The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga

Brill's Japanese Studies Library #36

by 太田牛一, Gyūichi Ōta, Jurgis S. A. Elisonas (Editor)

"Shinch -K ki," the work translated here into English under the title The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, is the most important source on the career of one of the best known figures in all of Japanese history Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), the first of the Three Heroes who unified Japan after a century of fragmentation and internecine bloodshed. The other two of the triad, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), also make frequent appearances in this chronicle, playing prominent although clearly subordinate roles. So the chronicle also is an important source on their early careers, as it is on a constellation of other actors in Japan s sixteenth-century drama. The chronicle s author, ta Gy ichi, was Nobunaga s former retainer and an eyewitness of some of the events he describes. He completed his work about the year 1610.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Japan, Japanese History, Biography, Japanese Literature

520 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1610

Reviews

[Kolya Terletskyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Надзвичайно цікава праця! Варто звернути увагу, що це не науково-популярна література, це переклад історичних літописів. Важко читати на початку, але завдяки приміткам перекладача, читач тримається на плаву. Окрема подяка автору, це велика та клопітка праця! Раджу читати, коли є хоча б загальне уявлення про відповідний період історії Японії.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This is a world where the young die first, leaving their elders behind, where the morning glory does not last until nightfall. Ours is an existence ephemeral as a dayfly's."

Ōta Gyūichi's Shinchō kōki, translated by JSA Elisonas and JP Lamers as The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, offers a deep and unique insight into life in 16th century Japan, particularly life as a member of the nobility. At times, the writing style is poetic, fast-paced, and full of imagery while at others it's monotonous, gruelingly detailed, and morbid. Throughout the work, it's obvious that Gyūichi poured his heart and soul into writing a factual chronicle as best he could, not an embellished fairytale. While there is an apparent bias in his writing - he praises his former feudal lord at every opportunity - he doesn't fail to recount instances of extreme brutality and questionable actions taken by Nobunaga. Still, he almost entirely refrains from adding his own analyses, assumptions, and opinions. What remains are mostly facts.

The translation is beautiful. The footnotes are astoundingly detailed and well-researched. Elisonas and Lamers have included an informative preface, timeline of events, and introduction as well as fifteen maps and an index. It's hard to think of anything else they could have done to make this a more complete experience.

The content of this chronicle is not for the faint-hearted. The savagery and relentless disregard for human life documented herein is overwhelming. While there are meticulously detailed accounts of sumo matches, parades, falconry, festive gatherings, gift-giving, construction projects, and tea ceremonies along with anecdotes of generosity, kindness, and hospitality, the majority of this work deals with Nobunaga's scorched-earth military conquests and the unspeakable atrocities that surrounded his life.

That being said, there's nothing else out there in the non-fiction realm that's quite like The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga and I highly recommend it to anyone who's willing to trudge through a thick history book in order to transport themselves several hundred years back in time to feudal Japan.

[Данило Судин · Rating 4 out of 5]

Основою книги є життєпис Оди Нобунаґи, проте до тому входять і три статті перекладача, а також три самурайські хроніки. Сказати, що книга захоплює, на жаль, не можна. "Повість про дім Тайра" більш поетична та наративна. А тут маємо справу радше з сухим звітом про події, де більше уваги приділено особам та датам: коли хто що зробив. На щастя, текст витягують примітки перекладача, завдяки яким занурюєшся в світ Японії XVI ст.

Загалом, текст буде більш цікавим історикам Японії, аніж просто читачам. По-перше, в ньому не простежуються причинно-наслідкові зв’язки (їх треба самому відстежувати, що доволі важко, оскільки осіб та місцевостей там просто море). По-друге, автор не намагається показати читачеві "картинку", тобто він передбачає, що місцевості і так будуть відомі/знайомі читачу. Чи можна отримати багато задоволення від читання звіту про пророблену роботу? Ось і така ж справа з цим текстом. Єдина його перевага - він дозволяє краще зрозуміти японську ментальність і культуру.

[Publius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining read overall, some great anecdotes of Oda Nobunaga. The book was allegedly written by one of Nobunaga's vassals in the late 1500s, making it a very contemporary work. The text gets clunky at times (especially in English) and sometimes focuses on minutiae instead of the salient events.