2024 Awards

 Here are the 2024 Awards.

Book: Shincho-Ko ki Kubimaki to Okehazama no Tatakai by Obata Taizo

Historian: Volunteers Circle at Gifu City Museum of History 

I will focus on the volunteer group on this post. The volunteers who spend their free time at the museum do a fantastic job making sure guests can experience wearing 16th century clothing. It is extremely popular with the locals as well as the tourists. The photo above is a replica of Nobunaga's Owari no utsuke costume. I have worn this garment many times and you really feel you have traveled back to the time of Nobunaga. Also the volunteers do an excellent job teaching guests the village life of Gifu during the time to Nobunaga and Saito Dosan.

Nobunaga no tame!

Hawking in Mikawa

 

This post explains Nobunaga's falconry in Mikawa and his gift to Hideyoshi, a tea kettle.

The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga (p. 276)

"On the 10th of the Twelfth Month, Nobunaga set out to go hawking at Kira in Mikawa Province. Hashiba Chikuzen was due in Azuchi a few days later, and Nobunaga decided to give him the tea kettle named Otogoze as a reward for having newly reduced Tajima and Harima to obedience. Nobunaga brought the tea kettle out before his departure. 'Give it Chikuzen,' he ordered. 'as soon as he gets here.' It was a gracious gesture."

Tenka no tame!

Sakura Nakamura Castle

 

Sakura Nakamura Castle was held by the Yamaguchi family during the 1550s when Nobunaga was trying to unify Owari. The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga (p. 64) "Having put his son Kurojiro in charge of Narumi Castle, Yamaguchi built a fort and bastions at Kasadera and installed the five [Suruga] captains Kazurayama, Okabe Gorobyoe, Miura Sama no Suke, Iinoo Buzen no Kami, and Azai Koshiro in these fortifications. Yamaguchi Sama no Suke, the father, then fortified the settlement of Nakamura and entrenched himself there." 

Now Nakamura may have been located in the Sakura area, Sakura Nakamura Castle.

Nobunaga no tame!

Kiku Ningyo

 

While I was Gifu the Gifu Castle Park Chrysanthemum dolls were on display. Of course, it is Nobunaga related. It was beautiful as well as aesthetic.

Tenka no tame!

Rokujogawara

 One of the spookiest pictures or place I visited last month was Rokujogawara, the old execution ground located in Kyoto near the Kamo River. Not far from Gojo Bashi (Gojo Bridge), many people met their end here. A passage from The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga describes Matsunaga Hisahide's grandchildren being put to death at the Rokujogawara in Kyoto. The two boys were Matsunaga Hisamichi's sons. The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga (p. 270)

"The two children were put onto a cart at the Ichijo Crossroads in Upper Kyoto and transported to the at Rokujo, where town and country, noble and mean alike flocked together to witness their execution. Totally undisturbed, as calm at their hour of death as any grown-up, their gaze fixed toward the west, the boys were put to death, holding each other's  small hands and invoking Amida Buddha in a loud voice. Those who saw it were dumbstruck; those who heard about it were unable to hold back their tears. It was such a pitiful sight that one could not bear to look at it."

Nobunaga no tame!