Who Is Saito Dosan (Viper of Mino)?

Saito Dosan was a Sengoku-period warlord who ruled Mino Province (today's southern Gifu Prefecture). He was called "the Viper" because he drove out his own lord and took the province for himself. He married his daughter to Oda Nobunaga, making him Nobunaga's father-in-law. For a long time it was said that Dosan alone rose from oil seller to daimyo, but today most historians think the province was seized over two generations, by father and son.

In Episode 1, Dosan serves as the story's "eyes," judging what kind of man Nobunaga really is. While others mock Nobunaga, Dosan keeps insisting that he is no fool. Before the meeting, he peeks at Nobunaga's procession from a small hut. On the way home, when his retainer Inoko Hyosuke says Nobunaga is a fool after all, Dosan replies, "One day my sons will be tying their horses at that fool's gate." He had foreseen that his own house would someday serve Nobunaga.

A few years after the meeting, in 1556, Dosan went to war with his son Saito Yoshitatsu and was killed at the Battle of Nagara River.