MACHINA

by Sebastian Marshall

  […]

  Was the lamp of the Law lit on this holy peak so that the monks could force their petitions on the Emperor in Kyoto? Was it so that they could interfere with government and grow ever more powerful with special privileges? Was it so they could ally themselves with warlords, conspire with laymen, and throw the country into confusion? Was the lamp lit so that the Law of Buddha might be accoutered with armor and helmet, and line the entire mountain with warriors' spears, guns, and war banners?

  Tears of rage ran from Nobunaga's eyes. It was clear to him that this was all blasphemy. Mount Hiei had been established to protect the nation, and so had been granted special privileges. But where was the original purpose of Mount Hiei now? The main temple building, the seven shrines, the monasteries of the eastern and the western pagodas were nothing more than the barracks of armed demons in monks' robes.

  All right! Nobunaga bit his lip so hard that his teeth became stained with blood. Let them call me a demon king who destroys Buddhism! The magnificent beauties of the mountain are nothing more than the false allures of an enchantress, and these armored monks are nothing more than fools. I'm going to burn them with the flames of war and let the true Buddha be called forth from these ashes!

  On the same day he gave the order for the entire mountain to be surrounded.

  Naturally, it took several days for his army to cross the lake, pass over the mountains, and join him.

  "The blood of my brother and Mori Yoshinari has not yet dried. Let their unswervingly loyal souls sleep in peace. Let their blood be like lanterns that will light up the world!"”

  ***

  LESSON #4: ADJUSTMENT AND COMPROMISE

  The fourth lesson is, you must know when to adjust your policy.

  When one’s moral force is seen as bankrupt, and one is in a physically weaker position, it must be time to reassess one’s position – and start making compromises.

  This might be compromise with an adversary in a negotiation, and it might be compromise by seeking a less ambitious and more scoped-down course.

  Did the warrior-monks of Mount Hiei run such a course?

  No.

  ***

  “DIDN’T YOU WANT TO SURRENDER TO US?”

  The last chance for the warrior-monks to save themselves was when the Abbot Sonrin sat down to negotiate with Nobunaga’s retainer Ittetsu.

  Unfortunately, Abbot Sonrin came with a high dose of haughty arrogance.

  Yoshikawa –

  “I’m not sure what your purpose was in coming here, but as a friend, I advise you not to carry this joke too far," Sonrin replied, shaking with laughter. "I agreed to meet you because I thought you had come to ask permission to surrender to us. How stupid to ask us to give up and leave! Don't you see that we are resolved to resist to the end? You must be mad to come here to talk such foolishness!"

  Excitement burned in the eyes of the other warrior-monks, and they glared at Ittetsu.

  Having allowed the abbot his say, Ittetsu began to speak deliberately. "Saint Dengyo established this temple for the peace and preservation of the Imperial House and the tranquillity of the nation. I suspect it is not the monks' most fervent prayer to put on armor, to marshal swords and spears, to involve themselves in political strife, to ally themselves with rebel armies, or to make the people of the Empire suffer. The monks should return to being monks! Drive the Asai and Asakura from the mountain, throw down your weapons, and return to your original roles as disciples of the Buddha!" He spoke this from the very depths of his body, not giving the priests a moment to put in a single word. “Moreover," he went on, "if you do not follow his orders, Lord Nobunaga is determined o burn down the main temple, the seven shrines, and the monasteries, and kill everyone on the mountain. Please give this careful thought, and put away your stubbornness. Will you turn this mountain into an inferno or sweep away the old evils and preserve the single lamp of this hallowed ground?"

  Suddenly the monks with Sonrin began to shout. "This is pointless!"

  "He's just wasting time!"

  "Silence!" Sonrin commanded them with a sardonic smile. "That was an extremely boring, worn-out sermon, but I'm going to answer it politely. Mount Hiei is an authority into itself, and has its own principles. You are just meddling unnecessarily. Master Ittetsu, it's getting late. Leave the mountain right away."

  "Sonrin, can you say this on your own authority? Why don't you meet with the men of great learning and the elders, and discuss the matter carefully?"

  "The mountain is of one mind and one body. Mine is the voice of all of the temples on Mount Hiei."

  "Then, no matter what—"

  "You fool! We'll resist military aggression to the very end. We'll protect the freedom of our traditions with our very blood! Get out of here!"

  "If that's the way you want it." Ittetsu made no move to get up. "This is such a shame. How are you going to protect the infinity of Buddha's light with your blood? Just what is this freedom you're going to protect? What are these traditions? Aren't they nothing more than deceptions, convenient for the temples' prosperity? Well, those charms have no currency in the world today. Take a good look at the times. It is inevitable that greedy men, who close their eyes and obstruct the tide of the times with their selfishness, will be burned up together with the fallen leaves." With that, Ittetsu returned to Nobunaga's camp.

  ***

  LESSON #5: HAUGTINESS HAS NO PLACE TO THE WEAKER FORCE

  This one is obvious, no?

  But the temptation is so very large when a side formerly enjoying prestige and power is confronted with their morality and charisma being bankrupt, and their force being depleted, to turn in its last breaths to – arrogance.

  If you find yourself getting haughty, you assuredly must double-check and triple-check that you are indeed the stronger force. The weaker side ought never act haughty and overbearing.

  ***

  STAKING SONRIN’S HEAD

  The fortress-mountain being surrounded, the monks realized – too late! – that Nobunaga was not bluffing.

  Sonrin hurried down to compromise. Yoshikawa –

  "I would like to speak with Lord Nobunaga," the emissary said.

  When Nobunaga appeared, he saw that it was Sonrin, the abbot who had previously met with Ittetsu. He brought the message that, because the views of the main temple had changed, he would like to plead for peace.

  Nobunaga refused. "What did you say to the envoy I sent before? Don't you know what shame is?" Nobunaga drew his sword.

  "This is an outrage!" the priest cried. He stood up and tottered sideways as Nobunaga's sword flashed horizontally.

  "Pick up his head and go back. That's my answer!"

  ***

  LESSON #6: CREDIBLITY

  Yoshikawa –

  "Hideyoshi! Hideyoshi!" Nobunaga called.

  "Yes! I'm here!"

  "Find Mitsuhide, and the two of you take this letter to Kyoto immediately."

  "To the shogun?"

  "Correct. In the letter, I've asked the shogun to mediate, but it would be better if he heard it from your mouth, too."

  "But then why did you just decapitate the messenger from Mount Hiei?"

  "Don't you understand? If I hadn't done that, do you think we could wrap up a peace conference? Even if we had succeeded in coming to terms, it's clear that they would tear up the treaty and come chasing right after us."

  Nobunaga wanted to show he would credibly destroy Mount Hiei if, after his withdrawal, the monks attacked again. Killing Sonrin was his attempt to show he was serious.

  Credibility matters – a lot. Especially when one breaks with precedence.

  Nobunaga had hoped that his action would show his credibility – and that the monks would then hold firm to a peace agreement.

  Alas, they had made and broken treaties so often – they could not reverse course.

  ***

  PENULTIMATE SCENE

  The Sohei of Mount Hiei, unfortunately, remained haughty and did not reasses
s the changed landscape.

  The next year, they attacked again.

  Nobunaga had expected they might. Yoshikawa –

  “After Nobunaga had lifted the siege of Mount Hiei and withdrawn to Gifu the previous winter, he had ordered the building of large troop ships capable of crossing the lake at a moment's notice. Now the soldiers finally understood his forethought, and the words he had spoken when he abandoned the attack on Nagashima and returned to Gifu.

  The flames of rebellion that burned all over the country were merely reflections of the real fire—the root of the evil—whose source was Mount Hiei. Nobunaga was again laying siege to the mountain with a great army. His face showed new resolve, and he spoke loudly enough to be heard from the curtained enclosure of his headquarters all the way to the barracks, almost as if he were addressing the enemy.

  "What! You're saying that you won't use fire because the flames might spread to the monasteries? What is war, anyway? Every one of you is a general, and you don't under-stand even that? How did you ever get this far?"”

  And we have come full circle, to where we opened this chapter –

  ""You're being heartless, my lord. It's not that we don't understand, but when you've given us an outrageous order—to burn down Mount Hiei…”"

  Nobunaga offers his own morality in turn. Yoshikawa –

  "No more 'common sense'! There speaks eight hundred years of 'common sense.' If we don't burn out the roots of the old, the buds of the new will never sprout. You keep talking about this one mountain, but I'm not concerned only with Mount Hiei; burning it down is going to save the church everywhere else. If by slaughtering all the men, women, and children on Mount Hiei, I can open the eyes of the imprudent in other provinces, then I will have done some good. The hottest and deepest hells are nothing to my eyes and ears. Who else can do this but me? I have heaven's mandate to do it."

  The three men, who believed that they, more than anyone else, knew Nobunaga's genius and methods, were appalled by this statement. Was their lord possessed by demons?

  Takei Sekian pleaded, "No, my lord. No matter what orders you give us, as your retainers we can do nothing but try to dissuade you. You cannot burn a place sacred since ancient times—"

  "That's enough! Shut up! In my heart I've received an Imperial decree to burn the place down. I'm giving you the order for this massacre because the mercy of the Founder, Saint Dengyo, is in my heart. Don't you understand?"

  "No, my lord."

  "If you don't understand, leave! Just don't get in the way."

  "I'm going to object until you kill me yourself."

  "You're already damned! Get out!"

  "Why should I leave? Rather than watch my lord's insanity and the destruction of his clan in my lifetime, I can try to obstruct this with my own death. Look back to the many examples given by antiquity. Not one man who made a hellfire of Buddhist temples and shrines, or who massacred priests, has come to a good end."

  "I'm different. I'm not going into battle for my own sake. In this battle, my role will be to destroy ancient evils and build a new world. I don't know whether this is the command of the gods, the people, or the times; all I know is that I'm going to obey the orders I've received. You are all timid, and your view is limited. Your cries are the sorrows of small-minded people. The profit and loss you talk about only concerns me as an individual. If my turning Mount Hiei into an inferno protects countless provinces and saves countless lives, then it will be a great achievement."”

  ***

  ENDGAME

  The monks made one final mistake – instead of negotiating, at the very end after breaching the last peace treaty, they then called on another ally, the Takeda (whose fall we learned of in Vantages #1: Why and How), attempting to force Nobunaga to retreat.

  This had the opposite effect: in those final moments, the warrior-monks had only two choices when facing down the ferocious and brutal Oda commander:

  First, they might fully disarm, surrender all their weapons, and tear down their fortresses and fortifications in favor of peace.

  Second, they could accept annihilation.

  The hastened the second course by forcing Nobunaga’s hand by calling for a Takeda assault on his rear position. (The Takeda would be destroyed shortly afterwards.)

  Yoshikawa, for the last time –

  “Nobunaga disappeared into the enclosure. Smoke rose from the cooking fires of the huge camp that encircled the foothills of Mount Hiei. As night fell, the wind freshened. The temple bell that was usually heard from the Mii Temple was silent.

  The sound of the conch shell reverberated on top of the hill, and the soldiers raised their battle cries in reply. The carnage lasted from that evening until dawn of the following day. The soldiers of the Oda army broke through the barricades the warrior-monks had built across the passes on the way to the summit.

  Black smoke filled the valley, and flames howled through the mountain. Looking up from the foothills, one could see huge pillars of fire everywhere on Mount Hiei. Even the lake glowed a fiery red. The location of the biggest fire showed that the main temple was burning, as well as the seven shrines, the great lecture hall, the bell tower, the library, the monasteries, the treasure pagoda, the great pagoda, and all the minor temples. By dawn the following day not one temple was left standing.

  The generals, who encouraged one another each time they looked up at the fearful sight, would recall Nobunaga's claim of having heaven's mandate and the blessing of Saint Dengyo, and urge themselves on. The apparent conviction of the generals inspired the troops. Making their way through the flames and black smoke, the attacking soldiers followed Nobunaga's orders to the letter. Eight thousand warrior-monks perished in an echo of the most horrible Buddhist hell. The monks who crawled through the valleys, hid in caves, or climbed trees trying to get away were hunted down and killed, like insects on rice plants.

  Around midnight, Nobunaga himself climbed the mountain to see what his iron will had wrought. The monks of Mount Hiei had miscalculated. Even though they had been surrounded by Nobunaga's army, they had made light of the situation, thinking the show of force a pretentious bluff. They had vowed to wait until the Oda started to retreat, and then they had planned to pursue and destroy them. And they had sat by idly, their minds at ease because they received frequent letters of encouragement and reassurance from nearby Kyoto—which meant, of course, from the shogun.

  For all the warrior-monks and their followers across the country, Mount Hiei had been the focal point of the opposition to Nobunaga. But the man who had incessantly supplied provisions and weapons to Mount Hiei and who had done his best to stir up the monks and urge them to fight was Shogun Yoshiaki.

  "[Takeda] Shingen is coming!" So had promised a dispatch from Kai to the shogun. Yoshiaki had held on to this great expectation and had passed it on to Mount Hiei.

  The warrior-monks, naturally enough, had faith that the [Takeda] army from Kai would attack Nobunaga's rear. When that happened, Nobunaga would have to retreat just as he had the year before at Nagashima. And there was one more thing. Because they had lived undisturbed for the past eight hundred years, the monks had underestimated the changes that had overtaken the country in recent years.

  The mountain was transformed into an earthly hell in only half a night. A little too late, at about midnight, when flames were leaping everywhere, representatives of Mount Hiei, consumed with fear and panic, came to Nobunaga's camp to sue for peace.

  "We'll give him whatever amount of money he wants, and we will agree to whatever conditions he sets."

  Nobunaga only flashed a smile and spoke to those around him, as though he were throwing bait to a hawk. "There's no need to give them an answer. Just cut them down on the spot." Once more messengers came from the priests, and this time begged before Nobunaga himself. Nobunaga turned his head and had the monks killed.

  Dawn broke. Mount Hiei was covered in the lingering smoke, ashes, and black withered trees, while everywhere corpses were frozen in
the poses death had found them in.”

  ***

  RECAP, AND COULD THIS HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?

  What a dreadful scene; what an awful thing.

  Nobunaga was a man who forged his own morality – from nothing. He persuaded his followers to accept his morality, in place of the ancient respect and reverence for Buddhism.

  To recap our lessons,

  1. Morality and force are both used as conflict-resolution strategies. You should know which one you are applying, which one any rivals and other parties are applying, and you must hew correctly to the precepts of your strategy.