Saturday, April 11, 2009

Can Money Buy Real Alliance? - 2

Did Money buy the alliance for Kanetsugu Naoe? The historical fact was it did. Kanetsugu, 19 years old that time, succeeded in negotiation with Takeda Clan and allied with them. It changed entire local civil war situation. As a result, Kanetsugu's lord, Kagekatsu defeated his enemy brother Kagetora and became local lord as successor of Kenshin Uesugi.

I talked about "Gi" before in my previous articles. I translated this Japanese to be "Ultimate Righteousness" in English. I do not know if my translation is good or not good, but since this is a concept in human mind, it is not easy to define.

It might be "Gi" for Kanetsugu Naoe to realize ally with Takeda to lead his own lord to win the civil war to protect his country and people, otherwise his country would have been occupied by enemy countries. On the other hand, most of the "Samurai" would have believed that using gold or money for buying an ally with money was not right thing, not "Gi".

Judging from the result, succeeded in forming an ally and winning the local civil war, Kanetsugu's strategy was right saving his lord, country, and people. Therefore, we may be able to call it "Gi". It looks like the general, Kanetsugu Naoe was a strategist who could use flexible campaign, focusing utmost purpose, even without being influenced by how other people think about his strategy, campaign, and himself.

The lesson here is that we must focus on our utmost goal without being influenced by and too much worried about nature of actions, completeness, how will be others reactions.



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Shaw Funami
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4 comments:

Giovanna Garcia said...

Hi Shaw

Very interesting story here. I enjoy the learning of history. I think who our alliance is have an impact on our power. And sometime we can use money does help.
Thank you,
Giovanna Garcia
Imperfect Action is better than No Action

Unknown said...

Dear Giovanna,

Thank you for coming. I totally agree your point whereas money can help, let it help. We should not be limited by what others may think or react.

Thanks again,
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link

Peter Baca said...

Hello Shaw,

This is a very interesting post on part of Japanese history!

Sometimes money has worked in these types of situations....but isn't honor a big thing in the Japanese culture. So, it may have been unthinkable to most!

Best Regards

Pete Baca
The Car Enthusiast Online

Unknown said...

Hi Pete,

You are right. It is not money but people who use it, which could be disgraceful. It all up to how to use under what situation.

Thank you for your comment.

Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link