The Meeting at Shōtoku-ji: In 1553, Dōsan Saw Through the Greatness of 'the Fool'

In 1553 (Tenbun 22), at Shōtoku-ji near the border of Owari and Mino (the area of present-day Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture).

Saitō Dōsan came face to face for the first time with his son-in-law Oda Nobunaga (this site's id 1), to whom he had married his daughter Kichō.

Nobunaga at the time was mocked as 'the fool of Owari' for his eccentric conduct.

It is transmitted that Dōsan secretly watched from the shadows of the temple the manner of Nobunaga's approach with his retinue.

What met his eyes was the figure of a youth utterly unlike the rumors.

In his youth, Nobunaga was known for eccentric behavior — wearing his bathrobe sloppily open, walking through town gnawing a melon.

Even within his house, voices doubting his future never ceased. Dōsan sought to confirm the true image of such a son-in-law with his own eyes.

If the man to whom he had married his daughter really was 'a fool,' it bore on the very security of Mino.

The meeting was also a place for the father-in-law to size up the son-in-law.

Nobunaga, appearing at the meeting, was in a dignified attire that betrayed his reputation, the Shinchō Kōki relates.

At the orderly equipment of the muskets and long spears of the soldiers he led, Dōsan was astonished.

The eccentric conduct was a false guise to deceive the world; within it lurked an extraordinary talent for strategy.

So Dōsan saw through it. Having finished the meeting, Dōsan is said to have let slip to his attendants an honest appraisal of his son-in-law.

On the way home, Dōsan is transmitted to have said to his retainers: my sons will one day tie their horses outside that son-in-law's gate.

It means that a day would come when his own sons served as Nobunaga's retainers.

It was the word of a father-in-law admitting utter defeat by his son-in-law. This discernment, by strange chance, foretold the future in which Mino would pass into Nobunaga's hands and become the base of his conquest of the realm.

In this son-in-law, Dōsan had seen the figure of one who surpassed himself.