Fw: Lamers, _Japonius Tyrannus: The Japanese Warlo

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MEH

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From: "David G. Wittner" <dwittner@...>
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Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 3:46 AM
Subject: H-Japan(E): Book Review: Lamers, _Japonius Tyrannus: The Japanese
Warlord Oda Nobunaga Reconsidered_


| H-Japan
| 19 July 2001
|
|
|
| Subject: H-Japan Book Review: Lamers, _Japonius Tyrannus: The Japanese
| Warlord Oda Nobunaga Reconsidered_
| From: David Wittner, H-Japan Book Review Editor
|
|
| H-NET BOOK REVIEW
| Published by H-Japan@... (July, 2001)
|
| Jeroen Lamers. _Japonius Tyrannus: The Japanese Warlord Oda
| Nobunaga Reconsidered_. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000. 280 pp.
| Tables, maps, notes, bibliography, and index. $65.00 (cloth),
| ISBN 90-74822-22-3.
|
| Reviewed for H-Japan by Suzanne Gay <suzanne.gay@...>,
| East Asian Studies Program, Oberlin College
|
| A New Biography of Oda Nobunaga
|
| Jeroen Lamers has written a biography of Oda Nobunaga, the
| sixteenth century warrior who was the first of the so-called
| three great unifiers of early modern Japan. The study focuses
| particularly on the policies and actions of Nobunaga during the
| years of his national ascendancy, 1568-82. Mr. Lamers has
| consulted a wide range of contemporary sources: in addition to
| numerous official documents, these include the Shincho Kyou-ki
| by Oota Gyuuichi, Nobunaga's first chronicler, the Jesuit
| records, and diaries like the Kanemi Kyou-ki and Tokitsugu
| Kyou-ki. Mr. Lamers has also taken full measure of the works
| of Japanese and western historians in his treatment of this
| important figure.
|
| This monograph contributes in several important ways to the
| literature on Nobunaga and sixteenth century Japan. First, it
| is the only thorough treatment of Nobunaga's career and
| achievements in a western language. Although we have read about
| Nobunaga, or at least Nobunaga's policies, in the context of the
| Sengoku period and are aware of his main achievements, it tends
| to be mainly as a forerunner to Hideyoshi and Ieyasu that he is
| remembered. In a full treatment of his life his achievements
| are better appreciated not only for what came after him but for
| what he achieved in his own times. Second, we can better
| appreciate Nobunaga's genius as a military and especially
| political tactician when we see the tremendous odds against
| which he struggled all his adult life, besieged by enemies on
| all sides. Although the Japanese political scene fell into
| disarray once Nobunaga was assassinated, his policies and
| campaigns had indeed unified great portions of the country by
| the time Hideyoshi took control. In his drive to take Kyoto and
| in his decision to settle in Azuchi, near but not in the ancient
| capital, Nobunaga defined himself as a national leader and not
| simply as the head of a coalition of warriors. Finally, by
| giving close attention to the years 1568 through 1573, Mr.
| Lamers shows the Muromachi shogunate under the active leadership
| of the last shogun, Yoshiaki, to have been much more vital and
| politically significant even immediately prior to its demise
| than is usually thought.
|
| Mr. Lamers approaches the story of Nobunaga's life primarily as
| a series of scholarly debates which he presents, analyzes and,
| often, dismisses in whole or in part. He then puts forth his
| own revisionist conclusions, some of which are persuasive and
| carefully considered, and certainly demonstrate familiarity with
| both Japanese and western scholarship. Nevertheless, this
| approach, however valid it may be in a dissertation, imparts a
| pedantic quality to a biography and detracts from what should be
| the narrative thrust of Nobunaga's life. Some of the scholarly
| judgments, moreover, come across as excessively dismissive. Asao
| Naohiro's thinking on the concept of tenka, for instance, should
| not be dismissed out of hand (p. 128) simply because the author
| is determined to refute the theory of Nobunaga's
| self-deification. It is quite possible, it seems to me, that
| Nobunaga had the intellectual capacity, not to mention political
| shrewdness, to apply concepts of statehood to his rule. Mr.
| Lamers, however, seems determined to portray him at all costs as
| a pragmatist.
|
| Mr. Lamers has extensively mined contemporary Jesuit writings in
| his study. These are valuable if biased sources, as he reminds
| the reader frequently: they record events that corroborate
| Japanese sources and they contain some descriptions of Japanese
| life not found elsewhere, but their interpretation of events is
| often self-interested. Unfortunately, Mr. Lamers too frequently
| gets sidetracked into a determination to undermine these
| sources, and in the process the narrative of Nobunaga's life is
| relegated to the wings: for instance, the author attacks at
| length the Jesuits' portrayal of Nobunaga as a supporter of
| Christianity, and later refutes Luis Frois' assertion of
| Nobunaga's self-deification. Nobunaga's relationship with the
| Jesuits was indeed one part of his consolidation of power and
| isolation of certain enemies. The author might have analyzed it
| to explicate aspects of Nobunaga's character germane to his hold
| on power: his shrewdness, his fascination with the unknown and
| the exotic, and at the same time his prudence. Instead, Mr.
| Lamers gets caught up in showing the Jesuits to be vain and
| misguided in their belief that Nobunaga supported them. (This
| argument, incidentally, turns out to be a non-starter: some of
| the sources cited show in fact a very accurate and sober Jesuit
| understanding of Nobunaga's motives in granting them favorable
| treatment.) Ultimately, the space devoted to critiquing the
| Jesuit sources is disproportionate to this relatively minor
| aspect of Nobunaga's life.
|
| As the subtitle suggests, Mr. Lamers is at pains to challenge
| the standard view of Nobunaga as a cruel and brutal tyrant.
| Again, he implicates the Jesuits as the original culprits, with
| the label sticking even in the most recent scholarship on
| Nobunaga. To refute this, Mr. Lamers presents events as they
| may have appeared to Nobunaga and argues, often persuasively,
| that the actions he took were (simply) those of a pragmatic,
| decisive, non-ideological, and extremely ambitious warrior.
| Perhaps so, but in the end there are enough cases of massive
| slaughter, deliberate disgrace and humiliation of less worthy
| vassals, ruthless treatment of enemies, and, to put it mildly,
| iconoclastic treatment of Buddhist groups that the original
| label remains quite apt. But after all, brutality was
| widespread in the sixteenth century, and not only in Japan. Yet
| is this the best yardstick by which to assess Nobunaga? By
| focusing so heavily on brutality Mr. Lamers places central
| emphasis on a moral evaluation of Nobunaga's character, in the
| process missing other standards by which to consider his place
| in history. In his conclusion, which is too mild considering
| the weight of the story he has just told, Lamers ends by merely
| saying that "the best adjectives to characterise Nobunaga's rule
| and personality are not "callous and brutal" but "pragmatic and
| ruthless" (p. 232). Surely there is more that could be said of
| the career and contributions of this brilliant military and
| political tactician. Mr. Lamers points out that the treatment
| of Nobunaga by early modern Japanese chroniclers and historians
| in the early modern period is a huge topic requiring a separate
| study. Nonetheless, a summary, at least, of the early modern
| Japanese writings on Nobunaga would have balanced the attention
| given to Jesuit writings, and perhaps helped better define a
| historical niche for Nobunaga.
|
| Nobunaga's reputation as a cruel and ruthless warrior rests in
| part on his treatment, audacious for its times, of institutional
| Buddhism. In 1571 his forces attacked and burned Enryakuji, the
| great Tendai monastery on Mt. Hiei, and slaughtered its
| thousands of monks. This study portrays the event as payback
| for Enryakuji's monks joining forces opposed to Nobunaga in
| earlier conflicts--"a matter of restoring his military
| credibility and saving his personal honor" (p. 76). While
| allowing that this was an unprecedented act of sacrilege,
| however, Mr. Lamers does not convey Enryakuji's powerful
| position in the medieval economy and religion, and thus somewhat
| underrates the importance of the event. Quite simply, no
| earlier ruler could have even contemplated such a move. By
| sacking Enryakuji, Nobunaga obliterated one of the foundations
| of the medieval order. His other "encounter" with Buddhism was
| his long struggle against the well-organized and persistent
| forces of the Honganji. It is true that these forces lacked the
| monastic character of the monks at Hiei, but ascribing
| Nobunaga's motives in this campaign partly to a loathing for
| "farmers" is less than satisfying, especially given the carnage
| at Nagashima. Nobunaga had a clear vision of the religious
| obstacles that stood in his way, and he pursued them
| relentlessly.
|
| Finally, one comes away from this study with a much greater
| appreciation for Nobunaga's achievements, but without much of a
| sense of Nobunaga as a person. Premodern sources are, of
| course, notoriously intractable about shedding light on
| individuals, and Mr. Lamers eschews at the outset a
| psychohistorical approach. Nevertheless, more discussion of
| Nobunaga's character and times would have yielded a fuller
| portrait of him without requiring a foray into psychoanalysis.
| For instance, one wonders about the sixteenth century warrior
| family and its ethos: was it unusual for a younger brother to
| overshadow the eldest son, as Nobunaga did? And was Nobunaga
| unusual in sometimes favoring collateral relatives over his own
| sons? The case of Nobunaga's first marriage, dissolved over
| inter-familial politics, cries out for some discussion of
| marriage practices. The role in the Araki Crisis of the
| Christian daimyo with their high regard for loyalty offers an
| opportunity to discuss this virtue in the context of late
| sixteenth century Japanese warrior society. Despite some missed
| opportunities, however, Mr. Lamers has produced a comprehensive
| and illuminating account of Nobunaga's career and policies.
|
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