hing in need of care, looked about
attentively before retiring, and observing a piece of torn paper on
the mats, took it up and carried it away. Nobunaga recalled him,
eulogized his intelligence, and declared that men who waited
scrupulously for instructions would never accomplish much. The
faculties of observation and initiation were not more valued by
Nobunaga than those of honesty and modesty. It is recorded that on
one occasion he summoned all the officers of his staff, and showing
them a sword by a famous maker, promised to bestow it upon the man
who should guess most correctly the number of threads in the silk
frapping of the hilt. All the officers wrote down their guesses with
one exception, that of Mori Rammaru. Asked for the reason of his
abstention, Mori replied that he happened to know the exact number of
threads, having counted them on a previous occasion when admiring the
sword. Nubunaga at once placed the weapon in his hands, thus
recognizing his honesty. Again, after the construction of the famous
castle at Azuchi, to which reference will be made hereafter,
Nobunaga, desiring to have a record compiled in commemoration of the
event, asked a celebrated priest, Sakugen, to undertake the
composition and penning of the document. Sakugen declared the task to
be beyond his literary ability, and recommended that it should be
entrusted to his rival, Nankwa. Nobunaga had no recourse but to adopt
this counsel, and Nankwa performed the task admirably, as the
document, which is still in existence, shows. In recognition of this
success, Nobunaga gave the compiler one hundred pieces of silver, but
at the same time bestowed two hundred on Sakugen for his magnanimity
in recommending a rival.

Nobunaga unquestionably had the gift of endearing himself to his
retainers, though there are records which show that he was subject to
outbursts of fierce anger. Even his most trusted generals were not
exempt from bitter words or even blows, and we shall presently see
that to this fault in his character was approximately due his tragic
end. Nevertheless, he did not lack the faculty of pity. On the
occasion of a dispute between two of his vassals about the boundaries
of a manor, the defeated litigant bribed one of Nobunaga's principal
staff-officers to appeal for reversal of the judgment. This officer
adduced reasons of a sufficiently specious character, but Nobunaga
detected their fallacy, and appeared about to take some precipitate