Oda Nobunaga

Man in the time of Odai

Sengoku Jidai in Japanese history, the warring era means the time when there was an incessant warring state. The novel ‘The Greatest Ambition’ is about Daimyos (regional lords), Samurai (warriors), and the state of the period when these people were living.

The first protagonist is Oda Nobunaga. Popularly speaking, he is a man of fascinating charms. When it is surveyed in Japan about who is their favorite figure in Sengoku Jidai out of all warlords, Oda Nobunaga always ranks the first. It is understood he embodies the representative character of the Japanese which is like cherry blossoms, wildly blooming in a certain period and falling all of a sudden. Nevertheless, even among my family members, on the survey for picking up a favorite out of Sengoku Jidai’s warlords, Oda got unanimous votes (please note that participants were only two - mom and me). Mom said Oda was like cold water so she likes him most and I told her that his personality can hardly exist in reality so I was attracted to him.

Oda Nobunaga, the man of diabolic charm, topped the poll for popularity.

How the novel ‘the Greatest Ambition’ described Oda in his boyhood is almost gross. Since mom sang a hymn of ‘The Greatest Ambition’, I started to read it partly out of obligation and additionally out of curiosity. But when I read how boy Oda behaved in the novel, I felt too dumbfounded, almost wanting to stop reading it. To be honest, it was another reason that I really ceased to read it; it is because my cognitive development was not good enough to read the great saga of this epic novel. I believe to be allowed to describe him as one of natural arrogance and ruthless manners at the least. Vividly untrite, I almost felt insulted by Oda while reading but pondering upon it, what he told and how he behaved was all the while, making sense and feasible. This is almost similar to how I felt with Hythcliff and Catherin in reading ‘the Wuthering Height’ about their ferociously passionate and selfish behaviors, which were very uncomfortable feelings, hardly able to be described.

While launching a war to conquest, he showed brutal atrocity to slaughter the whole population of the town when it was regarded necessary and was relentless when attacking his enemies so he was called a ‘Demon King’. But still, wasn’t it the time when the continuous wars were inevitable? It was the incessant warring ear when one didn’t conquer, he should have vanished and when one didn’t kill, he had to be killed; ‘The Weak Meat, The Strong Eat’ does well epitomize the traits of this era. So how he lived is up to how his time asked people to live according to their rank and status.

It is perhaps because people all are sick of the time when they have to live as a hypocrite, masking themselves although there is hardly one who likes a hypocrite. As I agreed with what mom talked about Oda, his character is brimmed with charms of poignant simplicity. Easy to foretell, his end was miserable. While he was on a roll of incessant victories over the conquering wars for more provinces of the then Japan in the hope of its unification, he ended up committing seppuku - suicide by disembowelment - at the Honnoji temple by means of treason, conspired by his servant Vassal Akeji. His end resembles his life. While having lived with victorious pride, he passed away pungently. Like historians have paid elaborate and much of their attention to Oda’s life careers, they put equivalent attention on his final with the myriad of theories and interests. It must be because they felt bad when a warring hero who swept his time with an unrivaled personality came to an end all of a sudden. On pending death, he didn’t excuse himself either. When an army of twelve thousand soldiers attacked him in Honnoji Temple who was with only a few bodyguards, what he told was just ‘can’t help it’ and ‘let them not come in.’ Considering Oda’s military forces and ability were very well enough to unify the then warring state of Japan just before he came to an end unpredictably, a lot of people tend to engage in the hypothesis of what if he didn’t die in Honnoji Temple. I truly sympathize with it but how I think about it, is that Oda’s death in Honnoji Temple was not just by accident but it was very predictable happening under the objective circumstances.

Oda was the lord equipped all with military intelligence, strategy, and forces. However, when he conquered a third of the whole Japanese territory, his political ability already had a limitation to that exact extent. When a detailed look was put on the relationship between Oda and the vassal Akeji, several signs of a precarious split between them were detected, triggered by Oda’s ruthless behaviors. It is easily reckoned that it could hardly be the case only in the relationship with Akeji. The unification of the country which was Oda's eagerly wished dream needed the shrewder and more complicated political cunnings but he was the man of simplicity and straightforwardness. Although Akeji hadn’t set the treason on him, it is not unnatural for me to believe that some other, his then loyal vassal would have conspired the coup-de-tat against him for some other very possible reason.

Felt sorry for him but still to his admirer’s relief, his achievement was not wasted since it provided the foundation on which Toyotomi and Tokugawa fought for the unification of Japan to finally achieve it. And Oda himself has been fervently loved as one of the three great unifiers of Japan in the warring era even till this time.

How Oda could live this simply proud life is mainly because of his background. His clan was well established dominating governing power in Owari province for generations and his father, Oda Nobuhide was also a warring hero equipped both with military intelligence and necessary aggressiveness. It is like a bean in a bean.