Nagashino Cards

 New at the Nagashino Museum is gift cards.  On the top is Nobunaga, Ieyasu Hideyoshi, Sakai Tadatsugu, and Honda Tadakatsu.  The bottom represents Takeda Katsuyori, Yamagata Masakage, Naito Masahide, and Baba Nobufusa.

Tenka no tame!

Ieyasu Portrait News

 

Earlier today I watched a video by Owada Tetsuo explaining Tokugawa Ieyasu's famous Mikatagahara portrait.  What is stunning, is that the painting was probably not after Ieyasu's defeat at Mikatagahara, but Nagashino.  Nagashino?  

According to Hara sensei who works at the Tokugawa Bijutsukan in Nagoya, Ieyasu was not wearing tabi (socks) during the portrait.  This is a clue because Mikatagahara was fought during the cold winter.  Owada suggests Nagashino.  Myself, I have no clue because it is not my specialty.  It might be Mikatagahara or later.  A summer event.  Who knows, but Nagashino sounds interesting for sure.  

Hara sensei has a paper published on this study for about a few years now.  So it is nothing new or outlandish.

Nobunaga no tame!

Required Reading

 Recently after the Age of Samurai debacle, many newbies have been commentating on Nobunaga.  Unfortunately, most of the stuff they write or say is mostly false.  In addition to, they have not read any of the sources that are now available in English on the net or college libraries.  For you newbies out there, I will list several sources for you that are required reading so you do not look like a fool.  The sources that I will post are not novels.  Most of them are academic works or chronicles.  

In no order particular:

Lamers, Jersey P. Japonius Tyrannus. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.

Ota Gyuichi. The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga. Translated by JSA Elisionas and JP Lamers. Leiden:Brill, 2011

Neilson, David D. "Society at War: Eyewitness Accounts of Sixteenth Century Japan." PHD diss., University of Oregon, 2007.

Neilson, David D. Methods of Madness The Last Years of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. 2000.

McMullin, Neil. Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth Century Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Schindewolf, Brandon C. Toki wa Ima. Ohio State University, June 2010.

The Signore, Kunio Tsuji. Translated by Stephen Snyder. Kodansha International. Tokyo, 1989.

Cooper, Michael, SJ. They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European  Reports on Japan, 1543-1640. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

The first five are critical no doubt about it.  Without reading them, you will be left far behind from other colleagues and the like.  Please read all of them.  Trust me.  If you do, you will be more prepared to know Nobunaga better than most.  Again, the sources I have listed are in English.

Tenka no tame!

Sengoku Field Cuisine

Here is a video on what foot soldiers or even samurai might have eaten in the field of battle.  At the start, the person cooks taro stock and makes a rope covered in miso paste. Leftover miso paste is then used to make balls.  The cook has a special place where the foods are dried.  Then the cooks prepares a meal by cooking a few pieces of the rope and then adds dried cooked brown rice.  The result looks like a miso porridge soup.  Foods might have been varied on what they had during the Sengoku Era, but this video gives us historians clues on what they ate on the battlefield.

Nobunaga no tame!

Invasion of Mino After Okehazama

 After Nobunaga's victory at the Battle of Okehazama, he quickly invaded Mino. According to Okaka Masahito's Oda Nobunaga Sogo Jiten (pp. 323-4), Nobunaga attacked Mino not once, but twice during the summer of 1560.  The source that was used in Masahito's book was the Sokenki. The Sokenki also known as the Oda Gunki is a mid Edo Era chronicle that drew much of its work from Oze Hoan Shinchoki. Just be careful when reading it.  If Nobunaga did attack Mino after Okehazama, it was to show Saito Yoshitatsu that he was dead serious to conquer Mino.  Yoshitatsu ended up creating an alliance with the Rokkaku in Southern Omi after Nobunaga's attack.  One must remember that the Rokkaku did send an army to fight with Nobunaga at Okehazama.  If Nobunaga did attack Mino, it was more likely it was a skirmish than a full assault.

Tenka no tame!

Ieyasu's Genpuku

 Here is a video on Sengen Jinja in Shizuoka discussing Tokugawa Ieyasu's genpuku.  Ieyasu's genpuku was held in 1555 at Sengen Jinja.  That same year, Nobunaga took over Kiyosu Castle.  As for Nobunaga's genpuku, his was held in 1546 at Furuwatari Castle.

Nobunaga no tame!

Okehazama Movie Trailer

 Here is the trailer for the Okehazama movie that Fuji TV aired last week.  Better than I expected for a television movie.  The past few days I have rereading my Battle of Okehazama Japanese/English sources and found some new interesting information.  I plan to post them next month.  Also I have found new videos in Japanese on Okehazama, Nobunaga, and the Imagawa family.  Again, I plan to post them in the near future.

Tenka no tame!

Nobunaga no Yabou

 

Here is the cover for the new edition of Nobunaga no Yabou/Nobunaga's Ambition. I am not a gamer, but historical video games does have a place in the history world.  It enhances one's perspective.  It is more fictional than factual.  The cover has Nobunaga in the background with Nohime (I presume), along with Azuchi Castle.  

Unfortunately, I received some bad news regarding to Okehazama.  The festival has been cancelled until further notice.  Hopefully, something will be done in the near future and the festival will be held later this year.

Nobunaga no tame!

Foreign Attire

 

Nobunaga was fond of foreign attire and he was not afraid to show it off.  In 1581, Nobunaga wore a hat that caught the attention of everyone.

Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, (p. 384)

"Then came Nobunaga, wearing a black Southern Barbarian hat. His eyebrows were paintin ink.  Over red court robes, he wore a sleeveless jack of Chinese brocade and chaps of tiger skin."

Tenka no tame!