The following is the personal view of Unakami Tomoaki on the character of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the model for the fictional figure ‘Yoshii Toranaga’ in the FX series ‘Shōgun’.  As you can see, Unakami has some fairly strong views about Ieyasu’s abilities as a general, in contrast to his skills at weaving intrigue. The translation below is from a section of Chapter 4.

From Unakami Tomoaki’s “Hontō wa gokai darake no Sengoku kassen senshi”, Tokkan Shoten, Tokyo, August 2020


Tokugawa Ieyasu was a master of intrigue, but…

In much the same way at Oda Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu spent the first half of his life seeking to expand his rule. Despite being born as the lord of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa province and the legitimate heir to the Matsudaira family, he had been brought up since infancy as a hostage to both the Oda and the Imagawa families. At the Battle of Okehazama, while Oda Nobunaga was fighting against Imagawa Yoshitomo, Ieyasu was part of the Imagawa army. He was no more than a lad of 19 at the time.
 
When the Imagawa’s power began to decline following the Battle of Okehazama, Ieyasu made the decision to strike out on his own as lord of Okazaki Castle.  It was at this time that he forged an alliance with Oda Nobunaga.  For the next 21 years, until Nobunaga met his end during the Honnōji Incident, that military alliance would continue.
 
The Sengoku-era historian Taniguchi Katsuhiro noted that this alliance took place at a unique time in the Sengoku period, and whose mutual interest would continue for many years (Taniguchi Katsuhiro, “Nobunaga and Ieyasu’s Military Alliance – 21 years of interests and strategy”, Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2019).
 
Opposite the sphere of influence exercised by Imagawa Yoshimoto in Suruga province lay a region contested over by three major powers, namely the Hōjō, Takeda, and Uesugi families. Suruga province bordered these lands, and would eventually be amalgamated with Mikawa province. Owari province would see daily clashes over its border area. After Suruga lost its principal source of authority, a newly freed Ieyasu was able to start building a small power base in Mikawa. Meanwhile Nobunaga, in order to protect himself from the direct threat Takeda Shingen of Kai province presented to Owari province, realised that he needed Mikawa as a buffer zone.
 
For Ieyasu, he too wanted to receive aid from Nobunaga to both preserve his independence and prevent himself from once again being sucked into a power struggle against formidable opponents. Ieyasu made good use of his alliance with Nobunaga, and following the deaths of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, he deposed their heirs and built the foundations for an era of peace that lasted some 260 years. 
 
Despite all of this, Ieyasu was something of a military dunce. One thing that stands out in particular with regard to this is the epic Battle of Sekigahara that decided the fate of the nation.  If you take a look at the disposition of the Eastern Army on the eve of the battle, such was Ieyasu’s lack of military skill that it is a wonder that the Western Army was not victorious. In much the same way as Nobunaga, Ieyasu suffered defeat on the battlefield time and time again. 
 
What Ieyasu excelled at was intrigue.  While Nobunaga may have possessed a genius for revolutionary thinking, and of the three great unifiers it was Hideyoshi that was most capable militarily, Ieyasu was the strategist.  He was also extraordinarily cautious. He had learned a lot at the hands of Takeda Shingen of Kai, who had always presented the greatest threat to Mikawa. His experience living as a hostage also meant that he had taken exercising a high degree of caution to heart. Two apocryphal tales that left an impression on me in this regard are the tale of the out of season peaches and the crossing of the Marukibashi bridge.     
 
When Ieyasu was still a young man, Nobunaga sent some peaches to him. Under the old calendar this occurred in ‘Shimotsuki’, which in the modern calendar corresponds to December. While his retainers were perplexed as to how such a thing could have happened, and what sort of technology had been used to make it happen, Ieyasu pondered why Nobunaga had sent the peaches in the first place, and thinking that they might have a detrimental effect on his health, chose to give all of the peaches to his retainers. Hearing of this, Takeda Shingen offered his assessment, thinking “This is an individual that goes to great lengths to preserve his health. He prioritises his metabolism, and it appears that he won’t eat anything unnecessarily” (as recorded in the ‘Hisakankin’, a compilation of apocryphal tales about Tokugawa Ieyasu, edited by the Zenkoku Tōshōgu Rengōkai, published 1997). Shingen, who as a student of Sun Tzu had been able to correctly deduce Nobunaga’s nature, realised that far from being a dull and introverted soul, Ieyasu was in fact bursting with ambition.
 
Ieyasu was also known as a fine practitioner of the Ōtsubo school of horsemanship. However when attempting to cross a bridge spanning a river during the attack on Odawara during the Tenshō period, he deliberately got off his horse and crossed the river while being carried on the back of one of his retainers.  Ieyasu hadn’t learned horsemanship in order to show off in front of others, but rather to allow him to escape from the battlefield and live to fight again. Hence he had no need for any adventures, which does make for rather a dull story (from the Jyōzan Kidan and Bushō Kanjyōki published by Hakubunkan in 1929).    
 
Ieyasu’s high degree of caution made it impossible for him to achieve great deeds, but he possessed an extraordinary ability to wield intrigue.  Figures such as Mōri Motonari, Hōjō Sōun, and to some extent (Hōjō) Ujiyasu were generals of the strategic type, prepared to put up with hardship for a while waiting for their chance to strike.  Once their chance came they would move with lightening speed, but in the interim they would act cautiously, biding their time and building their resources. Ieyasu had the special patience of the strategist, and disliked embarking on adventures that would yield no rewards.  It was impossible for him to understand why anyone would act purely out of desire to provoke a response. He was also far more concerned about his health than the ordinary person.  His way of thinking, in which living a long life was what divided up life’s winners from its losers, was in contrast to Nobunaga and his idea that “life is but 50 years long”.      

The recent success of the FX/Disney series ‘Shōgun’, based on the novel published in the mid-1970s by James Clavell (an Australian-born British-American writer, whose life deserves a show of its own) has ignited interest around the world in the period of Japanese history depicted in the show and some of its main characters.  While Clavell’s novel is ostensibly a work of fiction, the characters that appear in it were certainly based on real individuals from sixteenth century Japan. Not least of these was the inspiration for the character of Toda Mariko, otherwise known as Hosokawa Gracia.
 
While there is a great amount of literature available that dramatizes the life of Hosokawa Gracia, the reality of her life was every bit as dramatic and tragic as depicted in fiction. Born into a world still in the throes of turmoil, she did what she could to survive, often to her own detriment. Yet she endured unimaginable hardship, until the circumstances of her marriage and the looming showdown between the forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari forced her hand and resulted in her death. But what were her origins? Where did she come from, and how did the first half of her life come to play such a pivotal role in dictating her ultimate fate?
 
To answer some of these questions, I have taken the liberty of translating some of the early chapters of Ahn Jungwon’s book on Hosokawa Gracia. This is one of the most straight-forward works examining her life and legacy, and lays out the basic information on her origins in a manner that the general reader can easily comprehend. For the English reader, some of the format used by Ahn might seem a bit disjointed, with certain sections being repeated and new subjects introduced in the middle of a single paragraph. This is one of the unique characteristics of Japanese historical writing and so one can only ask for the reader’s patience and understanding if transitions can seem somewhat jarring from time to time.  
 
Hosokawa Gracia by Ahn Jungwon. Chuō Kōron Shinsha Publishing. October 2016.
 
Introduction
 
Hosokawa Gracia; a Christian woman of the Sengoku era (b. 1563 – d. 1600)
 
A famous woman, who took the name Gracia following her baptism into the Christian faith, replacing her original name of Tama(ko). Born a child of Akechi Mitsuhide (b.1528 – d.1582), one of the principal retainers to Oda Nobunaga (b.1538 – d.1582), she would go on to be betrothed to Hosokawa Tadaoki (b.1563 – d.1646).  In the weeks before the Battle of Sekigahara, her residence would be surrounded by the forces of her rival Ishida Mitsunari (1560 – 1600), and rather than being taken hostage, she would meet her end in dramatic fashion.
 
The baptismal name of Gracia was unique even for that time.  The key to understanding it lies in her original name. She was once known as Tama (ko), with the character ‘tama’ meaning ‘jewel’, or a thing of great value. This sound also resembled the word ‘tamamono’, meaning a gift or a blessing. Moreover, the name ‘Gracia’ resembles that of the Latin word ‘gratia’, meaning to give thanks or receive favour. Hence her baptismal name is believed to have been a liberal translation of her birth name.
 
She would ordinarily have been referred to as Akechi Tama(ko). However given that she is better known by the name ‘Hosokawa Gracia’, for the sake of convenience that is what she will be referred to throughout the course of this book.
 
The name Hosokawa Gracia has two particular characteristics. The first highlights her conversion to Christianity after marrying Hosokawa Tadaoki, the son of Hosokawa Fujitaka (b.1534 – d.1610, posthumously known as Yūsai), thus joining the Hosokawa household. Following her baptism, there was a possibility that she would divorce Tadaoki. While it said that she could not divorce because she had converted to Christianity, the truth is that the Catholic Church at the time had provisions that would allow for divorce. However Gracia’s case did not merit their implementation. It is quite possible that had her marriage been allowed to be annulled, she might not have met such a tragic end.  Yet the very fact that she was the wife of Tadaoki proved to be the catalyst that would ultimately decide her fate.
 
‘Marriage’ was thus the key element that tied her Christian faith together with her tragic end. I myself specialise in the examination of marital problems involving the Catholic Church in sixteenth and seventeenth century Japan and China.  What impact did Catholic doctrine have in new missionary lands, and what sort of friction did they cause? And as for issues concerning values held in those missionary lands and rivalry from other faiths, what methods did missionaries apply to try and resolve them? All of these questions can be drawn from the historical records left by European missionaries, starting with the Jesuits.
 
Gracia presents a particularly fascinating case amid the historical record of Christianity in Japan.  Through my research into marital issues, it may be possible to comprehend Gracia’s life. This book is thus the culmination of my interest in this subject. By examining the details of historical records left by missionaries as they relate to Gracia’s death, I believe I can shine some light on some heretofore little explored aspects of Gracia’s life.
 
Most studies of Gracia up until now have relied heavily on the theories expounded by Sophia University Professor Father Johannes Laures (b.1891 – d. 1959). In Laures’ view, since Gracia was a Christian, she was forbidden from taking her own life and so had a retainer of the Hosokawa family put her to death (Johannes Laures, “Life of Hosokawa Gracia”, Chuō Publishing, 1958). Father Laures’ theory about Gracia’s suicide would come to dominate the field in time. Yet can the mystery surrounding her death be so easily and conveniently explained?  
 
Why type of martyrdom did Gracia choose to accept? Did she do so in accordance with a warrior code, obeying an order given by her husband Tadaoki? Or was her death more in keeping with Christian doctrine? Why would she have someone else put her to death if she was capable of committing suicide herself? The records of the Jesuit missionary Gnecchi Soldo Organtino (b. 1533 – d. 1609) describe a conversation that he maintained with Gracia at a time of heightened tension and danger and how best to respond to it.  What sort of response did he make to her? We must also not overlook the question of how the Catholic Church reacted to Gracia’s death. Did she in fact die by suicide, and if she didn’t, can we still claim that she was martyred?
 
The number of historical documents related to Gracia are limited and it would be true to say that the possibility of new material being discovered that completely changes our understanding of her life is fairly low.  Nevertheless, it has now been more than half a century since Laures wrote his book, and studies into Christianity in Japan have developed in new directions. It has therefore become possible to re-examine aspects of her life by revisiting Christian historical records. This book is an attempt to look at Christian history from the ‘outside’, and re-examine Gracia’s life from the two aspects of ‘marriage’ and ‘death’.  
 
Chapter One – A Political Marriage and the Honnōji Incident
                             Born the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide
 

1.  Scenery that Gracia saw

            Exiled to the mountains of Tango province
 
After her marriage to Hosokawa Tadaoki, Hosokawa Gracia entered the Hosokawa household, located at the time between Miyazu castle in Tango province (now part of Kyoto Prefecture) and Osaka. After arriving, she rarely ventured out again.  Both regions are in some way associated with Gracia, but little of her presence remains. Nonetheless, there was one place that was extraordinarily difficult for Gracia to forget.
 
In Tenshō 10 (1582), Gracia’s father Akechi Mitsuhide slew Oda Nobunaga in the Honnōji Incident, thus making Gracia the daughter of a turncoat and traitor. The Hosokawa family, under the pretext this provided, cut their ties with Gracia and sent her to a place located deep in the mountains. In this place known as ‘Midono’, Gracia spent the next two years of her life.  The view that greeted Gracia at that place in the mountains is almost the same today.  Midono is located within the mountains of Yasaka town, itself part of Kyotango City. We can use the sources to trace the peculiar circumstances that led Gracia to wind up at this location. 
 
The ”Record of the Hosokawa Household” (Hosokawa Kaki) states that the place that Gracia was sent into exile was “Midono, located in the mountains of Tanba’, while another source stated that it went “by the name of Uetomura in Tango province”. The poet Aoi Sōgo, in his book “Hosokawa Tadaoki” (published Shōwa 11 (1936) put the location of this alternative site at 2 ri (or 7.85km) north-west of the Kyoto (or capital) region. When the Chancellor of Sophia University and Jesuit Father Hermann Heuvers (b. 1890 – d. 1977) visited this alternative site many years later, he believed that it could never have served as a hideaway. Furthermore, none of the people living there had any idea who Hosokawa Gracia was. Not only had it never served as territory belonging to the Hosokawa family, it was also located far too close to Kyoto.
 
The novelist Morita Sōhei, when researching for his book “Hosokawa Gracia”, wrote in an essay for the Yomiuri Shimbun on 23 May, Shōwa 10 (1935) that when visiting Miyazu, he heard from a local reporter born in Nomamura village in Yosa-gun (close to Miyazu City) of a local legend of Tadaoki and his wife making their way to a local place, the details of this legend having been passed down throughout the surrounding area. The location of this place was ‘Midono’ in the mountains of Tango province. When Father Heuvers later made his own visit to the same area in August of 1935, he thought it to be an ideal location for a hideaway and was convinced that it must have served as Gracia’s secret residence. Moreover, local legends corresponded with what historical facts were known about Gracia’s life. In 1936, the Hosokawa family would purchase the land and erect a memorial stone to Gracia on it.
 
Midono today is a place deep within the mountains where people are exceedingly scarce.  It features steep mountain sides, and there is a tale that says that 400 years before Gracia made her way to the same valley, members of the Heike family defeated at the Battle of Dan-no-Ura developed the area for settlement.  Today, there is a road from Mineyama that connects with Midono, and which passes along the cliff edges of the deep valleys therein. When I visited the site in Autumn, I was told by a local driver who also served as a guide that in winter, the area receives around 2 metres of snow, thus making life there particularly difficult. There are only a few scattered dwellings in the vicinity. And yet it is this place, which exists almost as an inland island, that contains the remnants of Gracia’s hideaway.                 
‘Hidden’ rather than ‘cut off’
 
On a small hill located in the mountains lies a flat plain only some 60 metres in diameter. This hill is variously known as “the woman’s castle”, “the palace”, and “Osaki’s hill”.  It also features a memorial stone with the inscription “the secret residence of Hosokawa Tadaoki”.  A stone enclosure built around the memorial stone had apparently been visited by a group from Kyushu some days earlier, and there were still relatively fresh flowers and food offerings placed around it.  Apparently visitors from Kyushu visit the area every spring and summer. Which makes sense, given that it would be impossible to do so in winter. Down in the valley and separate from the ‘woman’s castle’ is another flat area known as the ‘man’s castle’.  It is said that this was the residence of those warriors from the Hosokawa household tasked with protecting Gracia.
 
Legend has it that Gracia, after arriving in Miyazu Bay by boat, travelled by road over the mountains until she arrived at Midono. Tabata Yasuko postulates that Gracia travelled by boat from Miyazu to Hioki, then by road from Hioki until she reached Komakura, and then travelled over the mountains to Midono. Tabata also speculates that Midono had once been the territory of the Akechi family. In his ‘History of Japan’, the Jesuit priest Luis Frois states that Akechi Mitsuhide possessed territory in Tango province, hence it is quite possible that this was the case. Midono itself is not that far from Miyazu City and is surrounded by steep mountains, thus making it quite well suited to serve as a hideaway. However its elevation is not that high, around 600 metres above sea level at most. What it suggests is that the Hosokawa family did not intend to cut off and abandon Gracia there, but rather keep her presence a secret.   
 
I was moved to wonder what Gracia would have thought looking out over the mountains from her residence within the “woman’s castle”.  Her entire family had been eliminated as a result of her father’s betrayal.  She herself had been cut off from her adopted family, separated from her children, all while her husband’s concubines had taken her place.  This was not the result of something she herself had done, and there must have been times when she thought “why on earth has this happened to me?”.  At the time, it would have been considered only proper for the daughter of someone whose conspiracy had slain the ruler of the land to also be put to death.  
 
Gracia herself must have felt from time to time that she could not easily return to the Hosokawa household, and that she was to a certain degree prepared to accept her fate. She may have felt that life itself was no longer worth living. Conversely, by going to Midono while still pregnant and giving birth there, she may have found a reason to keep living for the sake of her newborn child.  Perhaps she thought too much about the past while protected in her mountain hideaway. While she might have been able to return to the Hosokawa household early, she may have been anxious that those powers assembled in Osaka (namely Toyotomi Hideyoshi) would give her a particularly hard time.
 
Regarded as the daughter of a traitor, subject to her husband’s unusually strict discipline, and forced to live something like a hermit, it is no wonder that she would eventually seek solace in the Christian faith.
 
During her lifetime, the circumstances surrounding the rulers of the country underwent profound change. Her marriage had been decided by Oda Nobunaga. After his death as a result of her father’s betrayal, she was cut off by her adopted family and sent to Midono. She would then be recalled by the next ruler of the realm Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and because of her husband’s association with Tokugawa Ieyasu, she would be condemned to die.  Despite having never met them, having no family ties to them, and virtually nothing in common with them, the rulers of the realm (Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu) would all in some way contribute to the sudden dramatic changes in her life.
 
II  Marriage to the Hosokawa family
 
We must begin by talking about the first ruler of the realm to decide Gracia’s fate.
 
In Eiroku 3 (1560), Oda Nobunaga defeated the army of Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama following Imagawa’s invasion of Owari province from Suruga and Tōtōmi provinces.  This allowed Nobunaga to gain control over Owari from the Imagawa and liberate Matsudaira Motoyasu (afterwards known as Tokugawa Ieyasu), who had been a hostage of the Imagawa up until this time. Motoyasu then returned to his home province of Mikawa.  In Eiroku 5, Motoyasu visited Nobunaga at his castle at Kiyosu, whereupon Nobunaga’s daughter Gotoku was married to Motoyasu’s eldest son Nobuyasu. Motoyasu then severed all ties to the Imagawa family and changed his name to Ieyasu.
 
Meanwhile Nobunaga continued with his invasion of Minō province and fought against the Saitō family, who were rulers of Minō at the time. In Eiroku 4, Saitō Yoshitatsu died suddenly and was succeeded by his son, Tatsuoki.  To ensure the success of his invasion of Minō, Nobunaga moved his base from Komakiyama and attacked his cousin Oda Nobukiyo at Inuyama castle.  This victory united Owari under Nobunaga’s rule.  In the same year, Nagao Kagetora of Echigo province invaded Odawara, which was under the control of the Hōjō family.  Having defeated the Hōjō, Kagetora seized the official post of Kantō Kanrei from the Hōjō and changed his name to Uesugi Kenshin.  Kenshin would go on to fight a series of battles against Takeda Shingen of Kai province, during which time Nobunaga maintained an alliance with Kenshin.  Thereafter an adopted daughter of Nobunaga would be married to Shingen’s son, Katsuyori. 
 
It took Nobunaga 10 years to complete his takeover of Minō province.  Having done so, he began to embark upon an ambition to unite the country under his rule.  In the same year (Eiroku 4), Nobunaga changed the name of Inoguchi in Minō province to Gifu and made that his home base. He also began to use the insignia “Tenka Fubu’ (consisting of four characters, meaning ‘all under heaven, both civil/learned and military’). It was around this time, in Eiroku 6 (1563), that Gracia was born.  At the time, her father, Akechi Mitsuhide, was not yet in the service of Nobunaga.  It was while Nobunaga was in the process of expanding his control over Minō that he came into contact with Mitsuhide. As Nobunaga planned to take control of the capital (at Kyoto), Mitsuhide decided to swear fealty to him. As a retainer, Mitsuhide rose to prominence, which would have a significant influence of Gracia’s upbringing.  
 
Gracia’s birth
 
When speaking of Akechi Mitsuhide, the image that first comes to mind is that of a conspirator and traitor who caused the death of his lord Oda Nobunaga in the Honnōji Incident.  However, despite being one of the main retainers of Nobunaga, very few historical records detailing the life of Mitsuhide and written at the same time that he lived have survived. Mitsuhide’s life has, however, been subject to legend, such as the “Akechi Gunki” (Military Record of the Akechi Family). This is a compilation of various tales about Mitsuhide’s military exploits and was made almost a century after his death. Hence it’s not considered reliable as an historical source.
 
The historical record of the Hosokawa family, known as the “Hosokawa Kaki” (or Menkō Shūroku) does contain some entries in relation to Gracia’s father, Mitsuhide. However these were primarily written by later generations, and appear to have been edited based on the ‘Akechi Gunki’. Thus they cannot be taken at face value.  As for Mitsuhide himself, his family were thought to be branch of the Toki clan, with Mitsuhide being the child of the ruler of Akechi castle in Minō province.
 
Mitsuhide himself had been able to transcend his origins, for he most certainly spent his youth in relative poverty. Luis Frois in his “History of Japan” wrote that “he (Mitsuhide) was not of high birth”.  At some undetermined point, Mitsuhide most certainly entered into the service of Asakura Yoshikage (b.1533 – d.1573) of Echizen province.  Gracia was born in Eiroku 6 (1563) in Echizen province. Her mother is believed to have been Hiroko, the daughter of Tsumaki Norihiro.  The ‘Akechi Gunki’  states that she was “well known as an intelligent woman’. It also states that she gave birth to all of Gracia’s siblings.
 
As for Mitsuhide’s daughters, the “Hosokawa Kaki” says that he had at least 3 daughters, and that Gracia was either the third daughter or possibly came after that. The “Akechi Gunki”  says that Gracia was the third of four daughters, and that after the four daughters were born, Mitsuhide would go on to have three sons.  There are also theories that Mitsuhide had 5 daughters. Following the Battle of Yamazaki (Tenshō 10), in which Mitsuhide was defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Mitsuhide’s cousin Akechi Hidemitsu (also known as Mitsuharu), having heard of Mitsuhide’s defeat, set fire to Mitsuhide’s castle at Sakamoto while the entire Mitsuhide clan committed suicide, including Gracia’s mother.
 
When Gracia was born, her father was in the service of the Asakura family of Echizen province. In his youth, Mitsuhide has been relatively poor, but by the time Gracia was born, he had earned Nobunaga’s trust and was gradually making his way up in the world. It is believed that Gracia had a relatively happy childhood and grew up in a well-off household.  When she was nine years old, Nobunaga appointed Mitsuhide as ruler over Sakamoto in Ōmi province, whereupon he set about building a castle.   
 
Akechi Mitsuhide and Hosokawa Fujitaka
 
Gracia’s future father-in-law, Hosokawa Fujitaka, was born in Kyoto as the second son to Mitsubuchi Harukazu, a confidant of the then shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiharu.  His mother was the daughter of Kiyohara Nobukata. The Kiyohara family were known as practitioners of Shintō, however Nobukata himself was a Confucianist. Fujitaka would in time obey a directive from Ashikaga Yoshiharu to become the adopted son of Hosokawa Mototsune.  In Tenbun 15 (1546), he would be granted the use of the character for ‘fuji’ (wisteria) from Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru and take the name “Fujitaka”.
 
As both a youth and proficient in the art of poetry, Fujitaka would receive instruction from the aristocrat Sanjō Nishisanuki in both the classic and modern styles of poetry. At the time of the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), he and Onogi Shigetsugu, the lord of Fukuchiyama castle, were surrounded by the forces of the Western army (led by Ishida Mitsunari) in Tabe castle.  When it became clear that the downfall of the castle was only a matter of time, the Emperor Goyōsei, despairing that a source of poetry was about to be extinguished, issued a decree calling for both a truce and for the siege of the castle to be lifted, which is what eventually occurred.    
 
The instruction that Fujitaka had received in the classic poetry style thus appears to have saved his life.  While Fujitaka was known at the time as a person of culture, he also had a long-standing affinity with the martial arts.  He studied sword play under Tsukahara Bokuden and archery from Houkabe Sadahiro. In later years following the Honnōji Incident, he would join the priesthood and take the name Yūsai. His decision to take the tonsure was apparently so he could refuse a request for assistance from Mitsuhide, and was certainly made in haste.
 
In Eiroku 8 (1565), the thirteenth Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru was suddenly attacked by Matsunaga Hisahide at Nijō palace. He attempted to resist but was ultimately overwhelmed, with the event becoming known as the Eiroku Incident.  In its aftermath, Fujitaka managed to convince the priest Ichijōin Kakukei to leave the clergy and return to the secular world. This priest would in turn be known as the fifteenth shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki. 
 
When Yoshiaki paid a visit to the territory belonging to the Asakura family in Echizen province, Mitsuhide got to know Fujitaka, given Fujitaka was a retainer in Yoshiaki’s service at the time. After meeting Fujitaka, Mitsuhide, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, decided to leave the service of (Asakura) Yoshikage and work as a retainer to Nobunaga. In the eleventh month of Eiroku 11 (1568), Mitsuhide participated in a poetry recital together with Fujitaka. Together with Fujitaka, he was expected to become a liaison between Nobunaga and Ashikaga Yoshiaki.  Thereafter, as a senior retainer of Nobunaga, Mitsuhide was granted territory in Shiga-gun in Ōmi province and Tango province. These would become the sites for Sakamoto castle, now found in Ōtsu City in Shiga Prefecture, and Kameyama castle in Tango province.
 
According to Taniguchi Katsuhiro, Mitsuhide entered into Nobunaga’s service in Eiroku 11 (1568), just before Nobunaga made his first entrance into the capital. When Ashikaga Yoshiaki made a request to Nobunaga to move from Asakura-controlled Echizen to Gifu castle in Minō province, Fujitaka and Mitsuhide did everything in their power to facilitate this. Both reported to Nobunaga that Yoshiaki had entered the capital in the ninth month of the same year, with both retainers accompanying him.  In the tenth month of the same year, Yoshiaki was appointed to the position of shōgun.
 
Yoshiaki began to harbour resentment against Nobunaga’s ambitions and proceeded to organize political resistance to him, which in time would turn into full-blown conflict. Fujitaka decided then and there to forsake his ties to Yoshiaki and throw in his lot with Nobunaga, swearing fealty to Nobunaga in the fourth year of Genki (the first year of Tenshō, or 1573). Ultimately Yoshiaki would be driven out of Kyoto by Nobunaga, while Fujitaka would commence his service as a retainer to Nobunaga.   
 
According to Tabata Yasuko, Fujitaka and Mitsuhide shared a close relationship ever since they had met while providing service to Yoshiaki. After later becoming retainers of Nobunaga, they endeavoured to help one another. When both of them were later tasked with pacifying Tanba and Tango provinces, both Fujitaka and his son would cooperate with Mitsuhide, regarding him as their leader.  In Tenshō 7, following the pacification of Tanba and Tango, Mitsuhide was granted territory in Tanba while Fujitaka secured lands in Tango. Thereafter Mitsuhide would continue to be promoted to the position of military leader of the Kinnai region. Just before that, in Tenshō 6 (1578), Mitsuhide’s daughter Gracia married Fujitaka’s son Tadaoki on the orders of Nobunaga, thereby solidifying the relationship between both households.  
 
Gracia’s Marriage
 
So Gracia’s marriage was organized on the orders of her father’s lord, Nobunaga. Nobunaga himself made strategic use of his birth daughters and adopted daughters to strengthen his feudal ties, yet he was also very actively involved in forging the marital relationships of his retainers. In the first month of Tenshō 2 (1574), Nobunaga held a council of his most senior generals at Gifu castle. While there, he issued an order that Mitsuhide and Fujitaka should strengthen their familial relationship.  In the eighth month of Tenshō 6 (1578), upon his arrival at Azuchi castle in Ōmi province (Nobunaga’s new base founded in Tenshō 4 (1576), Fujitaka reported to Nobunaga on the marital arrangements made for his son, Tadaoki.  While this marriage had been forged on the orders of Nobunaga, it is entirely plausible that both the Akechi and Hosokawa families were quite pleased that their bonds had been strengthened in this way. And so Gracia was married to Tadaoki in the same month.
 
The marriage ceremony took place at the main stronghold of the Hosokawa family in Yamashiro province, at Seiryūji castle.  Both Gracia and Tadaoki were sixteen years old at the time. As was customary for military marriages during the Sengoku era, a palanquin was prepared to receive the bride. Retainers from both households then took their place on either side of the palanquin. First members of the Akechi household accompanied Gracia as far as the Hosokawa stronghold, whereupon they transferred the palanquin into the care of the Hosokawa. Following the wedding ceremony, both Gracia and Tadaoki continued to live at Seiryūji. In the following year (1579), their eldest daughter Chō was born, followed in 1580 by their eldest son Tadataka.  Until Fujitaka and Tadaoki both moved to Hachimanyama castle in Tango province in the eighth month of 1580, Gracia would spend roughly two years living at Seiryūji.    

Anyone taking the Kintetsu train line from Nagoya down to Tsu or Ise in Mie Prefecture will eventually come to a series of railway bridges spanning a series of wide rivers. These rivers, the banks of which are either covered in grass or have been converted into exercise paths and playing grounds, are the Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi, all of which flow down from the north, from Shiga, Fukui and Ishikawa Prefectures. Today these rivers are fairly non-descript bodies of water, the islands in-between them dotted with houses, small-scale factories, as well as a sports complex and an amusement park. 
 
Yet more than 400 years ago, this relatively benign, peaceful landscape was the scene of horror.






What took place there was, in many ways, the culmination of a campaign that the sixteenth century warlord Oda Nobunaga had waged against the religious power of Ishiyama Honganji for over a decade. 
 
Having managed to escape encirclement by a myriad of forces arranged against him (those forces aided to a significant degree by the machinations of the last Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki), Nobunaga used his considerable military and economic power to gradually eliminate all those who stood against his rule in central Japan – both secular and religious alike.  Foremost among these, with a following numbering in the hundreds of thousands (some theories putting it into the millions), was Ishiyama Honganji.
 
Honganji had arisen from a fairly minor sect of the Jōdō faith around the Kyoto region in the fourteenth century.  Through the activities of its second leader, Rennyō, and his offspring (the Jōdō Shinshū sect having allowed its priests to marry), the influence of the sect gradually grew throughout central, eastern and western Japan until it became the most prevalent Buddhist sect in the entire nation.  This influence, coupled with a concurrent growth in wealth and secular power, made Honganji a rival to the many military and aristocratic families that had traditionally exercised control over territory and administrative positions.
 
The fact that Honganji was able to manipulate the faith of its followers to engage in military conflict against its enemies made it a dangerous opponent for any ambitious daimyō attempting to unite the country under his rule. Yet this is precisely the situation that Oda Nobunaga found himself in at the outset of the 1570s. While campaigning against the Asai and Asakura families of Ōmi province, time and again Nobunaga had found himself having to put down uprisings (or ikki) inspired by followers of the Honganji faith (also known as the Monto).
The continued threat presented by the Honganji Monto to Nobunaga’s plans meant that they had to be dealt with in a far more brutal manner than was considered the norm in an already brutal age (by this time, the central provinces of Japan had been the scene of conflict for over a century).  The fact that many of the Monto were of common stock, peasants and tradespeople, led by lower level samurai known as jizamurai, no doubt played a role in informing the methods Nobunaga deployed against them.
 
The following chapter translation comes from the historical novel “Leon Ujisato” by Abe Ryūtarō. The novel ostensibly tells the tale of Gamō Ujisato, a retainer of Nobunaga from　Ōmi province who would eventually become lord of Aizu province and convert to Christianity, taking the Christian name of ‘Leon’. Without doubt, Ujisato bore witness to many battles and sieges while in Nobunaga’s service, the brutality of the fighting and their tragic aftermath going some way in influencing his decision to convert and become a student of the famous tea master Sen Rikyū.
 
All this lay in the future, however. In 1574 Ujisato was part of Nobunaga’s forces preparing to invade Ise province to eliminate the Honganji threat present there in the form of the Monto at Nagashima. It is at this point that the story commences.   
 
Before launching into the translation, I should warn readers that it does describe some fairly horrific acts committed against the Monto. Readers are advised to use their own discretion.     
 
“Leon Ujisato” by Abe Ryūtarō
 
Extract from Chapter Six - Tragedy
 
With the defeat of the Asai, Asakura, and Rokkaku families and the destruction of Enryakuji, Takeda Katsuyori of Kai province and the religious institution of Osaka Honganji were all that was left of the ‘net’ that had been cast to encircle Oda Nobunaga.
 
The Ikkō Ikki, which rose in revolt under the authority of directives from Honganji, still retained a considerable degree of power, made up as it was of low-level retainers and rural samurai drawn together from various regions.  Among these, it was the Ikki forces gathered at Nagashima in Ise province (modern Mie Prefecture) that presented the greatest threat.
 
Ise Nagashima is an estuary at the point at which the Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi rivers flow into Ise Bay. Since time immemorial, people living in the area had depended on boats for their livelihood, with most affiliated with the river and sea transport industries. For the Oda family, whose authority in the region centred on Tsushima island in the lower Kiso river, they had  maintained good relations with the people of the area in order to firm up their control over transport on Ise Bay. 
 
However following the call from Honganji to raise forces in opposition to the armies of Nobunaga, the region would be transformed into a battleground punctuated by utterly merciless fighting.    
 
The emergence of this formidable enemy began in the fourth month of Tenshō 2 (1574).  Ikki forces from Echizen, Ōmi, Kawachi and Kishū began to gather together, ultimately forming an army of some 50,000 followers.  Among the various forces, the contingent from Kishū were by far the strongest, with many members drawn from the musket companies maintained by the Negoro and Saika (Saiga) Monto (or group of followers).
 
Saika is a part of the Kinai region of central Japan and had long been subject to Nobunaga’s trade controls.  The Ikki forces there relied on their boats to make a living, and were known to trade with Awa Island, Tosa and Satsuma provinces, and as far as the Kingdom of Ryūkyū (Okinawa) where they bought up large quantities of saltpetre and lead.  They then sold this to the forces of the Takeda in Kai and the Hōjō in the Kantō region of eastern Japan, making themselves very wealthy in the process. 
 
“If we don’t fight them now, it will have grave consequences for us”. So recommended Takigawa Kazumasu, who had been appointed as overseer of the northern Ise region by the Oda. And yet Nobunaga made no attempt to move against the Ikki.
 
The reason for this was not purely the Ikki’s own doing.  By drawing the Oda forces into Nagashima, Takeda Katsuyori would be able to strike Nobunaga in the back. Examining the situation and its potential outcome, on the fifth day of the sixth month of Tenshō 2, Tokugawa Ieyasu sent an urgent message to Nobunaga from his base in Hamamatsu. “At present, around 20,000 Takeda personnel have surrounded Takatenjin castle”.
 
Ieyasu well knew that he would not be able to fend off such a large army with his forces alone, and so had asked for assistance from Nobunaga in the form of troops.
 
To this, Nobunaga grinned smugly to himself, thinking “The fool. It makes it look as though we can’t wait them out.”
 
To be sure, there were no provisions available in Ise Nagashima to support a 50,000 strong army. For the Ikki force, which would have no choice but to send its reinforcements back to where they came from, having Katsuyori launch an attack on Takatenjin castle would thus provide a welcome distraction.
 
“Tell him that we’re coming, and not to start anything until we get there”
 
This is what Nobunaga told Ieyasu’s messenger. However Nobunaga himself did not leave Gifu until the 14th of the sixth month.  Such was the slow pace at which the army advanced  that it did not reach Lake Hamana until the 19th, by which time Nobunaga was informed that Takatenjin castle had fallen into Katsuyori’s hands. 
 
It was behaviour very out of character for the normally fleet footed Nobunaga. However so  concerned was Nobunaga about being attacked in the rear by the Nagashima Ikki that he took every precaution possible.
 
After meeting with Ieyasu at Yoshida castle, Nobunaga explained the situation. As compensation for allowing the loss of Takatenjin castle, he handed over to Ieyasu two sacks filled with gold bullion. According to the “Shinchō Kōki” (Official Record of Nobunaga), each sack was so heavy it took two people to lift them.
 
Having thus placated Ieyasu, Nobunaga made preparations to head back to Mikawa. Just before riding off, he addressed Ieyasu, saying “take that gold and put a stop to the Takeda advance west”. Having thus dealt with one issue, from the 13th of the seventh month Nobunaga would begin his campaign against Ise Nagashima. Drawing together a huge army of roughly 100,000 troops from the provinces of Mino, Owari, Ise, and Ōmi, Nobunaga made his preparations for a final showdown with the Ikki force.
 
Gamō Ujisato (who at the time went by the name of Chūsaburō) and Shibata Katsuie led a contingent of mounted troops to the front. The Shibata force would be tasked with seizing the castle of Ōtorii, located at Katori in the northwest of Nagashima, one of five castles controlled by the Ikki force.
 
This presented an ideal opportunity. Chūsaburō was a keen student of Nobunaga’s tactics, and together with Wada Sanzemon and Hino Yajirō Gorō climbed up Mt. Tado. From the peak of the mountain, 400 metres above sea level, Chūsaburō was able to grasp the layout of the land in front of him at a glance.
 
The Kiso, Nagara, and Ibi rivers all converge at the point that the rivers meet the sea in the south, forming a wide river almost like a sea itself and which rolls on into Ise Bay. At the centre of the river’s mouth is a long island stretching out to the north-west by the name of Nagashima, while the west bank consists of three islands known as Ōtorii, Okunagashima, and Nakae.  This is where the Ikki force had constructed five castles.  The sides of the castles were protected by dual palisades which also permitted boats to enter and leave as necessary. The castles were also mutually reinforcing, allowing nothing to slip through without a challenge. They were, in other words, sea-borne castles that would prove very difficult to assault.
 
The Oda force, confronting this problem, decided to lay siege to the castles from four directions at once and arranged their camp accordingly.  In the north-east Nobunaga made his camp at Hayao, while in the east at Ichie lay Nobutada. At Katori in the north-west lay the forces of Sakuma Nobumori and Shibata Katsuie, while in the west at Kuwana lay Nobunaga’s second son Nobukatsu, himself adopted from the aristocratic Kitabatake household.   
 
In the south, floating on the sea, Takigawa Kazumasu and Kuki Yoshitaka had gathered together a small armada of around 100 boats made up of transport and fast boats. This enormous force, altogether over 100,000 personnel strong, thus appeared to smother both the river and sea in boats.
 
“That is our target”
 
Chūsaburō extended his whip, pointing at the castle at Ōtorii.  At the same time he asked Sanzaemon how he would go about attacking it.
 
The island itself was of a circular shape upon which an Ikki force of around 10,000 followers had gathered. In the space between the palisades earth mounds had been raised for protection, thus showing that the defenders were prepared for a musketry duel.  Throughout the island, large scale flags bearing the holy inscription “Namu Amida Butsu” had been raised, and which were now fluttering in the sea breeze .
 
“There’s little point in coming up with a plan to draw them out. We should attack them head-on with a full-scale assault”.
 
To make a landing on the island, Sanzaemon had gathered together an array of paddy boats that were both wide and shallow. The plan was to set up shields on the sides of the boats to provide protection for the crew. From there the crew could continue to shoot their muskets as they made landfall on the island.
 
“With this much arrayed against them, there’s no chance that the Ikki will succeed. Do you think that they’ll just give up?”       
 
Jirō Gorō was a member of the Honganji Monto and so had a degree of sympathy with the Ikki force. The name Hino came from Hinomaki Gokadera, a subsidiary temple of Honganji. Its congregation, both retainers and residents, had many Monto members. Among the force arrayed against the Oda on the other side of the palisade were people who had forsaken their ties to the Gamō family to join the Ikki.
 
“While there’s no chance for the Ikki to succeed, we won’t permit them to surrender either”    
 
Chūsaburō well understood just how mercilessly Nobunaga planned to wage this battle.
 
“What the hell does that mean? Are you saying that we’re going to kill them all?”
 
“Jirō Gorō, you forget your place”, Sanzaemon admonished in a low voice.
 
Nobody wanted such a thing to happen.  Yet many of the warriors present began to realise that there was no other way of preventing this from turning into a long, drawn out conflict.
 
On the 15th of the seventh month, Nobunaga ordered an all-out attack.
 
The Oda forces launched their transport and fast boats from all four directions and proceeded to open fire with muskets and cannon on the five Ikki castles. The Ikki force responded with cannon and fire arrows of their own, yet the firepower arrayed against them by the Oda force was overwhelming and soon put them purely on the defensive.
 
It was at this point that Chūsaburō launched his attack on Ōtorii castle.
 
Paddy boats had a good degree of stability for the three musket companies that Chūsaburō had prepared for the assault, and wouldn’t tip over even if they ran over a sand bank.  Chūsaburō divided up his 300 troops among the boats, and after floating them down river landed at Ōtorii. 
 
The Ikki force proceeded to fire their muskets at this new threat from the top of their earth mound defences. In response, Chūsaburō peered out from between the gaps in the shields of the paddy boats. Judging when the enemy had expended its ammunition, he then sent his long spear squads in to attack the gaps in the palisades.
 
Hand-to-hand fighting around the palisades, with each side grabbing at the other’s spears, lasted for around an hour. Yet still the Oda force could not break the castle’s defences.   
 
Chūsaburō decided to withdraw all of his troops. Taking them back to their landing place, they proceeded to construct earth mounds of their own and wait for reinforcements.
 
It was the same situation at all of the other castles.  Despite landing on the islands, the Oda force had been unable to break through the dual palisades around each castle. And so the decision was made to set up camp and lay siege to the castles.
 
For the Ikki force, whose contact with the outside world had been completely cut off, a lack of fresh water began to have a more serious impact than the loss of troops. There were no wells in any of the five castles. If they dug into the earth, their proximity to the sea meant that all that came out was salt water. The thinking had been that since they were close to rivers, they could use that water and so there was no need to dig any wells. Yet the force surrounding them was so overwhelming and its security on such high alert that the Ikki force soon found that it couldn’t venture out to fetch any water.
 
It was clear to all how this was going to end.  The Ikki force would eventually surrender only to rise again somewhere else. Yet Nobunaga would not allow this to happen.  If he did permit the Ikki force to leave, they would only drift along to another province and once again revolt against his rule.
 
In order to force them to obey, Nobunaga would have to make them give up their beliefs. Yet given that the Monto’s only desire was to be reborn in the Pure Land (Jōdō), they would rather die than go against Honganji’s teachings.  
 
(“Well, that’s that then. They will have to be cut off at the roots”)
 
Having made his fateful decision, Nobunaga gave the order for security around each castle to be increased. 
 
The siege of Ise Nagashima went on for three months. Within the castles, starvation and thirst soon began to take their toll. According to the ‘Shinchō Kōki’… “As the siege went on for three months, the number of dead reached half (of the Ikki force)”. 
 
This was a tragedy for the Ikki force, yet the burden on the Oda force, which had mobilised a large army and which now had to maintain a siege, was also significant.  Criticism of Nobunaga’s methods among society in general began to grow, gradually putting the Oda force in a difficult position.
 
The 19th of the ninth month proved to be a fateful day. While promising the Ikki force that it would be able to surrender, Nobunaga planned to train his muskets on the Ikki force when it tried to leave by boat and ensure that none got out alive.
 
Having been forced into such dire circumstances, the Ikki force decided to make a desperate counter-attack. Seven or eight hundred members of their force stripped off, sank into the water, and made their way towards the Oda camp to assault them.
The Oda force, unaware from which direction the enemy had suddenly appeared to launch their attack, were cut down in great numbers by the Monto and their leaders and disgraced themselves by allowing the Monto to escape. Enraged that this had been allowed to happen, Nobunaga ordered that some 20,000 people, old and young, male and female, who had fled to Yanagashima and Nakae to escape the worst of the fighting, be herded into one corner of the same area, attacked with flames from all four directions and burned to death.
 
For those who had been hiding in ditches and small shacks and shanties, the approach of flames driven from dwellings that had already been set on fire soon forced many to abandon their places of shelter. The groups of musketeers and archers surrounding them then cut them down mercilessly in a shower of bullets and arrows.
 
Those who could no longer escape were engulfed in flames, and they screamed and wailed hideously as they burned.
 
The leaders of the Ikki soon found the building that they had retreated into was on fire.  The enormous thatched roof proceeded to slowly burn. The gates of the castle, which until this time had remained firmly closed, finally opened.  Out came around 100 young women, all of them almost completely naked, holding infants that were still teething and others only months old.  It seems the leaders had chosen to play the only hand they had left, pleading that the Oda force spare the children.
 
Observing all this from the other side of the palisade, a roar like a beast starved of its share of blood went up among the Oda force. The gates to the palisade were flung open and men rushed forward, jostling with one another to seize hold of one of the women.  No one made any effort to save the children. 
 
Those children that tried to get away were surrounded and impaled on cross shaped and single bladed spears. They were then hoisted into the air and placed in the gaps between the palisades. Any children who had not already succumbed to their wounds became targets for the musketeers to practice their skills and were shot through the head.  
 
Chūsaburō witnessed all this from his vantage point at Ōtorii. 
 
Piercing screams that assailed the ears, roaring flames sending ash and smoke up into the heavens, the smell of burning flesh mixed in with the passing breeze.  All this Chūsaburō took in with all of his senses, the horror of war rendered so vividly that he found himself unable to move.
 
“This can’t be happening.  This isn’t something that humans do”.
 
So sobbed Jirō Gorō as he crouched down, and unable to take any more proceeded to throw up.
 
The musket companies under Sanzemon’s command also stood up, astonished at the tragedy unfolding before them.
 
(“Is this…is this what idealistic people do?”)
 
No, it can’t be, Chūsaburō thought for a moment before dismissing it from his mind.
 
And yet, Chūsaburō well understood Nobunaga’s feelings, that if Nobunaga did not do this and go this far, then the country would never change. Chūsaburō knew that there was no other way for a warrior to live than to obey commands.
 
(“Yet is this really the way it should be?”)
 
Amid a shocking scene that could rend heaven from earth, Chūsaburō asked himself this question again and again, cursing himself that he had lived this long without ever having held a set of beliefs.