October 22nd, 1569
Donated by Satō Masaharu
This is a letter of thanks from warlord Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) to Uesugi Terutora (later to be known as Kenshin, 1530-1578), expressing gratitude for a gift of two falcons. Falconry was one of Nobunaga’s best-known passions, and we can understand his special joy at being gifted these rare falcons.
At the time, Nobunaga was acting as adjunct to the 15th Ashikaga Shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki in the Muromachi government, and maintained friendly relationships with samurai lords both near and far.
The falcons mentioned in this letter are believed to have been a gift given in appreciation of Nobunaga’s own gift of haramaki torso armor and a helmet to Terutora in February of the previous year. Beyond this letter, we do know that Nobunaga received falcons from Terutora, and in a letter dated March of 1571 to Kenshin (who changed his name around December of the same year), we can see that Nobunaga, knowing that rare falcons lived in the Hokuriku region, and that Kenshin knew little of falconry, dispatched a falconry master to Kenshin in the new year.