"Real" can be anything from romance, battle, or drama.

I kinda like this trope, even before Aizen TBH. It's just that I rarely find characters with this trope whose face I like LOL.

Besides Aizen I like Akaseka's Magoichi, he's like this too. I just don't play Akaseka, I only lurk on their Twitter and download the pictures.

This is an article about Masamune from a historical museum dedicated to Mogami Yoshiaki.

Among various things, it casually says that the whole story about how Yoshihime hates Masa and tried to poison him and stuff is fake, and I guess it's one of those Edo era "fanfics" that has no proof of being legit.

Like, the way the article talked about, it suggests that Masa and his mum are just fine and they never hated each other or anything.

I suppose if Masa and his mother ever had any issues then it's probably more because at some point Masa got into a fight with the Mogami (his mother's birth family) or something. I don't know.

Anyway, nice to know that this "mother hates son" story is debunked again because it was also nonsense when it was Nobu and his mother. Far as I can find, it was basically just novels copying other novels and nobody can produce a real legit source for this story.

This Masa one at least had an "old source", but it doesn't make it fact.

I'm tired of this stupid plot being rehashed a bajillion times over in every single damn manga, anime, game, and drama. I keep saying that I do understand the fear of backlash from people who think it's true and then they get mad when they get something different, but this is social media era, bruh. Just make the thing, and then quickly follow that up with influencers flooding the internet with videos saying "Here's the historian certified reasons for why that thing in the episode you saw was actually true, and the old trope is bullshit".

Japanese historian talks about nonsense conspiracy theories, saying that if you want exciting stories so badly then just go read manga like Slam Dunk or One Piece 😂😂😂😂😂

LMAOOOOO thank you sir, for writing this.

He had published a book basically shredding whacky conspiracies using actual facts and he was saying that historical figures are just people. All these grand conspiracies are just not realistic.

The summary LOL. "Is there a mastermind at Honnouji? No, Akechi was really just tired of being treated poorly".

I do want to hear more about this part, really. I'm not against theories of "Akechi was motivated by ideology". Hopefully there's ebooks of it or something. Delivery is a pain and expensive.

Haven't ever confirmed this, but I'm thinking... the Left and Right courts would be based on where the ministers are standing in front of the emperor. So from the perspective of the ministers, the administrative ones stands on the left side while military ones stand on the right.

The emperor, though, looking at his ministers, would see the admin staff on his right hand, and the military on his left. Because reading is right to left, the emperor would be oriented to start looking at his right side first before the left. That's why the higher ranking officials are in the "left court", because the emperor would see them first.

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the 2026 Taiga drama is about Hidenaga!!!

"Toyotomi Brothers" the title says

The summary seems alright, since it said the brothers were dreaming of a world with no fighting and stuff, but fffffssss... Hoping with all my might that it won't have an "evulz Hideyoshi" plot, because it's all portrayed in such baseless ways and sensationalised and I just hate them.

Like, I generally don't mind a narrative of someone with good intentions get caught up in difficult situation, and has simply could not take the mental strain and just deteriorate. I'm ok with it with Nobu and Hide both. It's just... I don't know if it's just the culture of Japanese storytelling in general to be overdramatic, or if Japanese writers are just too tied to tropes.

All of the so-called "realistic" attempt of Sengoku adaptations are still so tropey as hell and I just had to nope out.

I sure damn hope this drama won't be about "Hidenaga watches in despair as his brother slowly turn evil".

Is there a term for "being afraid/embarrassed to see your own writing before it's even written"? I'm not sure it's within the parameters of writer's block because it's not that I don't know what to write.

There's a bunch of fanfic WIPs from years ago that I still like, and every now and then I still mentally draft them, but can't seem to write because I'm afraid of seeing it in actual visible form instead of just mental words.

Also for whatever reason it's worse with computer documents. I'm a little bit less terrified of writing when it's on paper.

I'm very curious when and how did Nobunaga get the "sansuke" title, since it seemed like it's ridiculously lofty.

Even if in the Sengoku there's a lot of bullshit titles, the three provinces in question are imperial provinces, so classically the samurai in charge of those provinces should be very highly regarded.

There's paperwork signed by shogun Yoshiteru that show Nobunaga has "Sansuke" title even as early as 1561. Why? How? Was it rewarded because of Okehazama? How big of a deal is the title in the first place?

For example, Akita-jou no Suke is a title that has nothing to do with Akita Castle at all, but it implies high prestige because of the title actually carrying an important meaning in the past. Not just anyone can be called this. A sansuke sounds like it means they're the imperial representative rulers of the provinces in question, and having 3 at once should not be just whatever.

Like, just a Kazusa no Suke is itself already a big deal, and some has suggested Nobunaga's tutor committed seppuku over this. As in. This is such a dumbass arrogant move that the tutor was so despaired.

(There was also that thing with the horse, but it may be both)

This bolsters my increasing belief that young Nobu may have proven himself as a domestic provincial warrior, but he's still garbage at politics and leadership for a good long while. He's not that cunning, and he probably floundered around in 1568. Covering for the political paperwork stuff is what Akechi was for, I bet.

Anyway, if Kazusa was a big deal, then THREE of them has to be even a bigger deal.

I'm so confused.

I haven't been getting samurai articles in my news feed lately. I wonder what exactly affects the algorithm in the Chrome news thingy... Do I have to, like, Google a bunch of samurai stuff to make them send me samurai news again?

A few weeks ago it would just be constantly flooded by Dousuru Ieyasu stuff without me even doing anything.

Still getting a bunch of random One Piece stuff, though, and now I'm curious but 1000 chapters seem a bit much to catch up on... Many many years ago I stopped reading at the famous "nakama raised arms" scene and I just never caught back up.

I kind of like the idea of Dousuru costuming Nobukatsu with an outfit that looks like the Meme Fodder Nobunaga painting, but I just reaaaaally don't like that Mitokomon sleeveless haori (chanchanko) that they used.

So if someone told me to redesign that costume to my own preference, these are my (very biased) offerings:

A) Very Strictly Historical: Just a standard daimon hitatare, but keeping the same colour scheme. Nothing special here.

B) Going Ham With Fancy: A Noh costume style kataginu and hakama, but cut to the wearer's size instead of big and bulky. The kataginu and hakama are embroidered with fancier designs, and a patterned kosode is worn underneath.

C) Ahistorical, but Relatively Simple: Based on a suou, a samurai formal wear, with the sleeves removed to be reminiscent of a kataginu. The sleeve slits are placed on the kosode, revealing the red innermost kimono/juban (may give the impression of slash wounds, can be used for dramatic flair/symbolism). This kind of design risks inviting protests from history-conscious viewers for being "weird", although maybe creative framing and camera cuts can distract the viewers from noticing.

D) Just Messing Around Now: Based on a suikan, a nobleman's attire that's also a Noh costume staple. Tied in the kind of casual tarikubi manner, to also make it more reminiscent of kataginu. It's a combination of the B and C concepts (Noh costume + formal wear), basically. Least likely to be acceptable for a Taiga drama, is probably more suitable for a fantasy/anime type of story.

(Designed for the role of Nobukatsu, despite the colour scheme, not Nobunaga)

(I also don't really like the actor cast in the role in Dousuru TBH, and the way the character is written, but that's another story)

Belated realisation but

Nobu gave up his position as Oda clan leader to his son in 1575, and I had been wondering just what authority or title was Nobu running under because he didn’t like just go off and retire to the sunset.

We all knew he was still actively doing stuff, and to my recollection Nobu was granted Udaishou title around that time (1575ish), so I guess everything else he did afterwards are him being the kind-of-shogun (based on this theory). 

That makes a lot of sense, I can’t believe I completely forgot this.

---

Like, this relates to the post-Honnouji stuff where people keep accusing Hideyoshi of “stealing” the authority from the Oda house. I disagree and I will continue to be mad at any article that tries to say this. 

Based on the above theory (which I now totally subscribe to) Nobunaga became the “conqueror” as the Udaishou, not the “head of the Oda clan”. Hideyoshi continued the unification process as the Kanpaku. This is even higher ranking than the Udaishou. 

Never mind that Nobu's Udaishou title wasn’t automatically inherited by his sons anyway, but “just in case” Hideyoshi’s new title still just overruled the Oda’s authority in general, so I think he didn’t “steal” anything. 

So there’s this info where it says that back when Motonari and Nobu were still friends, Moto asked for help jumping on his enemy’s back, and Nobu sent Hide out and the text says Hide mowed down almost 20 castles in just 2 weeks and I’m like WTF??????

Maybe those are just small castles so it’s not as hard to do, but bro. That’s still kind of scary?????  

The castles are in Tajima province, not easy to map modern locations to the old province maps, but I think it’s somewhere here I think:

And they had moved out from Kyoto.

So if this info is true, this is why I salt on the people who keep saying that Hideyoshi couldn’t have been the commander of the Kanegasaki Retreat because like... why? Hideyoshi is clearly a high enough ranking commander to be approved of going on a solo mission out in another province. Akechi is a shogunate official besides, so Hide is probably the commander of the Oda troops and Shinchoukouki didn’t count Akechi because even if he was there, he’s not part of the “Oda army”. 

Stop downplaying Hideyoshi to make a fuss about how Uhmayzing Akechu was. They can both be amazing together, stop it. 

Also, doesn’t that mean like... if Hide really wanted to overthrow Nobunaga he could darn well have done it anytime? Like, aside from how he’s clearly scary as hell (as mentioned above), apparently Nobunaga stays over in Nagahama every now and then when he needs to use the boat docks to cross the lake, so Hide could just stab him dead one night and nobody could do anything??? 

I mean, I suppose the argument was that he’d need the conspiracy for the purpose of public opinion. If he rebelled personally, it would’ve given him negative presses. IDK man.

@oda-princess: So as to not, you know, bother the OP of the post you tagged me in, I’m responding separately. My opinion on that movie is very negative. 

It’s riddled with so much cliché that I, a rather long-time Sengoku fan, has already gotten so fed up of seeing. I don’t like seeing “cruel demon lord Nobunaga”. I don’t like seeing “girlboss/action girl Nouhime”. I don’t care what sort of philosophical or poetic justification they give to it. I don’t consider this characterisation “realistic”, so I just really got soured against it when the movie staff says they “tried to approach it in a realistic Sengoku mindset” and yet they come out with the exact same standard copy-paste tropes. 

It was kind of cool and fun back in 2013 seeing Nobu having a badass wife who can sock someone in the face and being some kind of “Power couple” when I’m just starting to be interested in Sengoku media, but 10 years later people are STILL repeating the same damn tropes again and again with nothing new added, so I’m just really cranky right now. The idea of “Nobu having an action girl wife” is already not my preference in the first place, but it’s also very anime-esque. I find it to be even more tiresome and silly to watch when done in live action media.

A noble samurai woman can be dignified and charismatic without having to be a super action girl who swordfights and acts like a tomboy. My favourite depiction so far is the Nouhime from Nobunaga no Chef manga. She doesn't appear much, but she has a powerful presence when she does. 

If you’re interested in watching it don’t let my opinion affect you. It’s all personal, so it’s nothing to do with the quality of the movie (basically, I’m just tired of seeing the same cliché for the 1000th time). 

I wanna flail over Sengoku shitpost conspiracy 

In Japanese folklore at least, there has been instances where someone produced the first half of the poem as imagery, when what they actually meant is the second half.

There is a legend of Oota Doukan wanting to borrow a raincoat from a villager, but the villager presented some yamabuki flowers. Doukan got upset over it, but later his vassal told him it was a subtle reference to a poem that says “The Yamabuki blooms, but it’s a pity it has no fruits”. In Japanese the way “fruits” was phrased in the poem sounds like the word for raincoat, so the villager was trying to say “I have no raincoats” by presenting the yamabuki.

The whole issue with this conspiracy is that I don’t know if people “reading too deeply between lines of poetry” like this is a thing in the Sengoku or not, because I’ve only seen instances of this happening in Edo era stories, but I do wonder. The earliest I could find(?) if at all is Ieyasu having a snit fit over the engraving donated by Hideyori and using it as bullshit excuse to besiege Osaka over it. 

All other claims of double entendres in poetry and weird interpretations of such that I saw is from Edo. 

This ridiculously long preamble over with, what I want to shitpost about is Nobuspawn’s seal that reads 威加海內. This translates to something like “(my) might spread through all within the seas”, which is quoted from Emperor Gaozu’s poem “Song of the Great Wind”. 

“All within the seas” is just a euphemism for “the entire world/nation”. 

On the surface this sounds like an ambitious phrase, and a lot of modern people thinks this is meant to be an echo of Nobunaga’s Tenka Fubu. There’s reasons why “Tenka Fubu” might not even mean what you think it means in the first place, so this is moot anyway, but we’ll set that aside for now.

The full phrase of 威加海內 says this: 威加海內兮歸故鄉. Approximate translation is “(my) might spread through all within the seas, oh, now I return to my homeland”

So going by the above long-winded prologue about how what the person intended to say by quoting a poem is actually the unspoken half of the poem... What is printed is the “might spread all over the nation” part, but what he intended to say is “I’ve returned home”. As far as the current narrative is concerned, after Kiyosu Conference this guy was given lordship over Owari, or “home”. He’s been sent away to live in another province since he’s 10, so if for whatever reason he’s actually really sentimental about his homeland... 

This poem might be specifically chosen precisely because 威加海內 sounds deceptively ambitious and if he has reasons to hide his lack of desire to inherit Nobunaga’s incredibly massive territory, this is such a sneaky way to do so. 

I still find it utterly hilarious that Hideyoshi is the contact person who’s writing back and forth with the Mouri people. Like, if you really think about it that makes a lot of sense, but THIS IS BREAKING NEWS INFO that wasn’t widely known for decades despite all those manga and novels making such a big fuss over Hideyoshi’s Chuugoku missions. This fact really can and will change a lot of how you perceive and interpret how things work in that time. 

No wonder Hideyoshi was the commander sent to the Mouri territories once Nobu started fighting them in earnest. Hideyoshi is probably the one who’d be most familiar with the people there and/or the territory. Like, if he can negotiate that’d be great, but if not he’s better suited to steamroll them. There’s an unverified claim floating around that says he’s actually been out there as a friend to the Mouri once, back before the friendship/alliance fell apart. So, you know. He’d know the terrain.

One of the letters was this weird pirate issue in Sakai I think? Or was it Tanba... Anyway the Mouri letters didn’t survive, but from the replies it was implied that the Mouri people reported it to Hideyoshi because they acknowledge whatever the place was as “Oda turf” so they don’t want to cause trouble in someone else’s territory.

(”pirates” complaining about other pirates is funny, but to be fair, the Mouri’s seafaring troops/navy aren’t exactly “pirates” so)

Hideyoshi’s response was something to the effect of “Yeah, we know. We’ll take care of it soon.” And the person who posted the letter said “he sounds irritated”, like it has the tone of “I already told you this last time, dammit, stop pestering me about the same thing multiple times”. Might be that in that time Nobu was tangled up with the Azai Asakura problem and wasn’t able to properly clean up the pirate thing so the Mouri side was anxious.

I wanna know more, but this was posted just in bits and pieces in articles and I don’t know if the full bulk of letters are available to read, or if I actually need to phone the history archive and ask for them (I can’t do that OTL).

I once made a comment that Nobu’s “brat” era was just him being a regular teenager, but I was thinking... why the hell did people let him turn out this way in the first place? Like, if it’s really that bad, why aren’t the parents up in arms about it and just smack him into decency?

The assumption that a lot of fiction is running with these days is that his younger brothers were living with both parents, but Nobunaga had been given a whole castle to live alone so he just ran wild without supervision.

But I’m curious about why his dad never yelled at him for it. Dad could come and make threats and scare him into obedience any time he wants, no? Like, were the tutors and vassals too scared to report on him? Like “Sir your son is a menace, we can’t handle him”. Were they afraid that they could get fired for incompetence if they did?  

And the biography said all the people in town called him dumb, surely dad would’ve found out at some point? Unless when they say Nobu has a whole “castle” to himself, that includes the town attached to the castle too, and so Dad would not hear from it because his castle is technically in a different town altogether. 

I’m thinking that maybe Nobu is actually a spoiled brat, that’s why ma and pa let him run loose. Like, his tutors reports were “he’s really smart and skilled in swords and guns, he’s just lazy and likes to play”. And his parents response were like “Eh, if he's that smart, then let him play, he deserves to have fun”. 

I’m cool with the trope that his brother is so put together really because ma and pa are there to watch him all day long, though. Maybe bro is bitter at Nobu because like “why does he get to play, and I don’t???” And it just got worse when Nobu stops playing around and he’s actually really as good as the tutors say he was and bro just gets even more pissed off. 

When the sun moon imagery that I thought up is mostly science based so it’s so perfect but I can only headcanon it and not sure how it applies in fanworks because I don’t know if in those days people know this or not.

:( 

Like “the moon reflects the sun light” is something that’s apparently known by Greeks since a long time ago, but I don’t know how widespread is this knowledge across the world...