Loathing On A Summer Morn

"What? I'm still alive?"

The year is 1582, knee deep in the Era of the Warring States, and sequestered quietly within the Honnoji Temple of Kyoto as the sun breaks the summer dawn a man awakes to a pounding heart of fear and the slippery sweat of the coward on his back. That man is Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful - and most feared - man in the country. With half the land conquered and the other half under siege, he stood within sight of his ultimate dream: complete unification "under one sword". It was only a matter of time now, he was as Moses looking into the promised land.

His gnawing nightly fears he mentions to no one. Strange to have the world at your feet and yet find defeat in your feelings. As the business of warfare came under control his mind freed itself for more personal matters. Oda had ducked them for years - "for the good of the state," he told himself. But in the Eight Fold Fence of his life he'd left a neatly penned off area into which he never travailed no matter how much it cried out - and excuses weren't cutting it anymore. Of all his state secrets this was the most highly guarded, his "private festering".

Though Oda had success no other man in Japan could equal, he felt a failure in himself. He hadn't done "it". "It" being indefinable in words but knowable in its doing, a private dream of light from the darkness. Still reeling from the night, words of truth whispered in his ear, "This is your true purpose. This is the only reason you're here." Oda's greatest asset was his ability to see within himself - and therefore his enemies - but this one truth was too much to bear: he grew no flower of love.

"I'm not here to love. I'm here to conquer!"



Invisibly his spirit shadowboxed the truth away, desperate to be clear of the tangling web as he clung to hopeless, imaginary lies. The price of sleep demanded he face his life and if anyone caught him rising this way - his face covered in fear replete with the knowledge of Gross Personal Negligence - both friend and enemy would swoop in to devour him at last. He sighed to himself, "I must address this. How much longer do I have?" But upon searching his soul he found no talent for love.

Frightened, he receded back to the world of the talents he knew. As soon as he reigned supreme, changes would be made, his grip loosened to bring stability to the foundling empire. Oda smirked at the thought of his protesting advisors who would undoubtedly beg him to reach for more and more power even after the point for it was gone. But maybe not Hideyoshi. Not my trusted "monkey". He might see the wisdom of it - if I showed it to him first. Besides, don't these people understand the burden I carry!

Yes, first I break them then I make them. Have they not already seen the benefits of my elimination of petty monopolies and the opening of the roads for commerce? Has not the concept of castle cities brought prosperity and order? By force I shall unite but by wisdom I shall rule. How silly to think one can stay down the path of control forever. What am I to do? Babysit a nation? I will attain power because I wish it. I will retain power because they wish it.

In front of current day Azuchi station

Oda loved the Honnoji temple grounds as he did all temples, secret oases of the world in his eyes. He sipped the steaming cha and gloried in the rising sun of red to gold. I can almost taste the final outcome! Exhilaration electrified his body. Yes, I can live forever! The flower of love the final step to victory. Could he ever reach it? Dark clouds threatened him from the gods to whom he answered.

Walking across the veranda he spied a maid playing with a child in blithe innocence. She called the little boy over and lifted him up to the delight of both before enacting a mock chase. Suddenly, Oda felt condemned by the act, recalling the families he burned to death at Mount Hiei, home to the fanatical warrior monks dedicated to his downfall. How can I ever raise a child up in innocence? The day was beauty itself as he suffered acidic pangs of the heart under a smiling sky.

Servants noticed his quick departure from the scene but his vanguard knew to give him space when Oda was not directly engaging them. Retreating to a cramped tea room to hide his anguish, Oda found himself trapped. No! No! I mustn’t let this out! His unattended garden could stand the neglect no more. This begat of all his cruelty, berating mercilessly unsuspecting generals and servants alike. To them he'd always be the Towering Tyrant.


But was it real, this need of his? He'd let it go on this far. So maybe... maybe the light is a fabrication of his own mind - love a dream that's just a dream. Was not life itself a dream wrapped within an illusion? Could life really be as simple as one wife and one family? Why did he feel such a powerful urge to lunge in this new direction? Could he rule a nation and let love rule him?

The moody warlord stomped throughout the temple that day, doing battle with his demons, painfully envious of the orange robed priests and their apparent peace. Sounds of laughter and small talk smote his heart further in searing agony. Still, Oda refused to surrender, convincing himself instead he could find another way later if necessary. Clearly the flower of love was not going away but he could not hold himself to its timetable. On this one point he would not concede. Surely the gods can grant me that after all I've done!

That night, sitting cross-legged before the Kabuki performance, the Japanese warlord wore a false face of gaiety, propagating his desire to live forever. Oda hoped it was enough that the outside world believed it even if he himself did not.


On the following day June 21, 1582 in the sticky, humid pre-dawn air, the Akechi forces surrounded Honnoji Temple in overwhelming numbers to Oda's light vanguard who traveled with him behind the front lines. Akechi Mitsuhide - a top general shown no love by his liege lord Oda - launched his attack of high treason. Nobunaga's mind games had driven Mitsuhide to the point of rebellion and on that fateful morn Oda's worst fears came true: yes, love was real after all, his life was over. To keep his head from being displayed as a trophy he had the temple burned before his capture, his remains never found.

Twenty years later the Tokugawa Shogunate was established, lasting over 250 years. But without Oda's vision, Japan regressed, wilting like a flower in the dark. She closed off her borders and the ruling Shogunate rotted into corruption, too fearful to release its stifling grip of power, causing more and more souls to slip through its grasp. Many times, if the local government official was corrupt (more common than not), a peasant had no possible redress for the injustices inflicted upon him.

This internal hemorrhaging was not addressed until 1863 when American gun boats fired their cannons in demand that Japan open up and join the trade routes. Hopelessly out of date in her warfare capabilities and thinking, the samurai were helpless in the face of such might and the long oppressed populace turned on them, stripping them of power and reinstating full rule back to the emperor. From that time Japan has been racing to catch up to the West ever since, painfully extracting herself from centuries of decay from the fumbled hands of Oda.

___________________________