The drama of Akechi Mitsuhide

 The annual historical drama series, The Giraffe is Coming (Awaiting Kirin: Japanese title Kirin ga Kuru) is broadcasting on NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation.




The main character of this drama is Akechi Mitsuhide, and it is an exceptional explanation of Japanese history.

That is because he has been described as the betrayer to Oda Nobunaga, who had been a highly rated warrior and politician.

It is told that Nobunaga finished the warring state, Sengoku period, and tried to unify all of Japan.

Nobunaga is very popular, he generally has been said to be a charismatic, handsome, smart and fair person, even though he also was a cruel tyrant with a very short temper.



Mitsuhide belonged to Oda’s clan, and was promoted by Nobunaga.

However he killed Nobunaga in 1582 in what is called the Honno-ji incident.

After the Honno-ji incident, Mitsuhide was killed by Hashiba Hideyoshi, who was also in Oda’s clan, and he succeeded Nobunaga’s project.

According to history, Mitsuhide has been said to be a villain or just a loser.



But his daughter Tama is more famous than her father.



She got married to the eldest son of the Hosokawa family, and was baptized Catholic.

So she is called Hosokawa Gracia.

The story of her life was reported to Europe by the Catholic missionaries, and introduced the court of Habsburg.



As there isn’t any detailed information about Akechi Mitsuhide, some historians or writers who were interested in him shared some hypotheses.

In this drama, Mitsuhide was the cousin of Nobunaga’s wife, Kichou, and she had been influenced by Mitsuhide, and sometimes asked him about Nobunaga’s strategies.

That’s why Nobunaga’s projects are proceeded by a lot of advice from Kichou, it was Mitsuhide’s intention.

Mitsuhide was hoping to achieve the new peaceful society in Japan, and the giraffe, the legendary animal as kirin, was the symbol of peace in this drama.

However Nobunaga was out of control by Mitsuhide and Kichou, so he decided to kill him.

Although Mitsuhide was a cleverer and more credible person than Nobunaga, his allies didn’t follow him, because they weren’t courageous.




After Mitsuhide’s death, Hideyoshi had unified all of Japan, after many battles with many enemies, he changed his name to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi got the most powerful position, and established the Osaka castle, but after he died, Hideyoshi’s son lost the battle against Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Ieyasu founded Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603, in Japanese Edo bakufu.

It had been continued to 1868, and this period is called abundant and peaceful, because Tokugawa Shogunate got the national isolation policy.



By the way, the real giraffes had come to Japan from Germany In 1907, and they were displayed in the Ueno zoo.

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