Philosophy of the champion
There is always a lot to learn from a past great man like Shogun, Toranaga introduced recently In a movie. He was a hostage for 12 years of hostage from 8 to 20 years old. But while being a hostage, he was a great learner, acquiring not only a battle strategy technique in the mid 16th century of Japan, but managing people’s minds.
In December of 1572, they were competing for a hegemony of country and fighting against another feudal lord. Toranaga once experienced a unprecedented defeat at the age of 31 year old. When he came back to his castle, dripping with dung on horse back, he immediately had his painter to draw a portrait of his shabby look in order not to forget about his recklessness and misery of defeat for the future (see image at the bottom).
Shingen Takeda was an opponent in the battle, who was a famous feudal lord in age of century civil war.
He carried his slogan called “Furin-kazan(風林火山)” flag,originally extracted from Son Tzu.
風(wind) means “move fast like a wind”
林(woods) means “Be quiet like woods”
火(Fire) means “invade like fire with formidable momentum”
山(mountain) means “Stay montionless like mountain”
When Shingen died 4 months, for some reason, after the battle broke out, the followers and servants of Tranaga were full of joy to hear of Shingen’s death.
But Toranaga reprimanded them by saying ,,.
“A brave general like Shingen (52 years old) is rare, both in history and today. Since I was young (31 years old),I Ihave often wanted to emulate him. It is true that you could say that he is our mentor of military strategy. It is fortunate to have a strong enemy in a neighboring country. Because we work hard without complacency and take care even in temporary punishments, our politics are sound and our households are in order. If there were no strong enemies in neighboring countries, our allies would have little military skill, and both superiors and subordinates would think highly of themselves and have no sense of shame or fear, so they would gradually become weaker.
There is no reason for allies to rejoice at the death of an enemy general like Shingen."
