Watching "The Real Oda Nobunaga": The Huge Gap Between Popular Legend and Historical Fact

The other day, I watched a television program about “the real Oda Nobunaga.”

Oda Nobunaga was a 16th-century warlord who sought to unify Japan. He is one of the most famous figures in Japanese history.

The program said exactly what I expected.

Rather than being an innovative hero who destroyed the old medieval order, Nobunaga was a typical medieval political leader who respected traditional authority and institutions.

For anyone interested in history, this was hardly news. Historians have been reassessing Nobunaga’s supposed radicalism for years.

But it raises a question.

Why is the figure revealed by historical research so different from the one the public imagines?

Nobunaga the Innovator Was Created by Later Generations

Nobunaga is commonly associated with free-market policies, the revolutionary use of firearms, and the destruction of Japan’s old medieval order.

However, other feudal lords had introduced similar market reforms before him. Nor did Nobunaga have a monopoly on the effective use of firearms.

Nobunaga himself donated to temples and shrines and respected the authority of the Imperial Court. In many ways, he acted according to the traditional values of his time. At the very least, he was not a revolutionary driven by innovative ideas in the modern sense.

In novels and television dramas, however, a revolutionary who destroyed the old order is far more exciting.

And so, alongside the historical Nobunaga, entertainment created another Nobunaga.

Eventually, that fictional image began to be treated as historical fact.

The Same Thing Happened to Sakamoto Ryoma

The same can be said of Sakamoto Ryoma.

Ryoma was active in the 19th century, near the end of the Tokugawa shogunate as Japan moved toward the new Meiji government. In Japan, he remains enormously popular as a hero of the Meiji Restoration.

He is particularly famous for helping form an alliance between Satsuma and Choshu, two powerful domains that had previously been rivals.

But the alliance also reflected the political interests of both domains; Ryoma did not create it single-handedly. Historians have also been reassessing the traditional heroic account of his role.

So why did Ryoma become such a celebrated hero?

One major influence was Ryotaro Shiba’s historical novel Ryoma ga Yuku.

Interestingly, the historical Ryoma’s name is written 龍馬 in Japanese, while the novel uses the different characters 竜馬 for its protagonist. The characters are different, but both names are pronounced “Ryoma.”

Shiba created a compelling protagonist based on historical fact but shaped by fiction.

The novel was so entertaining that readers began to accept its fictional Ryoma as the real Ryoma.

The protagonist of a novel overwrote the actual historical figure.

History Is “Discovered” Again and Again

These heroic images are so powerful that television programs still repeatedly announce, “Nobunaga was not really an innovator!” or “Was Ryoma not actually the driving force behind the Meiji Restoration?”

Historians may have debated these ideas for years, but viewers are surprised every time.

Then, a few years later, another program presents the same revelation again.

It is easy to understand history as a story in which a lone genius changes an entire age.

Real history, however, emerges from the competing interests of many different groups and the desperate efforts of people caught among them.

I find that version far more interesting.

Unfortunately, such an unglamorous story does not easily produce a television hero.

Apparently, a historical hero is defined not only by what the person achieved, but also by the skill of the writers who come later.