Oda Nobunaga (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
konpeito_aji) wrote2024-06-28 07:34 pm
konpeito_aji) wrote2024-06-28 07:34 pm
Entry tags:
An essay on how ninjas are like drug addicts
OOC: because I let myself corner myself into this, just like Nobunaga creating a trap and walking the fuck into it, and closing the cage door behind him out of sheer pride. Now where did he submit this entry to? Genuinely that's the biggest meta question I have about it all. I'm going to pretend randomly that Mitsunari Ishida and Ieyasu Tokugawa are holding a wide open to the public contest to determine their policy suggestions on dealing with the Ninja villages, and to test himself Nobunaga writes this but 100% "disguised" so they don't know it's him. Would they know anyway? Does it win because they know it would be the suggestions Nobunaga would like most? You be the judge.
CW: Random TLDR, Oda Nobunaga isn't from the time point where he had to war directly with the mercenary Ninja villages, eventually losing his son to them (he does not have a son in Ikemen Sengoku nor really in SLBP) and is still at the point of sometimes using Ninja, including Sasuke, especially as feeders of false information and double agents, but has also made no secret of his desire to end their systems as having them able to be hired as mercenaries or teaching their children war exacerbates the factionalism and disharmony of the civil wars instead of the peace he wants for a unified productive Japan.
Re: drug addicts. Nobunaga personally introduced some more cash crops from overseas to Japan including tobacco, cotton, and of fucking course SUGAR. The second biggest reason he's a fucking candy addict. However, Japan already had magic mushrooms psilocybin native to Japan, and guess who generally grew that? Yes, the ninjas. Meanwhile despite opium's medicinal uses, only the most elite classes were even allowed it, driving Nobunaga insane when Kitsuno (his favorite love, mother of child) was suffering and did indeed die in agony. This is a matter of castes which he warred to upend.
The biggest drug of all time is of course alcohol however, so what are his feelings about that? Nobunaga is a functioning (debatable) alcoholic who canonically pressures people to drink with him, and historically revolutionized sake by creating the polishing rice methods to get an ever purer taste from it, also because he needed it to be so obviously superior to European alcohol that it would be basically worth the travel literally around the world in the 1500s when that really meant something. Historically, one of his brothers was a massive alcoholic who died from it. This did not stop Nobunaga, but he is always careful to have tea and other liquids nearby, and in IkeSen, is very protective of others when they've been drinking. (Big bro!)
In SLBP his siblings including Oichi have a reverse intervention where they want him to play and loosen up and drink so he'll be less serious and angry at the world, but it obviously doesn't work as intended. Nobunaga will defy the caste taboos by pouring others alcohol, or letting his most trusted generals do it, and historically let Ranmaru sleep on his lap for pillow during some of the really late night parties.
His addiction to alcohol isn't severe enough to get withdrawal, but his brother did. He did actually stay with them over two week long periods to help dry them out when he needed them sober for sieges. Also because he sure as fuck didn't trust monks with his brothers. Nobunaga himself had to go on long military campaigns where he wouldn't drink, because the alcohol was needed for medicine or bait, he only drinks in victory.
I haven't played IkeSen's Keiji Maeda route yet, but in SLBP he infamously kisses everyone/anyone with lips when he's drinking including Nobunaga!! It's hilarious. Nobunaga doesn't really overreact to it either, just his usual composure, but everyone else freaks. This is another play on sake requiring shared saliva that plays into IkeSen's Nobunaga route wherein he'll use other people's mouths as cups. As you do when you're a demon king and people can't really stop you from being off the wall insane.
- The story about him drinking wine from enemy skulls has been very much debunked, but he would always sincerely spread it because it makes him soundfucking psychotic "badass."
Lastly for historical context, it needs to be noted that Nobunaga himself had more assassination attempts on his life by Ninja than anything else. Starting with his literal childhood, he has severe canonical PTSD and finding out that his closest brother (Nobuhiro, not the alcoholic. Nobunaga had like a dozen siblings historically) was hiring them really fucked him up. He didn't hate all Ninja anymore than he hated swords (he loves swords and freaks people out when he's drinking by caressing them lewdly and singing about killing enemies with them or polishing them, as you do.) But he did decide he had to change the whole world, and everything wrong in it. Too much for one man? Yes absolutely. That's why he took over the country and had a whole army.
His IkeSen plan to abolish the Ninja is less about force, more about money and making it more profitable even short term for them to switch to crafts and trade, but in typical Nobunaga fashion, he'll make it sound as horrible as possible for himself. Good thing he wrote it under a pseudonym.
- A translation note. "Obviously" he would write this in Japanese, but I'm not going to go that far. Rather than explain the complicated han and feudal system for every single term used, he would ICly assume his readers know it intimately (being instrumental in changing it, and having lived in it directly!) so I'm just going to use the English equivalents, but with Meta links so it's obvious where the translation is at play. Ditto drug addicts. While alcoholism was recognized (kind of) as a problem and psilocybin certainly wasn't approved of, there's some updated language in here purely for the readability of our era. I also am not linking every single resource I used for compilation as it's genuinely embarrassing, but it can be found.
VERY last note: while there's no way for a female ninja to have submitted this essay, and it's CLEARLY written with the Oda forces perspective in mind, that's the persona he went with, having already forgotten that it's not standard for women, even noble princesses to learn literacy much less politics, and tactics enough to submit essays on public policy on it!
The Ninja Solution
By Satou Akari
Ninjas are like drugs addicts. Those deep in the throes of addiction are the hardest to convince to change their ways even when it is killing them or deeply detrimental to everyone around them. As long as the ninja villages stay secluded into their own isolated villages, exempt from even the ties of daimyo and shogun as they are outside of the fiefdoms, they are much like an addict no longer tying themselves to productive society, but chasing only the high of their drug of choice, the consequences are for tomorrow to deal with. However, this similarity extends to their unwillingness to change until the situation becomes so dire that they have only one path to survival: to get help.
The bandits have become so endemic that daimyo are frequently failing their sole responsibility to handle them, and with the growth of prosperity for Japan, there is a greater need to make sure no one slips through the system's cracks to turn to crime instead of production. It's impractical to simply ban the ninja villages, instead one must help them realize that they can do better by trading with others so that they want roads and connections to the rest of Japanese society. As with drug addicts, the first step to recovery is admitting they have a problem.
Currently, the ninja villages think it is safer to seclude away in sheltered pockets of their own separate communities, but this endangers them more than it protects, as it makes them susceptible to internal corruption or dictatorship by an abusive cult leader, or being overrun by a large enough opposing army. While abolishing all other factional daimyo armies is one option, in the process it also makes armies for the resisting daimyo more necessary, and therefore more likely to hire or conscript the ninjas. This in turn, exacerbates the ninjas' desire to hide away, just as when withdrawal gets to its worst, an addict will seek to resort to the pain relief of the drug all the more.
A pincer approach of incentive using positive aspects to get the ninjas to join in marketing their wares successfully for greater economic prosperity must also be countered with a show of force to block them from resorting to their own ways. Ninjas are as stubborn as addiction, and while this tenacity should be applauded, it is a double edged blade that harms them even while it helps. Convincing them to ask for and admit they need help is not a process that can be done in one flashy show of support, it takes a long drawn out time to warm them up to it, and they need to believe it is their own decision, especially while everything else feels out of their control. However, this can also act as part of the warm comforting good side to choosing to join larger society, as this is truly a choice they are making independently of the "addiction," but requires tactical precision targeting the village leaders not simply the general ninja populace.
In conclusion, while the general gekokujo has been the ideal method of targeting unallied shugo throughout the land, because of the separated structure of the ninja villages, a method to lure them out must be taken instead. Much like drug addicts can't be overly pressured to change until they themselves want to, ninja will go deeper into hiding and isolation if pushed too hard. Better economic interconnectivity and roads to make trade more feasible is only one part, but especially getting the ninja themselves to want to join society is the most key point. It goes without saying, of course, that the Oda push has the greatest chance for success with this, but they must remain careful in the already conquered territories and not forget that weak leaders will seek to employ hiding ninjas, so the daimyo must also be employed in utilizing better techniques for a better future.
CW: Random TLDR, Oda Nobunaga isn't from the time point where he had to war directly with the mercenary Ninja villages, eventually losing his son to them (he does not have a son in Ikemen Sengoku nor really in SLBP) and is still at the point of sometimes using Ninja, including Sasuke, especially as feeders of false information and double agents, but has also made no secret of his desire to end their systems as having them able to be hired as mercenaries or teaching their children war exacerbates the factionalism and disharmony of the civil wars instead of the peace he wants for a unified productive Japan.
Re: drug addicts. Nobunaga personally introduced some more cash crops from overseas to Japan including tobacco, cotton, and of fucking course SUGAR. The second biggest reason he's a fucking candy addict. However, Japan already had magic mushrooms psilocybin native to Japan, and guess who generally grew that? Yes, the ninjas. Meanwhile despite opium's medicinal uses, only the most elite classes were even allowed it, driving Nobunaga insane when Kitsuno (his favorite love, mother of child) was suffering and did indeed die in agony. This is a matter of castes which he warred to upend.
The biggest drug of all time is of course alcohol however, so what are his feelings about that? Nobunaga is a functioning (debatable) alcoholic who canonically pressures people to drink with him, and historically revolutionized sake by creating the polishing rice methods to get an ever purer taste from it, also because he needed it to be so obviously superior to European alcohol that it would be basically worth the travel literally around the world in the 1500s when that really meant something. Historically, one of his brothers was a massive alcoholic who died from it. This did not stop Nobunaga, but he is always careful to have tea and other liquids nearby, and in IkeSen, is very protective of others when they've been drinking. (Big bro!)
In SLBP his siblings including Oichi have a reverse intervention where they want him to play and loosen up and drink so he'll be less serious and angry at the world, but it obviously doesn't work as intended. Nobunaga will defy the caste taboos by pouring others alcohol, or letting his most trusted generals do it, and historically let Ranmaru sleep on his lap for pillow during some of the really late night parties.
His addiction to alcohol isn't severe enough to get withdrawal, but his brother did. He did actually stay with them over two week long periods to help dry them out when he needed them sober for sieges. Also because he sure as fuck didn't trust monks with his brothers. Nobunaga himself had to go on long military campaigns where he wouldn't drink, because the alcohol was needed for medicine or bait, he only drinks in victory.
I haven't played IkeSen's Keiji Maeda route yet, but in SLBP he infamously kisses everyone/anyone with lips when he's drinking including Nobunaga!! It's hilarious. Nobunaga doesn't really overreact to it either, just his usual composure, but everyone else freaks. This is another play on sake requiring shared saliva that plays into IkeSen's Nobunaga route wherein he'll use other people's mouths as cups. As you do when you're a demon king and people can't really stop you from being off the wall insane.
- The story about him drinking wine from enemy skulls has been very much debunked, but he would always sincerely spread it because it makes him sound
Lastly for historical context, it needs to be noted that Nobunaga himself had more assassination attempts on his life by Ninja than anything else. Starting with his literal childhood, he has severe canonical PTSD and finding out that his closest brother (Nobuhiro, not the alcoholic. Nobunaga had like a dozen siblings historically) was hiring them really fucked him up. He didn't hate all Ninja anymore than he hated swords (he loves swords and freaks people out when he's drinking by caressing them lewdly and singing about killing enemies with them or polishing them, as you do.) But he did decide he had to change the whole world, and everything wrong in it. Too much for one man? Yes absolutely. That's why he took over the country and had a whole army.
His IkeSen plan to abolish the Ninja is less about force, more about money and making it more profitable even short term for them to switch to crafts and trade, but in typical Nobunaga fashion, he'll make it sound as horrible as possible for himself. Good thing he wrote it under a pseudonym.
- A translation note. "Obviously" he would write this in Japanese, but I'm not going to go that far. Rather than explain the complicated han and feudal system for every single term used, he would ICly assume his readers know it intimately (being instrumental in changing it, and having lived in it directly!) so I'm just going to use the English equivalents, but with Meta links so it's obvious where the translation is at play. Ditto drug addicts. While alcoholism was recognized (kind of) as a problem and psilocybin certainly wasn't approved of, there's some updated language in here purely for the readability of our era. I also am not linking every single resource I used for compilation as it's genuinely embarrassing, but it can be found.
VERY last note: while there's no way for a female ninja to have submitted this essay, and it's CLEARLY written with the Oda forces perspective in mind, that's the persona he went with, having already forgotten that it's not standard for women, even noble princesses to learn literacy much less politics, and tactics enough to submit essays on public policy on it!
The Ninja Solution
By Satou Akari
Ninjas are like drugs addicts. Those deep in the throes of addiction are the hardest to convince to change their ways even when it is killing them or deeply detrimental to everyone around them. As long as the ninja villages stay secluded into their own isolated villages, exempt from even the ties of daimyo and shogun as they are outside of the fiefdoms, they are much like an addict no longer tying themselves to productive society, but chasing only the high of their drug of choice, the consequences are for tomorrow to deal with. However, this similarity extends to their unwillingness to change until the situation becomes so dire that they have only one path to survival: to get help.
The bandits have become so endemic that daimyo are frequently failing their sole responsibility to handle them, and with the growth of prosperity for Japan, there is a greater need to make sure no one slips through the system's cracks to turn to crime instead of production. It's impractical to simply ban the ninja villages, instead one must help them realize that they can do better by trading with others so that they want roads and connections to the rest of Japanese society. As with drug addicts, the first step to recovery is admitting they have a problem.
Currently, the ninja villages think it is safer to seclude away in sheltered pockets of their own separate communities, but this endangers them more than it protects, as it makes them susceptible to internal corruption or dictatorship by an abusive cult leader, or being overrun by a large enough opposing army. While abolishing all other factional daimyo armies is one option, in the process it also makes armies for the resisting daimyo more necessary, and therefore more likely to hire or conscript the ninjas. This in turn, exacerbates the ninjas' desire to hide away, just as when withdrawal gets to its worst, an addict will seek to resort to the pain relief of the drug all the more.
A pincer approach of incentive using positive aspects to get the ninjas to join in marketing their wares successfully for greater economic prosperity must also be countered with a show of force to block them from resorting to their own ways. Ninjas are as stubborn as addiction, and while this tenacity should be applauded, it is a double edged blade that harms them even while it helps. Convincing them to ask for and admit they need help is not a process that can be done in one flashy show of support, it takes a long drawn out time to warm them up to it, and they need to believe it is their own decision, especially while everything else feels out of their control. However, this can also act as part of the warm comforting good side to choosing to join larger society, as this is truly a choice they are making independently of the "addiction," but requires tactical precision targeting the village leaders not simply the general ninja populace.
In conclusion, while the general gekokujo has been the ideal method of targeting unallied shugo throughout the land, because of the separated structure of the ninja villages, a method to lure them out must be taken instead. Much like drug addicts can't be overly pressured to change until they themselves want to, ninja will go deeper into hiding and isolation if pushed too hard. Better economic interconnectivity and roads to make trade more feasible is only one part, but especially getting the ninja themselves to want to join society is the most key point. It goes without saying, of course, that the Oda push has the greatest chance for success with this, but they must remain careful in the already conquered territories and not forget that weak leaders will seek to employ hiding ninjas, so the daimyo must also be employed in utilizing better techniques for a better future.