Yano satisfied his curiosity, at least realizing that "Big Fool of Owari" was just a cheesy pun, and he pondered a bit about how Oda Nobunaga evolved from "Mad Crown Prince" to "Japan's Warring States First Person," but he hadn't studied the history systematically and couldn't figure it out. So, he turned to Aman and asked, "Is there anything else about Oda Nobunaga? Other than these street gossips... um, idle chatter."
Aman was chewing a piece of tea leaf, apparently curious about this luxury item, and casually said, "There's just a lot of gossip, apart from that it's regular information. Do you want to know?"
"Of course I want to."
"Alright, I really don't know why you care so much about him!" Aman chewed the tea leaf, thought for a while and said, "He seems to have been born in Tenbun Year Three, childhood name Kippa, and was sent by his father to Nagano Castle to be the city lord at just two, at which point his father arranged a household retainer support group to handle affairs.
Let's skip the messy bunch, mainly there were four family elders.
The first was Hirata Hideyo, mentioned before, who was his teacher, reportedly skilled in Tea Ceremony, linked verse, and Sinology. Even Kyoto big figures praised him as the most knowledgeable person in the Oda Family, often representing Oda Nobuhide in Kyoto to offer gold, horses, and swords. He held great prestige within Oda Danjo Chonosuke's house and was inseparable from the Big Fool of Oda.
The second was Hayashi Shingoro Hideyo, from a formidable clan in Sanhe, a power figure at Nagano Castle, also being a military leader for Nagano Castle, and the pen leader of the Big Fool's household retainer group, responsible for directing all retainers except Hirata Hideyo.
The third was Aoyama Yuzan Uemon Shinshuu, and you don't need to care about him as he's dead in Minoh, during the time Oda Nobuhide led 8,000 men to attack Inaba Castle and got crushed by Saito Dosan. This unfortunate guy didn't come back, not sure if he was decapitated or drowned.
The last was Naito Hyoeijo Katsusuke, another you don't have to concern yourself with since during the battle between Oda Family and Imagawa and Matsudaira families at Azukizaka, this guy went to battle on behalf of the Big Fool and didn't return, apparently becoming a pincushion from arrows."
Yano nodded, making note of the two still-alive family elders.
Hirata Hideyo, he recalled, apparently committed seppuku and needn't be concerned with, while Lin Hideyo lived quite long, persisting until the late period of Oda Nobunaga, though seemingly was banished, living miserably in old age, but there shouldn't be issues with mingling with him during the early to mid-period.
Aman didn't care how he recorded it, continuing to recall: "Next was his coming-of-age ceremony, at thirteen he came of age, disliked by many, he didn't make a big sensation, simply abandoned the childhood name of Kippa and adopted the generational name Sanmaru of Oda Danjo Chonosuke's line, changing to Oda Saburo Nobunaga, then continued to go wild everywhere, doing eccentric and flamboyant things, much like you, couldn't even dress properly, messing around all day, from raising dogs and fighting roosters to now playing with eagles and iron cannons, becoming the Big Fool of Owari."
She already described Oda Nobunaga's outrageous antics before, now briefly mentioning them while detailing his family situation, "He has three full-blood brothers, Shinsei, Hideyoshi, and Xinbao, then half-brothers like Shin'ei, Hideyoshi, Shinji, Shinji, Shinsei, Hideshige, Changyi, Changli... anyway a lot, then half-sisters like A-Pig, A-Dog quite a few, all messy, not much focus needed."
"Wait!" Yano was scribbling feverishly, and looked up surprisedly, "How does the Oda Family give daughters such strange names, like Pig, Dog?"
"I didn't give birth to them, who knows what Oda Nobuhide was thinking." Aman didn't care, it's not like she was named A-Pig or A-Dog.
Yano pondered slightly, is it because lowly names make strong lives?
It seemed this was a tradition in ancient Japan, names like something-someone, someone-maru were common, these 'dog' and 'egg' kinds were considered lowly names, but girls being named Dog or Pig seemed excessive, right?
No talk of ancient Japanese daughters needing low names, wealthy upbringing for girls, hoping they could serve the daimyo, bear sons, and let the family rise to prominence were indeed plenty.
Or was Oda Nobunaga's mother a jealous woman, unable to name the sons herself, thus naming the concubines' daughters with insulting names out of spite?
Princess Pig? Princess Dog?
The more you hear, the weirder it sounds, Oda Danjo Chonosuke's family really wasn't afraid to lose face...
Yano noted down Oda Nobunaga's pig and dog sisters, suddenly recalling something, asked Aman, "Isn't there one missing, wasn't there a Princess Etsu too?"
Princess Etsu remained quite famous in later generations, appearing in many novels, manga, and historical dramas. It's said that Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Katsuyori Shibata, and Ikegami Keisuke all secretly admired her, and she first married Asai Nagamasa, then Katsuyori Shibata, whose daughter Chacha was a concubine of the Monkey, indirectly helping Tokugawa Ieyasu obtain the realm, hailed as the First Beauty of Owari and Japan's Warring States First Beauty.
"Princess Etsu?" Aman paused for a moment, thought about it and weirdly said, "Where did you hear that, Oda Nobuhide didn't have a daughter named Etsu!"
"No? Oda Etsu, think again." Yano was quite sure of her existence, in later generations, her fame was not much less than Oda Nobunaga.
Aman again tried recalling, with the posture of an expert, confidently told him "No, Oda Nobuhide didn't have a daughter named Etsu, he has several children, everyone at Mosen Castle knows, heard people say it many times, can't be mistaken."
After speaking, she curiously asked, "Could it be that you remember wrong, and you want to find this person? Oda Ichi...if you want, I'll help you run this errand later."
Having a name to find someone is not a difficult task for her, that's her bread and butter.
"Forget it, maybe I really remembered wrong." Genya didn't insist.
There should be such a person in history, but she might not necessarily be Oda Nobunaga's younger sister, nor the so-called "first beauty of the Warring States". It's highly possible that she was created through artistic elaboration by future generations.
Speaking of which, many people might find it hard to believe, but Japan actually doesn't have reliable historical records. The historical books from the Edo Period, the historical data in modern Japan's various museums, and the unearthed relics are almost all self-contradictory. Events can have discrepancies in their occurrence years by several years, completely different from Huaxia, enough to make one's brain crack open.
Perhaps it's because they never had an event like "Cui Zhu assassinating his ruler", there's a lack of historians' spirit. Various imperial scholars roam around, glorifying their own ancestors in historical books, utterly writing nonsense, leaving modern people utterly speechless.
So, rather than believing those "embellished historical books", it's better to trust A Man, this "Original Ninja".
A Man didn't care, and said nonchalantly, "Suit yourself, if one day you want to know again, just let me know, and I'll help you find it. I won't charge you, just treat me to a meal again."
"No problem, let's continue talking about Oda Nobunaga!" Genya had no objections.
"There's nothing else about that!" A Man found it increasingly strange why he's so concerned about Oda Nobunaga, muttering inexplicably, "The only other thing to mention is about his wife, Nongji, Saito Dosan's daughter, who was married to him for the sake of northern stability after Oda Nobuhide lost the foundation in Minoh. They got married the year before last, but Oda Nobunaga didn't really like her and always left her at home, ignoring her."
Nongji, isn't she known as Guichou? Oda Nobunaga's first wife, there are quite a few literary works about her in later ages!
Genya asked with great interest, "Did they have a bad marital relationship? Was it because Saito Dosan had ambitions for Owari and feared she was a spy?"
"Saito Dosan definitely had designs on Owari, marrying off his daughter mostly to facilitate meddling in the Oda Danjo Chonosuke family's inheritance disputes later on. Everybody knew this. I heard this marriage was suggested by his teacher Hirata Masahide, besides losing to them, part of the reason was also to protect the big fool's inheritance rights." A Man gave him an unexpected answer, bluntly saying, "But I don't think the big fool could think of these things, he probably didn't like her because of her bad reputation!"
"Bad reputation?"
A Man's tone was filled with disdain again, "Of course, what good reputation could the Viper's daughter have? Let alone that she was engaged six times, married once, and was suspected of murdering her husband, helping her father seize her husband's family property. If I had married such a venomous wife, I would stay far away from her too. Oda Nobunaga, that big fool, wasn't too foolish this time."
Genya's three views were completely refreshed, what a mess, in later Japanese literary works, Nongji's image is still relatively positive, often referred to as one of the "Three Warlord's Ladies", how does she end up sounding like a shameless and treacherous woman here?
He couldn't help asking, "How old was she? How come she was engaged six times yet married twice? How did her previous husband die?"
"Let me calculate..." A Man was already accustomed to his ignorance, certain he was really a defeated dog from the West Sea Road who truly knew nothing, "She should be fifteen this year, started changing fiancés from a young age: Akechi Family, Miki Family, Kinsen Family, Nagai Family, Tokugawa Family, Oda Family...uh, the Oda Family was after her husband's death when she got engaged, but anyway, she was engaged six times, that's not wrong. Then, she married Tokugawa Raichu at eleven, he died suddenly when she was twelve, her father Saito Dosan took the opportunity to become the protector of Minoh, got engaged to the Oda big fool at thirteen, married him the following year, and spent over a year in an empty room, now she's fifteen, that seems right."
She raised her brow with glee and said gleefully, "I reckon when Oda Nobuhide dies, it'll be the big fool's turn to suddenly drop dead, and Oda Danjo Chonosuke family's territory will fall to Saito Dosan, so you've already lost your bet. You might as well hand the money over now!"
Genya was still somewhat incredulous, "Are you sure? Murdering her husband?"
"There's no way to find evidence for such a thing, can't be sure, but anyone with a brain could guess who did it." A Man raised her brow and said meaningfully, "She is the Viper's daughter, after all, doing such things is only natural, isn't it?"
Viper, in Japanese folklore, this snake is ovoviviparous, and when the young snake is born, it not only breaks out of the shell but also bites through the mother snake's belly, causing the mother snake to die miserably. Hence, Saito Dosan is nicknamed "Viper of Minoh", and Nongji is naturally "Viper Woman".
Genya had nothing to say, "Mad Crown Prince" married a "Viper Woman", which was completely different from what he imagined Japan's Warring States Era would be like, exceeding his psychological expectations too much. However, this era was also gradually becoming clearer in his mind.
This was an era that seemed glamorous and romantic in novel games but was in truth a bizarre era, an era filled with deceit, an era where humans and demons were indistinguishable, an era of moral degeneration.
This is the Japan Warring States Period, an era that can't be measured by common sense, an era as chaotic as can be.
His survival challenge might be a bit steep.