Oda Nobunaga
Ah, Oda. My bad. Yeah he is one of the three "unifiers" and it's as you said. "Unifying" was winning the wars and getting political control.
The geography can be difficult to understand when you read Japanese history becsause Meiji Japan abolished the province system. But the old province names are used for charm still today. Where I live used to be Fire Province and people today still use the nickname "fire country" when referring to here.
konohagakure
Yeah my understanding is that japan at the time was run by a handful of families/clans which functioned as essentially feudal states, all constantly warring and politicking with each other over land and power
Nobunaga "unified" them by essentially conquering or converting them to his cause, murdered a lot of people, then overthrew the Ashikaga Shogunate (who would be in power if not for the fact that Japan was at that time in complete chaos / civil war)
So Nobunaga as cult leader made sense to me in this game in that his aim was to convert everybody to his cause or have them killed, remove the current rulers, and seize control
It's interesting from this historical perspective that the japanese perspective and language around him tends to be positive/favorable. My perception is that he's viewed as a hero. But he was fairly evil
And the last funny detail is that I don't know to what extent he really "unified." He was killed by one of his own generals, who hated him due to the cruelty and sometimes outright sadism he displayed when conquering japan (according to the netflix documentary - I think this is to some extent a netflix fabrication and the actual reasons for the treason are unclear) - and at the time of his death I don't think japan was actually unified. Still some warring states/families stuff going on
So the person who maybe deserves actual credit as unifier and pacifier of japan would be Ieyasu.
Coincidentally this works out because Matticus, who was randomly assigned the role of Ieyasu, was a great unifier and pacifier in this game.
By the way when I say "my understanding" the implicit caveat is that it's highly uninformed and the aim is to develop a better understanding by discussing with people who know better
I think maybe japan lionized Nobunaga because they spent so long living under the imperial culture that glorified militarism, violence, and sometimes straight-up cruelty
I agree with you. You should check out the Shinsengumi, who read to me like total trash but are viewed so positiviely that the farthest left wing party in the country named themselved after it.
You could say that about most countries that established a modern state. It always required brutality. The positive attitude towards historical figures here seems to be more like the people are characters in a story and less like real people. It is weird.