Reading the Shinchō Kōki · 12
Was Ranjatai Six Shaku Long? The Chest and Nobunaga’s Cut
A short entry records the opening of the storehouse, the movement of a long chest, a cut made according to precedent, and an order that retainers look. Its two measurements describe different objects.
A fresh translation
On the twenty-eighth day of the third month, at the hour of the dragon, the storehouse was opened.
That celebrated incense wood was kept in a long chest measuring six shaku; it was then carried to Tamon.
During the visit, it was shown on the stage, and a piece of one sun eight bu was cut off according to established precedent.
The mounted retainers in attendance were permitted by command to view it, so that it might become a story for later ages.
Original text
三月廿八日、辰刻、御蔵開候へ訖。
彼名香、長六尺の長持に納り在之、則多門へ被持参。
御成之間於舞台懸御目、任本法一寸八分被切捕。
御供の御馬廻、末代の物語に拝見可仕の旨御諚にて奉拝の事。
Words and places
- Ranjatai (蘭奢待)
The celebrated fragrant wood called Ōjukukō in the Shōsōin collection. The three characters of its familiar name contain the characters for Tōdai-ji. - Six shaku (六尺)
A measurement modifying the long chest in which the incense wood was stored. It is not presented here as the wood’s own length. - Tamon (多門)
The compound to which the chest was carried. The next action takes place during Nobunaga’s formal visit. - One sun eight bu (一寸八分)
The size assigned to the portion cut off, about 5.5 centimeters if read with the later standard conversion. It should not be confused with the chest’s six shaku. - Mounted retainers (御馬廻)
Members of Nobunaga’s close military entourage. The text makes their viewing part of the recorded procedure.
Two measurements belong to two objects
The entry contains two numbers, and its grammar keeps them apart. Six shaku modifies nagamochi, a long storage chest. One sun eight bu describes what was cut. Reading both measurements as properties of the incense wood collapses the sentence.
The distinction matters because Ranjatai is often described through its fame rather than through the wording of a particular record. Here the chronicler first locates the object inside a container. The six-shaku figure helps the reader imagine the scale of transport and display, not the exact length of the fragrant wood.
The Shōsōin’s present catalogue describes Ōjukukō as 156 centimeters long. That modern collection measurement is useful corroboration, but it is not the number supplied by these four lines. The chronicle’s first number belongs to the chest.
The passage records movement before cutting
The sequence begins at the storehouse. It opens at the hour of the dragon, conventionally a morning time. The celebrated incense wood is already enclosed in its long chest. The chest is then carried to Tamon. Only after that movement does the text describe display and cutting.
This order prevents the event from becoming a single dramatic gesture. Access required an opened repository, a container, attendants, and movement through a controlled space. The famous cut occurs near the end of an organized chain.
The verbs are restrained: opened, stored, carried, shown, cut, viewed. None gives us Nobunaga’s private emotion. Together they make the ceremony legible as a sequence of custody and access.
Displayed on a stage during the visit
The phrase about the onari no ma and stage places the wood before an audience. It is not merely removed in a back room. The object is made visible during the lord’s visit, and the following sentence widens the group of viewers.
Display is important because Ranjatai’s value depended not only on fragrance or material rarity. Its history was attached to institutions, sovereigns, and remembered acts of cutting. To see it under controlled conditions was to encounter an object already carrying authority.
The chronicle does not supply a floor plan or explain exactly how the platform was arranged. It lets us identify the public character of the moment without inventing the room.
The change of setting also changes the status of knowledge. An object hidden in a repository can be known by reputation. On the stage, selected witnesses can connect that reputation with direct sight before any portion is removed.
“According to precedent” limits the gesture
The phrase honpō ni makase says that the cut followed an established rule or precedent. That detail complicates the popular image of a warlord simply taking whatever he wanted. The text presents a regulated act, even though Nobunaga’s power made the occasion extraordinary.
Precedent does not tell us every negotiation behind the opening. Nor does it prove that all participants welcomed the result. It does show how the chronicler wanted the action understood: a measured portion was cut within a recognized form.
The size is one sun eight bu. The number supplies precision, but not a modern technical report. We are not told the piece’s shape, weight, exact cutting line, or the tool used.
The retainers are ordered to look
The final line turns spectatorship into an instruction. Nobunaga’s mounted retainers are to view the object because the event should become a tale for later ages. Their eyes are recruited into the production of memory.
This is more than a note that several people happened to be present. The wording joins viewing and future narration. A rare object is displayed; a controlled cut is made; witnesses are told that what they see will be worth recounting.
The chronicle itself fulfills that expectation. It preserves the date, time, container, place of display, measurement, audience, and reason for viewing. The “story for later ages” is already being shaped in the entry.
What happened to the removed piece?
The four lines say that a portion was cut and taken. They do not describe its later use. Other surviving records and objects can address what Nobunaga received, but this excerpt alone does not say that he burned the incense, divided it again, or presented it to someone else.
An imperial letter now preserved as a cultural property records that two pieces were permitted and that one was bestowed on Nobunaga. That evidence helps place the event in a broader documentary setting. It should not be inserted into Gyūichi’s sentence as though the chronicler stated it here.
Separating the sources protects both. The Shinchō Kōki gives a vivid ceremonial sequence. The letter speaks to authorization and disposition. Agreement does not make them the same testimony.
What these four lines do not prove
- They do not say that Ranjatai itself was six shaku long.
- They do not identify the exact shape or weight of the one-sun-eight-bu piece.
- They do not record the private reactions of Tōdai-ji clergy or the mounted retainers.
- They do not explain how the removed incense was later used.
- They do not establish that every detail was written down at the moment of the ceremony.
A famous possession becomes a witnessed event
The entry’s precision does not lie in lavish description. It lies in distinctions. The storehouse is opened before the object moves. The chest has one measurement; the cut has another. The wood is displayed before a specified group, and that group receives a reason to remember.
Those distinctions recover an event hidden by a famous name. Ranjatai does not simply pass into Nobunaga’s possession. It travels through spaces and procedures, is exposed to view, and is altered by a measured cut.
The last line also explains why the scene was narratable. Witnesses were not incidental. They were part of the act. When the retainers were told to look for the sake of a future story, political memory entered the ceremony before the chest was closed again.
Source
Ōta Gyūichi, Shinchō Kōki (信長公記), Scroll 7, section 4, “Ranjatai Kiritori no Koto” (蘭奢待被切捕の事), entry for Tenshō 2, third month, twenty-eighth day. The wording was checked in Hokiyama Kageo’s 1881 Gajikan Gasho edition, upper volume, National Diet Library Digital Collections, frame 47. Object information was checked against the Shōsōin Office catalogue entry for Ōjukukō; the related imperial letter is catalogued by Cultural Heritage Online. Punctuation and four editorial line breaks are supplied for readability.