A Firsthand Account of the Attack on Oda Nobunaga at The Honno-ji
The Honjo Soemon Oboe-Gaki
According to certain records in the Hosokawa Chronicles, Oda Nobunaga had had a dream about being devoured by a rat. It was a dream that had worried him enough to record it.
Nobunaga was born in the year of the Ox. According to the Buddhist scriptures, the ox was the first animal to visit the dying Buddha, however a rat, riding on the ox’s back, rushed forward, and jumping off the ox’s nose beat the bovine to be the first one there.
Was the rat Akechi Mitsuhide? Mitsuhide was born in the year of the rat. Or could it have referred to the Bald Rat, as Nobunaga referred to Hashima (Toyotomi) Hideyoshi?