The Princess-Boy's First Battle: In 1560, a Mocked Youth Bared His Fangs

In the fifth month of 1560 (Eiroku 3), at Nagahama in Tosa (present-day Nagahama, Kōchi City).

The twenty-two-year-old Chōsokabe Motochika stood on a battlefield for the first time.

This youth — fair-skinned, tall, quiet, and disliking the martial arts — was mocked behind his back as 'the little princess-boy' by the retainers.

There were voices that doubted he was of the caliber of a lord. But on this day Motochika took a spear himself and charged into the enemy, showing a valor that betrayed all expectations around him.

Motochika was born the eldest son of Chōsokabe Kunichika, lord of Oko Castle in Tosa.

But from childhood he was fair-skinned and slight of build and spoke little, and so was seen as an unreliable heir by the retainers of Tosa, who prized martial valor.

The whispered name 'the little princess-boy' was the expression of that contempt.

His father Kunichika too is transmitted to have worried about this eldest son's future.

How Motochika himself felt the eyes around him, the records tell us little.

Before his first battle, Motochika is transmitted to have asked a retainer how to use a spear.

To the question of a young lord who knew no real combat, the retainer answered, 'Thrust between the enemy's eyes.

' There was surely a note of contempt in it — does he not even know the manner of battle?

But Motochika, just as taught, thrust into the enemy ranks without fear. As if to clear away the long years of contempt, the youth proved his own qualities in his first battle.

By his work at the Battle of Nagahama, the appraisal of the princess-boy was overturned in a single day.

Within the youth seen as unreliable had slept a calm nerve and a talent for arms.

From this first battle on, Motochika succeeded his father and drove toward the unification of Tosa.

Leading the half-farmer, half-soldier vassal band called ichiryō-gusoku, he brought the surrounding local lords to heel one after another.

The frustration of his mocked days changed into the driving force by which he raced up to the overlordship of Shikoku.