2025 Awards

 

The 2025 Awards are here!

Book of the year: Tenyuu wa Nobunaga ni ari. This fictional novel written by Iwamuro Shinobu is fantastic. While the book is fiction, it contains a lot of historical information  than your usual non-fiction written material. Highly recommend it and a must read.

Historian of the year: Touken  This award is a tad different from the usual historian awards. Touken is an armor, weapons, and woodblock print museum located in Nagoya. That being said, you can spend hours here learning about samurai armor, swords, spears, bows, and guns. It is one of my favorite museums in Japan.

Blog posts of the year: There are two of them: Atsuta Public Off-limits Notice (translated in English) and Kiyosu Minoji. Atsuta Public Off-limits Notice Nobunaga's first document as Fujiwara Nobunaga. Kiyosu Minoji, the road that Nobunaga depart from Kiyosu Castle in the early hours of The Battle of Okehazama. 

Movie of the year: Ran  Without a doubt, Ran is probably the best Sengoku Era movie ever made. The reason why it is the movie of the year is due to the unfortunate death of actor Tatsuya Nakadai. 

Tenka no tame!

Myth Busted

 

Http://www.kunitomo-teppo.jp/

Here is a great video on myth about samurai and guns. This gentleman destroyed it in a short video. As always, from the Nobunaga point of view. One must remember at a young age in 1549, he ordered 500 matchlock rifles from Kunitomo (located in Omi Province). A great book to read about guns and the Sengoku Era, Tanegashima by Olof Lindin is highly recommended. Also a link to the Kunitomo Gun Museum is posted above.

Nobunaga no tame!

Nobunaga by Stevie T

 Yesterday while scrolling through Amazon, I found this. Stevie T has done it again. Turnbull will have an English book on Oda Nobunaga. I do not think his take on Nobunaga will be any comparable to The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga (Shincho-ko ki) or Japonius Tyrannus. Those two books are essential for the Nobunaga scholar. In my opinion, his book on Nobunaga will be for the average Joe who is looking for the basics. For example, his book on Hideyoshi just gave the basics with further readings. He did include Mary Elizabeth's Hideyoshi in his further readings. I wonder what references Turnbull will use for Nobunaga since there is a lot more English published works out.

From what I understand, the book will be about 148 pages in length and will be available in late January 2026. His book will cover Okehazama, Anegawa, and Nagashino as well as other battles. If there is one thing looking forward to is the artwork and prints. Turnbull does well with that. The question is will I buy it? Yes I will. I have issues with Stevie T, but I have read much books in English and Japanese on Nobunaga. As a historian, I have to read as much as I can. That includes the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Tenka no tame!

Jissoji

 Jissoji Temple established in 1271 is the family temple of the Kira family. Located in Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture, this temple unfortunately became trigger for the Battle of Okehazama. Just two weeks (May 5th, 1560) before Okehazama, Nobunaga and his army burned many buildings at Jissoji. Japanese sources include: Okazaki Ryoshukoki and Choya Kyubunhoko. 

Nobunaga no tame!

Hideyoshi Document Discovery

 There has been a new discovery regarding Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Honnoji Rebellion. This document was probably the last issued by Hideyoshi while Nobunaga was still alive. The document was probably written by a secretary with Hideyoshi's signature. At the time of the written document, Hideyoshi was fighting the Mori and was besieging Takamatsu Castle (Shimizu Muneharu was the lord of the castle). Again, it was assumed that Hideyoshi did not know about Nobunaga's death. 

Regarding the document, it is assumed that it was written to Uehara Motomasa (Motosuke) who served under the Mori asking him to defect to the Oda. "Since you have shown your loyalty to our Lord (Nobunaga), I have received a red seal letter (from Nobunaga) granting you the right to Bingo Province. If Bingo Province does not become ours, I will give 20,000 kan at a location of your choice within Bichu Province." 

This was a bold move and promise since Bingo and Bichu was not acquired yet. Defections was common during the Sengoku Era. As one sees the wind blow, they will follow. In fact, it was standard operational procedure.

Unfortunately, once Hideyoshi finally received the factual news on Nobunaga's death, he made peace with the Mori and defeated Akechi Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamasaki 1582.

Tenka no tame!

One Minute Azuchi VR Clip

 I found this one minute Azuchi Castle Virtual Reality clip. This goes well with next year's Azuchi Castle 450th Anniversary. Azuchi, the house that Nobunaga built.

Nobunaga no tame!

Kamigamo Shrine Horse Race

 In 1574, Nobunaga provided horses for tge Kamigamo Shrine Festival. Ota Gyuichi was in charge of the arrangements while Nobunaga watched the races from the gallery. The Kamigamo Shrine is located in Kyoto.

The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga (pp. 207-8)

"On the 5th of the Fifth Month, as part of the Kamo Festival, ritual horse races are held at the Kamo Shrine as an act of prayer for the realm. Fortunately, Nobunaga happened to be in Kyoto, so the shrine asked him to provide horses for the races. Nobunaga selected two horses that he had ridden in many a victorious battle--a gray and a bay horse. In addition, he picked eighteen chargers that belonged to his horse guards, making twenty in all, and divided them into ten pairs. Not only did Nobunaga provide the horses, he had all twenty of them outfitted splendidly. Each and every item of the horse gear--saddles, stirrups, bridles--was top quality. Indeed, Nobunaga made sure all the arrangements were stupendous. The grooms were dressed in gorgeous costumes unwitnessed even in ancient times. Ten priests in black attire and ten priests in red mounted in twenty horses and raced them against each other, pair by pair. That Nobunaga's gray and bay horse were superb steeds goes without saying, and both won their respective heats. This was a spectacle for the ages. Needless to say, noble and mean, old and young, all flocked to see it."

Tenka no tame!