):

いまだ郭公を聞かずとの
The cuckoo was yet to sing

物語いでけるに、信長、
so Nobunaga said

鳴ずんば殺してしまえ時鳥
If the cuckoo doesn't sing, kill it

と、ありしに秀吉、
and Hideyoshi

なかずともなかせて聞こう時鳥
Let's force the cuckoo to sing

と、有りしに、
And

なかぬならなく時聞こう時鳥
Let's wait until the cuckoo sings

と遊はされしは神君の由。
reasoned the Divine Sovereign.

This first version is part of the Mimibukuro (耳嚢), a series of short stories collected starting 1784 by Negishi Shizumori, as he served as a hatamoto of the shogunate.

The choice of this peculiar bird is interesting, too.

This article, analyzing its portrayal in woodblock prints, defines its meaning in Japanese culture:

The cuckoo has long been popular as a subject in Japanese literature and Haiku, possibly to do with the word having five syllables; and in literature and myth it is associated with the longing of the spirits of the dead to return to their loved ones. Mourning, longing, melancholy; these are suggested maybe by its song and perhaps signals its persistent use in woodblock prints.

This image of the cuckoo as a "longing spirit" is usually derived by the Chinese tradition and the story of Du Yu (杜宇), a legendary Emperor who taught people how to farm.
In one of his various mythical accountings, he was turned into a cuckoo after he died, so he went back to his people to warn them about the arrival of summer with its singing, as it's the right season to plough the fields.

The arrival of summer is the reason for another of its namesake, "時鳥", "Timely Bird", as the cuckoo starts singing exactly as summer is approaching.
This also suggests a metaphor for new life detaching from the past.

So, with a bit of creativity, we may interprete "the cuckoo" of the poem as "a right moment", the moment when the Three Unifiers had to deal with power: Nobunaga failed because he was too impatient, Hideyoshi failed because he was too cruel, Ieyasu got it because he was patient enough to "wait" for it.

Interestingly enough, the wit of this poem would be completely reversed by Utagawa Yoshitora and his famous "Miyo no Wakamochi" (御代の若餅) ukiyo-e... But I'll talk about it on a later contribution!

--Speaking of Nobunaga and cuckoo, as a pop culture person, I couldn't avoid to mention Sengoku Choju Giga (戦国鳥獣戯画), where Nobunaga was exactly portrayed as a flimsy cuckoo. Inspired by the famous Chojo Jinbutsu Giga emakimono, this series portrays the daily lives and heroic deeds of the personalities of Sengoku Era as animals in a parodic intent.
Besides Nobunaga, also Ranmaru, Oichi and Yodo-dono are represented as cuckoos. Obviously, no explanation was given by the authors for this choice, besides the "If the cuckoo doesn't sing" poem∼