Nobunaga: The Devil Incarnate, or Just Misunderstood?

Nobunaga Oda is another historical character I am fascinated with. Born in 1534 in the Owari province, he eventually became the leader of his clan and started a successful military campaign to unify the country. He was known to be something of a maverick and a forward thinker. He developed the ashigaru (foot soldiers), iron clad ships, and the use of firearms in the battlefield. Like other daimyo, he was a patron of the arts and collected fine crafts. His legacy was carried on by the other two great unifiers, Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa.

Portrait of Nobunaga by a Jesuit artist

There are many portrayals of Nobunaga in media, and while I can’t claim to have seen all of them, the majority of the representations I’ve seen have been decidedly negative. In video games like Onimusha, Samurai Warriors, and Sengoku Basara, he is shown as a cruel and merciless warlord, and, especially in Onimusha, he is basically an unholy devil in human form.

So why is he shown as a demon? It’s true that the Sengoku period was a very violent time, and many daimyos often performed acts that would be seen as cruel today. It’s difficult to measure the morality of samurai culture because it was a very different time. But what about Nobunaga makes him different?

Demons are mythical creatures that often have their origins in religious beliefs. If there are gods and angels, there are often also devils and demons. So perhaps examining Nobunaga through a religious lens would be useful.

Perhaps one of Nobunaga’s most notorious acts was the burning of Mt. Hiei in 1571, which was the monastery of the sohei warrior monks of the Tendai sect. Since they were militarily opposing Nobunaga, he launched an attack on the mountain, killing thousands of people, including women and children. There were likely other acts of extreme violence against Buddhists.

Nobunaga’s relationship with the Portuguese is also worth mentioning. While he never converted to Christianity, Nobunaga was very accommodating to his foreign guests, and likely used these connections to get himself more guns. He also allowed the Portuguese to construct a Christian church in Kyoto, built in a Japanese architectural style. Because of Nobunaga, the Christians were free to propagate their teachings and successfully converted many people until they were later expelled by Hideyoshi and Tokugawa.

In the Onimusha games, aside from fighting Nobunaga, the player is also forced to confront several demons. While these demons sometimes possess the bodies of famous historical figures, they have their own Western names: Guildenstern, Rosencrantz, Ophelia, Fortinbras, and others. By giving these demons Western names, and making them into servants/allies of Nobunaga, the game developers are constructing a fictional narrative of a Japanese warlord who sold his soul to demons in order to fulfill his ambition.

Nobunaga, shown as a powerful demon in the game Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny

Could this be a creative way of suggesting that Nobunaga’s success was only possible because of his alliance with the Portuguese? And that the Portuguese were “foreign devils” bringing in strange and unnatural beliefs that would corrupt the purity of Japanese Buddhist beliefs? This is all just my own theory, but I think it provides a possible explanation for why Nobunaga is represented the way he is in these games.