Wikipedia: Hatano Hideharu –
“According to a record kept by Oda clan, Mitsuhide offered his mother as a hostage to allow to Hideharu surrender with dignity. Hideharu complied knowing that he could not hold out indefinitely. However, after arriving at Azuchi Castle to offer an apology, Hideharu was executed by Nobunaga. His troops in Yagami Castle, hearing that Hideharu had been executed, killed Mitsuhide's mother.”
The exact sources are somewhat unclear and disputed, but clearly something along those lines happened, permanently embittering Akechi Mitsuhide against Nobunaga.
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QUESTION TO PONDER: PEOPLE AS ENDS-IN-THEMSELVES?
Nobunaga constantly, relentlessly, and single-mindedly focused on his goals. He almost certainly had Hatano executed because he saw Hatano as in the way of his unification of the nation.
In those times, the giving of hostages was a way to ensure treaties would be upheld. Thus, Nobunaga was seemingly able to advance his meaning of life goal by executing Hatano, but Akechi Mitsuhide bore the brunt of that decision when the Hatano clan retaliated.
A couple hundred years later in Prussia, Immanuel Kant would propose the second formulation of his categorical imperative –
Always treat humanity as an end and never as a mere means.
We do not have time to go heavily into Kant here – to truly do the subject justice, we would need to look at Kant’s Prussian and Lutheran roots, which formed the core of his religio which his written philosophies were based upon, and that is a much lengthier topic than we have time for.
But – it is worth considering. Are people a means to an end?
For Nobunaga, the answer was: yes.
Thus, executing Hatano Hideharu was a simple cost/benefit calculation en route to his meaning-of-life goal of unifying Japan and ending the Civil Wars.
Nobunaga made many such decisions: last chapter, of course, we discussed the burning of Mount Hiei. It destroyed the power of the sohei warrior-monks once and for all, but many innocent and well-meaning people who lived amongst the warrior-monks lost their lives as well.
Was it justified?
Most people would think not, but it depends on one’s philosophy and morality. Nobunaga, obviously, thought it appropriate.
And again, we are not here to say whether Nobunaga was a good man or a bad man; that is an interesting question and worthy of reading and thinking upon, but not what we are discussing.
Instead, we can ask – if Nobunaga had been more careful about the humans as an end in themselves, would that have better-served him in completion of his meaning-of-life goal?
Frankly, it's a hard subject to judge; you’ll have to form your own opinion on the matter. Clearly, Nobunaga’s disregard of tradition and sometimes heavy-handed ways were some part of his success, but they also led to his assassination at Hanno Temple.
It is worth thinking upon – you will have to form your own opinion on the matter.
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...AND BLINDSPOTS
But here, I am comfortable speaking with much more certainty.
“Historians of science have often noted that at any given time scholars in a particular field tend to share basic assumptions about their subject. Social scientists are no exception; they rely on a view of human nature that provides the background of most discussions of specific behaviors but is rarely questioned. Social scientists in the 1970s broadly accepted two ideas about human nature. First, people are generally rational and their thinking is normally sound. Second, emotions such as fear, affection, and hatred explain most of the occasions on which people depart from their rationality.”
-- Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow
Nobunaga had one gigantic blindspot that was a huge part in his undoing – despite shedding very many of the samurai and Japanese traditions of his era, he assumed his subordinates would stay loyal to his command.
Treachery was the norm during Sengoku, but with the exception of dynastic disputes, there was almost never treachery within one’s own clan.
Nobunaga apparently never even considered that one of his senior generals would betray him, let alone Mitsuhide who he had given a lot of favor to.
You can argue whether Nobunaga’s using people as a means to an end – sometimes with great tragedy and horror as a result – made sense for him. People do argue about it, constantly. It is an ongoing debate that will likely never be settled, taking into account the era and customs of that time in Japan.
But you cannot argue that Nobunaga had a gigantic blindspot in assuming the unswerving loyalty of his generals – which came to be his undoing.
Nobunaga had a good eye for people, generally speaking. He developed some of the most talented people of an age. Indeed, two of his closest generals would become the Second and Third Great Unifiers of Japan, finally completing his life’s work after his death.
But, despite his sometimes ruthlessness, Nobunaga never seemed to even consider that one of his senior officers might have betrayed him.
It wasn’t that he was lax or negligently didn’t have security in place – rather, it never occurred to Nobunaga that that break from samurai tradition could even happen.
And in the end, that was his unmaking.
Or, said differently by the later American author –
“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. “
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NEXT UP: THE RISE OF HIDEYOSHI TOYOTOMI
Less than two weeks after assassinating Nobunaga, Mitsuhide would die at the Battle of Yamazaki.
He, too, had blindspots – he thought many allies would rally to his banner after Nobunaga’s slaying; instead, there was a frantic race among Nobunaga’s other generals to avenge their fallen commander.
But with Nobunaga dead, who would claim his mantle? Conflict would break out immediately between his other two most trusted generals, Shibata Katsuie and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for the right to succeed Oda Nobunaga.
We will catch up with Mitsuhide in two chapters, but first we must meet Toyotomi Hideyoshi – who would rise from a Nobunaga’s sandal-bearing servant to becoming the Second Great Unifier of Japan.
Before moving on, though, perhaps think a little on the extent to which the ends justify the means, and of course, please scrutinize your blindspots!
Because, as always,
“It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so. “
Vantages #5: Mastery Anywhere
SO COMPLETELY OVER-THE-TOP INSANE...
“Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a poor peasant's son who fought as a nose-in-the-trenches grunt in a strict, regimented, class-driven militaristic society that valued family honor and noble lineage above all things. Despite his inauspicious roots and lack of a recognizeable last name, this guy not only excelled at the art of war, but rose to the point where he became the de facto ruler of one of the most powerful industrialized military empires on the planet, the supreme commander of the Japanese army, and one of the most face-melting samurai warriors of all time. That's so completely over-the-top insane that I can't even think of an analogy absurd enough to compare it to.”
-- Badass of the Week: Hideyoshi Toyotomi
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LORD TOYOTOMI
Hideyoshi Toyotomi is one of the most fascinating people of all-time.
Not just in Japanese history – anywhere.
In all of history.
He changed the course of Japanese history, and indeed, the history of all of East Asia.
But that’s not what’s so fascinating about him.
What’s fascinating about him is that he came from nothing in an era that prized pedigree and lineage.
In times of great chaos and in times of great innovation, there is often a chance to out-shine one’s birth rank and the prejudices of one’s age.
And yet, even with that slight advantage, it’s still remarkable how far Hideyoshi rose, in a time and pla
ce that was so rank-obsessed and lineage-obsessed.
He went from being a servant from an unknown family to ruling all of Japan.
The quote we opened the piece with didn’t exaggerate… 400 years later, it’s still shocking to comprehend.
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VANTAGES #5: MASTERY ANYWHERE
In this chapter, we take a very simple and powerful vantage point.
At the end of it, I want you to have a new motto burned into your mind –
Mastery anywhere is mastery everywhere.
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HIDEYOSHI’S RISE: MASTERY THROUGH AND THROUGH
That little motto encapsulates all of Hideyoshi’s rise of prominence. In everything he did, he focused on a perfect execution of the task at hand, focusing on even the most trivial and mundane matters, all the while building his skills, his allies, and coming into renown and rank as a result.
He entered the service of Oda Nobunaga as a servant, and through a diligent and constant excellence in his duties, got promoted to the rank of personal servant to Nobunaga.
This was an interesting choice – Oda Nobunaga was clearly not one of the major powers in the region. Throughout his life, Hideyoshi would show a great understanding of people. Did he see more talent in the young “fool from Owari” than most people would have seen?
Perhaps so. There is no chance Hideyoshi would have been promoted quickly in the service of a major lord like the Takeda or Uesugi; instead, Hideyoshi happened to choose a weak-in-power but brilliant-in-mind commander in Nobunaga.
At Okehazama – the battle that made Oda Nobunaga a major power in Japan (as covered in Vantages #2: Below the Bar) – Hideyoshi made his first appearance in the official Oda records.
As a peasant, he could obviously not command samurai troops – but Nobunaga brought ashigaru peasant auxiliaries to the fight, and the young and diligent Hideyoshi most likely led a detachment of 30 peasant soldiers in the battle, in a sergeant-type role.
After acquitting himself well at Okehazama, Hideyoshi was faced with a mixed blessing, a quasi-promotion – he was put in charge of the kitchens.
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LESSON #1: MASTERFUL EXECUTION ANYWHERE BECOMES WHO YOU ARE
I had the good fortune some years ago, while in Japan, to meet some very serious Western martial artists who become black belts in their home countries, and then had migrated to Japan to continue their studies.
One American, a 15th degree black belt in his school if I remember correctly, had been training in Japan for over ten years.
There was a quote he said in passing to me in Tokyo, that always stuck with me.
“What you are in one place, you are everywhere.”
I personally believe this quote to be true, and it became a key personal operating philosophy for me.
Many people are lax and excuse themselves for doing poor work “because they don’t care about it” in some aspect of their life.
They intend to “turn on” a hard work ethic and excellence once they find something that “really matters” to them.
I don’t believe that’s possible.
On the contrary, I think the actions you take – from the smallest to the largest – become who you are. As Warren Buffet is known to often say,
“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
A habit of excellence and mastery anywhere become mastery everywhere. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was known across his whole rise to prominence for being relentlessly focused on getting any job he was assigned done, in the most excellent fashion, as quickly and inexpensively as possible. This is how he rose from common servant to personal attendant to footsoldier to sergeant before the age of 23.
Question for you to reflect on: Are you masterfully executing on all of your current work and duties?
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LESSON #2: BITTERNESS AND NEGLECT LEAD TO A SMALL SOUL
We mean “soul” metaphorically, of course.
The next phase of Hideyoshi’s life is very instructive for us.
In samurai times, martial valor and warriorship were a clear path upwards. The fastest way to rise in rank was excellence on the battlefield.
Indeed, peasant ashigaru who performed well could and were promoted to samurai status. Meanwhile, the more forward-thinking samurai (such as Nobunaga and his senior officers) very much respected and revered excellent ashigaru peasant soldiers. Indeed, it was his ashigaru peasant-gunner corps that would destroy the Takeda Clan some years later.
Hideyoshi had excelled on the battlefield, but there was clearly no honor and glory in mere kitchens. Indeed, the Japanese of the era often believed the kitchen to be “women’s work” – no doubt Hideyoshi was teased a little bit with the “promotion,” and no doubt it would be disappointing to almost soldiers to get.
This brings us to our second lesson: many people neglect excellence because they feel bitter about their current level and station.
The kitchens of a military lord were a very important thing – the Japanese cooking of the day was rather complicated, and turning out meals and preserved food for the march was very important.
Inheriting Imagawa Yoshimoto’s army after the stunning result at Okehazama, Nobunaga suddenly had serious problems keeping everything organized and everyone fed. Trusting Hideyoshi, he asked him to get the job done – because it badly needed to be done.
Had Hideyoshi protested and resented the work, he likely could have been reassigned back to the ashigaru soldier corps, but he would have failed to both demonstrate his expertise as well as build a critical skill. Napoleon Bonaparte, after all, said that “an army marches on its stomach.”
Hideyoshi had already been trained in personal decorum around a samurai lord and thus observed the intricacies of command. He had become well-trained personally with weapons and learned to command peasant troops on the battlefield. Now, he was learning how kitchen operations ran, a key logistical skill in that day and age.
Most of the samurai lords and generals that Hideyoshi would later oppose in combat, had never learned these “servant’s tasks” – they didn’t know personally how reliable or unreliable ashigaru troops were, didn’t have the first-hand observation of how an excellent commander led his war counsels, and they didn’t know personally how to run kitchens and food logistics and thus had to delegate it to an assistant.
Hideyoshi was building a bottom-to-top understanding and mastery of warfare.
As it turns out, Oda Nobunaga constantly needed resourceful people. Hideyoshi fired corrupt or incompetent kitchen officials, instilled discipline, renegotiated food purchasing contracts, rebuilt the kitchen schedule and warehousing – and once all this work was done and the kitchens were humming along, he was promoted again – becoming in charge of important construction works.
Question for you to reflect on: Are you neglecting any of your work or duties because you believe they’re beneath you, or you’re resentful that you have to do them?
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LESSON #3: SMALL THINGS, ALL THINGS
My good friend, the CEO and mountaineer Greg Nance, has made this a personal motto of his –
Small Things, All Things
Obviously, if you’re mountaineering and neglect to check the earth’s surface while climbing or neglect key supplies, you might be caught in a rockslide or freeze to death. Mountaineering forcibly instills discipline in a climber who wishes to stay alive.
Hideyoshi was promoted from kitchen superintendent to a series of difficult construction jobs – some of which have legendary stories about them.
Most notably is Sunomata Castle, nicknamed Ichiya-jo, the “One-Night Castle.”
“The original castle was constructed in 1566 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the generals of the famous samurai warlord, Oda Nobunaga. The one night castle consisted of a wooden walled fortress with lookout towers and basic living quarters. In reality, the fortress would have taken two or three days to complete the basic defensive structures. Hideyoshi cleve
rly used pre-assembled sections to complete the fortress and it was constructed so quickly that it gave the illusion of being erected “overnight”. Nobunaga ordered the castle to be built on the edge of his enemy’s territory, to act as a bridgehead for his final attack on the Saito’s clan’s main castle located in Gifu (Inabayama Castle). The quick construction was meant to give his men a strong vantage point as well as to surprise and demoralize his nearby enemy.”– John Asano, “The One Night Castle"
In Hideyoshi’s work in construction, he was reported to work around the clock to supervise the building and leaving nothing to chance. He offered generous bribes and create a feast of wonderful and sake, Japanese rice alcohol, for the laborers.
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