A seal of just four characters became a challenge to everyone in the warring provinces. I hadn't meant anything of the kind.
After the place name came the seal.
"My lord. You must have a new seal made to press upon your letters."
Those scholars again.
"One who is master of the realm requires a seal befitting him."
I sighed. Honestly, I thought the cipher I already had was plenty for a seal. But if I refused, I'd be lectured at length again. Rather than put up with all that passion, it was easier to just nod along.
"I have no objection. Line up some auspicious characters."
I tossed it off in a low voice, short. Inside, I only wanted to get the bother over with quickly. But to my retainers, that curtness apparently looked like "the bearing of a great man who does not trouble himself with trifles."
The scholars whispered together about something, and before long they handed me a sheet of paper. On it was written this.
Tenka Fubu
"To spread peace across the realm by force of arms. —We have put your lordship's great ambition into four characters."
I stared at those four characters.
Realm. Spread. Arms.
To be honest, I thought, those characters look impressive. That was all.
The character for "arms" snagged on me a little. The truth is, I don't want to wield arms. Swords, spears, war—they scare me. I hate seeing blood. If I could have had my way, I'd have wanted something gentle, like "Peace Throughout the Realm" or "Safe and Sound."
But saying so was a bother too. If the scholars pressed me—"Why does my lord dislike the character for arms?"—I'd have no answer. I could hardly say, "Because war scares me." So, since they said they were auspicious characters, I let it go. It'll do, I suppose.
"Yes. This will do."
I started using that seal. As just a stamp with four characters on it.
That stamp. I pressed it onto letters to every province. On letters of greeting. On letters of peace. On ordinary notes that meant nothing at all. The red seal went on with a plop.
Tenka Fubu
And then—everyone who received a letter went pale, without exception.
"There is an unfamiliar seal on Oda's letter."
"Tenka Fubu—to spread across the realm by force of arms."
"This... does this not mean Oda Nobunaga has publicly declared he will subdue the realm by arms?"
I put my head in my hands again.
No. It's just a stamp. I'm just pressing the auspicious characters the scholars lined up, because they recommended it. And yet those four characters terrified whoever saw them, every time I pressed them.
"Oda is coming for the realm in earnest."
Reading it that way, the daimyo grew even more wary. Here and there, they began preparing against the Oda. Some even went to the trouble of sending envoys to sound out my true intentions.
"What, pray, is meant by Tenka Fubu?"
Every time I was asked, I didn't know how to answer. I could hardly say, "The scholars recommended it and the characters looked impressive, so I've just been stamping it." Say something like that, and they'd take me lightly. Take me lightly, and they'd attack. So I pressed my lips into a frown and just stayed silent.
Then the envoy would go pale all on his own. "Not a word. Such fathomless resolve." When I'd only been stuck for an answer.
In other words—the more letters I sent, the longer I stayed silent, the more enemies I made.
At night, I picked up that seal and looked at it.
Four red characters. To me, it was just a stamp. But to the world.
It was a challenge—issued to every daimyo in the warring provinces.
"Don't go reading things into it."
I muttered it in a voice no one could hear. All I was doing was being afraid to say no. Drifting along, stamping impressive characters.
I could feel the weight of that seal pressing down harder on my shoulders day by day.