Since I knew I was coming to the U.S. for this brief trip, I pre-ordered one of the new Apple iPads, which is especially useful for expats living in Japan who visit the U.S. from time to time, as you can buy Internet access month-to-month without a contract. When I showed the iPad to my daughter, she said, “You bought another electronic device? Why do you like cool new things so much? You’re just like Oda Nobunaga!!” It was quite an interesting observation for her to make. Oda Nobunaga was one of Japan’s three great unifiers of Japan, and he was famous for his fascination with new and unique things. He loved Western culture, placing Western rugs on his tatami mats and dressing his retainers in Western clothes while marveling at the gifts the Jesuits brought him — one of his favorites was a star-shaped Portuguese candy that’s now known by the name of Konpeito. He once encountered an African traveling with a Jesuit priest and asked for the man to be placed in his service, providing him with samurai swords, and he was fascinated with all manner of Western technology. The modern word for someone overly taken with cool gadgets and/or popular people (think Justin Bieber) is miihaa (mee-haa), though it’s probably not polite to apply the term to such a famous historical figure. In case you’re curious, the other two unifiers of Japan were Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the peasant who served under Nobunaga and incredibly rose in rank to become the de facto ruler of all Japan, and Ieyasu Tokugawa, who won the title of shogun and created the long period of stability known as the Edo Period.
I bought an iPad, so I’m like Oda Nobunaga.
