is a chronicle of Oda Nobunaga,ōKō a Daimyo of Japan's Sengoku period. It is also called . It was compiled after Nobunaga's death by , a vassal of Nobunaga, based on his notes and diary.
The original was written by about 1598. It consists of a total of 16 volumes, including the main 15 volumes and the first volume. The main volumes covers the 15 years from 1568, when Nobunaga entered Kyoto with Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the 15th shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate (later banished from Kyoto by Nobunaga), to 1582, when he died in the Honnō-ji Incident. The first volume summarizes his life from his childhood, when he was called "Kipphōshi," until he went to Kyoto.
The chronicle contains not only subjects related to Nobunaga, but also murders, human trafficking, corruption, document forgery, and other street topics not directly related to Nobunaga, providing an insight into the public mood of the time.
Original, Manuscripts, and Publications
The book known today as Shinchō Kōki has many manuscripts and editions of the same original. There are more than 60 known manuscripts, with various titles given to them, including , , . Some, such as the so-called Ikeda books handed down in the Ikeda clan, which was a family of Daimyo, were commissioned by Ōta Gyūichi, who re-edited the contents to suit the client and transcribed it himself. Four sets of Shinchō Kōki in Gyūichi's own handwriting have now been identified, including the Ikeda book, and it is estimated that more than 70 sets existed in the past, including those written by people other than Gyūichi. However, as they are handwritten, their number is limited and only a few have survived. In particular, only two sets of Ōta Gyūichi's own handwritten books, complete with all volumes, have been found. This figure includes those that do not have all the books and those that once existed but are now missing.
When the chronicle, rewritten in modern Japanese, was published in 1992, nearly 10,000 copies were sold by 2008, including a newly revised edition published in 2006, reflecting Nobunaga's popularity.
Authorship
As a young man, Ōta Gyūichi served the Oda clan for his skill with the bow and arrow, and served Nobunaga as a fighter, but in later years his work as a government official became his main responsibility, including serving as a magistrate for land inspection. Before the Honnō-ji Incident, he held the position of deputy of Namazumi in the Ōmi Province, and after Nobunaga's death he became secretary to Niwa Nagahide. He then served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Hideyori. He continued to write during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and there is a memo written in 1610 when he was 84 years old.
Ōta Gyūichi was of a very penmanship nature and wrote down daily events in diaries and notes, which led to the compilation of the chronicle.
His lord, Nobunaga, is naturally written about favourably. One episode that illustrates Nobunaga's kind-hearted side is the episode. In the village of Yamanaka, there was a disabled beggar called Yamanaka no Saru. Nobunaga gave the villagers 10 pieces of cotton and asked them to build him a hut. Nobunaga further told his neighbours that he would be happy if they would share with him a harvest each year that would not be a burden on them. However, he did not ignore what was inconvenient for Nobunaga, and on the other hand he also describes episodes that illustrate Nobunaga's misdeeds and brutality. As for the siege of Mount Hiei, the book describes the horrific scenes in a straightforward manner: Enryaku-jikonpon-chūdō and scriptures were burnt to the ground, and monks and non-monks, children, wise men and priests were decapitated. In another episode reads: The court ladies of the Azuchi Castle went on an excursion in Nobunaga's absence, but Nobunaga returned to the castle unexpectedly early. Knowing Nobunaga's character, these women were too frightened to return to the castle and asked the elder to apologise to him. This added fuel to the fire, and Nobunaga, furious as a flame, not only defeated them but also the elder.