Who Is Ota Gyuichi (Ōta Gyūichi)?
The retainer who wrote the Shinchō Kōki
Ota Gyuichi was a samurai who served Oda Nobunaga and the author of the Shinchō Kōki, the chronicle of Nobunaga's life. A retainer known for his skill with the bow, he went on to serve Toyotomi Hideyoshi and others after Nobunaga's death. He kept recording what he had seen and heard even in old age.
In this manga, he is the narrator. The elderly Gyuichi takes up his brush and recalls the Nobunaga he saw as a young member of the archer corps, and the story unfolds through those memories. Was the young lord the town laughed at really just a fool? Putting that question to the reader, he links the funeral, the meeting at Shotoku-ji, the Battle of Ino, and Okehazama.
Gyuichi noted that in his writing he had neither left out what happened nor added what did not. It is not entirely free of errors, of course, but the Shinchō Kōki is regarded as an important historical source for understanding Nobunaga.
Episodes featuring this character5
NEWEpisode 1
He Hurled Incense at His Father's FuneralThe Great Fool of Owari
The whole town laughs at the young lord they call the Great Fool. But one young archer, Ota Gyuichi, sees what nobody else does: the young lord training alone at dawn. At his father's funeral, the young lord hurls incense at the altar. Then his guardian, Hirate Masahide, takes his own life. In Episode 1, what was the first thing the chronicler wrote down?
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
Spying on the 'Fool,' He Saw 500 SpearsThe Meeting at Shotoku-ji Temple
The old warlord Saito Dosan plans to peek through the cracks of a shack at the edge of town and laugh at his son-in-law, the rumored "fool" of Owari. But behind the young lord march five hundred crimson spears—and at the temple waits a young man in formal dress that no one has ever seen before.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 3
He Forgave His Brother Once. Only Once.The Battle of Ino
Saito Dosan, his wife's father and the one man who believed in him, is dead, and the young lord Oda Nobunaga is suddenly alone. His polite younger brother Kanjuro, his mother's favorite, is pushed by ambitious retainers into rising against him. Nobunaga forgives him once. He doesn't forgive him a second time.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 4
45,000 Enemies. He Rode Out With Six.The Battle of Okehazama
As forty-five thousand Imagawa troops swallow the border forts one by one, Oda Nobunaga gives his senior retainers no battle plan at all, only two words: "Go home." At dawn he dances Atsumori, wolfs down his breakfast standing up, and bursts out of the castle with just six riders.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
He Beat an Army. He Can't Beat a Hill.Siege of Inabayama Castle
Oda Nobunaga crushed an army of 45,000, yet for years one mountain castle has him saying "Going home." He strips away the enemy's allies one by one, then moves without waiting for the hostages, so fast that even his own side is stunned.
19 pages