Yanno, the anime Kochouki also ran with this idea of Kanjuurou ("Nobuyuki") being super soft and sweet way back when. Not sure if this writer is inspired by that, or if it's just a general trope that came about because "Nobubu is fierce so let's make his brother more uwu so it will be sad when he dies later". Basically it's the same underlying idea for why people are often making Akechu super elegant and whatnot.
It would have been interesting if they made the bro be haraguro. Like his sweet act was fake this whole time, because he wanted Dad to see him as "the good son" and make him the heir. Then he starts a rebellion because Dad still gave the headship to Nobubu.
I don't think they will do that, though. I feel like the rebellion will somehow end up being some kind of twist and it's not the brother being ambitious or mad at Nobu. You know, to hammer in the tragic sadness even more.
For whatever it's worth, Nobubu is not actually that fierce. When he was younger, there was this one time where Kanjuurou was acting crazy and Nobu was the sane one. Just because Kanjuurou was famous for being super formal during that funeral kerfuffle, doesn't mean that he's nice.
Like what happened was one of their brothers got killed because some idiot arrogant vassal shot an arrow at him. This vassal serves their uncle, and this uncle immediately fled upon realising he'd gotten a family member killed (Nobubu is the family head at this point, so possibly the younger brother outranks the uncle too).
Maybe Kanjuurou really likes this brother in particular, or he thought their family has been dishonoured somehow, but he went up to the uncle's castle and burned the town. If the uncle hadn't fled, I would bet he'd have been killed. And Nobu was there being like "WTF is wrong with you, you can't do that."
Like, bro, seeing this happen it's no wonder Dad chose Nobubu as the heir and not you. Maybe Dad was sharp enough to sense the bad vibes.
I mean, arguably it's a Nobu biography so maybe Gyuuichi was manipulating the accounts, but still. Anyway, I just have no hopes for how the writer will handle the bro's death in Tenka/SLBP (I haven't read it in Tenka so I'm going in blind). Not unless they really did pull the haraguro idea I mentioned at the top. If him being evil and mean is too stereotypical, doing a 180 and making him uwu and fluffy is also not a good way to be fresh and new.
If he was manipulated by someone else it'd be lame. It's what Kochouki did. If he misunderstood things somehow, or thought Nobubu was in the wrong, and only started the rebellion to "stop him", it's lame too. That's just repeating Akechu's Honnouji plot or the Nagamasa situation from Act 1.
While we're at it, I do not enjoy how many works overemphasise Nobubu's wild/fierce tropes way too much sometimes either. I also get that people seem to think that it was cool and badass, and that's why it keeps being made, but I don't happen to particularly like that characterisation, so I just get tired of it by now.
I do understand why this was being done. In order so that Mitsuhide does not come out looking like a villain in Honnouji, we have to make Nobunaga willingly let it happen. And so the story constructed a “fall from grace” scenario, because it could not possibly happen otherwise. The strongly-driven Nobunaga give up his ambitions on his own volition? Preposterous!
This is all to say: This is just plot convenience for the sake of Mitsuhide, and the overall game narrative as a whole. Do not take this to somehow mean that the real Nobunaga was reviled like this.
This “oh no, nobody came” is a non-issue historically. A typical samurai wedding do not usually involve big partying with the citizenry on the streets or in the castle. Only the vassals and the lord’s family participate. In this story, it was just done to show Nobunaga’s generousity for inviting his people, and to create a tragic scene when nobody showed up.
Having the very own local citizens of Azuchi be all upset is a bit of a Plot Contrivance, because it really doesn’t make sense realistically. However, having your own people turn against you hurts the most, so again, I understand why this was necessary plot-wise. Still. Most real life accounts say that it’s rather uncommon for people to refuse to come when Nobunaga holds events.
When he has the parade in the capital, citizens came out in droves to watch. Many might have just been there to see the emperor, who agreed to come out to witness the event. Others were just glad to watch the parade. Nobunaga had other parades and festivals in Azuchi as well, and crowds upon crowds of citizens came to watch.
There was even one time where guests flooded Azuchi castle to the point that an avalanche occurred due to the number of visitors. The main halls and tower keep of Azuchi Castle was located on a mountain, and the stairway going up there is carved and paved on the mountain itself. So yes, an entire chunk of a mountain just collapsed because it can’t hold the weight of the crowds.
The other guy is still "???" so I dunno if that's Nobuyuki, his older brother, or even his dad. He looks a tad too old to be Nobuyuki, but maybe it's just wonky artwork.
Like, all I know is his name starts with "N" and ALMOST EVERY SINGLE MAN IN THE ODA FAMILY IS "NOBU-SOMETHING" THAT DOES NOT HELP ME ONE BIT LOL
Since I’m already on the subject of Nobunaga, I might as well clear this issue.
To re-explain how the “classic” rotating volley story of Nagashino works: The 3000 gunmen were standing together, not separated into three squads in 3 different places. They just stand in 3 rows of 1000 guns each. The first row shoots, then moves aside to let the second row shoot while reloading their guns. The second row shoots, then moves aside and reloads, letting the third row make their shot. By the time the third row is done, the first row has finished reloading and is ready to take another shot.
This creates an endless barrage of bullets that rip apart the cavalry.
That being said: Nobody knew where the source of this story is. The rotating volley story seems to have spread around already by the Edo era, and was presented as “fact” in textbooks in the Meiji era. In modern culture, Kurosawa Akira’s popular Kagemusha movie probably cemented the image in many viewers, even if he wasn’t the creator of the trope.
There is an account in the Shinchou-ki (not to be confused with the similarly-named ShinchouKOU-ki) that said the Oda had brought 3000 guns, although this is considered not very reliable and historians preferred the account that said only 1000 guns were brought. Either way, no matter what the number of guns is, there are no description of rotating volleys and the massive amount of guns were just shot once.
Even 1000 was so many guns already that it sent the horses into panic, and they really didn’t need the rotating technique.
Now, there is an interesting “proof” that Japanese riflemen employed rotating volley technique during Hideyoshi’s Korea invasion. The king of Joseon and a Ming general recorded that the Japanese riflemen “split into groups and took turns shooting”. If this really had described the rotating volley, then this means that it’s at least not a technique borne out of fictive imagination. We are just not able to prove that it was used in Nagashino. (If this technique somehow turns out to be Hideyoshi’s invention, then there it is, another one of Hideyoshi’s things being stolen by Nobunaga in media. Oh, how hilarious)
Back when I first did running commentaries of the routes in this blog, I chose Nobunaga’s Divine End, and was dismayed to find that the infamous rotating volley story was not mentioned there. In retrospect it makes sense, because it was focused on the MC’s POV, so she would not have been able to witness the war.
My problem was that Nobunaga’s profile had said he is a “Master Tactician”. However, in the story the battles were shown to be mostly won on brute force. The only “strategy” I could recall seeing in the route was Nobunaga outsmarting bandits who kidnapped MC by tricking them into eating chili pepper-laden cakes. This discrepancy between stated character and actual narrative execution just bothered me a lot.
I am now somewhat mollified, since it actually is here. Us players are meant to read both ends anyway. I just didn’t realize immediately because I had moved on to start running commentaries on Masamune and Kojuro back then. I’ve only finally managed to catch up on the Noble Ending now (well, shortly before I started rereading the Nobunaga Act 2 to do the commentaries).
Well, at least they’re portraying this as a misinformation and not actually fact. I’m still seeing many people in the English speaking circles bringing up this skull sake cup story as though as it’s fact even in this year of the Lord 2021, when it’s not a clear-cut fact, so I suppose this bears repeating for the umpteenth time.
The story of the golden skulls being sake cups was “written in an ancient document”, but it doesn’t make it fact.
The Shinchoukouki, the earlier of the accounts, writes that the skulls were plated in gold, and displayed during a drinking party. The Azai Sandaiki, that says “the skulls were used as cups”, were written and published decades after. It’s understandable that the information could’ve been distorted through what is the equivalent of a game of telephone.
Edit (4 May 2023): This is thoroughly debunked, because even the Azai Sandaiki does not mention any skull cups at all. Far as I can tell, this is actually wholesale fiction.
Why the skulls needed to be plated in gold is not recorded explicitly, but Professor Miyamoto Yoshimi thought that it was done in accordance to the samurai tradition of “head presentation”. Samurai in the medieval times have a tradition to present and display the severed heads of the enemy generals. It’s in fact a samurai’s wife’s duty to clean up the heads and decorate them to make it beautiful for presentation.
The practice seems to have dwindled a bit during Nobunaga’s time, but it doesn’t mean that the practice have ceased completely. There was a letter Nobunaga’s son had written, that described that Asakura’s head was to be presented to the shogun first. The presentation Nobunaga did with his own vassals happens a few months after that.
Some sites/articles/blogs parade around this picture of the golden skull cups. These? These are movie props. It’s not real, and is never meant to be understood as “real”. This is not “proof” that the skull cups story is true.
You can even watch the movie with this very same props here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qr9WreQHPs
