Sengoku Gaiden: Okehazama Senki

This is a comic recommended to me by Koji Tsunoda, with whom I have a friendly relationship.

Mr. Tsunoda and I share a common interest in history, and he sometimes exchanges views with me on historical facts in the comments section, providing me with very helpful insights on a regular basis.

He also read my humble book, Oku no Eda-michi, and even posted a review article about it.

I am endlessly grateful for his thoughtfulness in finding and quietly letting me know about the 'typos' in the book.

In a comment on the Mr. Tsunoda left on the Nagoya travelogue article of the Rekijo Circle, (4) Atsuta Jingu, he wrote the following.

Here it is! ↓ ↓ ↓

I managed to read it to the end for free while logging in every day.

I would like to write down my thoughts based on the historical perspective of the author, Mr. Hideki Miyashita.

The Great Lord, Imagawa Yoshimoto

To sum up my impressions in one word, Imagawa Yoshimoto is so cool!!
It was my first time seeing such a beautiful, strong, and wise Yoshimoto depicted.

Misconceptions about Yoshimoto

Most historical works from this period focus on Oda Nobunaga, and I feel that Imagawa Yoshimoto is often portrayed as an arrogant warlord who had no real talent.

This is because he was easily defeated and killed in the 'Battle of Okehazama' in 1560 by the still-inexperienced Nobunaga.

I used to think that way when I was younger, but as I read through various novels from this era, I began to think that wasn't the case... and once I learned that Yoshimoto was an excellent warlord, I couldn't understand the cause of his defeat in this 'Okehazama...'.

I had thought about this for a while, but after seeing the 'Nobunaga Wall' at Atsuta Jingu last month, that feeling grew even stronger. I became particularly interested in learning about Imagawa Yoshimoto, and I wanted to explore the reasons why such a brilliant Sengoku warlord was defeated.

My impression of the 'Battle of Okehazama' was roughly as follows.

I thought that battle proceeded exactly according to Nobunaga's plan from start to finish.

However, this book does not touch upon any of the above points at all.
It depicts Yoshimoto as someone who, while being honorable, sees through Nobunaga's talent and acknowledges it.

And his retainers also trust Yoshimoto from the bottom of their hearts and try to protect him with strong unity.

Two people who acknowledged each other

These are the words Yoshimoto realized as he was about to meet his end.

At that moment, a figure resembling Nobunaga enters Yoshimoto's field of vision, but he can only confirm the silhouette, and as it fades away, he passes away feeling regret in his final moments.

In the end, Yoshimoto and Nobunaga never met face-to-face even once.

Yoshimoto had known and analyzed Nobunaga since he was a child, understanding him thoroughly,
and Nobunaga also respected Yoshimoto's excellent governance and wisdom, understanding him well.

Even without meeting, the two, who knew each other inside and out, completely saw through each other's brilliance and faced the decisive battle without underestimating the enemy.

If these two had somehow had a conversation, history might have changed significantly.

The only time the two could have met was truly at this moment of reckoning.

The sight of Nobunaga bowing deeply before Yoshimoto's head expresses his feeling of deep respect from the bottom of his heart, and his display of profound courtesy is moving.

Taigen Sessai, the greatest strategist of the Sengoku period

Was he a conspirator?

At the strong request of Yoshimoto's father, Imagawa Ujichika, he began serving as an educator for Yoshimoto, the fifth son of the Imagawa family at the time. (He was the third son if counting by the same mother as the legitimate wife.)

Since Ujiteru had already been decided as the heir to the Imagawa family and there was also a second older brother, Hikogoro, there was almost no chance of Yoshimoto inheriting the family headship, so they hired an excellent monk as his tutor since he had been sent into the priesthood at age four.

However, Sessai noticed the boy's potential as a great commander and spent the latter half of his life raising him to be a 'Sengoku daimyo'.

Eventually, an event occurred that would change the history of the Imagawa.

His two older brothers,the heir Ujiteru and the second brother Hikogoro, died suddenly on the same day!

On the same day, mind you!
I think this is a suspicious incident that makes one wonder if Sessai was involved in some way.

I find myself wondering which came first: Sessai's decision to raise Yoshimoto as a warlord, or the sudden death of the two brothers? It certainly carries the scent of a conspiracy.

If he had lived five more years

He became the right-hand man to Yoshimoto, who had inherited the Imagawa family headship, and served as a strategist, but when he realized his own life was coming to an end, he provided guidance on the future of the Imagawa family so that no worries would remain after he was gone.

In the first place, having repeatedly fought fierce battles against Nobunaga's father, Oda Nobuhide, and knowing Owari inside and out, Sessai advocated that they should focus on suppressing the Oda clan of Owari above all else, and for that, it was essential to keep the Takeda and Hojo clans in check.

Therefore, as the final great task of his life,he established the Koso-Sun Alliancebefore ending his 60-year life.

If Sessai had lived five more years and participated in the 'Okehazama...' battle, what kind of strategy would he have proposed?
Perhaps the Oda family would have been destroyed right there.

This is because Sessai had recognized the talent of Nobunaga, the son, and had long feared that they needed to deal with Owari immediately.

He may have even foreseen in a corner of his heart the death in battle of Yoshimoto, upon whom he had bestowed his greatest affection.

However, seeing that his other student, Tokugawa Ieyasu, whom he had taken as a hostage, survived the Sengoku period shrewdly and built an era of 260 years of peace,there is no doubt that Sessai's education had a major impact on Japanese history.

Regarding the women who appeared

｜Jukeini

She was the legal wife of her father, Ujichika, and the biological mother of Yoshimoto. (There are various theories.)
After Yoshimoto's death, she managed the Imagawa clan for eight years, a heroine who demonstrated such brilliant diplomatic policy that she was called a 'female Sengoku daimyo'.

My image of her is strongly influenced by Ruriko Asaoka's performance in the Taiga drama 'Onna Joshu Naotora' .
The Imagawa clan, which managed to survive while she was alive, headed straight toward ruin after her passing.

This book is structured to begin and end with her.
Each of those scenes was also quite memorable.

｜Ikoma Kitsuno

She was favored by Nobunaga and was the mother of his eldest son Nobutada, as well as Nobukatsu and Tokuhime. (There are various theories.)

However, records of her are scarce and details are unknown, but
in this book, she was in the position of a wife even before Nobunaga took a legal wife from Mino.

There is a scene where Nobunaga's mother, Dota Gozen, suggests that Kitsuno should separate from Nobunaga, but since it was a time when having 'concubines' was the norm, this seems unlikely to have happened.

This is because having concubines and producing as many children as possible was linked to the survival of the family.

It is said she died in 1566, but it is unclear whether she was 39 or 29 years old, as her birth year is unknown.
In this book, she is set to be 4 or 5 years older than Nobunaga, so it seems they adopted the 39-year-old theory.

Like Kitsuno, looking at other concubines, older women who had been married once before stand out, so it seems Nobunaga had a preference for 'mature women'.

After that, Nobunaga, who had many concubines, became estranged from Kitsuno for a time, but
it is written that after learning later that she had been bedridden for several years due to poor health after giving birth to Tokuhime, Nobunaga had her enter Komakiyama Castle as his legal wife and presented her to his retainers for the first time.

Because her status was low, she had always been a shadow existence, hadn't she?

Nobunaga's legal wife, Nohime

In this book, only her name appears, and she does not make even a fleeting appearance.

It is very strange that although she was Nobunaga's legal wife and the daughter of the famous Saito Dosan, there are no records of her.

What is certain is that she was born in 1535 and married Nobunaga as his legal wife in 1549 at the age of 15 (by traditional Japanese age reckoning).

When exactly did she die?
Even the death year of his concubine, Kitsuno, is known, so why is there no record for her??

Various speculations have been flying around about this, and it has yet to be clarified.
The fact that there are multiple names for her, such as Okono, Kicho, Kocho, Sagiyama-dono, and Azuchi-dono, seems to be a factor in the confusion.

Since she is a character worth fantasizing about, I would like to write another article about her at a later date.

I also wanted to read the main series.

This work is strictly a spin-off.

There is a main series consisting of Sengoku, Sengoku Tenshoki, Sengoku Itoki, and Sengoku Gonbei.

I was completely unaware of the person named Sengoku Hisahide, and I am very interested in the Sengoku period as seen through his eyes, having served the three great heroes: Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu.

I definitely want to finish reading it and post an article with my thoughts at a later date.