“Nohime”

Usually Nobunaga’s wife 濃姫 has been referred to as “Nouhime” のうひめ, with the “long o”. However, the name as written in the Ehon Taikouki and Bushou Kanjouki  武将感状記 actually had the furigana reading of “Nohime” のひめ with a “short o” sound. Those two texts were believed to be the very origin of this name, so their reading should be authoritative here.

That “no” 濃 kanji also happens to also be the same -no of Mino province, which has always been read with a short o. Some text analysts also have noted that 濃 is a valid kanji version of the “no” の particle (usually written in hiragana in modern day), which is sometimes seen in Sengoku letters, so either way “Nohime” appears to have been the most appropriate reading.

I’m curious why people thought it was read “Nou” with the long-o sound for so long if the furigana has always existed clearly in print. Perhaps it’s done by people who did not have access to the old texts mentioned earlier, and made wrong assumptions.

With this knowledge, I'm going to switch how I refer to her name from now on. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be easy to edit the tags. While I sometimes use both names in the tags to cover my bases, I sometimes forgot and only use the “Nouhime” name in the tag.

[Ikesen Historivia] Can a man and woman be somehow confused for each other in history?

Some theorised that it’s possible. Unlike Jean in Ikesen Vampire, this one actually has somewhat of a realistic basis, because in Japan one person can go by a dozen different names, and it makes accounting for who is who in records very difficult. 

Somewhere in 2016, news broke surrounding the famed female lord Ii Naotora: That “Ii Naotora” is not a woman, and it’s a case of mistaken identity.

That is not to say that there is no “female lord of the Ii family”. The female lord is still there. What they’re saying is just that the female lord’s name is not Naotora, and Naotora is a different man.

It’s something that’s debatable. The very historian who broke the news of “Ii Naotora is a woman feudal lord” insisted that Naotora really is her name, and this new claim is based on dubious sources. However, you could argue that this man might be biased, because he would have the reason to defend his own thesis. Until thoroughly debunked using more research data, this theory still has the slightest possibility of being true.

「ETA: I completely forgot about this other story that is actually more relevant, which is ironic since I actually made a point about childhood names in this exact post. A few years ago, there was a letter from Hideyoshi that was discovered, and the recipient is one “Saikaku”. For some time, it was believed that this is the wife of the deceased lord of the clan, that was acting as the new lord in her husband’s place. However, after further research, there were new documents discovered that suggested that “Saikaku” is a man. Saikaku was just his childhood name, and that upon his adulthood changed his name to Kageyoshi. This was perhaps a family that wasn’t very large nor influential, so it seems that their genealogy is not very well documented.]

“Nouhime/Nohime” and “Kichou”

Historically speaking, the term “Nouhime/Nohime” is currently believed to have not actually been a name at all. Her personal name is either Kichou or Kochou, and “Nohime” is just a title identifying “A lady from Mino”. The “No” of “Nohime” is the same “-no” of “Mino”.

(previously it was thought that 濃姫 is read Nouhime, but after checking on the source materials, people discovered that the text contains furigana reading that confirms 濃姫 to be read “Nohime”)

This is like saying “Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh”. His name is not Edinburgh, his name is Phillip, and it’s not like we’re talking about two people with this phrase.

And even then it’s not entirely certain if Kichou or Kochou was the correct spelling, or if it might have been something else completely different, because women’s personal names is really really hard to find. Mostly they’re referred to by various titles associated to the castles or domains they reside in, and their Buddhist names. There are a few women’s name that are well known in pop culture that have turned out to be dubious or false (modern invention).

The reason Ikesen is using Nohime and Kichou is probably because those are the names people in Japan are familiar with. Basically clickbait. Even if the writers know it’s wrong, I think they would still do the same because using accurate but unfamiliar names like Kochou or Sagiyama-dono would not have the same zing for the readers.

I’m still waiting for in-game explanation confirmation as to why a man in the Sengoku would be named something like “Kichou”, because that doesn’t make sense per the usual male naming convention. It’s not like Kenshin, Shingen, or Kennyo, which are Buddhist names. Kichou is just... not a sensible name for a man to have, even if Ikesen-verse is a parallel dimension. Most of the time the name logic for NPCs is still pretty close to at least Edo era conventions.

Maybe they’re gonna say that it’s his childhood name (like Ranmaru) and he never received a proper adult name because of the twins situation. Otherwise his proper “manly” name should have been Toshi or Tatsu-something

🌸 HISTORICAL NOTES - Akechi Mitsuhide(1528-1582)

As a disclaimer we do not know a lot about him and there is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to him,with that out of the way,i hope you enjoy my post.

He is said to have had been born in 1528(second the Akechi Gunki) and his parents are believed to be Akechi Mitsutsuna and a daughter of the Wakasa branch of the Takeda clan. His father died on the year 1538,leaving Mitsuhide under the guardianship of his uncle,Akechi Mitsuyasu.

In 1556; Saitō Yoshitatsu led a rebellion against his father and Mitsuhide's uncle,Saitō Dōsan. Mitsuhide supported Dōsan,however Dōsan lost and it led to Akechi Castle being attacked by Yoshitatsu. There are theories that say that Mitsuhide served Asakura Yoshikage for some time but i'm not so sure on how accurate those claims are.

Due to the Eiroku incident,that led to the murder of the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru,his brother Ashikaga Yoshiaki fled to Wakasa province and got in contact with many powerful daimyō for support and particularly,Oda Nobunaga. Oda Nobunaga's invasion of Minō province caused Yoshiaki to lose his trust on him and for him to enter in contact with Asakura Yoshikage and led to him pleading with Yoshikage for him to march on the capital and get him proclaimed shōgun and this in turn led to Yoshiaki and Mitsuhide to get in contact. Mitsuhide was said to have persuaded Yoshiaki to not rely on Yoshikage and to instead search for Oda Nobunaga's support after Yoshiaki's pleas for Yoshikage to march upon Kyoto went ignored. Due to Sagiyama-Dono(Nōhime or Saitō Kichō/Kochō,Saitō Dōsan’s daughter and Mitsuhide’s cousin on her maternal side) being Oda Nobunaga’s legal wife,it was easy for him to get into contact with Nobunaga.

With the agreement between Yoshiaki and Nobunaga settled,Mitsuhide joined service under the Oda clan. He joined the march to Kyoto and in 1569,defended Yoshiaki from a attack. At a point,started to work with Hashiba Hideyoshi,Niwa Nagahide and Nagakawa Shigemasa to serve as magistrates on Kyoto.

He split from Yoshiaki on 1573,and continued to serve Oda Nobunaga throught his campaigns. Now I’m sorry but doing research on everything he did is kinda overwhelming but just keep in mind he was a great player among the Oda forces and served in many of Oda’s battles and campaigns.

In 1581,Mitsuhide became extremely depressed after the death of his younger sister,Tsumaki(who was said to have been one of Oda’s consorts). This was said to have had contributed to Mitsuhide’s betrayal of Oda the following year.

In 1582,after receiving orders from Oda to support Hashiba Hideyoshi during his campaign against the Mōri,he informed his senior retainers of his intention to betray Nobunaga.

The following month after this,Mitsuhide launched a attack on Honnō-ji Temple that caused Nobunaga’s death by Seppuku and Oda Nobutada,Nobunaga’s oldest son and heir,was surrounded at Nijō castle by the Akechi clan’s forces and died there. Hideyoshi,unlike Mitsuhide’s prediction,quickly signed a peace treaty with the Mōri and rushed to fill the power vacuum. Mitsuhide struggled to keep the support of his troops and his forces of 13,000 soldiers dwindled to 10,000.

Hideyoshi,who had joint forces with both Niwa Nagahide and Ikeda Tsuneoki,was quick to attack him at the battle of Yamazaki with his forces of 20,000 soldiers. It is unknown how Mitsuhide died,but he was said to have had died at the hands of a bandit who attacked him while he fled after his loss at the battle in July 2 of 1582.