Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

After hearing this, Takeda Shintora shook his head helplessly and said, "This kid, he's already come of age, but he's still so playful. What's so fun about Wakasa? It's just by the sea. Write a letter to him and ask him to hurry back. We're about to attack Shinano again, and my family needs people right now. If he continues like this, how can I entrust him with important tasks in the future?"

"Entrust an important task?!" Takeda Shingen's words not only shocked Takeda Harunobu who was in the hall, but also Itagaki Nobukata and others who were sitting there. They all began to speculate what he meant by this.

"I obey your command." Takeda Harunobu tried to calm down and replied calmly. After a while, he suggested to Takeda Shingen: "It would be a good idea for Jiro to stay in Wakasa for a while. He can strengthen his relationship with Wakasa Takeiden and help strengthen the relationship between the main family and the Wakasa Takeda family."

"Are you teaching me how to do things?" Takeda Shintora glanced at Takeda Harunobu and said in a cold tone:
"I asked you to call him back, so just do it. Besides, is it necessary for the main family to keep the eldest son in Wakasa to establish a close relationship with them?

To put it bluntly, I sent Jiro to congratulate this time just to give some face to Wuweidian, so that he can speak for our family to the Kufu and Kanrei at the critical moment, that's all.

Now that we have saved our face, it is time to come back. If we stay too long, the Wuwei Palace will suspect that we have bad intentions. As your elder brother, don't you understand this principle?"

Hearing Takeda Shingen scolding him so mercilessly, Takeda Harunobu's face turned red and white, and he was angry and embarrassed. He thought that after all, he was the eldest son of the family, but he was scolded like this in front of all the retainers. His father really didn't leave him any face at all.

Not only Takeda Harunobu, but even the retainers of the Takeda clan sitting below could not stand this scene. Itagaki Nobukata and Amari Torayasu stood up almost at the same time and reminded Takeda Nobutora:

"My lord, the young master is just thinking of the brotherhood and hopes that the Second Prince can relax in Wakasa and strengthen the relationship with the branch family. There is no other intention. The young master is still inexperienced and it is inevitable that he has not considered things carefully. Please calm down, my lord."

Hearing the "Takeda Twins" pleading for Takeda Harunobu, Takeda Shingenu calmed down a little. He said, "How can you handle such a big responsibility in your current condition?" and left, leaving Takeda Harunobu and his retainers looking at each other in bewilderment.

The Itagaki clan, to which Itagaki Nobukata came, is also a clan of the same clan as the Kai Minamoto clan, and they originated from Itagaki Kennobu, the third son of Minamoto Nobuyoshi (Takeda Nobuyoshi), the ancestor of the Takeda clan.

Itagaki Nobukata was an elder of the Takeda clan and was known for his bravery. He was in charge of diplomacy with the Imagawa clan. Later, when the Imagawa clan broke the alliance and invaded Kai, he was exiled to the mountainous area on the border between Imagawa and Takeda. He was not allowed to return until the death of Imagawa Ujimoto.

The Amari clan, to which Amari Torayasu belonged, was descended from the Kai Ichijo clan, a clan of the same clan as the Kai Minamoto clan. They originated from Amari Yukitada, the son of Ichijo Tadayoshi, a descendant of Minamoto Nobuyoshi (Takeda Nobuyoshi).

Amari Torayasu was not only brave on the battlefield, but also performed well in domestic affairs. He served as a temple and shrine magistrate and built Hachiman Shrine and Ishiban Bridge.

During the Nobutora era, Amari Torayasu, Itagaki Nobukata, Iitomi Toramasa, and Oyamada Toramichi were collectively known as the "Four Heavenly Kings of Takeda" (to distinguish them from the "Four Heavenly Kings" during the reign of Takeda Harunobu, they were also called the "Former Four Heavenly Kings"). Among them, Amari Torayasu and Itagaki Nobukata were always active as central figures in the Takeda army.

After Takeda Harunobu was born, Itagaki Nobuyasu and Amari Torayasu were appointed to serve as his tutors. They not only taught Takeda Harunobu strictly, but also became the two forces that he relied on most in Kai.

Therefore, when these two heavyweights of the Takeda family pleaded for Takeda Harunobu, Takeda Shingenu restrained himself and stopped reprimanding him.

Looking at Takeda Shingen's angry back, Takeda Harunobu could not help but clench his fists. Itagaki Nobukata and Amari Torayasu looked at each other for a moment and nodded slightly as if they had made up their minds...

Turning his attention back to Atagoyama Castle, after seeing off the distinguished guests from all over the world, Yoshishige held the first evaluation after the end of the Western Expedition, also at Hiryukan.

Just like the previous city relocation ceremony, important officials of the family and leaders of the noble families of the country gathered together, but this time it was no longer a banquet filled with delicacies, but a formal meeting. From the elders of the family to the leaders of the country, they lined up on both sides of the hall according to their status, leaving a large space in the hall.

"The Lord has arrived!" Yizhong walked out from behind the screen amid the shouts of the young people in the palace. He crossed his legs, slowly sat down, looked at the people in the palace who were bowing their heads, and said calmly: "Everyone, get up."

"Ha!" Led by the elders, everyone stood up and looked eagerly at Yi Zhong who was sitting upright in the hall.

"Everyone, I'll get straight to the point." Yizhong didn't want to keep you in suspense and decided to make it short:
"Except for the post-war assessment held after defeating the Asakura army and seizing Tsuruga County the year before last, the main family has not convened such a large-scale assessment for a long time. Back then, the main family only had one province, Wakasa, and one county, Tsuruga. But now it is different. The territory is spread over seven countries, and the koku is more than 500,000 koku. It is also a force that cannot be underestimated in China and Hokuriku.

All of this is inseparable from your bravery and hard work, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you all! "

"We will serve the country wholeheartedly and will not hesitate to die for our duties!" In response to Yoshishige's praise, the prince's retainers immediately gave a thunderous response. The sound resounded inside and outside the hall, and even scared the samurai on duty outside the hall.

"Today, we are conducting an evaluation here to reward meritorious officials and commend loyal and righteous people in order to demonstrate the martial virtues of the Takeda family."

After that, under the chairmanship of Hidemasa Yamagata, the assessment officially began the first stage: "issuing letters of appreciation."

A gansho is a paper certificate issued by local leaders to retainers or meritorious people since the Kamakura period, praising their bravery and loyalty. It can also be regarded as a kind of "certificate of honor".

Those who were granted letters of appreciation were generally generals and soldiers who had made contributions in battle. Compared with the actual promotion of titles, letters of appreciation focused more on spiritual rewards, becoming the lowest-cost reward for a family head to win over retainers. Amid the call of Yamagata Hidemasa, Sugi Sosuke from the Tango clan, Kagawa Eikyu and Matsumiya Kiyohiro from Wakasa, Unomura Yoshitsugu and Nagara Noriyoshi from Harima, and Shinmen Munemasa and Arimotosuke from Mimasaka successively appeared to receive letters of appreciation, which was mainly to commend them for their active response to Yoshishige's call and mobilizing the troops in their territory to participate in the Western Expedition.

Of course, the reason why they only received letters of appreciation instead of titles was mainly because although they participated in the war, they did not achieve any decent results. Most of them just followed the Takeda army on the battlefield to "gain experience" and there was no reason to be rewarded. But after all, they sent troops out, and Yoshishige, as the leader, should indeed give some expression, and issuing letters of appreciation was a good choice.

Of course, there was one person who received the condition differently from the others, and that was Inato Yuhide, who was also from the Tango clan.

Last year, Inao Yuhide and his son accepted Yoshishige's order and began to imitate the "iron cannon". After continuous trial and error and correction, it took nearly a year. Finally, after Yoshishige returned from the western expedition, they took out fifty iron cannons and sent them to Atagoyama Castle.

After shooting tests, the hit rate and power reached about 70% of the original version, which was a remarkable achievement and made the Inatomi family worthy of Yoshishige's praise.

Under the gazes from both sides, Kagawa Eihisa, Matsumiya Kiyohiro and others came to the open space in the hall one after another, solemnly took the letters of thanks with Yoshishige's seal from the hands of the attendants, and after receiving Yoshishige's encouragement to "keep working hard", they respectfully returned to their seats on both sides.

After issuing the letter of appreciation, the next step is to award the "official certificate" and "acceptance certificate".

We know that in the Warring States Period, there were countless military generals who were generally known by their official titles, such as Uesugi Dansho Shobuke, Date Sakyo Daifu, and Imagawa Haribe Daisuke; and just look at the small Owari, which produced three families: Oda Yamato-machi, Oda Ise-machi, and Oda Dansho-tada; what's more, the Takeda clan also had three Dansho-tadas... Could it be that the imperial court really had so many official positions that they were frantically selling them off without even caring about their reputation?

The answer is no - in fact, many samurai's official titles were privately usurped and not recognized by the court. But why did such a proliferation of official titles occur? This requires further introduction to the concepts of official title and received title.

First of all, it should be explained that official positions and official titles are completely different things. Official positions are those that are actually obtained from the imperial court or through the recommendation of the shogunate. Other official titles that are not recognized by the imperial court or the shogunate are all official titles, also called "self-proclaimed official positions", which can be regarded as a kind of knockoff goods, and these knockoff goods are divided into official titles and received titles.

Many samurai were given this kind of official title by their own lords. The certificate of obtaining the official title from the lord was called an official title certificate or a receipt certificate at that time, which was simply a "fake permission letter".

Why did such a thing appear? On the one hand, it was because the official positions were limited, and on the other hand, even the samurai lord did not have the ability to apply for an official position for his retainer from the court or the shogunate, which included political ability and financial resources. Or perhaps, they felt that there was no need for it at all, so they just gave an honorary title.

This was also a way to maintain the master-servant relationship at that time. From our perspective today, a title without substance is meaningless, but in the Warring States Period, when official positions had long lost their substantive meaning and power, these titles were a small proof of success for some middle and lower-level retainers.

In fact, if you just want to distinguish between the official name and the received name, it is a very easy thing to do.

From the literal meaning, we can see that "官途" in Japanese means "official career", and "受領" means "serving as a local official". Therefore, among the numerous official titles, any one related to the provincial governor can be considered a "received name", while the central official titles such as "Sakyo" and "Konoe" are so-called "official career names".

For example, we know that the local governor in medieval Japan was the governor or deputy governor of a country, so the corresponding "someone's governor" was the name of the governor. However, for provinces such as Ueno, Hitachi, and Kazusa, where the prince served as the governor, the governor and deputy governor usually served in Kyoto, so the vice minister's suke and deputy suke had to become the local governor, so "Uenosuke", "Hitachinasuke", and "Kazusuke" also became common names of governors.

During the Muromachi shogunate, as the status of samurai was further consolidated, it became more common for samurai to be given official positions. Even high-ranking officials above the rank of councilor were often held by samurai, which led to the rapid spread of the custom of using official positions as a synonym for samurai.

Later, some shugo daimyo simply granted official titles to their retainers privately. Both the emperor and the shogun were in a semi-empty state, so they could not intervene, and the matter was eventually left unresolved; at most, they would sigh that the rituals and music had collapsed, and declare that the official position was not granted by them, and that was it. As a result, the power to grant official titles and receive titles was further delegated to the hands of the shugo daimyo.

However, the shugo daimyo was sometimes sidelined. As the era gradually entered the turbulent times of the Warring States Period, the power of the shugo declined, and the status of powerful groups such as shugo deputies, local lords, and powerful families increased. As a result, various official titles and titles of honor were established like mushrooms after rain.

Anyone who has benefited from the favor of his ancestors will be proud of it and use their official titles as their own general names. If there is no honor in the family, they will also create one for themselves, as if to keep up with the trend.

During the Warring States period, when daimyo emerged, the complicated and confusing official and received names became tools of their rule. For the retainers who had made contributions, the daimyo would reward them with "official title" and "receipt", allowing them to legally use new or previously usurped official titles or received names as a symbol of honor among the retainers.

In fact, the predecessor of the official career petition was the "official career application petition" used by the Shogun of the Muromachi shogunate to request official positions for his retainers. It was of course much more formal than the official career petition and was more like the format of a letter.

For example, in the application for an official post written by Ashikaga Takauji for his retainer Yasaburo, in addition to the title of the retainer and the official position, there were also words of greeting to the courtiers, and finally the time and monogram were written at the end to show respect.

But in the Warring States Period, the objects of official career letters were no longer court officials, but the daimyo's own retainers, so they were written much more casually.

For example, the official career letter written by Mori Takamoto for his retainer Nakamura Sukejuro simply contained the word "任" (meaning "appointment"), plus the name of the official position granted, and then the time and seal were signed in the center, and finally the retainer's name "某麼婉" was written to complete it.

As for the format of the acceptance letter, it is undoubtedly the same as the official letter, except that the official name is changed to the name of the recipient. For example, the acceptance letter written by Uesugi Kagekatsu, with just a few strokes, granted the high position of "Hizen no Kami" to a little-known Kuribayashi Jibu Shosuke.

However, the name of receiving was generally given to samurai who already had an official title, such as Kuribayashi Jibu Shosuke above; while the samurai who received the official title were generally still unofficial, like the previous "Nakamura Sukejuro". In this way, receiving a name should be considered a higher level of honor than an official title in the Warring States Period. (End of this chapter)