Akechi Mitsuhide

Akechi Mitsuhide is represented in the linked historical fiction through social change and the pressures of ordinary life and crime, espionage and covert power. These works approach the figure through the surrounding events, relationships and political conflicts rather than through a standalone biography.

In Eiji Yoshikawa’s Taiko, after Akechi Mitsuhide turns against Nobunaga, Hideyoshi defeats the usurper and outmanoeuvres competing lords, including Tokugawa Ieyasu, to become the dominant ruler of Japan.