Letter by Akechi Mitsuhide
- Person
-
作者明智光秀
- Date
-
制作年 AD16
- Title
- アケチミツヒデヒツショウソク
- Collections
- Century Akao Collection
- Depository
- Institute of Oriental Classics (Shido Bunko) Campus Mita
- Ref. number
- AW-CEN-000945-0000
- License
- CC BY Images license
- Creditline
-
慶應義塾（センチュリー赤尾コレクション）
- URL
- Classification
- Art
- AI Tagging
- Handwriting Font Wood Art Paper
Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582) was a descendant of the Toki clan of Mino Province. In 1568, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582; great warlord during the Sengoku Period who conquered most of Japan to unify the nation, but was assassinated by one of his trusted generals) entered Kyoto, pledging loyalty to Ashikaga Yoshiaki (15th Shogun of the Muromachi military government). By this time, Mitsuhide held a prominent role as Nobunaga’s trusted confidant and adviser. In 1582, Hideyoshi was attacking the Mohri army in Bicchu (Okayama Prefecture) at their stronghold of Takamatsu Castle. Hideyoshi asked for a backup, so Nobunaga sent Mitsuhide’s army. On his way to the battlefield, Mitsuhide invited Satomura Joha to hold a renga composition ceremony at Mt. Atago in Kyoto. Renga is a form of collaborative poem in which the first poet writes the hokku, the first three lines consisting of a 5-7-5 syllable count, and the second poet writes the 7-7 count couplet and later completes the renga after both poets take turns in composing the stanzas. Mitsuhide started the poem, or the hokku stanza (which later evolved into the haiku style of poetry), with “Time is now – the rain falling in the month of May,” which is well-known to imply his resolve to destroy Nobunaga. On the very next day, June 1 to be exact, Mitsuhide murdered Nobunaga at Honnoji Temple. On the 13th, Mitsuhide and his forces were defeated in battle by Hashiba Hideyoshi (who was later renamed Toyotomi Hideyoshi and succeeded in unifying the war-torn nation as the virtual heir to Nobunaga’s legacy) at Yamazaki in Yamashiro Province (today’s Kyoto). During his retreat, Mitsuhide met his death by a bamboo spear at the hand of a local farmer. The hiragana letter shown here was attached to a roll of fabric he presumably sent to the lady-in-waiting, closely serving then Mitsuhide’s master, Lord Oda Nobunaga, but the addressee cannot be readily identified. The characters show that the letter was written rapidly, without filling the brush with ink. Quite different from the elegant and florid styles of letters preferred by the nobility, Mitsuhide’s letter is passionate and speaks of his strong personality.
一へににのかわり物弐たんぬめこうはい弐たんくたし申候御あけ候て可被下候たのミ申候恐々謹言［封］十一月廿日光秀（花押）
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- Title (EN)
- Letter by Akechi Mitsuhide
Physical description
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-
Quantity 1幅
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