Words of the Samurai – Second Episode

Words of the Samurai – Second Episode

Following Tokugawa Ieyasu, we now face a different kind of mind: Mōri Motonari, a man who sharpened silence into strategy and wielded mistrust like a weapon. His brilliance left no room for friendship, only survival.

Mōri Motonari

During the Sengoku period, Mōri Motonari, who claimed dominance over the Chūgoku region, is known for the “three arrows” anecdote in which he showed three arrows to his sons to encourage fraternal unity. However, this story only spread in later generations. Among his contemporaries, he was feared as a strategist skilled in espionage, misinformation, bribery, and assassination.

Because of this, it was said: “No one outside his family or retainers truly opened their heart to Motonari.”
In response to such a reputation, Motonari said:

“One whose wisdom surpasses that of all others and can clearly perceive the rise and fall of the world’s order cannot have a true friend with whom to fully open their heart.
If you seek a true friend, you must look a thousand years into the past or a thousand years into the future.
For if such a person were born in the same era, they would not become your friend, but your enemy—one you must kill or be killed by.”

Motonari stands as one of the Sengoku period’s great heroes—but perhaps this also tells us that every hero walks alone.

Mōri Motonari didn’t fear loneliness—he understood it. For those who see the world too clearly, trust becomes a dangerous luxury. In times of upheaval, the strategist walks alone… and perhaps that distance is what lets him outlast the rest.