Mori Ranmaru

Who They Were

Mori Ranmaru (森 蘭丸, もり らんまる) was a samurai of the Sengoku period, the long century and a half of civil war that tore Japan apart between the collapse of central authority in the fifteenth century and the reunification campaigns of the late sixteenth. He is recorded in the reference material under his formal name, Mori Naritoshi (森成利, もり なりとし), with Ranmaru being the name by which he is remembered in popular tradition. He was born in 1565, in the eighth year of the Eiroku era (永禄, えいろく), and died on 21 June 1582 in Kyoto.

He was a retainer of the Oda clan, the house led by Oda Nobunaga, the warlord whose armies came closest to ending the era of fragmentation before his own death. Ranmaru's father was Mori Yoshinari, a samurai commander of the Mori family, and Ranmaru was one of six sons. The family's home province was Mino, in the centre of the main island of Honshu. The Mori of this line traced their descent from the Seiwa Genji, the branch of the imperial Minamoto lineage from which many of the great warrior houses of medieval Japan claimed ancestry.

Life and Career

Ranmaru was born into a warrior household already committed to Oda service. His father, Mori Yoshinari, was a senior Oda commander, and the family's fortunes rose with Nobunaga's. Ranmaru grew up in that orbit and entered Nobunaga's personal service as a young man.

He is remembered above all as a close attendant — one of the young retainers who served Nobunaga directly, in the intimate role that combined bodyguard, messenger and personal aide. The position placed him near the centre of the most powerful military machine in Japan at the moment of its greatest success. Nobunaga's campaigns through the 1570s and early 1580s broke the power of rival daimyo across central Japan and brought the great Buddhist military complexes and the old shogunal administration under his control.

That career ended abruptly. On 21 June 1582, Nobunaga was attacked at the Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto by the forces of Akechi Mitsuhide, one of his own senior generals, who had turned against him. Nobunaga died in the burning temple. Ranmaru died the same day in Kyoto, at the age of seventeen by the count of years recorded for him. He did not outlive his lord by more than hours.

Why They Matter

Ranmaru's historical footprint is small in extent and enormous in consequence. He held the rank of daimyo, and he died at seventeen. Almost everything that makes him famous rests on a single day: 21 June 1582, the Honnō-ji incident, when the most powerful man in Japan was destroyed by a subordinate and the unification of the country was thrown back into the hands of a new generation of leaders.

Ranmaru belongs to the small group of retainers who died with Nobunaga. Their deaths became, in Japanese memory, the model of loyalty carried to its end — the retainer who does not survive the lord. That reputation, rather than any campaign or castle or administrative achievement, is what carried his name forward through four centuries of plays, prints, novels and television dramas.

He is also a useful window onto how warrior families worked. The Mori of Mino were not a great house on their own account; they rose because they attached themselves to Nobunaga early and served him well. Ranmaru's father commanded armies, and his sons were placed in positions of trust close to the top of the Oda hierarchy. When the head of that hierarchy was killed, the family's entire position was destroyed with him.

The Name in Japanese

The formal name is written 森成利.

• 森 — read mori here. The character means "forest" or "woods". It is the family name, and it is shared with many unrelated families across Japan.
• 成 — read nari here. It means "to become", "to accomplish", or "to achieve". In personal names it carries the sense of bringing something to completion.
• 利 — read toshi here. It means "profit", "benefit", or "sharp" — as in a sharp blade. In names it often suggests effectiveness or keenness.

The kana reading is もり なりとし, and the romaji is Mori Naritoshi. Note that the kanji 成 read nari and 利 read toshi are both common components of samurai personal names of this period, and the combination 成利 was not unique to him.

The name he is actually known by, 森 蘭丸 (もり らんまる, Mori Ranmaru), is written differently. 蘭 means "orchid". 丸 literally means "circle" or "round", and in this position it is a name suffix — historically common for boys' childhood names and for the personal names of young retainers. The contrast between the two names is instructive: 森成利 is the formal adult name, and 森蘭丸 is the name by which he was called, and by which he is remembered. Japanese historical figures of this era frequently appear in modern writing under their childhood or familiar names rather than their formal ones, and Ranmaru is one of the clearest examples.

Legacy

The name Mori Ranmaru is inseparable from the Honnō-ji incident. In the centuries after 1582, the story of the young retainer who died beside his lord was retold in puppet theatre, kabuki, popular fiction and, in the modern period, film and television. Each retelling tends to emphasise his youth and his loyalty, and to place him at the centre of the final hours at the temple.

He is also a fixture of the visual culture of the period. Depictions of the Honnō-ji incident almost always include him, and the image of the young samurai in Oda service has become one of the standard reference points for how the Sengoku period is imagined in Japan today.

His family did not recover the position it had held. The Mori of Mino had risen with the Oda house, and the Oda house fell in a single morning in Kyoto. Ranmaru's name survived not because of what he built, but because of where he stood on 21 June 1582.