THE IMPACT OF THE CONFLICT AMONGST THE WARRIOR …

TITLE PAGE

THE IMPACT OF THE CONFLICT AMONGST THE

WARRIOR CLASS MEMBERS TO JAPAN’S 16TH

CENTURY FEUDAL SYSTEM IN EIJI YOSHIKAWA’S

TAIKO

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

forthe Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

PATRICIA PARAMITHA

Student Number: 164214075

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA

YOGYAKARTA

2020

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

vi

MOTTO PAGE

Out of breath in my lungs

From the small window reflects the inverted head and

Morning glories racing for growth.

-Tigridia-


vii

DEDICATION PAGE

For my beloved individuals

who have kept me alive until this day.


viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ........................................................................................................... i

APPROVAL PAGE ................................................................................................. ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ........................................................................................... iii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ........................................................................ iv

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK

KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS .................................................................................. v

MOTTO PAGE ....................................................................................................... vi

DEDICATION PAGE ............................................................................................ vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................... x

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ xi

ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................. xii

CHAPTER I: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY ................................................... 1

A. Background of the Study ................................................................................. 1

B. Research Questions .......................................................................................... 4

C. Objectives of the Study .................................................................................... 5

D. Definition of Terms .......................................................................................... 5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE .......................................................... 6

A. Review of Related Studies ............................................................................... 6

B. Review of Related Theories ............................................................................. 9

C. Theoretical Framework .................................................................................. 27

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................... 29

A. Object of the Study ...................................................................................... 29

B. Approach of the Study .................................................................................. 30


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C. Method of the Study ..................................................................................... 30

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ................................................................................... 32

A. The Conflict amongst the Warrior Class Members in Eiji Yoshikawa’s

Taiko ............................................................................................................... 32

B. The Impact of the Conflict towards the Feudal System in Japan ...................... 47

C. The Effect of the Conflict towards Current Society ........................................ 58

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .............................................................................. 70

REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 72


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On my last days of being a member of Sanata Dharma University, I

would like to send my gratitude towards all of the peers that have provided

me with experiences and life advice during my studies for a bachelor’s

degree.

I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dr.

Tatang Iskarna who has been patient and helpful in this research, and also

my co-advisor, Dra. Th. Enny Anggraini, Ph.D., who also helped me in

this research.

Last of all, I would like to thank my mother and my friends who

have been the greatest support in completing my studies. Thank you to my

best friend, Deborah for being so patient and kind in dealing with me

during my studies. Thank you to Chris, Rania, Nina, and especially Ersya

for being such good support in my darkest times, I would have been in a

very horrible condition without you all. Thank you to Hinako and Takuhiro

who have been so helpful and considerate in helping me to give a clearer

perspective of Japan. Thank you to everyone who I couldn’t mention for

the support and heads-up. May life bring you the joy that you wanted!

Patricia Paramitha


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ABSTRACT

PARAMITHA, P. (2020). The Impact of the Conflict amongst the

Warrior Class Members to Japan’s 16th Century Feudal System in

Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters,

Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

This thesis is aimed at describing the conflict amongst the members

of the Warrior class, especially Shogun, Daimyō, and Samurai to gain

control over Japan in the 16th century in Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko, a novel

written in 1967 in Japanese and translated into English in 2001. Besides, it

also depicts how the conflict impacts the structure of Japan’s feudal system

and how the novel, as produced in a certain culture, social and intellectual

context gives the effect to the Japanese society.

This thesis uses library research and applies the historical approach. The

theories employed are the theory of conflict, either conflict in literary work

proposed by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia or sociological context stated

by Max Weber and Lewis Coser’s, and the historical background of the

feudal system in Japan in the 16th century described in some sources.

The findings of the research are as follows. The conflict amongst the

members of the Warrior class in Japan is the conflict between a group of

society against another group; the conflict begins with the conflict between

Oda Nobunaga as a part of the Daimyō against the warrior-monks of

Mount Hiei. After winning against the war that leads to the fall of Mount

Hiei and the defeat of the warrior-monks, Oda Nobunaga encountered a

new conflict with Shogun Yoshiaki as his opponent due to political

disagreement. The Oda clan later won against Shogun Yoshiaki in political

war. The whole reason why Oda Nobunaga took down his opponents is to

gain control over Japan. The conflict gave some impact towards Japan’s

feudal system in the 16th century in the way that it switched the feudal

structure of Japan from the Shogun authority to the Daimyō authority and

changed the perspective of the Japanese society towards the Warrior-class

itself.

From the perspective of the historical context, the novel gives the effect of

familiarity to the current reader, in the way that the readers can compare

the situation between the conflicts that happened in 16th century Japan to

the issues in 21st century Japan. This thesis analyze of the Warrior class

with the government of Japan. Especially the similarities it brings in the

conflict between the Daimyō and the Shogun to the conflict between the

Prime minister and the governor of Tokyo in their involvement in current

Japanese issues that have been going for decades.

Keywords: Warrior class, Japanese Feudal System, Social conflict


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ABSTRAK

PARAMITHA, P. (2020). The Impact of the Conflict amongst the

Warrior Class Members to Japan’s 16th Century Feudal System in

Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters,

Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggambarkan konflik antara

anggota kelas Prajurit, terutama Shogun, Daimyō, dan Samurai untuk

mendapatkan kendali atas Jepang pada abad ke-16 dalam novel Taiko oleh

Eiji Yoshikawa. Sebuah novel yang ditulis pada tahun 1967 dalam bahasa

Jepang dan diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Inggris pada tahun 2001.

Selain itu, ia juga menggambarkan bagaimana konflik berdampak pada

struktur sistem feodal Jepang dan bagaimana novel, yang diproduksi dalam

budaya, konteks sosial dan intelektual tertentu memberikan efek kepada

masyarakat Jepang.

Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kepustakaan dengan penerapan

pendekatan historis. Teori yang digunakan adalah teori konflik, baik

konflik dalam karya sastra yang diajukan oleh X.J. Kennedy dan Dana

Gioia atau dalam konteks sosiologis yang dikemukakan oleh Max Weber

dan Lewis Coser. Latar belakang sejarah sistem feodal di Jepang pada abad

ke-16 akan dijelaskan dalam beberapa sumber.

Konflik di antara anggota kelas Prajurit di Jepang adalah konflik antara

kelompok masyarakat terhadap kelompok lain. konflik dimulai dengan

konflik antara Oda Nobunaga sebagai bagian dari Daimyō melawan para

Sohei di Gunung Hiei. Setelah menang melawan perang yang

menyebabkan jatuhnya Gunung Hiei dan kekalahan para biksu-prajurit,

Oda Nobunaga menghadapi konflik baru dengan Shogun Yoshiaki sebagai

lawannya karena ketidaksepakatan politik. Klan Oda kemudian menang

melawan Shogun Yoshiaki di perang politik. Oda Nobunaga menurunkan

lawan-lawannya untuk mendapatkan kendali atas Jepang. Konflik ini

memberikan beberapa dampak terhadap sistem feodal Jepang pada abad

ke-16 dengan cara mengubah struktur feodal Jepang dari otoritas Shogun

ke otoritas Daimyō.

Dari perspektif konteks historis, novel ini memberikan efek familiaritas

kepada pembaca saat ini, dengan cara yang pembaca dapat

membandingkan situasi antara konflik yang terjadi di Jepang abad ke-16

dengan masalah di Jepang abad ke-21. Penelitian ini menganalisa kelas

Prajurit dengan pemerintah Jepang. Terutama kesamaan yang membawa

konflik antara Daimyō dan Shogun dengan konflik antara Perdana Menteri

dan gubernur Tokyo dalam keterlibatan mereka dalam masalah-masalah

Jepang saat ini yang telah berlangsung selama beberapa dekade.

Keywords: Warrior class, Japanese Feudal System, Social conflict


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Based on real historical events and figures, Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko is a

story of a young child who became one of Japan's greatest unifiers. This

research analyses the concept of feudalism depicted through the society

during the Sengoku Era as recorded in the novel Taiko written by Eiji

Yoshikawa, translated into English by William Scott Wilson.

This research observes the conformity of East Asian culture into western

theories, especially through the social system in Japan during the Sengoku

Era. This observation is concerned with the idea of feudalism in Japan. John

Whitney Hall’s explanation about feudalism in Japan points out that the main

doubt that is presence in this research

American historians who reject this view are apt to be reminded by their

Japanese colleagues that they have spared the onus of living under

feudalism and hence cannot appreciate its reality. Certainly, the American

scholar does not commute through the countryside which to him

constitutes a living reminder of “the feudalism of the village” (Hall &

Jansen, 1968, p. 1).

Hall’s concern of the western concept applied to the Japanese culture raises

two basic historiographical issues: the idea of feudalism itself and its

appropriateness as a general category of social organization.

In this research, the researcher attempts to observe of the feudal system in

the novel Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa which firstly observes the

historiographical idea of feudalism in the 16th century Japan as depicted in


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the novel and correlates them to the impact of the feudal system towards the

socio-political system in the current era of Japan. To eliminate the general

possibility of the result, the researcher narrows down the observation of the

feudal system through the conflicts that circled around the Warrior class.

As an English literary researcher who lives in Asia, the researcher should

be encouraged to take a look at English translated literary works which depict

the historical and cultural sense of the book itself. In terms of explaining

historical studies, the researcher observes the meaning of history itself to the

study of literature:

The very term literature points to another way in which history is relevant

to literary study. We tend to take the term for granted as if it were yoked

unproblematically to a referent. But what it designates in one historical

society or culture--what counts as literature, what is expected of literature,

the place literature occupies in the cultural system---may not be the same

as what it designates in another. (Gossman, 1994, p. 94)

In Gossman’s argument, the researcher observes that the term of literature,

it must have placed respectively as a literary object. The study of history itself

is deemed to be critically relevant as every setting, every storyline or plot

have their own historical aspect to it, where its majority or a minor role

towards the literary work itself. To this research, the researcher attempts to

provide a sample of a historical study towards an East Asian culture. From

this case, the researcher takes a deeper look at the socio-cultural aspect of the

feudal system of Japan in Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko as a medium in order to

observe today’s issues.


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In observing historical records of the characteristics of feudal Japan,

Toyoda T.’s argument about the concept of the feudal system in Japan is

applied. Toyoda’s argument about the economic history of the feudal society

in Japan provides a deeper analysis of the socio-economic system of feudal

Japan, as feudal lords during the era exercised self-assumed authority in each

district of Japan, competing for their ascendance with each other. The world,

as Toyoda described, was apt to become disunited one after the other which

led to anarchy. Toyoda provided a great comparison to a very similar

phenomenon of the European feudal age of each King of France, England,

and Germany, etc. whose crown was guaranteed by the Pope (Toyoda, 1957,

pp. 29-35). With Toyoda’s concept of Japanese feudalism, the researcher

could finally correlate it with the novel Taiko’s plot as a historical novel.

The researcher attempts to provide a sheer look at the Japanese past

history as a developed country. In accordance to Edwin O. Reichaver’s

observation on why all of the countries in the world observe that the Japanese

society had developed itself by the 19th century. His argument leads to the

signs of changes behind the feudal facade. His findings were started from the

16th century Japan that during the 16th century, the Japanese society and the

feudal system, and even the ruthless Edo regime could not force them back

into a political and economic unification across the country. With the new era,

Japan aims to produce a more peaceful balance of living. The Japanese prime

minister, Shinzou Abe is aiming for peaceful agreement with international

relations with other countries. Through literary observation, the researcher


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could picture a situation and development of Japanese society in the 16th

century as a rather lesson of what the Japanese society attempts to achieve

with the new era.

The researcher observes how Japanese society values productivity as their

main compass of daily lives. As the researcher knows from the feudal concept

proposed in the novel that there is a conflict of creating a unified country and

producing a one-unified leadership across Japan by stagnating the social

norm. People who are wealthy in Japanese society during the era become

wealthier and the poor are deemed to stay on their position as a laborer and

obeying their lord’s deeds. The concept of productivity is reflected by the

four-tiered feudal system and continues on towards the postmodern era of

Japan. This feudal facade was of course not all negative. The factor of

applying social stagnation impacts political control as there are fewer people

claiming towards the position of a government official. In this case as a

shogunate: making the government officials become more productive in

establishing international relations as they had closed the country beforehand

due to the warring states. From this system, the researcher observes the

significance of the conflict proposed above reflected by the postmodern era of

Japan.

B. Research Questions

This undergraduate thesis aims to answer several questions related to the

topic, as follows:

1. What is the conflict amongst the Warriors class described in Taiko?

2. How does the conflict the Japanese Feudal system in Taiko?


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3. What is the writer’s message to the current society through the

conflict in Taiko?

C. Objectives of the Study

This research has a purpose to describe the conflict amongst the Warrior

class during 16th century Japan from the novel Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa

through understanding the situation of settings in feudalism. It also observes

the visualization of the Warrior class and the situation of the society during

the Sengoku Era, supported by historical studies provided by scholarly

sources. The impact of conflict then will be applied through textual evidence

and supported by proper theories as provided in the theoretical framework.

This research also observes the understanding of the western theories of

feudalism applied to eastern culture, in this case, the Japanese culture as a

study of a historical study to correlate with the current society and observation

of the current state of a socio-political era in Japan after the era shift to a new

era.

D. Definition of Terms

Warrior Class Members. The term Warrior Class members refer to

Shogun, Daimyo, and Samurai in this research. The term itself is derived from

Cartwright’s definition of the Samurai: The Warrior class in 16th century

Japan is different from the previous year as they’re not only working as

military personnel but also work as a governing role. The Samurai from the

Kamakura period (1185-1333 CE) is new government personnel that was

founded which was dominated by warriors and led by a shogun (military

dictator); so it would remain right up until the 19th century CE.


https://www.ancient.eu/Kamakura_Period/

https://www.ancient.eu/Shogun/

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

In this section of the thesis, the researcher discusses a review of related

studies that supports this thesis, a study conducted by another researcher who

observed through the same novel. Surya Pranata’s undergraduate thesis

discusses the motivation of Hideyoshi’s will to become a Samurai. In his

observation, he uses a psychological approach that is conducted through Mary

Rohberger and Samuel H.’s book Reading and Writing about Literature. In his

observation, he first described how Hideyoshi’s will to become a Samurai

started from the childhood of Hideyoshi’s life as described to be: a dreamer,

persistent individual, thorough and loyal pupil of Oda Nobunaga. Pranata

conducted his observation through western theories, applied through an eastern

culture and in his observation; he found that the core of Hideyoshi’s motivation

of becoming a Samurai is from the experience of his childhood, proven by

textual conduction and a supporting theory from A.H. Maslow’s theory in his

book A Theory of Human Motivation.

This study is related to the researcher’s topic of the depiction of the

Warrior class in which had been observed through Pranata's psychological

point of view. Although observed in a historical manner, the researcher was

able to correlate with Hideyoshi’s life as a peasant with the situation in 16th

century Japan. In Pranata’s thesis, he also underlines the situation of the

Peasant class reflected through other characters such as Hideyoshi’s mother and


7

sister. Moreover, he also observes the tragic case of a foot soldier in the

Warrior class who had to live like a peasant.

Another related work is Hartadi Dwi’s journal that explains the human

relationship (Ningen Kankei) in Japan through the observation of the novel

Shinsho Taikoki (Taiko). His observation covers the first series of the serial

version of the novel Taiko. Through his observation, the concept of human

relationships as mentioned by Yoneyama is divided into four parts: muichi,

nakama,doho, and seken. Muichi is a relationship between two personals that

happened in small groups of relatives. Nakama is a relationship between two

personals in mutual attachments outside the family, such as close friends or

best friends. Doho means a group of people who get together and converse in a

personal way through parties, exercise, religious rituals, and other real-life

situations. Lastly, Seken, a relationship which has no correlation with personals

instead it is the relationship between human and all of the aspects in their lives.

Through the analysis which Hartadi conducted, the human relationship which

he observes through the character Toyotomi Hideyoshi as the protagonist is

observed by the three aspects which are listed above, excluding the concept of

Seken.

In relation to the researcher’s observation, Hartadi’s observation covers the

relationship between Hideyoshi and his mother during his childhood with his

step-father, his father, Yaemon before his death and his sister, Ofuku described

the concept of Muichi. In the concept of Nakama, Hartadi observed only

through interaction between Tokichiro (another name for Hideyoshi) with Oda


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Nobunaga in their friendship throughout Tokichiro’s moral duty in Nobunaga’s

favor. Through the interaction between Hideyoshi and Akechi Mitsuhide as

personal endeavors, the concept of Doho applied in their involvement of the

rebellion.

This study relates to the sociological point of view of feudalism during the

era through the characters’ philosophical beliefs. As we know from Gossman’s

study of History and Literary Studies, claimed that philosophical belief is a part

of a historical study. There, the application of the major concept of human

relations is correlating to one another. Personal familiar relations were the

major effects of strong influence, in this case, the relation between Hideyoshi

and his surroundings.

What makes this study different is, of course, the observational point of

view. From the two studies, the researcher would not only take a deeper look at

the philosophical belief of the society from Hideyoshi’s side but on the

philosophical belief of the society from Oda Nobunaga who influenced

Hideyoshi in the first place. Nobunaga’s involvement in a certain event can

cause impacts that affect the development of the feudal system in Japan.

Through a philosophical belief of Nobunaga and his influence on the change in

the feudal system, the researcher is able to correlate the feudal system through

textual evidence that there is in fact, a change of the system which runs in the

country during the 16th century. The focus of this thesis would be more into the

sociological and historical point of view of society, eliminating the focus on

each character ad previously have been discussed by the previous researchers.


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B. Review of Related Theories

Taiko is an epic novel written by Eiji Yoshikawa. The novel tells a

story of three great unifiers of Japan during the Sengoku Era. Through the

story, the readers are delivered to the concept of feudalism in the novel. The

following theories would support the researcher conducting the study.

1. Theory of Conflict

This theory would be separated into two sub sections as it observe

same theory but in a different point of view.

a. Theory of Conflict in literature

The theory of conflict is studied from Master Class’ article about What Is

Conflict in Literature?

In literature, a conflict is a literary device characterized by a struggle

between two opposing forces. Conflict provides crucial tension in any

story and is used to drive the narrative forward. It is often used to reveal a

deeper meaning in a narrative while highlighting characters’ motivations,

values, and weaknesses (MasterClass, 2019).

A story must progress through conflict, which in this novel’s case the

rising of the feudal system in Japan with the class shift from the emperor’s

authority to the warrior’s authority. There are of course many cases on how

the conflict presented but for the sake of presenting the application of the

theory to the novel, as proposed in the article, the theory of conflict in

Literature is presented in two: Internal and External conflict.

Internal conflict is when a character struggles with their own opposing

desires or beliefs. It happens within them, and it drives their development

as a character. External conflict sets a character against something or


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someone beyond their control. External forces stand in the way of a

character’s motivations and create tension as the character tries to reach

their goals. Including both internal and external conflict is crucial for a

good story, because life always includes both (MasterClass, 2019).

A citation from Grace Fleming on their journal “Conflict in Literature”

also agrees on the same, through their journal presented a distinct difference

of conflict through the role who are involved in a literary work itself. From

their journal, the researcher focuses on the definition of man vs. man as

shown below.

When you have both a protagonist (good guy) and antagonist (bad guy) at

odds, you have the man versus man conflict. Which character is which may

not always be evident, but in this version of the conflict, there are two

people, or groups of people, that have goals or intentions that conflict with

each other. The resolution comes when one overcomes the obstacle created

by the other (Fleming, 2018).

What the researcher would concern about is the role of the protagonist and

the antagonist. In Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko, the protagonist is apparent that it is

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but in the researcher’s opinion, looking through the

perspective of Toyotomi Hideyoshi would be rather more personal compared

through Oda Nobunaga, another fact is that throughout the story, Toyotomi

Hideyoshi is mostly working under the influence of Oda Nobunaga’s power.

Thus, to set a clearer outline of this research, the main character who will be

Oda Nobunaga and the antagonist would be both the warrior-monks of Mount

Hiei and the Shogun.

The conflict also has significant points on roles to the plot of the story.

Whether a character is having an internal conflict between them or having a

struggle towards other individuals or groups. What is applied through his


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thesis was the struggle of a group of individuals to fight against another group

of individuals.

b. Theory conflict in sociological point of view

Another apparent theory of conflict is shown by Lewis Coser’s theory of

conflict through a sociological point of view. As also discussed through the

previous theory, the conflict theory is observing the general contours of

conflict of the society within it through the perspective of each class. The

citation below explains the general concern of conflict theory which correlates

to the distribution of power in a society.

In general, conflict theory seeks to scientifically explain the general

contours of conflict in society: how conflict starts and varies, and the

effects it brings. The central concerns of conflict theory are the unequal

distribution of scarce resources and power (Allan, 2006, p. 213)

While there is the conflict theory applied to this novel, the concept of

contemporary conflict in the researcher’s opinion gives an interesting point

upon this work. Coser’s theory of conflict is mainly concerned between

structural functionalism and conflict theory. He wrote that there is a basic

correlation between the structures of society with conflict that they have

experienced in a certain community through predicting the level of violence.

This level of violence is a determination of how severe the impact of the

conflict is to the general contribution of the society within it. If the conflict

can be resolved in a rational manner, it is more likely that the involvement of

violence is less happening. Although, conflict can be violent and Coser gives

two factors that can produce violent conflict: emotional involvement and

transcendent goals. What it respectively translates is in order to achieve a


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transcendent goal, an emotional involvement must be present and the media

or people who are involved within it must be engaged. The more transcendent

goals there are, the greater the violence can be. (Allan, 2006, p. 217). This

theory itself sought the actions of a general of a certain Warrior class in

launching a war against the opponent and proves that when coordinating with

their opponent, the Warrior class also counts the rational measurement of

violence that is involved in the conflict itself.

The conflict theory which presented by Coser also argues that while the

general source of conflict that is presented by Karl Marx, it is better to be

understood that in Marx’s idea of conflict that mostly inspires the researchers

on the idea of conflict, there still needs a modification of understanding which

are supposed to be brought onto more consideration. The idea of deprivation

can be an ideal modifier of the conflict theory as it notes the shift from

absolute to relative deprivation is significant to produce a critical awareness

of the conflict at hand. This relative deprivation refers to a sense of being

underprivileged to some other person or group. It is simply a sense of being

on acknowledging the fact that others are doing better than themselves. These

people who felt a sense of being are most likely to become involved in the

conflict and social change (Allan, 2006, p. 216). While the idea of Marx’s

conflict theory arose in the 18th century, it is relevant to seek the authenticity

of the applied theory to the current era. Thus, an interpretation of Marx’s

conflict theory by Coser is applied to support the correlation between conflict

in the 16th century and the reflection of the conflict in the current era.


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1. The 16th Century Feudal System in Japan

The concept of Feudalism is first discovered from the medieval model of

government. The theory of Feudalism in Japan and the theory of Feudalism in

the European medieval era contrast a difference between the two. The general

view of the Feudal system and the Japanese Feudal System are conceptualized

by Kallie Szczepanski in her comparison between the French Feudal system

with the Japanese Feudal System through the great French historian Marc

Bloch who defined French feudalism as a subject of the peasantry which is

widespread use of the service tenement instead of a salary. Although there

are some similarities of the French feudal system towards the Japanese feudal

system such as the figurehead which is placed on top of the class tier followed

by nobles and knights and how the Warrior class had provided their lower-

class tier a piece of land in an area which they’re ruling in. The class tiers had

shown a large difference in the middle class and lower class tier. In other

words, peasants or serfs in French are tied to the land and work for the

protection afforded by the landlord thus sharing the initial harvest, rather than

money in return. French warriors dominate society and are bound by codes of

ethics. Nobles, which are a smaller unit of lords, control the warrior and

peasants, while still showing obedience to a distant and relatively weak duke,

king or emperor (Szczepanski, 2019).

The Japanese feudal system, in contrast to the french, appreciates more

productivity and harvests compared to incomes. The Japanese feudal society

had put the peasants working solely as middle-class farmers because they


14

provide harvests such as rice to the society and put the merchants and traders

in the lower class tier due to their lack of productivity (at least compared to

the farmers). In a speech of the Japanese feudal system, Szczepanski also

provides of the beginning of the Japanese Feudal System as the first start of

the socio-political system to work in the country itself, the Japanese feudalism

was based on the ideas of the Chinese philosopher Kong Qiu or Confucius

(551–479 BCE). Confucius stressed morality and filial piety, or respect for

elders and superiors. In Japan, it was the moral duty of the Daimyō and

Samurai to protect the peasants and villagers in their region. In return, the

peasants and villagers were duty-bound to honor the warriors and pay taxes to

them (Szczepanski, 2019).

In order to help with the visualization of the Japanese Feudal Society, the

research proved a diagram which views the feudal system from the diagram

provided by http://medievaljapanalyssa.weebly.com/feudal-system.html.


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The development of a feudal society in Japan had been developed from the

tenth and eleventh centuries when the Fujiwara clan had entered the spotlight

of the stage of Japanese history, but, despite the brilliance of the literary and

artistic accomplishment of the country they dominated. The courtiers were

going through the forms of ceremonies of little more than a sham government,

and devoting their energies more to the arts of poetry-writing and love-

making than governing, making the provincial aristocrats gains more

experience in managing their estates and ruling the peasants of these estates

with hardly any control or direction. The growth and change in the feudal

system itself arose from the overflow of the appearance of Mongols in the

late twelve century as invaders and raided certain small islands in northern

Kyushu. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries presented a picture of

increasing political disruption and confusion, as all central control slowly


16

disappeared. The basic cause for the growing political disunity itself was the

main reason why the Warrior class had increased during the Kamakura period

which made a united government based simply ties of personal loyalty was no

longer possible. Feudal lord, or Daimyō, in order to restore the unity which

proved to be as slow progress as their main goal had caused the knight to fall

into irrelevance (Reischauer, 1974, pp. 45-67). This concept of provincial

aristocrats ruling their own capital correlates to the situation of the setting in

the novel whereas the emperor had not shown a signify interest in intervening

the political matter of the Samurai and the warring states of his own country

despite the fact that he was the head of the country and let the Daimyōs as the

powerful ruling class taken the position to overruled the country with their

authority.

A feudal society is a military hierarchy in which a ruler or lord offers

mounted fighters a unit of land to control in exchange for military service.

The individual who accepted this land became a vassal, and the man who

granted the land became known as his liege or his lord (Kip Wheeler, 2018).

This is correlated to the concept of feudalism in Japan written in Comparative

Studies in Society and History by John Whitney Hall. In his observation, the

Japanese feudalism developed upon a foundation laid in the semi-feudal land

ownership pattern of the villages.

In accordance with the concept of feudal society, Szcezpanski proposed a

comparative approach. Szczepanski’s article explains about the four-tiered

class system of feudal Japan. In her article, she explained how feudalism in


17

Japan differs from the European concept of feudalism. Feudalism in Japan did

not put the peasants on the lowest rank compared to the European concept.

They believe in productivity, as the peasants such as farmers are considered as

the middle class. Artisans, however, are considered less important even

though they provided cooking utensils, woodblock prints, and other aesthetics

needs for the Daimyōs and emperor. Strangely enough, the Samurai

swordsmiths have even ranked the third tier in feudal Japan. On the bottom of

the tier, there are merchants who include traveling traders and shopkeepers.

Merchants were often ostracized as "parasites" that profited from the labor of

the more productive peasant and artisan classes. Not only did merchants live

in a separate section of each city, but the higher classes were forbidden to mix

with them except when conducting business.

The role of the Daimyō itself has dictated most of both the political and

social flow of the country. In her other article, Szcezpanski’s take on the

feudal lord in Shogunate Japan explains about the first men who became the

eventual governor of Japan called the Daimyō.

The word "Daimyō" comes from the Japanese roots "dai," meaning "big or

great," and "myo," or "name." It roughly translates in English to "great

name." In this case, however, "myo" means something like "title to land,"

so the word really refers to the Daimyō's large landholdings and would

most likely literally translate to "owner of great land." (Szcezpanski, 2019).

In Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko, the Daimyō play a very prominent role through

the development of feudalism in Japan. Before Japan was unified by the three

greatest unifiers, each continent fought with one another to find the next ruler

of Japan, which caused the Sengoku Era. The Daimyō played a prominent


18

rule due to their authority on the country and the emperor was not present at

that time. Later Sengoku era finally ended when the three unifiers of Japan

(Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu) brought the

Daimyōs to heel and re-concentrated power in the hands of the Tokugawa

shogunate. Under the Tokugawa shoguns, Daimyō would continue to rule

their provinces as their own personal fiefdoms, but the shogunate was careful

to create checks on the independent power of the Daimyō.


https://www.thoughtco.com/toyotomi-hideyoshi-195660

https://www.thoughtco.com/tokugawa-shoguns-of-japan-195578

19

2. The Current Socio-political Situation in Japan

To a recession to the current era, the role of an emperor as a figurehead

was that of a figure who represented the country as a cultural symbol. This

concept has also been held as a traditional order of succession as on a socio-

political structure, it has become an apparent theme. While in the following

years of their socio-political structures this concept was translated in a similar

meaning yet in various different ways. As an example, the current era emperor

has pledged to become the symbol of state and unity as an interpretation of

their modern outlook (BBC.2019). That is to say that the emperor is willing to

aid the change of the era and step onto the real world problems, yet what had

seem to be the trouble on this concept is often, and yet crucial, the people under

the emperor or the political officials interpret the idea in a different way as the

emperor. In question: How does the same concept of the traditional order

interpreted differently? This due to the effects of the sociological environment

of their privacy, which in view doesn’t implement the same as it is generally

implemented in the outside world. As discussed in the previous chapter, the

Japanese culture adores the idea of productivity; this idea also translates to their

work ethic as it mostly requires collective decision-making. Japanese generally

place a high emphasis on group mentality and believe that the formation of a

well-rounded character is attained by learning to be cooperative with others.

Therefore, in Japanese society, assertiveness is considered a vice, and

compromise is considered a virtue. The Japanese culture also emphasizes the

culture of amae and enryo as a part of their work ethic. Both concepts are


20

counter-balances to each other, amae being presuming on the goodwill of

others and enryo being the one holds back on the basis that one must not

presume too much on the goodwill of others (Yohko, 2006). In a sense, the

emperor’s deeds to focus on the needs can be seen as a good cause to the

country, while the government can be practicing on the idea of enryo as a part

to deduce the goodwill which spreads across the nation.

On the other hand, Sugimoto Yoshio’s book introduces the sociological

point of view of Japanese society which affects their political views. In his

book titled ‘An Introduction to Japanese Society’, Sugimoto explains the

democracy of the Japanese political system which affects both the economic

and the socio-cultural society that is used in the twenty-first century. The

Japanese system had an interchanging correlation throughout the years,

although it can be viewed that the political system that most impacted the

country today was the democratical system that they formed after World War

II.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century the Japanese national ethos

continues to be glorified in a variety of cultural arenas. Saito, for instance,

produced many bestselling works that admire the beauty of the Japanese

language. In praise of the ‘dignity of the Japanese nation’, Fujiwara

maintained that the Japanese must revive the Samurai spirit rather than

pursuing democracy, and must restore Japan’s traditional warm emotions

and feelings rather than adhere to Western-style logic (Sugimoto, 2010, p.

36)

In the quotation above, Sugimoto explained how democracy in Japan

differs from the democracy which is formed in most democratic countries. In

meaning the formation of the Japanese democracy was to revive the spirit of

their Samurai ancestors and preserve the glory of their cultural belief. In many


21

cases, Japanese society was deeply influenced by their culture, including

producing a social awareness of today’s issues.

Sugimoto’s theory of the Japanese society is used to explain the correlation

of the role of the Warrior class in the Japanese feudal system with modern-day

parliament.

Before heading to the interpretation of the conflict, one must understand

the current situation of the Japanese government system. Being that the

Japanese social and political situation currently has been indirectly divided by

two sectors: the working-class and the government. This is partially due to their

lack of support from the working-class upon the faith of their political standing.

In a recent report, conducted The Genron NPO surveyed that in September of

2019, 25.3 percent of Japanese citizens are optimistic about the future of the

nation while 57.3 percent of Japanese citizens feel pessimistic. In the question:

what are the Japanese citizens actually concerned about to their nation? The

survey shows that they’re most concerned about social security and climate

issues, followed by the concern of the population decline and rapid aging of

society. The reason behind this social decline is mostly involved by democracy

in Japan (Aizawa, 2019).

Yu Uchiyama, a professor of political science at the University of Tokyo,

said the findings are worrying. "The most critical point is that only the

judiciary has the people's trust, and lawmakers have lost it. Democracy

relies on a balance of the judicial, legislative and executive branches," he

says. He also noted that only 40 percent of people said they thought

democracy was the best possible kind of political system (Aizawa, 2019).


22

Democracy in Japan did not run well amongst the working-class society.

Currently, the Japanese political system runs in democracy under constitutional

monarchy, similarly occurred in England. The governmental power in Japan is

distributed between three branches: the National Diet, the Cabinet, and the

judiciary sections of the government. These entities serve as the legislative,

executive, and judiciary branches respectively (Neely, 2016).

Japanese National Diet which consists of the upper house of

representatives holds the highest power of the country along with the cabinet

who fails to see the problem of the decline in the Japanese political system that

leads to sociological troubles between the government and the society within

it. Japan’s Prime minister, Shinzo Abe was known to have a solution upon the

decrease of the country’s economy. However, the solution which he calls as

‘Abenomics’ to focus on increasing the economy was deemed at risk as the

program itself is now facing difficulties with Abe himself having lost his

interest upon fixing Japan’s economy. Interestingly, on a press conference held

in Chengdu, China, Abe stated that he was never interested in the economy, and

later instead, reciting his goal is to rip up Japan’s post war pacifist constitution

and restore the perceived glories of the prewar period under a powerful

emperor (Sposato, 2019). This critic itself had its own points as the goal in

which Abe had recited is in reference to his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi who

strongly pushed a constitution change in the 1955 system. Worryingly, the

cause to change the constitution had seemed to be the main focus of Abe in


23

2020 while the country is also facing a shrinking population that leads to an

inevitable limited growth.

In discussion of the sociological problem in Japan, there are many aspects

that should be pointed out, the most concerning is the lower birth rate which

had been expected since 1899. This low birth rate is mostly caused by the work

environment that has been given to people in the working class. A report

conducted by the newsThesis, Asashi Shimbun that in 2018, 586,438 couples

got married, down by 20,428 from the previous year and the lowest number

since the end of the Second World War. A ministry official said: “Economic

conditions and the difficulty of simultaneously managing both work and child-

rearing are considered the major reasons behind the declining birth rates. We

need to promote policies to set up an environment where people who want to

have children can have children and raise them at ease.” (Giorando, 2019). The

decline of economic stability is affecting the lives of the working classes as

most married couples had to focus on their economic stability instead of raising

their children. What is concerning is this problem has made many families

decide to not have children after they get married. Japan’s decline on economic

stability is not only affecting the lives of married couples but also affecting the

mental state of their workers. Japantimes reported that in 2016, a 46-year-old

white-collar worker jumped to his death from the roof of a Subaru factory in

what authorities ruled was a case of karōshi (death from overwork).


24

While the Japanese feudal system had met its end in 1867 and transfer its

government system into Meiji which marks the start of the Meiji era, the social

stagnation seemed to have given a memorable effect to the social discourse. In

regards to any era which the Japanese system had, the Japanese society

continues to embody the concept of productivity. As a result, the Japanese

society is now facing problem which arose due to their culture of promising a

better social life called “Karoshi” which means death from overwork. The main

reason why Karoshi had been an infamous trend across Japan is due to social

pressure which spread in several workplaces. OECD survey showed Japanese

had an average of 21 minutes less sleep in 2018 than they did in 2014. Jun

Kohyama, a neurologist at the Japanese Society of Sleep Research (JSSR), later

calls a higher general level of concern about the problem. “Japanese people

may have more awareness of sleep than before, but people tend to admire those

who are devoted to work and press on without enough sleep. I am concerned

that the situation hasn’t changed at all,” he says (Lewis, 2019). The case of

Karoshi itself has left Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike to step down and

mandated staff members in government offices to must go home by 8 p.m.

(Huang & Stapczynski, 2016). Another reason to this cause is the mentality of

the Japanese society has in working.

“While Western society is individualistic and non-hierarchical, Japanese

society is collectivist and hierarchical,” explains Hiroshi Ono, professor of

human resources management at Hitotsubashi University, who specialises

in Japan’s work culture. “Thus, many people refrain from taking holiday

because their bosses do not take holiday, or they are afraid that it will

disrupt the group harmony.” (Demetriou, 2020)


25

From the citation above, the work mentality of the Japanese people are

different than the west, which they are more collectivist and hierarchical

compared to other western countries. The Japanese culture is very uniformed,

when one does not take a business leave, no matter the situation, everyone in

that company or group are most likely not going to take business leave despite

their personal needs. A recent study conducted by Demetriou also reveals that

there is a natural culture amongst the Japanese that there is a culture where a

person would be evaluated higher if the person is not taking days off and

working harder. People think taking days off is a bad thing. The effect of the

mindset is worrying that it often put people in the working class to work more

in order to get admiration and seen as a devoted worker. Another fact is to their

feelings upon guilt as shown below.

Japan scored lowest among 19 countries and regions in its 2018 study, with

workers taking on average only half their annual leave – 10 days out of 20.

As many as 58% of Japanese workers cited “feeling guilty” as the main

reason for not taking their entitled holiday leave in the 2018 Expedia report,

with only 43% stating that their employer was supportive of them taking

leave – the lowest globally (Demetriou, 2020).

While in the research conducted by Akina Murai, head of PR for Expedia

in Japan says that 62% of Japanese people within the age of 18 to 34 are

vacation deprived, that is to say that younger people are more exposed to

Karoshi due to the mentality that is circled around their position as employees.

Other problem that the Japanese currently have is the decrease of birth rate

that has long overdue (Giorando, 2019). The reason behind it is also due to

economic pressure which often pressure women and men to work more than


26

their regular shifts and often reason that there are very less time to spend on

child-bearing and household duties. A research conducted by East-West Center

provides a date which many of employment are listed as women. Their date

shows that the increase of women labor opportunity dictates the shrinking

employment of men. This research shows that history has a correlation between

history and the current society of Japan. The conflict which happened in Eiji

Yoshikawa’s Taiko proves that a historical conflict which happened in the past

may produce a long-term trail of the social configuration that may arise in the

future. To add more argument, problems to retired elderly people had seemed

to plumbing. With more people growing old and less people giving birth,

elderly people who have passed their youth life working and wasn’t able to find

partners have decided to live their life in a solitary existence.

A report by the South China Morning Post from 2017 called the

phenomenon as Kodokushi (Dying alone). This problem is growing in Japan,

where 27.7 percent of the population aged over 65 are filling up the residential

area across the nation and are threatened to die alone. With the lack of

governmental support, social workers are forced to step down to insist victims

of Kodokushi and bury them in their respectful resting place. Another

sociological problem is impacting the population. Hikikomori (recluses) are

widely known amongst the society. In modern days, the cause of this

phenomenon however is not related to a mental issue yet more into the social

situation which is affecting Japanese youth today. Saitou Tamaki, a psychiatrist

and professor from Tsukuba University who studied about Hikikomori for


27

decades observed that the occurrence of Hikikomori is a form of phase which

lasted for six months or more. He also stated that over 2 million people in Japan

including shut-ins are Hikikomoris. In his argument, the issue of having

hikikomoris in the country are causing more declination on the country,

especially when there is a decrease of population each year. Another fact that

arose is the involvement of the Japanese government towards the problems of

hikikomoris and aging (Nippon.com, 2019).

C. Theoretical Framework

The theories above would be used as a supporting idea to examine Eiji

Yoshikawa’s Taiko. Theories that would be used in this thesis would be the

theory of conflict and feudal system in Japan. The theory of Conflict comes

from Masterclass’s and Grace Fleming’s characterization of conflict in

literature, while the concept of feudalism in Japan comes from historical

records of the feudal era in 16th century Japan.

The first stage of observation would be determining the characteristics of

the Warrior class through general observation of the historical records and

textual evidence. After mentioning both characteristics, the researcher is now

able to determine the conflict between the two opposing classes with textual

evidence and understanding of the concept of feudalism; this is where the

theory of conflict will play as a prominent support of the researcher’s ideas. In

order to understand the genealogy of the feudal society, one must understand

the ruling class of the society; in this case, the Warrior class is depicted

accordingly. From the emperor's authority shogun to the powerful families


28

(Daimyō), to the Samurai and lastly the ronin in the Warrior class tier, through

the largest population of the Japanese society during the Sengoku era, the

peasants to lastly, artisans and merchants. By finding out the situations of the

society according to their status, the researcher could find that feudalism takes

its highest role of each Warrior class. The researcher later can determine how

the Warrior class, from the shogun to the Samurai, impacts their feudalism

towards the society, in this case the middle class of the Japanese feudal system.


29

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The object of this Thesis would be the translated version of Eiji

Yoshikawa’s epic novel, Taiko. The novel itself was first published by

Kodansha in 1967, two years after the death of Eiji Yoshikawa. Later in 1992,

the novel was published in English and was translated by William Scott

Wilson. The novel is based on historical figures of the three great unifiers of

Japan. The novel tells the story according to the humble beginnings of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi as a peasant boy who rose to the top with his loyalty and

hard work to become a Samurai, following his father’s footsteps. He

eventually met Lord Nobunaga and requested to become his pupil. Under

Nobunaga’s lordship, he fought wars to acclaim the unification of Japan.

Nobunaga himself was exceedingly shrewd and ambitious on his own

lordship. He would not let anyone outcome his ambitions to overtake Kyoto.

When the warrior-monks or Sōhei became an increasing troop to beat,

Nobunaga let out a siege and thus the siege of mount Hiei started. The wiping

out of the Sōhei of mount Hiei itself was a fact of the final destruction of

Buddhism as a political force. Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, along with the

support of Tokugawa Ieyasu, continue to spread their political influence

across Japan.

This novel puts the role of Hideyoshi’s loyalty to his lord, Oda Nobunaga,

to a golden pedal stole. The man himself was a peasant, born with the face of


30

a monkey, brings his smartness and his odd look to the center of the attention

of Nobunaga who was a Daimyō. When Nobunaga met his death, Hideyoshi

never stopped the cause of unifying the country. He continues on brooding the

country’s rebellion to social stagnation by putting out non-Samurai society’s

weapons out of their hands and leaves a legacy of great brilliance as a

memory of a Golden Age.

B. Approach of the Study

The approach of the study would be a historical approach. The approach

itself is conducted by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia’s Literature: An

Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, Sixth Edition. In their argument

that Historical Criticism “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating

the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it—a context that

necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.” A key goal for

historical critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original

reader. (Kennedy & Gioia, 1995, p. 1790)

C. Method of the Study

To further explain the methodology of the study, the researcher will

explain the methods of the study. The research would be conducted in several

steps as follows. The first stage of observation would be determining the

characteristics of the Warrior class through general observation of the

historical records and textual evidence. After mentioning both characteristics,

the researcher is now able to determine the conflict amongst the classes with

textual evidence and understanding of the concept of feudalism. This is where


31

the theory of conflict will play as a prominent supporter of the thesis ideas. In

order to understand the genealogy of the feudal society, one must understand

the ruling class of the society, in this case the Warrior class depicted

accordingly, from emperor, shogun to the powerful families (Daimyō), to the

Samurai, ronins as the Warrior class, through the largest population of the

Japanese society during the Sengoku era, the peasants to lastly, artisans and

merchants. By finding out the situations of the society according to their

status, the researcher could find the feudalism takes its highest role of each

Warrior class, the researcher later can determine how the Warrior class, from

the shogun to the Samurai reflects their feudalism towards the lower class

society, in this case, the middle class of the Japanese feudal system. Lastly,

The impact of these feudal systems itself would be observed through a cause-

and-effect method where the researcher would take a look at historical facts

which happened in the novel and correlates it with either the effects of the

situation that had occurred in both real-life situations and towards the plot of

the story itself.


32

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

A. The Conflict amongst the Warrior Class Members in Eiji Yoshikawa’s

Taiko

In the first section of this thesis, the researcher will explain the conflict

between the Peasant class and the Warrior class as shown in the novel in

accordance with the first problem formulation. To elaborate on the discussion

of the Warrior class in Taiko, there are several points that should be

established: The importance of social role in Warrior class,

1. The Importance of the Social Role in Warrior Class

The Warrior class was seen as prestigious because of its duty to serve the

country. Moreover, their role was seen as more influential compared to the

emperor’s, although their hierarchy is below the emperor. However, the

Warrior class was not only working as a military support; they also work as a

governing lord who established rules for the Peasant class. As explained by

Demetriou, the Japanese society are known as hierarchal, what it means that

the idea as a projection that the duty of a warrior is a form of relative

deprivation which they reflect themselves as unworthy of the figurehead and

the Peasant class who are under them also felt the sense of being on being less

worthy than the Warrior class towards the figurehead. The sense of

unprivileged is most often, in association that they also strive to become

privileged through the emperor’s eyes. This idea of relative deprivation can be


33

seen through the establishment of the Oda clan as landowner feudal lords,

who controlled each sector of the country, including farms and living areas.

The establishment between lands was separated by a social ‘border’. As

shown in the novel, the establishment rivalry of the social ‘border’ and

physical domain between the Samurai clans were clearly obvious.

The lord of Owari, Oda Nobuhide, and his neighbor, Imagawa

Yoshimoto, were bitter enemies, a situation that led to constant

skirmishing along their common border. One year, Imagawa troops crossed

the border, set fire to the villages, and trampled the crops. The Oda troops

rushed out of the castles of Nagoya and Kiyosu and routed the enemy,

cutting them down to the last man. When the following winter came, both

food and shelter were lacking, but the people did not reproach their lord. If

they starved, they starved; if they were cold, they were cold. In fact,

contrary to Yoshimoto's expectations, their hardships only served to harden

their hostility toward him. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 5)

One of the famous warriors during the time was Oda Nobunaga, who was

directly involved in the conflict between the Samurai and the shogun. The

researcher would like to point back to the theory of conflict itself, which in

digress contemplates the subject of an individual’s influence to spread in

society. The influence of Oda Nobunaga as a core representative of the Oda

Clan came from Oda Nobunaga himself. Nobunaga was a noble born. He was

directing the son of the Oda Clan’s land owner or Daimyō, Nobuhide. He was

described living in a flourishing life of his father’s pride. This is how a proud

Daimyō such as the Oda Samurai influences his troops and the society

through his power. The following citation is an example of the influence of

the Oda clan in the Japanese feudal society. In the feudal society, the glory

and stories about feudal lords spread through the Peasant class. Most


34

importantly, the children or the younger generation as described below are

perfect examples of the social cultural trends which had been spreading in

their community.

The children had seen and heard about such things from the time they

were born. When they saw their lord's troops, it was as if they were

seeing themselves. It was in their blood, and nothing excites them more

than the sight of men-at-arms. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 5)

In other discussion, the Peasant class does not entirely consist of a

group of farmers. Oftentimes, it consists of formerly dispatched Samurai who

had fallen into poverty and were living as a farmer as they continued to

struggle to find income. As explained through the theory of conflict, internal

and external conflicts happened during or after the war has formed a

deprivation of social status which is correlated to the concept of feudalism in

Japan during the Sengoku Era. Merchants, who are in the bottom of the class

tier, are oppressed to become traveling traders forever, without allowing their

single struggle to be overcome by the struggle itself. People who are classified

in Japanese society during the Sengoku Era were designated to stay in their

place. For instance, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s childhood was not the lucky one,

unlike his lord Oda Nobunaga who came from a noble-born. He was looked

down upon as a farmer’s boy upon by multiple people, even his mother who

only wished that he would stay by her side until she sent him away to work

with new lords. In a sense that Samurais who are on the lower tier of the

Warrior class are most likely to be prune to lose their authority as a warrior.

The warring states era which involves war between clans constantly makes


35

the Peasant class suffer through their constant need for foot-soldiers from

battle to battle. As if they are brought up to the Warrior class then later

discarded back to their peasantry after they had lost their ability to become a

warrior. The existence of Kinoshita Yaemon, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s father, is

a perfect example of an unfortunate condition of an injured foot-soldier which

was deprived into a Peasant class. The excerpt below is an explanation of a

situation where Kinoshita Yaemon, a foot soldier, was injured and ended up

bringing his whole family into poverty.

There were only the children, Hiyoshi, six, and his nine-year-old sister,

Otsumi—neither, of course, old enough to do any real work. Her

husband, wounded in battle, was capable of nothing but sitting by the

hearth and staring into the space beneath the hanging teakettle, even in

summer when there was no fire. Those things... I'd feel better if they were

burned, she thought. Leaning against a wall of the shed was a spear with

a black oak shaft, above which hung a foot-soldier's helmet and what

seemed to be part of an old suit of armor. In the days when her husband

had gone off to battle, this equipment has been the best he had. It was

now covered with soot and, like her husband, useless. Every time she

looked at she felt nothing but disgust. The thought of war made her

shudder (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 9)

The case of a Samurai family tumbling down into poverty is also shown

through the fate of Horio Tanomo who previously served Oda Nobunaga’s

father, Nobuhide and died in battlefield leaving his son and his wife living in

poverty at the middle of the mountains nearby Inabayama Castle where

Hideyoshi happens to stumble upon during his expedition. The novel

describes how the house which Tanomo’s son and wife live in was nothing

more than a peasant’s house, and terribly run-down. Tanomo’s son, Mosuke


36

along with his mother had to scrape out a living by hunting in the winter and

making charcoal.

The Japanese wealth is counted through rice brussels which are the core

produce which provides the living of the society during this time; it’s equal as

an amount of money. During the feudal era, feudal lords or Daimyōs control

each of their domains which often causes wars as do each feudal lords. This

control of land that is conducted by each feudal lord is not interpreted as

slavery, yet it is an exchange of freedom on a land. What caused the peasants

to suffer in this era is most likely the external conflict between feudal lords

who continuously fought for power over each other.

This is a key point of when the first conflict arose. With the famine which

arose amongst the peasants and lack of aid from their lords, The peasant along

with a Samurai from Sasaki clan had planned an uprising with the support of

troops from the Kannoji Castle and the warrior-monks in order to take down

the power of Nobunanga by taking advantage of the internal chaos of the fight

between the Oda clan with Asai clan, a clan who was lead by Oda

Nobunaga’s brother-in-law, Asai Nagamasa.

Nobunaga had been thinking about his brother-in-law's punishment ever

since his return to Kyoto. A secret report had been handed to Nobunaga in

the dead of night. It informed him that Sasaki Rokkaku had fomented a

peasant uprising with the support of Kannonji Castle and the warrior-

monks. Taking advantage of the chaos and acting in concert with the Asai,

Rokkaku was aiming to crush Nobunaga with a single blow (Yoshikawa,

2001, p. 457).


37

As seen above, the peasant uprising wasn’t taking long as Nobunaga’s

troops had pointed to wiping off the rebellion act by destroying the defense of

Asai Nagamasa and the Sasaki clan who guarded the troops. Nobunaga

manages to defeat his enemies and eventually put the peasant uprising into the

end. The role of Nobunaga as the Warrior class in this novel drives a

significant point that in feudal government, there needs to be an establishment

of power of which party is stronger than another. Although the establishment

power doesn’t always sits right in the eyes of the lower class, the peasant

uprising done by the previous enemies of the Oda clan is a form of protest to

the shogun on how they are firmly disappointed by the power which

Nobunaga had infamously grew in the country.

2. The War between the Daimyō and the Samurai of Mount Hiei

That Sengoku Era or the era of Warring states marks the beginning of the

re-unification across Japan can also be interpreted as to put a unified power or a

more fixed government across Japan between all classes. During the time,

Sōhei or warrior monks were a powerful group who are also on the side with

the Peasant class by representing Buddhism as their core value of life. The

influence of the warrior monks was not always seen as keen in the Warrior

class, due to their loyalty to their temple and their power over the peasant class.

The warrior-monks of the feudal era are particularly a different section of the

feudal social chart. They can be either good or bad for the Warrior class itself.

Sampled below is a view of the warrior-monks in the eyes of the Warrior class.


38

Hideyoshi cocked his head to one side and said, "Well, now. It is not the

Takeda of kai, who are always lying in wait at your rear, or the Asai or

Asakura clan. Lord Ieyasu is someone to be careful of, but he's an

intelligent man and so shouldn't be feared altogether. The Matsunaga and

Miyoshi are like flies, and there are plenty of rotting things for them to

swarm around, as it's their nature to go after the dying. Your only really

troublesome enemies are the warrior-monks of the Honganji, but they don't

trouble my lord much yet, I think. That only leaves one person."

(Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 465)

As to Hideyoshi’s note in discussion with Oda Nobunaga above, the

warrior-monks were the troublesome enemies, although their existence were

not as troublesome as the shogun, the leading role of the Warrior class and the

direct descendants of the Ashikaga Shogunate.

"He's neither an enemy nor ally. You have to show him respect, but if that's

all you do, you might quickly become trapped. He's a two-faced

apparition—oh, dear, I've spoken improperly. Aren't we talking about the

shogun?"

"Right. But don't mention this to anyone." Nobunaga's anxiety was about

this man, who was indeed truly neither friend nor foe: Yoshiaki, the

shogun. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 465)

In dismay, why was the Shogun, the leading head of the Warrior class had

also shown an immerse threat upon Oda Nobunaga? The real answer is of

course on the duplicity and yet difference which exists between Oda Nobunaga

and Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

Duplicity is always found hidden away in places where one would least

imagine it to be. Yoshiaki’s and Nobunaga's characters were not matched

at all; their educations were different, so were their beliefs. As long as

Nobunaga had helped him, Yoshiaki treated Nobunaga as a benefactor. But

once he had warmed the shogun's seat a little, his gratitude turned to

loathing

"The bumpkin is annoying," Yoshiaki was heard to say. He began to avoid

Nobunaga, and even regarded him as a stumbling block, whose authority


39

exceeded his own. He was not, however, brave enough to bring matters out

into the open and fight him. Yoshiaki's nature was completely negative.

And, opposed to Nobunaga's positiveness, it played itself out in secrecy to

the very end. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 466).

Throughout their relationship described above, Yoshiaki had claimed how

he finds Nobunaga as an annoyance and had even claimed him as a stumbling

rock. Yoshiaki had converse with the emissary from the warrior-monks of the

Honganji, a temple in Kyoto in a bitter expression of Nobunaga, claiming him

as arrogant and high-handed. Following their two impressions of each other,

Nobunaga had been waiting on a meeting on the same day to Yoshiaki’s arrival

in the capital as told from the citation below.

On the very same day, in another part of the palace, Nobunaga was waiting

for Yoshiaki in order to announce his arrival in the capital. Yoshiaki

composed himself, assumed an air of complete innocence, and went into

the reception room to meet with Nobunaga. "I hear that the battle of the

Ane River was a splendid victory for you. Yet another example of your

military prowess. Congratulations! This is a happy event indeed."


On the other hand, the Peasant class plots a revolution with the help of

warrior monks to take down Nobunaga’s army in Mount Hiei. This is where the

climax of the story took place. Mount Hiei is an important landmark which

affects the political shift between Nobunaga and Yoshiaki.

Mount Hiei was the headquarters of the Tendai sect; the Honganji was the

principal stronghold of the Ikko sect. Each called the other "the other sect"

in matters of doctrine, and it was only in their opposition to Nobunaga that

they were united. If Nobunaga had not had a moment's rest, it was because

of the schemes of the men dressed in monks' robes, living on Mount Hiei.

They had plotted with the Asai and Asakura clans and the shogun, helped

enemies defeated by Nobunaga, sent secret calls for assistance as far as

Echigo and Kai, and even incited peasant revolts in Owari. (Yoshikawa,

2001, p. 493).


40

The importance of Mount Hiei around this time was due to the stronghold

of religious power in Japan and a place where the large influence of the

warrior-monks spread across the country. For Nobunaga, the rise of movement

aided by the warrior-monks is his biggest threat as it involves the previously

defeated enemies of him and the peasants who disguised themselves in monk-

robes claiming to be warriors who essentially fought for their belief, Ikko-Ikki.

Thus, naming them the Ikko sect. The warrior-monks play a key role in the

conflict as they are not only troublesome enemies but also, they had been a

group who had appealed the most to the lower class. The Samurai of the Ikko

sect were the one who attacked Oda clan on the way to Kyoto.

That evening, accompanied by a few retainers and a force of only three

hundred men, Nobunaga followed the pathless valleys and ravines and

rode all night toward Kuchikidani. They were attacked countless times by

the warrior-monks of the Ikko sect and local bandits, and for two days and

nights they went without food or drink, or sleep (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 449).

By definition, the belief of Ikko-Ikki itself has been seen as problematic in

the eyes of the Warrior class, especially to Nobunaga. Their beliefs were easily

spread as they have massive influence on the citizens of Mount Hiei.

Ikko means single minded or devoted and the followers of this sect (called

monto) were fanatical in their worship of Amida the supreme Buddha who

they believed would welcome followers into paradise on their death.

Despite this being of the Jodo sect they welcomed all and did not insist on

any meditation or any other intellectual path to salvation, which also

appealed to the masses. The monks of this sect were also not required to be

celibate or become withdrawn from the material world so were able to mix

with the peasants more easily. Ikki means league but can also mean mob or

riot and it was through rioting mobs that the Samurai first became aware of

the sect (Dugdale Pointon, 2005).


41

Finding out the involvement of the Shogun with the warrior-monks,

Nobunaga is convinced to take down the warrior-monks of Mount Hiei. At the

same time, the Shogun along with the warrior-monks along with the men under

them despised Nobunaga’s power; in fact, this is the reason why many people

are determined to put down Nobunaga. Nobunaga himself was famously known

for his ambitions as proven by his crowning achievements to overtake most of

his opponents. The same goes to the men who are under his lordship. The

reason why many men disliked Nobunaga was also caused by the widespread

uprising amongst the peasant was caused by rumors of Nobunaga’s malicious

propaganda.

Nobunaga had anticipated that they would ally themselves with the

Miyoshi clan, and that the weak shogun would be seduced to their side. He

had also expected that malicious propaganda would be spread among the

common people, and that this would most likely set off a popular uprising

against him. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 468)

The war itself finally ended in the climax of the war between Nobunaga

and the allies of the warrior-monks helped by men from Asai and Asakura

clans. When Nobunaga had defeated the clans along with the peasant uprisings,

he had known that he needed to do more than defeating his enemies. Thus the

idea of the siege had arose, he had realized that Mount Hiei itself had become a

barrier for the rebellion to hide. When his enemies had retreated to Mount Hiei,

Nobunaga was personally insulted. He remembered how Mount Hiei had built

its first temple. The temple itself was a symbol for serenity of the Buddha with

His protection. To Nobunaga, he had seen it differently.


42

When the Tendai sect had been introduced to Japan from China, Saint

Dengyo, who built the first temple on Mount Hiei, had chanted, "May the

light of the merciful Buddha give its divine protection to the timbers that

we raise up in this place." Was the lamp of the Law lit on this holy peak so

that the monks could force their petitions on the Emperor in Kyoto? Was it

so that they could interfere with the government and grow ever more

powerful with special privileges? Was it so they could ally themselves with

warlords, conspire with laymen, and throw the country into confusion?

Was the lamp lit so that the Law of Buddha might be accoutered with

armor and helmet, and line the entire mountain with warriors' spears, guns,

and war banners? (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 473).

In the feudal system of 16th century Japan, there we no clear authority of

the figurehead, although the emperor has been put on top of the class tier, the

emperor had loosen his glory as the war between states runs throughout the

country. This is what Nobunaga thinks of the country. He had thought that the

country had grown stranded away from what they believe in.

Nobunaga looked at the towering mountain and thought, It's here. It's not

the mountain that is my enemy; it's the mountain's special privileges. He

saw it in a new light now. From ancient times, through the reigns of

successive emperors, how much had the tradition and special privileges of

the mountain troubled and pained the country's rulers and the common

people? Was there even the faintest glimmer of the real Buddha on the

mountain? (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 472)

Mount Hiei to Nobunaga was a fallacy towards Buddhism. To him, he had

seen how the Mount had gained a very significant privilege in the country by

bringing the name of Buddha to their war. Nobunaga was outraged when he

saw this act was supported by the Shogun himself, the ruler of the military

supremacy during the feudal era.

With the perception of Mouth Hiei in the country, it is possible that when

there is a situation changing in Mount Hiei, it would gather a lot of attention.

Thus,on the same day of the second wave of the war in Mount Hiei, Nobunaga


43

had ordered his men to surround the Mount Hiei, an unusual strategy for

Nobunaga, he settled an agreement through one of his retainers who is a friend

of the warrior-monk’s abbot, Ittetsu. The agreement was to convince the

opposing team to surrender to Nobunaga and the warrior-monks to return back

to their disciples by throwing away their weapons or Nobunaga would burn the

place to the ground. In Nobunaga’s strategy he sought the agreement as a

rational goal that can be solved through a less violence approach. Yet, this

agreement was never settled and the abbot had sent Ittetsu back. Knowing how

the settlement was ignored, Nobunaga had for see that violence needs to be

justified as a conduct of power. Therefore, their war later continued in the siege

of Mount Hiei, little-by-little Nobunaga’s men set fire to the main temple, and

let it spread across Mount Hiei. The warrior-monks were forced to work

frantically at night to keep the flames from spreading to other large temples.

When the sun came up, the warrior-monks were busy pulling up their defenses

against Nobunaga’s troops leading to the food and supply crisis.

In the twelfth month, the abbot who previously had mocked and disagreed

with surrender went down to Nobunaga’s camp and pleaded for peace.

Nobunaga wasn’t forgiving at this point and decapitated the man and told the

other men who were with him to return to their place with the head of the

abbot.

When Nobunaga appeared, he saw that it was Sonrin, the abbot who had

previously met with Ittetsu. He brought the message that, because the

views of the main temple had changed, he would like to plead for peace.


44

Nobunaga refused. "What did you say to the envoy I sent before? Don't

you know what shame is?" Nobunaga drew his sword.

"This is an outrage!" the priest cried. He stood up and tottered sideways as

Nobunaga's sword flashed horizontally."Pick up his head and go back.

That's my answer!" (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 476)

His decision to decapitate the abbot was a form of resistance. In

Nobunaga’s idea, when he had settled a peace agreement, it would be a form of

a chance that the abbot might return to take him down as previously planned by

the abbot along with his men from Asai and Asakura clans. He soon sent a

letter to the Shogun despite Hideyoshi’s suspicion of the Shogun and the fact of

the relation between the Shogun and the Warrior-monks.

On the last note of the argument, the researcher would like to point out the

situation during Nobunaga’s military supremacy. Buddhism wasn’t the only

weapon which the warrior-monks of Mount Hiei used to persuade and

encourage rebellion of the peasants. The usage of Buddhism for horrendous

acts inflicted the anger of Nobunaga which sprouted out the idea of burning

down the entire mountain and its citizens. This idea wasn’t all agreed by

Nobunaga’s men however, Sakuma Nobumori, one of Nobunaga’s retainers

appears to have strongly disagreed with burning down the entire mountain as to

eliminate the warrior-monks who resided in Mount Hiei.

"You're being heartless, my lord. It's not that we don't understand, but

when you've given us an outrageous order—to burn down Mount Hiei, a

place respected for hundreds of years as holy ground dedicated to the peace

and preservation of the country—as your retainers—and precisely because

we are your retainers—there is all the more reason why we should not

obey you," Sakuma Nobumori said (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 492).


45

In Nobumori’s argument, he judged the decision of his own Daimyō. He

thinks the idea was an entirely outrageous order to the holy ground. But

Nobunaga disputed the argument, he reputed that the act of the warrior-monks

is Mount Hiei and a misuse of the common people. This form of action can be

seen as a rational negotiation between Nobumori and Nobunaga in order to

handle the situation of Mount Hiei.

"Have you not felt indignation when you watched the insurrections and this

disgraceful state of affairs? Monks transgress the Laws of the Buddha, stir

up the common people, store wealth and weapons, and spread rumors;

under the guise of religion, they are nothing more than self-serving

agitators." (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 492)

Nobunaga questions the face of Buddha from the warrior-monks. He had

seen the act of anti-Buddhism in warrior-monks. Nobunaga continued in his

argument with Nobumori that the monks themselves had used the donated

money to build stone walls and gates to benefit a fortress and hoard guns and

spears for their own sake, to make matters worse, the monks had flaunt their

wealth by eating meat and taking part in sexual intercourses. These facts were

not disputed by Nobumori and the other retainers; it was true that the monks

had done worse and far from the teaching of Buddhism. With no one else brave

enough to argue with Nobunaga’s order to burn the entire mountain; they had

decided to end the war between the Oda clan and the warrior-monks along with

the peasants by the siege of Mount Hiei through force. Nobunaga himself had

counted and considered how his actions would be frowned upon by the entire

Japan yet, he is willing to take any risks that come at hand, at least, to him, by


46

eliminating the strongest party, he established himself to the whole country as a

man who burned down the holy land.

3. The Conflict between Oda Nobunaga and Shogun Yoshiaki

As previously quoted in Lewis Coser’s theory of conflict, every conflict

has its start and varies, most importantly, how it effects to the society. In this

section of the thesis, the researcher will discuss the further effect of the conflict

that lasted in the siege of Mount Hiei.

When the Oda clan arrived in the capital after burning down Mount Hiei,

Nobunaga was seen as the demon king who had destroyed Buddhism. On the

other hand, with the defeat of Mount Hiei’s warrior-monks along with the Asai

and Asakura clan , the Shogun had nothing else to defend himself. For a while,

he had proclaimed that he was not scared of Nobunaga and he was considerably

confident as a shogun. Little to his knowledge, Nobunaga had seen the errors

which the shogun had made, he had encouraged a rebellion and disrupted the

peace of the country, an opposite action of the duty of a Shogun.

"Shogun Yoshiaki is a crafty politician. He fidgets about, bestowing favors

on the people, and indirectly makes them fear you. He's made good

propaganda out of the burning of Mount Hiei, and seems to be inciting

other religious groups to rebellion." (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 525)

In discussion with his lord, Hideyoshi points out the error of the Shogun

and expresses his concern which Nobunaga agreed with. Nobunaga himself had

notices how the shogun took advantage of the peasant uprising and the power

of the warrior-monks as a set of weapon and abuses his status as a military


47

supremacy to overtake the power of the Oda clan instead of giving a more

proper counter argument against Nobunaga’s action to Mount Hiei.

“More than that, he's taking a rather extravagant view of the remaining

powers of the shogunate. In a period of transition, a cataclysm separates

past and future. Almost all of those who perish are those who, because of

their blind attachment to the past, fail to realize that the world has

changed." (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 526)

Hideyoshi had also mentioned how there is a period of change that is

beginning to happen in the country. He views the shogun’s action as an act of

denial of the war which he had lost to. The shogun failed to realize how his

encouragement and unethical actions towards the peasant uprising and the

warrior-monks was not a rightful decision to create a unification of a country.

From the hypothesis which Hideyoshi claimed in his discussion with

Nobunaga, it was seen that the feudal system in Japan had shown more

controlled authorities by eliminating the warring states into two strong

strongholds, The Oda clan and the Shogun.

B. The Impact of the Conflict towards the Feudal System in Japan

From the start of the feudal era, Shogun is an important role and a

powerful influence as a military supremacy. It seemed logical that he was easy

to persuade people and create propaganda to justify that Oda Nobunaga himself

was a true enemy of the country. The impact of the conflict that happened

preciously is the downfall of the Shogun’s authority and the rising of

Nobunaga’s supremacy.


48

The key point of the fall back of the Shogun was also marked by the death

of the Shingen, a Daimyō of the Kai province who is more respected compared

to the Shogun himself.

For many years Shingen had assumed he was the best warrior in eastern

Japan. Certainly, the efficiency of his troops and of his province's economy

and administration were respected by the whole country (Yoshikawa,

2001, p. 482).

Based on the level of respect he received from the country, it was no doubt

that he was a powerful opponent for Nobunaga, yet they ever had even fought

against each other as his province was busy fighting against the neighboring

province, Echigo led by a well-known Samurai named Uesugi Kenshin. The

battle itself had taken a large number of resources and by the time he had to

fight against Nobunaga, the warrior-monks who had supposed to assist his

troops from Mount Hiei had been defeated by Nobunaga. The Shingen later on

had a war to Mikawa, Tokugawa Ieyasu’s province. It was widely known that

Tokugawa Ieyasu was close to Nobunaga and thus the existence of the power

from the Shigen was also a big threat to Nobunaga.

Like all of Nobunaga’s opponents who have been defeated, Shingen took a

side with the Shogun and assisted to take down Nobunaga. In a fortunate

circumstance to Nobunaga’s favor, the Shingen was shot dead before he

reached Kyoto and the message of his death was eventually brought by one of

Oda’s alliance, Watanabe Tenzo who purposefully spied on the Shingen

beforehand. Although, according to the history there are only speculations and

very little information about the existence of the ninja called ‘Watanabe Tenzo’


49

(written: 渡辺天蔵 in Kanji), the character of Watanabe Tenzo definitely

brings a very prominent result to the story progression. Watanabe Tenzo’s role

during the time as Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s agent was enough to ensure

Nobunaga that the death of Shingen and the military supremacy had finally

bestowed upon their hands.

For a moment, Nobunaga's eyes widened and he looked straight at

Hideyoshi's face. If it was true that Shingen was dead, the course of the

nation was going to change very quickly. Nobunaga felt as though the tiger

at his back had suddenly disappeared, and he was shocked. He wanted to

believe this story, but at the same time he could not. As soon as he heard

the news, he felt an incredible surge of relief, and an indescribable joy

welled up inside of him.

"If this is true, a very gifted general has left this world," Nobunaga said.

"And from now on history has been entrusted into our hands." His

expression was not nearly as complex as Hideyoshi's. In fact, he looked as

though he had just been served the main course at a meal. (Yoshikawa,

2001, p. 526)

With the relief on Nobunaga’s side, he could finally establish a more

political focus upon the country. Nobunaga was also confident about the future

of the country. As his opponents are decreasing and his political influence

became more known in the country, Nobunaga along with his retainers didn’t

take a long time to decide to take on the Shogun’s troops and overtake the

capital, ending the warring states and putting his military supremacy to unify

the country.

The unification of Japan itself began with the concept of a new form of

feudalism. In discussion of the previous events reflection on feudalism before

Oda Nobunaga supremacy was far from unification of a country. After the


50

death of Shingen and the fall back of the current shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki

mentioned his delay on the reply for the seventeen articles regarding his fault as

a shogun.

These men had a big problem: they had not yet given a clear answer to the

seventeen-article document that Nobunaga had sent to Yoshiaki on New

Year's Day. In it, Nobunaga had itemized all his grievances against

Yoshiaki. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 531)

In the citation above, ‘These men’ referring to the people under the

Shogun’s watchful eyes were having troubles facing Nobunaga’s army.

Nobunaga has made Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to fall straight into his trap, by

providing him his faults as a politician accompanied by Yoshiaki’s ignorance

of his faults, claiming that he was in fact still the Shogun and assuming

submitting to nonentity such as Nobunaga unnecessary. It was clear such a

politician denies his fault and holds on his own ludicrous illusion that he wasn’t

about to fall is a sign that he was in fact on the fact of his own ruin.

As in regards to the Shogun’s men, they were incapable of not knowing

their own value as a warrior. What had appeared in the Japanese culture during

this era was their narrow view of their own culture which only surrounds the

capital and believed that it prevailed more rather than viewing the common

sense of the culture in each prefecture. The sad truth of the situation in this era,

according to the novel, clan warriors entrusting themselves to cramped policies

of the past, relied on warrior-monks of the Honganji and other Samurai

warlords throughout the provinces who hated Nobunaga to survive the war

against Nobunaga. Thus, when their time had come to an end, they’re worried.


51

When Nobunaga’s army had arrived in Osaka to vent of the warrior-monks of

the Honganji, he had also sent an envoy to pressure the response of the

seventeen articles regarding Yoshiaki’s administration.

"We can strike anytime we like," he said. At this point he wanted most

strongly to avoid any unnecessary expenditure of military strength. And,

until this time, he had repeatedly sent envoys to Kyoto asking for a

response to the Seventeen Articles. So, this was a sort of ultimatum.

Yoshiaki took a highhanded view: he was shogun and he simply did not

feel like listening to Nobunaga's opinions of his administration.


In ignorance of Nobunaga’s power in the country, Yoshiaki still taken his

status as a Shogun as a defense from the seventeen articles which had been

presented, amongst them, there are two articles which pressured him further,

one is his crime of disloyalty towards the emperor and the second one

regarding his disgraceful conduct by initiating rebellion from the provinces,

thus providing a riot and disrupting the peace of the country.

When Nobunaga retreated from Osaka to come to Kyoto, the Shogun

thinks it was a victory on his side. To his surprise, Nobunaga had arrived in

Kyoto to pressure him further about the seventeen articles. Yoshiaki was

flabbergasted; he was clueless of Nobunaga’s arrival along with his army. In

the absence of war cry and gunshots, Nobunaga waited for the response.

Yoshiaki consoles his Mibuchi Yamato, his senior advisor. Yamato himself

realized that the era had changed and started to question his Shogun’s authority.

He views that the Shogun himself was blinded by his own authority and

seemingly believed that Yoshiaki is not worth saving. Despite that, he did not

choose to take side with Nobunaga, he had lived long, and he had passed fifty


52

years old when he decided to give Yoshiaki a choice whether he will fight

against Nobunaga or sue for peace. Helpless on his own, Yoshiaki sued for

peace to Nobunaga. Only a hundred days later, Yoshiaki returns back to his old

habits, knowing that Nobunaga would take his head eventually, Yoshiaki

escaped the capital to entrenched himself in Uji, a small city between Kyoto

and Nara. When Nobunaga finally caught the Shogun, it was clear that the

Ashikaga Shogunate had met its end. Begging himself to be killed by

Nobunaga, Yoshiaki had made a fool of himself by agreeing to take

Nobunaga’s offer to go to exile. He was stripped down out of his status, no

matter where he ran to, he had lost the respect from the people around him.

Not wanting to play host to a bothersome, defeated aristocrat, however,

Yoshitsugu soon made him feel uneasy, saying, "I think you're going to be

in danger if you stay here much longer. Nobunaga could change his mind

at the slightest provocation and have your head cut off." Yoshiaki left in a

hurry and went to Kii, where he tried to incite the warrior monks of

Kumano and Saiga to rebel, promising them grandiose favors in return for

striking Nobunaga down. Using the name and dignity of his office, he did

nothing more than bring down upon himself the derision and laughter of

the people. It was rumored that he did not stay long in Kii, but soon

crossed into Bizen and became a dependent of the Ukita clan. (Yoshikawa,

2001, p. 537)

Having no military head, Nobunaga started to take his influence as a military

supremacy. With the exile of the shogun, a new era has started. In the new era,

Nobunaga has taken his focus upon the unification of the country. Yet, his

struggle with the other Warrior class especially was not the end.

The eyes of the people were opened wide at Nobunaga's actions. But even

though they looked up at the deep blue sky, all the thick clouds had not yet

dispersed. Nobody could guess what would happen next. During the past

two or three years several key men had passed away. Two years before

both Mori Motonari, the lord of the largest domain in western Japan, and


53

Hojo Ujiyasu, then master of eastern Japan, had died. But for Nobunaga

these events did not carry nearly as great a significance as the death of

Takeda Shingen and the exile of Yoshiaki. To Nobunaga, it was especially

the death of Shingen—who had constantly threatened him from the

north—that left him free to concentrate his strength in one direction, a

direction that made more fighting and chaos almost inevitable. There was

certainly no doubt that, after the demise of the shogunate, the warrior clans

in every province would raise their banners and compete to be the first to

enter the field. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 538)

After Nobunaga managed to put the previous shogun into exile with the

spread of, the entire country knows that the position of a new shogun has just

opened up. The Warrior class in the feudal era had raced to the position, by that

means, they have to fight against Nobunaga and for those who are in alliance

with Nobunaga take their advantage to show their power by securing their

territories. This includes the Tokugawa clan.

In the plot of the story with the accordance of the history, Nobunaga did

not take the part of becoming the shogun, instead he was busy on a war with

the Takeda clan in Nagashino, along with his ally, Tokugawa Ieyasu in order to

defeat all of his rivals to create a new revolutionary era. After winning the war

of Nagashino, Nobunaga devised a plan with Hideyoshi to initiate a hunt of

weaponry amongst the Peasant class to eliminate the potential of rebellion and

the rising of warrior-monks.

In momentary bliss, Nobunaga settled down in Nijo Castle, a place where

the Shogun used to live. With the downfall of Takeda Shingen’s clan, the

emperor appointed Nobunaga to be the court rank of Councillor, making him

the General of Right. By his status, he finally established a new headquarters in

Azuchi Castle, as a start of a new beginning to conquer Japan.


54

After studying the foolishness of the shoguns, Nobunaga did not even

consider setting up a government in Kyoto. That had been the old state of

affairs. Azuchi was closer to his ideal: from there he could guard against

the provinces to the west as well as check the advances of Uesugi Kenshin

from the north. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 610)

With his power finally established, Nobunaga had high plans, his initial

plan was to build a castle to establish the new form of government. Through the

citation below, the new establishment of the castle was organized not only to

impress other Daimyōs yet also a well-planned establishment both for the

people and to Nobunaga’s convenience. The castle was built close to the

capital thus making it easier for Nobunaga to oversee other lords, in this sense,

his current foes, the Uesugi clan from north, Takeda clan from east and Mori

clan from west which previously had their own respective feuds towards

Nobunaga’s alliances and including Nobunaga himself.

Nobunaga, it seemed, had already designed the structure and scale of the

castle in his head. He drew a line with his finger. "It's going to stretch from

here to here. We'll build a town around the castle at the bottom of the

mountain, with a quarter for the merchants that will be better organized

than in any other province in Japan," he said. "I'm going to devote all the

resources I have to this castle. I've got to have something here imposing

enough to overawe all the other lords. It won't be extravagant, but it's going

to be a castle that will have no equal in the Empire. My castle will combine

beauty, function, and dignity.” (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 610)

With the involvement of the craftsmen and construction workers across

Japan, the construction of Azuchi castle started. Amongst all, a famous artist,

Kano Eitoku stands out to illustrate the doors, sliding partitions and ceilings as

a form of light towards the world of Japanese traditional arts after years of

decline due to the civil war. This is the one mark of the rising of the Japanese


55

identity in a cultural sense. As written in W.G. Beasley’s book about The Rise

of Modern Japan, that the Feudalism in Japan after time to time was to be found

with sufficient identity and analogy in all of its leading features to make the

coincidence striking. Azuchi castle is not just a form of a physical military

supremacy. Azuchi castle was built not in entirely Japanese style, it was a

mixture of Japanese, South Barbarian and Chinese. To him, as quoted in his

speech towards the Uesugi Kenshin’s old-fashioned letter of challenge.

“All of the changes in weaponry and strategy in the last decade have

brought us into a new world. How could anyone say the art of war hasn't

changed too? He's probably laughing at my retreat as cowardice, but I can't

help laughing at the fact that his outdated thinking is inferior to that of my

artisans and craftsmen.” (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 619).

In his words, Nobunaga argued that it was unnecessary to conduct civil

war. He continued that time had changed and there should be change in both

politics and the culture in society itself yet the message did not sit well to other

parties, thus making periods of civil war continues on, even throughout the

history, Nobunaga along with his trusted retainer, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had

taken their main focus upon a more diplomatic matters through social

influences with other lords in their alliances. The Mori clan however, did just

the same as they have an extended influence over twenty provinces.

Unfortunately, Nobunaga has never finally achieved the goal he wanted,

his clan had fallen apart as seven years during their cold-war against Mori clan,

and by a coincidence or for reasons of military expediency, one of Nobunaga’s

generals, Araki Murashige, betrayed his lord and joined the enemy camp,

raising the banner of rebellion right at Oda’s feet (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 662).


56

The one who noticed the rebellion was Hideyoshi, he knew if he had told

Nobunaga, he would be furious as Nobunaga himself had taken much

recognition upon Murashige’s valor. In order to console, Hideyoshi had thought

about telling Nobunaga his acknowledgement upon the sudden rebellion to

Ranmaru.

"There were rumors about this sort of thing before," Ranmaru said. "The

story goes that one of Lord Murashige's retainers was selling army rice to

the warrior monks of the Honganji. There's a shortage of rice in Osaka.

The land road has been cut for the most part, and the sea routes have been

blockaded by our fleet, so there is not even the prospect of transporting

provisions with the Mori's warships. The price of rice has gone way up,

and if a man sells rice there, he can make an immense profit. That's just

what Lord Murashige's retainer did, and when the affair was exposed, Lord

Murashige took the initiative and unfurled the flag of rebellion, fearing that

he would be questioned about this crime by Lord Nobunaga anyway."


Ranmaru analyzed that the reason why Murashige ran to revolt and declare

rebellion was because of the economical affair which he had with the enemy,

although this rumor once disregarded by Ranmaru and Hideyoshi, Nobunaga

believed that it was true. However, Murashige was not the only one who in

later story would go against Nobunaga and started a rebellion.

In 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide, one of Nobunaga’s trusted generals decided to

take a decision to go against him.

While he had been in Sakamoto, he had wavered: Should he go ahead with

the plan or scrap it? But this morning, when he heard the second report, his

hair had suddenly stood on end. In his heart he had resolved that the time

was now, and that heaven had sent him this opportunity. Nobunaga,

accompanied by only forty or fifty lightly armed men, was staying at the

Honno Temple in Kyoto. The demon that possessed Mitsuhide whispered

to him that it was a unique opportunity (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 850).


57

As told in the quotation above, the rebellion of Mitsuhide was rather not

planned before; he only seeks the opportunity where his lord is in his weak

position. The core reason of why he did so is debatable, yet in most likely that

throughout the novel, Mitsuhide was treated badly by Nobunaga although he

had responded to him out of respect multiple times.

In all of his fifty-four years, Mitsuhide had never relied on his own wisdom

the way he was doing now. Although objectively he would have had every

reason to doubt his own judgment, subjectively he felt exactly the opposite.

I haven't made the smallest mistake, Mitsuhide said to himself: No one

could suspect what's on my mind (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 850)

In quotation above, it is shown how Mitsuhide has been no more than loyal

to his lord, but he himself doubted the plan itself. When Mitsuhide is

encountered by his cousin in his future plans, he claimed that he had gone over

how Nobunaga treated him, most importantly how Nobunaga treated the

previous incidents. These thoughts he discussed with his cousin are what made

him feel assured to betray his lord.

"Nobunaga rose against the shogun. And everyone knows how much bad

karma accumulated from burning down Mount Hiei. Look what befell his

senior retainers-Hayashi, Sakuma, Araki. I cannot think of their tragic fates

as other people's affairs." (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 861).

To his quote, he is aware that Nobunaga’s position in the current feudal

system yet Mitsuhide couldn’t help but pity the enemies which Nobunaga had

taken down especially the tragedy which happened in Mount Hiei. He

eventually gave out his grudge and went to raid against Nobunaga in an


58

unexpected way. Mitsuhide’s rebellion was recorded as ‘The Honno-ji Incident’

(World, 2017).

As Nobunaga’s supremacy rose in the capital, he began to send his

generals across Japan in an expansionist campaign to overtake the entire Japan

including Mitsuhide who were sent to aid Hideyoshi to Takamatsu castle. It

was around the celebration of the defeat of Takeda clan when Mitsuhide took it

upon himself to take his troops to Honno castle and attack Nobunaga in his

usual resting place in Kyoto. Eventually, the castle was burned down to ashes,

taking Nobunaga’s corpse along with it. However, Nobunaga did not die from

the attack, and more so, he took it upon himself to commit seppuku after

realizing that the situation had become dire. The death of Nobunaga is a form

of retreat which he would not submit to Mitsuhide’s troops.

C. The Effect of the Conflict towards Current Society

In this section of the Thesis, the searcher discussed how the conflict itself

depicted by the writer of the novel gave effect on the current era and the

relevance of this novel’s conflict to the real world.

No one knew me as he did, Hideyoshi thought. In his last moments in the

flames of the Honno Temple, he must have called out to me in his heart

and left me with a trust. Insignificant as I am, I am not going to turn my

back on my lord and his trust in me. Thus, Hideyoshi made a pledge to

himself. It was not a vain lamentation. His belief was simple: just before

Nobunaga had died, he had left Hideyoshi with his dying instructions.



59

As shown in the quotation above, although the death of Nobunaga had

passed, his legacy continues on in the hands of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who

continued his conquest to conquer Japan starting from continuing what his

lord had planned for the future of Japan.

Hideyoshi gave his final instructions to his retainers in Himeji Castle:

"Victory and defeat are in the hands of fate, but if I should be struck down

by Mitsuhide, set fire to the castle and make sure nothing remains. We

have to act bravely, following the example of the man who died at the

Honno Temple." (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 930)

In the quotation above, it proves that Hideyoshi did not just take upon

himself to plan to finish off Mitsuhide after what he had done to his Lord. His

form action to take revenge over Mitsuhide is a form of loyalty he had

persuaded over the years with Nobunaga.

The skills Hideyoshi had shown in the invasion of the western provinces

over the last five years had taught many of Nobunaga's other generals his

true value. Among those men were Niwa Nagahide, Nakagawa Sebei,

Takayama Ukon, and Ikeda Shonyu. They perceived Hideyoshi's loyalty

under such long adversity as unswerving devotion to their former lord


Hideyoshi’s loyalty to his lord amazed other lords. He was liked by many

lords due to this fact, thus gaining him support amongst the Warrior class.

Around the same time with Hideyoshi’s plan to take revenge on Mitsuhide,

Mitsuhide himself gained popularity amongst the previous opponent of

Nobunaga. Hideyoshi who in the previous year before Nobunaga’s death had

managed to settle a peace agreement with the Mori clan focuses his view onto

the redefinition of the class system in Japan.


60

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, in the legacy of Oda Nobunaga redefined the social

class through his actions on building the large Osaka castle as a center of

unified Japan, continuing to retract weaponry in the Peasant class, including

swords and the last of them had been the influence of religion in Japan during

the feudal era. Hideyoshi concerns about the country being divided into three

spheres of influence and how it might transform back to warring states.

Nobunaga was dead, Mitsuhide was dead, and there was the possibility that

the country would once again be divided into three spheres of influence, as

it had been before Nobunaga. Worse, family feuds and rival warlords

defending their own local interests might plunge the country into the chaos

of the last years of the shogunate. (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 968)

From the citation, the situation after Nobunaga and Mitsuhide had passed

on was more disheartening. Without anyone left to take the throne as a

military head, it has become a concern upon who will lead the country. In

later years, Hideyoshi was the one who took the job to spread his influence

and put feudal lords on their respectful places by establishing their military

power against other Samurai clans, making Toyotomi Hideyoshi as the

military head for a while, ending his status due to his death in 1598 and

putting Tokugawa Ieyasu to continue his legacy to conquer entire Japan.

The impact of the warring states takes many efforts to digest. However, the

researcher would like to stop by the quote below from epilogue as a sign of a

Daimyō who finally able to solidify the peace across Japan. Even if

Hideyoshi had lost over Ieyasu due to his background, it was rather a more

political exchange that gained Hideyoshi a title of Kampaku or government

official as shown below.


61

In the Tenth Month of the fourteenth year of Tensho, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu

met in Osaka Castle for a historic peace conference. Undefeated in the field,

Ieyasu nevertheless ceded the political victory to Hideyoshi. Two years

before, Ieyasu had sent his son as a hostage to Osaka, and now he took

Hideyoshi's sister as his bride. The patient Ieyasu would wait for his

chance—perhaps the bird would yet sing for him (Yoshikawa, 2001, p.

1256).

With many declines in both Cultural and Political aspects, Tokugawa

Ieyasu had many duties he must attend to after winning the national

hegemony by a victory over the lords of west Japan and become the Shogun,

making the Tokugawa clan as the heap of military supremacy. Over the

course of history, the Tokugawa clan successfully restored and maintained

law and order, including making policy to the administration of rural districts,

supervising finances and archives to service as attendants and messengers.

Unfortunately, with nothing left to fight for, many Samurais had taken their

duty as only garrison duties, which became a common complaint among

reformers that there were more jobs than work (Beasley, 1940, pp. 3-7). In the

same argument, the researcher agreed with W.G. Beasley presented upon

discussion of the Tokugawa legacy. There was a classic belief that the

Tokugawa society is one of the fixed stratifications: a descending hierarchy of

the Warrior class, farmer, artisan and merchant, yet, in reality this is

misleading. The most likely meaning of social stagnation which had been

executed by Hideyoshi is the existence of important distinctions between the

Warrior class and the rest. The Warrior class, though they’re left in charge of

governing their own prefectures was never involved in the day-to-day

management of agriculture, in fact this had become a proof to their economic


62

standing which often occurs on how the Japanese government runs its

political system.

As previously discussed in the description of the theory, this is where

Lewis Coser’s theory of conflict applied and X.J. Kennedy’s Historical

approach would also come into discussion. That in reflection of the historical

correlation between the novel’s conflict with the current socio-political

situation in Japan, the researcher analyzes the possibility of the cases that

happened in the 16th century as a reflection of modern-era Japan, the

indication as being the start of a revolution in a government system

throughout the history.

Mentioning the current society issues as described in the situation of

Japan, the researcher would like to look back to Taiko’s conflict of social

stagnation. As per quoted in X.J. Kennedy’s Historical approach, the work of

a literary work is seeking to understand literary work with a necessity of an

author’s milieu. In the case of Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko, this work was

originally made in the early 20th century before the translation that surfaced in

2001 (People Pill, 2020), thus the reflection of settings and the description of

era used in this novel is a part of the perception that the author has in his era.

The researcher believes that while this epic novel is not a complete accurate

representation of the 16th century Japan, it is necessary to see the facts that

had arose in the 16th century Japan had some similarities in the historical

records as discussed in the previous chapter. Thus, in this section, the


63

researcher observed the effect of the conflict happened in history to the

current state of socio-political system in Japan especially the era shift that

recently happened in 2019.

While the era of warring states has ended, there are fair points on why the

current Japanese social system has shown a stagnated diagram ever since the

era of Tokugawa. Without ignoring the fact that the era had changed and there

were neither more duties of the Samurais nor an existence of a shogun in

today’s era. The Japanese social system shows staggering similarities to their

feudal system which had seemed to take a peek upon today’s sociological

issues. As explained through Sugimoto’s book An Introduction to Japanese

Society, the main goal of Japan’s democracy is to preserve the cultural

essence which have been developed since the early times. On the contrary,

this is exactly what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had tried to achieve. By

reviving the spirit of the prewar period in which the highest constitution is

held by the emperor, his eventual plan is to show the glories of the emperor

by establishing a political standing. Without forgetting the achievement that

Shinzo Abe had brought to Japan, it is shown that his cause did not produce

significant support as it fails to resolve many problems which happened in the

country as many reported issues, such as issues with hikikomori are estimated

to keep increasing.

With the shrinking economy, low birth issues and an increase of elderly

deaths, Japan is in threat of losing more of their population, which means that


64

less population, less workers in the country. With fewer workers, more people

are exposed to Karoshi. These issues can also lead to more decrease of their

economy. To add more, the people who are in the lower class, such as the

working class are starting to lose faith in their government. This is a worrying

reality which needs to be issued before more damage is done.

The start of the conflict is embedded in the society’s view of the

government that reflects the general observations and reactions it had

produced by uninterested parties below the government class. If in feudal

Japan the authority of power is held by the shogun from the Warrior class

with the absence of unity of the country and a divide of authority between the

Shogun and Oda Clan. In the current era, the authority power is hold by the

government class with an absence of support from sixty percent of the

working class. In projection of Coser’s theory of conflict, the researcher can

say that the entitlement of government system can be seen as a structure that

function in a country, that is to produce a significant power that greatly

impacted both sides of the structure itself. In picturesque that in order to

govern, same with the power relation theory, both sides must be able to

support each other at ease. Along with knowing that logically it is impossible

to get a hundred percent optimism of the government system, the government

must at least win the heart of their people to decrease the absence of support.

Looking back to the conflict of the novel about the unification of Japan as

a whole country, the researcher would like to point out a key point of


65

relevance which counterpoints the attempt to return the constitution of Japan

to perceived glories of the prewar period. The researcher also ought to be

reminded by how the Japanese society runs as a collective and hierarchal

society, in which they appreciate the meaning of unification as a concept of

their lives. Not to mention about their belief in their philosophical concept of

Ningen Kankei as mentioned in Pratama’s observation. Through the conflict

which occurred in the past eras, it supposed to have become clear that there

are many flaws upon achieving the spirit of the past, even when the social

system had been stagnated for so long, it became apparent that the reflection

of a role which a warrior have can also be a lesson to the government, that in

their own ways of reflecting their duties needs to be a devotion that could at

least decrease and aid the situation of the people, instead of momentary

producing more ideas that did not fix major issues.

What had seemed to be a trouble for the country is the separation between

two sectors, the government and the people under their defying care As

mentioned by W.G. Beasley’s discussion about the role of the Warrior class:

the Warrior class are lacking in their involvement on a day-to-day basis in

their agriculture which causes a large misunderstanding between two sectors.

Which are also reflected through the current era? As quoted by the Guardian

on April 1, 2019, “Japanese society is no longer controlled by an emperor,”

Hiroshi Kozen, an emeritus professor of Chinese literature at Kyoto

University, told Kyodo. “The era system should reflect people’s desires, and

that should start with a discussion about why we need it,” (Guardian, 2019).


66

With the support of the change of era, compiled with numerous problems

that had face upon the Japanese society and the faith towards the government

which plummet, it has become relevant that the government, including Prime

minister, Shinzo Abe to start focusing their change towards sociological

issues and conducting more aid to social workers who had devote themselves

into helping other people in their country. This means abandoning the idea of

changing the political system to the past and start producing new ideas to fix

their views of democracy that can fit into the current era and are more

relevant than preserving the traditional ways.

The past events of the conflict between the Warrior class depicted from

Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko has a fair point to why the government should be

focusing more on their people’s needs and abandoning concepts which had

been deemed irrelevant. Nobunaga and Hideyoshi both agreed that running a

country needs a level of agreement between the people and the government.

Especially in an era of transition, which Hideyoshi argued that people who

kept being blind of their attachment to the past are threatened to be perished

by the flow of time.

Furthermore, to the argument, the researcher took a look upon Nobunaga’s

influence on the feudal system to Tokugawa as a part of discussion of the

current socio-political situation. While in Taiko itself, the role of Tokugawa

seemed to be shadowing behind the glories of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi

Hideyoshi rather than influential, it is during the Tokugawa Shogunate or the


67

Edo era that the current socio-political belief feels closer to. This is

correlating the situation of the Japanese feudal system during the Edo era

which is heavily influenced by the previous era. With the growing and

stability of the economy during the Tokugawa era, it has become a remarkable

achievement in Japan. But this is solely due to the rise of the Shogunate as a

political leader. While there is very little involvement ofthe emperor in their

political development. Which means, the emperor would recede even more

into the background as his position of the emperor has become almost a

formality (McReynolds, 1952, p. 109)

The idea of amae and enryo can also be implemented to the general

problem of the Japanese customs which resulted in many social problems

listed in the previous sub chapter. As seek in the reaction of the Japanese

people over the burn down of Mount Hiei, the researcher could say that it is

their way of society works. Not only that people in Japan are accustomed by a

collective manner but also a Hierarchal idea of living that translates to high

value appreciation of the holy land. For instance, the Japanese idea of privacy

is only deprived through these two ideas. In the Japanese word itself, there is

no direct translation of the word ‘privacy’. The thought process of a working

ethics and handling daily socialization in Japan is mostly conducted through a

high emphasis on group mentality which can be taken in a positive and

negative way. To further elaborate, the consciousness of the Japanese people

who are victims of the Karoshi are majorly caused by the mentality that


68

working overtime is considered as a good thing in the society. The reason of

Karoshi is mostly because of the Japanese society’s uniformed system.

This means that the more people appreciate the consideration of working

overtime produce a significant view of the entire society, while the effects of

this mentality is also perceived differently in the working class, what it could

prove is that there is a line of ambivalent feelings that arose amongst the

working class towards working overtime. These ambivalent feeling that arose

amongst the working class is not entirely new concept. In fact, according to

the novel, the feeling of ambivalent appears around the Samurai class due to

questioning their loyalty in their lords.

The general spread out some documents on the floor and opened the

conference by explaining them in outline. He had written a report on the

military and economic power of the Oda clan. "It's said to be a small clan,

but recently it would seem that its economy has rallied remarkably." As he

spoke, he showed diagrams to Yoshimoto. "Owari is said to be a united

province, but within its eastern and southern sections there are places, like

Iwakura Castle, which owe their allegiance to you, my lord. Additionally,

there are men who, although they are Oda retainers, are known to feel

ambivalendy about their loyalties. Thus, under the present circumstances,

the possessions of the Oda clan are less than one-half, possibly only two-

fifths, of all of Owari." (Yoshikawa, 2001, p. 255)

This different perspective can also be the cause of hikikomori or NEET

which are frowned upon in society. That is to say that the group mentality had

produced a negative impact as hikikomori or NEET are refusing to do the

same thing as the people around their environment, their actions to become

shut-ins are also an indication to the society that they have not produced a

cooperativeness and an ability to communicate with others and therefore their


69

existence is counted as a part of predicament to the society, supported by the

decline of the Japanese population itself.

The right to privacy, understood as “the individual’s right to control the

circulation of information concerning him or her", is considered a shameful

excess of mistrust in relation both to a cooperative society and to those

who collect, store, share, and use personal data. Consequently, the sense of

a right to privacy is foreign and less important to Japanese society than it is

in Western societies (Yohko, 2006).

In elaboration of the discussion, the social-political structure of the

Japanese democracy system may also be an interpretation of an interpretation

that lasted through decades. This is shown through the similarities of the

feudal system conducted in the 16th century and the current system. The only

differences that are apparent are the roles that are standing by the social status

itself. The existence of the Warrior class can be interpreted the same as the

government. The lack of action in Shogun Yoshiaki shows similarities with

the lack of action that the current prime minister towards the issues with

Karoshi, Hikikomori, Kodokushi and the lack of birth in Japan while the

action of the Daimyo to unify the country once again have also shown

similarities with the action that Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike to protect

Japan from the current issues.


70

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, the researcher would like to state some results that could be

derived from the analysis done in the previous chapter. The results will further

point out the signs of change in authority in feudal Japan through the conflict

in the Warrior class, the significance of Nobunaga’s influence that rose in the

country and the impact it brings to the current society as the readers of Taiko.

This thesis elaborates the points that were found above. The feudal system

of 16th century of Japan begins with the chaos of authority in the warrior

class.That is not only by the chaos which occurred between states all over

Japan but also a rise of warrior-monks. Nobunaga who is a strong believer of

the emperor’s grace had seen the lack of prevention of the warring states from

the Shogun’s behalf. Instead he saw the support that warrior-monks get from

the Shogun when they decided to further prolong the war by causing troubles

with the Oda clan. As a result, Nobunaga raged upon the existence of the

warrior-monks and burn down their holy land, Mount Hiei.

The fall of Mount Hiei sparked more conflict but it also indicates an

establishment of power and the fall of the Shogun. The fall of the Shogun

shuffle the feudal system entirely. The 16th century feudal system which

originally headed by the emperor as a culture symbol continued to Shogun

was turned into the emperor continued by the Daimyō . With the change and

the effect, it brings to the complete shift of authority; it became apparent that


71

Nobunaga’s influence is impactful towards the society during the time. Even

when he passed, his actions have constructed a new system that leads to the

final unification done by his loyal alliance, Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Issues such as: Hikikomori, Karoshi, Kudokushi and Low-birth rate in

Japan has sought the eyes of the current society over decades. Unfortunately,

with these issues rule out, the Japanese Prime minister has not shown much of

initiative while governors of each district are forced to take matters to their

own hands to save their people. Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike was left

deeply frustrated by the fact that the Prime Minister shown verily lack of

actions towards this issue. The political conflict between Prime Minister and

the Governor has shown the similarities between the conflict which sparked

between Shogun and the Daimyo.


72

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