Japan's National Diet
The Tokyo Tower
The Tokyo Bay
Nobunaga and Ieyasu with Hideyoshi
Fools become soldiers and warriors.
Wise men become bureaucrats, medical doctors, or scholars.
Noble men never do manual work to be a king someday.
This is a common value system in Europe, India, and China.
But, in Japan, the samurai class consists of soldiers and warriors.
In Japan, the samurai class consists of bureaucrats, medical doctors, or scholars, or even artists.
In Japan, the samurai class consists of noble men who are often engaged in civil engineering.
The head of the samurai class was actually king of Japan since the last ancient imperial government had fallen in the 12th century.
It is impossible for a samurai to be unable to read, write, and calculate since the beginning of its class 1,100 years ago.
But, samurais fiercely fought one another from 1467 to 1568 all over Japan to secure their territories or take national hegemony. In 1568, samurai lord Nobunaga with his subject Hideyoshi and his younger ally Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Kyoto so symbolically and politically, putting an end to this Age of Civil Strife. Yet, it was 1615 that the last major war was fought in Osaka between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi's son, resulting in subsequent 250-year dominance of the Tokugawa clan.
In this way, educated Japanese have at least once in their life thought about what personalities Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu had, since they were overwhelmingly the three greatest samurai heroes.
http://historymedren.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.samurai%2Darchives.com/1583.html (Click to enlarge.)
Nobunaga is a prodigy but cruel and bloody though he protected Catholic missionaries. Hideyoshi was humane with plenty of business sense though he changed his attitude ominously toward Catholic missionaries. Ieyasu very patient with full of strategies supported by his trustworthy subjects though he expelled Japanese Catholics out of the country.
But, Nobunaga was betrayed and killed near Kyoto like Caesar in a sense. Hideyoshi died with full of anxiety about prosperity of his children in a mighty castle of Osaka, the then political, commercial, and military center of Japan as Hideyoshi himself unified the country. However, ex-Shogun Ieyasu died peacefully in a local but great castle, watching his son governing Japan at the Edo Castle (Tokyo) after succeeding the title of Shogun, namely the Imperial Great General or tycoon.
One day when Nobunaga was busy fighting his own uphill battles to Japan's hegemony, he happened to meet a disabled beggar in rags sitting in the rain. He again met the beggar in his riding back home with his men on the same path through mountains and fields. Nobunaga felt sorry and thus not only gave some treasure to the extremely poor beggar but also called on villagers nearby, telling them to take care of the beggar if they wanted to please Nobunaga himself.
One day Hideyoshi felt high in a great castle just completed in Great Osaka City as a symbol of his unification of Japan. Hodeyoshi, then not only the top leader of samurai lords but also the chief adviser to the Emperor,
told Ieyasu, who had accepted his position as a subject to Hideyoshi years before, that nobody could attack and destroy the robust castle surrounded by wide and deep moats. So, Ieyasu asked, "Sir, even you could not attack and conquer this castle?" Hideyoshi, feeling higher, said, "I can do. Only I can do, Ieyasu-dono. I will tell you how I will attack this great castle..."
One day when Ieyasu, who was to bring the whole country under his rule after attacking and occupying the Great Osaka Castle though years after death of Hideyoshi, was still young, he held a meeting with his subjects in a castle. One of the samurais there harshly pointed out a failure and mistakes Ieyasu had made in a previous battle. A certain senior aid of Lord Ieyasu felt it too rude. So, after the meeting was closed and other samurais left, the aid told Ieyasu to punish the samurai who accused Ieyasu openly. But, Ieyasu said, "He is useful. He is honest. I need a subject who follows me so much risking his life as he cannot stop giving me reasonable advice."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobunaga
That is all for today as Sunday is after Saturday that is so close to a Friday night.
(Le meilleur ouvrier, le pire mari. Working hard just for the God is indeed hard work for man, my princess.
http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/jojoh/muranokajiya.html )
Pro 6:17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
Pro 6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
Pro 6:19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Pro 6:20 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
Pro 6:21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.