A mysterious "monkey" vassal: Is that Hideyoshi?
Quite a while ago I discovered a footnote in a book claiming that Nobunaga had once called Hideyoshi a monkey for real. It was in a letter that was recorded in Oda Nobunaga Monjo no Kenkyū 織田信長文書の研究, a collection of Nobunaga-related documents edited/compiled by by Okuno Takahiro.
After digging around, I was able to find someone quoting the contents of the letter:
猿帰候て、夜前之様子具言上候、先以可然候、 又一□を差遣候、其面無油断雖相聞候、猶以可入勢候、 各辛労令察候、今日之趣徳□ニ可申越候也、 三月十五日 （天下布武朱印） 長岡兵部大輔とのへ 惟住五郎左衛門尉とのへ 滝川左近とのへ 惟任日向守とのへ
(quoted by blogger Kirino Sakuto, second citation from Kokka Ankou saying the same thing, and we assume the bloggers has transcribed the content correctly)
Bunshun Online has a modern transcription for the letter, which translates to something to the effect of this:
猿帰り候て、夜前の様子、つぶさに言上候。まづ以て然るべく候。又一若を差遣はし候。其の面、油断なく相聞え候といへども、なほ以て勢を入るべく候。各辛労、察せしめ候、今日の趣、徳若に申越すべく候なり。
The monkey returned, and gave a detailed report of what transpired the night before. First and foremost, everything is in due course. I will also be sending out Ichi-[]. On that end, while I have heard that it's necessary to be cautious, we must continue to build the momentum. I am aware of the hardships you have gone through. Convey today's matter to Toku-[]. 15th day of the 3rd month [Red seal] Nagaoka Hyoubu Daibu (Hosokawa Fujitaka) Korezumi Gorozaemon (Niwa Nagahide) Takikawa Sakon (Takigawa Kazumasu) Koretoo Hyuuga no Kami (Akechi Mitsuhide)
The names Ichi-[] and Toku-[] in the original seems to be names that are hard to read or possibly distorted from dirt/age. I don't know for sure since the bloggers did not post pictures of the original documents.
I'm not entirely sure what Nobunaga meant about everything being in due course without clear context, but the Bunshun text explains that it basically means Nobunaga approves of whatever the 4 people had done, as reported to him.
Kirino-san had mentioned a reference to Menkou Shuuroku 綿考輯録, a Hosokawa family document. The text supposedly mentioned that this letter is from 1578, and the unclear names were written as Ichiwaka and Tokuwaka.
The Shinchoukouki confirms that Nagahide, Mitsuhide, and Kazumasu were sent to Tanba in the fourth month of 1578, while there was supposedly another letter artifact sending Fujitaka out in the 4th of the 3rd month.
So, even if that part kind of fits, the problem here is that we actually don't know for certain "monkey" is Hideyoshi. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't.
"Ichiwaka" was a name that was supposedly mentioned in Taikou Soseiki 太閤素生記, a Hideyoshi biography, as someone who was from Hideyoshi's village. However, you could argue that the author of Soseiki made up this narrative about Hideyoshi and this "Ichiwaka" person precisely because they were aware of this letter. The Soseiki cannot be confirmed as a fully reliable material after all.
Tokuwaka was supposedly also mentioned in another letter that Hideyoshi had sent, but this doesn't confirm or prove definitively that "monkey" is Hideyoshi. For all we know this "monkey" is actually the literal name of some other person and perhaps intended to be read as "Mashira" or something or the other.
We do know that Nobunaga had called Hideyoshi a bald rat flat out, but that was in a letter addressed to Hideyoshi's wife. Calling Hideyoshi a monkey while addressing other vassals like this is... well, interesting to say the least.
One of the technical issue about this being Hideyoshi is that Hideyoshi is out fighting elsewhere in the third month of 1578, so him reporting to Nobunaga about the other 4 commanders makes no sense.
However, it could be Hideyoshi if the letter is actually referring to another year, such as 1577 (the Bunshun article above also mentioned this as being a possible year for the letter). In the 3rd month of that year, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and the other 4 named commanders were all together in a campaign fighting the Saika warriors in Kii Province.
The Menkou Shuuroku was compiled in the late 1700s. As it is a manual copy made based on earlier documents, there is strong possibility that the dates are recorded incorrectly.
The Shinchoukouki says that during the Kii campaign, the Oda forces had split up the army to go in different directions. In the beginning of the 3rd month Nobunaga ordered the 4 people named in the letter to attack Suzuki Magoichi's castle, and by the third week of the month, Magoichi and many others surrendered. The text skips out 2 weeks' worth of events, including the 15th date in question, so we don't really know what's happening there. However, I personally think the "keep up the momentum" message in the letter fits the situation.
Maybe Hideyoshi was done with his side of the mission and regrouped with the others, then reported on the situation to Nobunaga in the main camp. It would make a lot of sense for the letter to be one that is encouraging the army there to keep up their pressure on their attack in the Suzuki clan's castle, especially if Magoichi maybe had really been one of the more powerful lords in the region as the legends say.
If this "monkey" really was referring to Hideyoshi, then what do you know! All those scenes in fiction media where Nobunaga just kept casually calling Hideyoshi a monkey all the time as a joke may be valid after all.
