"Ah, so Omi and Otsu are together now. A good match, each equally ambitious in their own way. But if one were to break the oath of ambition the other would break their bond with haste!"
Young lord Oda Nobunaga laughed at his own observation as his retainers sitting in a semi-circle in front of him in the war room smiled in polite response. If Oda noticed the heavy unease in the air, he did not act as such. He wanted to hear more.
"Tell me what else happened today," he eagerly implored. Forced to comply, tidbits of various information were set forth: a favorite horse came up lame, a good forecast had been given for the rice crop, old but beloved Oshige had become ill, signs of a thunderstorm for the morrow.
"Thunderstorms, eh? Interesting!"
Then the lord retired for the night. Hayato and Shiro stayed behind in mutinous disgust.
"He's too young to rule! We are doomed."
"Not one word of the two castles we lost today. As surely as the sun rises, the Hojo will finish us off tomorrow."
"At least he knows the weather forecast!" sneered Hayato.
"We are samurai and we must face death as is our due. But there is no honor in our lord and we'll die in shame. That has been my greatest fear for as long as I can remember."
"I feel the same way. It's too much for me to die on the field having gossiped like an old hen the night before."
"Has not our lord always preached to follow the star that guides us above all else?"
"Indeed. And despite his age, he is the most stubborn sort I've ever come across. As much as I wanted to bring up the invasion I could not speak a word, almost as if I was in a spell. My head said I have to say something but my instincts said let it go. Now that he's gone for the night I could kick myself for being so weak!"
"We will not be weak tomorrow. We shall follow our own thinking like the standing order says. We are trapped, with no other way out."
"Agreed. We will not let history mark us as fools, our lord's so-called destiny be damned."
For whatever reason, the human creature finds good fortune difficult and even impossible to accept. "Why me and not him?" We become ensnared in a web of negativity, hoping to hide our lack of fealty to our truth. Both Hayato and Shiro felt the wondrous feeling of inspiration given off by Oda, that they were on the verge of a rise to the stars. Each wanted to believe it more than anything in their lives, a dream of dreams.
But Owari province was small and weak, impossible to have a future when dozens of stronger provinces surrounded them, allying themselves together, and Owari's forces outnumbered 10 to 1 by the day's invading army. To think that young lord Oda and the hilariously weak Owari had a future was to be self-deceived and marked an idiot. Yes, instincts are to be trusted - but not this far! Their lord's failure to even broach the subject of the lost castles was the last straw.
The morning light brought no relief. Nobunaga made no preparations for war, heading instead to Zensho Temple. Hayato and Shiro looked at one another, confirming the plans they made the night before.
"The time is nigh!"
Leading a light brigade of 300 precious men, they rushed the Hojo army only to be swallowed up and slaughtered. In this way they had hoped to have honorable things written about them for posterity.
But Lord Oda was a man of destiny. And in a way, the deaths of his two head-strong retainers had served a purpose. Seeing the silliness of the Owari resistance with its futile charge caused the Hojo army to relax and fall into a defenseless state. By opening himself up to let the universe play out as it will, Oda had the wind of destiny at his back, feeding him opportunities for success in the final drive for unification of Japan.
When he heard the news, Oda sprung. "This is the moment I've been waiting for. Our enemy is like a ripe plum ready to be picked. He is tired but we are fresh. He seeks only himself but we seek the nation. Behold! He is defeated by thinking he's already won!"
In the most legendary battle in the Era of Warring States, the Oda forces stormed out of an afternoon cloudburst to upend the Hojo camp, cutting the head off the snake by cutting off the head of Yoshimoto, the clan and army leader.
Oda Nobunaga went on to do the impossible, setting the stage for final unification before being betrayed by a misguided general (who was cut down shortly after). Believe in the universe and its conspiracy to save you, however remote that may seem.
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Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige's wall there was this one: "Matters of great concern should be treated lightly." Master lttei commented, "Matters of small concern should be treated seriously." Among one's affairs there should not be more than two or three matters of what one could call great concern. If these are deliberated upon during ordinary times, they can be understood. Thinking about things previously and then handling them lightly when the time comes is what this is all about.
- from the "Hagakure"
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