Published on January 22, 2020. Beginning with an insight inspired by an NHK historical program on Oda Nobunaga and Akechi Mitsuhide, this essay examines the essence of the Honnō-ji Incident, Nobunaga’s vision of advancing into China, and the limitations of Mitsuhide. Through a later conversation with a priest in Sakamoto, the author develops the view that, had Nobunaga lived and conquered China, the China of today would not exist.

January 22, 2020
The program Rekishi Historia, broadcast by NHK several years ago, brought me tremendous inspiration.
It concerned Oda Nobunaga.
Why did Akechi Mitsuhide, who had been one of Nobunaga’s senior retainers, suddenly launch the Honnō-ji Incident and kill Nobunaga?
As readers know, I have several times written in this blog, “I am Kūkai living in the present age,” and “I am Nobunaga living in the present age.”
It is an obvious fact that, from the distant past, Japan has produced truly innumerable great figures.
I had chosen those two men to represent them.
I had also felt that Nobunaga’s greatness lay, for example, in the fact that he tried to burn down Mount Hiei.
That is because the shock he delivered still remains among monks even today.
When I was the person who visited Kyoto more than anyone else in the world, I once went to Sennyū-ji, a temple in Higashiyama associated with the Imperial Family.
To the left of the entrance to Sennyū-ji stands a hall donated by Nobunaga.
It was when I was speaking with a monk at the reception desk, who was sitting in front of it, perhaps for a special viewing.
“For us, Nobunaga is an enemy…”
I was astonished.
Because Nobunaga was still alive even now.
Now, let me return to the NHK program I mentioned at the beginning.
Mitsuhide was, so to speak, Nobunaga’s right-hand man.
To that Mitsuhide, Nobunaga revealed what he had told no one else.
“I intend to invade China and become the king of China. Because if I remain in Japan like this, there will no longer be enough land to give my retainers in reward for their achievements. In China, there will be no such concern…”
Hearing this, Mitsuhide was shaken to the very core.
That was because he had served Nobunaga in the conviction that Nobunaga was precisely the military commander who would unify the realm and bring peace.
If Nobunaga unified the realm and achieved peace under heaven, the security of his own clan would also be achieved.
The age of civil war would be brought completely to an end, and an age of peace under heaven would arrive.
That would also mean the prosperity and security of the Akechi clan.
Mitsuhide knew better than anyone that Nobunaga was a great man.
In other words, he knew that Nobunaga was a man who put his words into action.
That is why Mitsuhide was terrified to the very depths of his heart.
The age of war had finally come to an end, and yet his lord, Nobunaga, had begun to say that he would advance into China and become the king of China.
Mitsuhide was a military commander who had no such vision at all.
He had merely worked for Nobunaga’s unification of the realm while thinking of the security of his clan and the peace of his domain.
Nobunaga’s philosophy and vision were also a denial of his life.
Advancing into China was something he could never possibly understand.
It was also a denial of his philosophy and his way of living.
To deny oneself is one’s own death.
Nobunaga was virtually trying to kill him; if so, he had no choice but to kill Nobunaga.
This explanation by NHK must surely be the truth.
In an instant, the scales fell from my eyes.
Last autumn, when the season of autumn leaves was about to end, I headed from Ishiyama-dera to Hiyoshi Taisha.
It was my first time riding the Keihan train on that route.
I arrived halfway up the town of Sakamoto, one of the places I love most.
The temple that is the birthplace of Saichō was also very close by.
I went inside and asked the monk to confirm it.
He was a very pleasant man, truly the chief priest of a temple associated with Saichō.
Although we were only standing and talking, the conversation became lively and lasted about an hour.
I lost the time to go and see the autumn leaves at Hiyoshi Taisha.
But it was truly a fulfilling time.
At the end, the chief priest began talking about Mitsuhide becoming the subject of an NHK Taiga drama, and the conversation turned to him.
Naturally, my argument was something he had never heard before.
When I said that Mitsuhide was truly a fool, he was surprised.
Because if Mitsuhide had not killed Nobunaga at that time, China would not have become the China it is today.
Nobunaga would have conquered China one hundred percent.
Then what would have happened?
The conduct of the Chinese people as it exists today would not exist.
In other words, there would be no conduct belonging to a country of bottomless evil and plausible lies.
They would have valued faith and honor, lived for honor, and not stolen what belonged to others.
The Chinese people have no concept of the public.
But if Nobunaga had conquered China, the Chinese people too would surely have acquired a concept of the public.
Toward the end, when I said that this was why Mitsuhide was a fool,
the chief priest said, “So that is where you arrive after all?”
The two of us laughed, and our roughly one-hour standing conversation came to an end.