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| Francis A. Miniter... |
 Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:02 pm |
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This is the English translation of a Japanese historical
novel, written in 1968, about Oda Nobunaga, the first of
three warlords in 16th C. Japan to try to bring unity once
again to the country. It is said of Nobunaga, his successor
Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became Shogun in 1600,
as follows:
The songbird won't sing.
What to do?
"Kill it," says Nobunaga;
"Make it want to sing," says Hideyoshi;
"Just wait," says Tokugawa.
As may be gathered, Nobunaga came in for a rough evaluation
by history due to his absence of mercy in matters of war.
He was known, for instance, to slaughter the entire
household of a rebellious lord. In this, had he known about
Machiavelli, it might be said that he played the prince as
Machiavelli recommended. But one of the objectives of this
novel is to resurrect the reputation of Nobunaga, to attempt
to show the rigid logic underlying all his actions,
including his belief that war is unmerciful and that showing
mercy once battle has begun is contrary to the endeavour.
The English title is a far cry from the Japanese title,
which transliterates to *Azuchi Okanki*. With the aid of a
Japanese-English dictionary and the Kangi characters from
the book itself, I translate that as *Account of the Rise
and Fall of Azuchi* , Azuchi being the city that Nobunaga
was building to be his capital, and which did not survive
his demise, as his General Akechi, who assassinated him,
attacked and destroyed it immediately following the coup.
The novel is - mostly - written in the form of a letter from
an unnamed and fictional Genoese soldier of fortune who
found himself in Japan in 1571, assisting a Portuguese
Jesuit priest who was traveling to Kyoto to support the
mission there. So why did a Japanese author (he was a
university professor in Japan) write this novel from the
point of view of a non-Japanese?
For one thing, the story has two intertwined prongs, the
second being that of the Jesuit mission itself. The 16th C
has been called Japan's "Christian Century", though half
century might be more accurate. The high rate of
conversions both of daimyos (lords) and common people in the
country was a surprise to all, including the Jesuits.
Nobunaga himself, though never a convert, gave particular
assistance to the cause of the Jesuits, all the while
pushing farther from the Buddhist monks, who were often his
worst military enemies. As it was to be, the fortunes of
the Christian missionaries rose with Nobunaga and fell with
him. After Nobunaga, restrictions were placed on foreign
missionaries by Hideyoshi, and the missionaries were all
finally expelled in 1614 by the then Tokugawa Shogun (a son
of Ieyasu). To chart this twin course, a foreigner was a
good choice.
For another, the author himself was studying in Paris (at
the Sorbonne) for several years shortly after a manuscript,
*History of Japan*, written by Luis Frois, S.J., a Jesuit
missionary in Japan for most of the second half of the 16th
century, was found buried in archives in Lisbon after 330 or
more years. While it was not published in Portuguese until
the year this novel was published, and though the
translation to Japanese took another 15 years, it is clear
from the opening pages of the novel that the author was
familiar with the work, probably having viewed the
manuscript itself. It should be noted that Father Frois is
one of the characters of the story, as is Father Valignano,
the Jesuit Visitor-General to Japan shortly before the death
of Nobunaga. Valignano himself wrote considerably about
Japan, but lacked the very modern sociological approach of
Frois, who managed to write what he observed and refrain
from western-oriented commentary. This impartiality is
especially apparent in Frois's 1585 Treatise About
Contradictions and Differences in Customs Between Europe and
Japan. This too was only rediscovered in the 20th century.
For a third thing, the use of a foreigner can bring out the
human side of Nobunaga. Retainers were mostly terrified of
Nobunaga for the power of life and death he held over them.
And he as dominant warlord had to worry about which of
them might want to overthrow him at any time. Such worries
would be absent in the case of foreigners. They would not
survive an assassination of him and could never become
masters of Japan. So he had nothing to fear from them. In
return, they had nothing to fear from him, since destroying
them would neither hurt nor help him.
Aside from the fictional narrator and a few minor
characters, the personages in the story are historical.
Indeed, it appears that the history is well researched,
right down to the velvet upholstered chair given to Nobunaga
by Valignano, in which Nobunaga sat at an important festival
in 1581, thus signaling the favor in which he held the Jesuits.
To those for whom the novel *Shogun* (which treats the rise
of Tokugawa Ieyasu to Shogun after the death of Hideyoshi)
was a delight, read this book too. It provides considerable
historical background to understanding the events in
*Shogun*. Further reading should include Eiji Yoshikawa's
*Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan*
which details the life of Hideyoshi, who brought Japan
closer still to unification after the death of Nobunaga.
--
Francis A. Miniter
Oscuramente
libros, laminas, llaves
siguen mi suerte.
Jorge Luis Borges, La Cifra Haiku, 6 |
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