Author: Sanae Hojo
In the general theory, Date Masamune was a famous general of Japan's Sengoku period, who dominated northeastern Japan with one-eyed assets. Date Masamune lost one eye due to illness and wore an eye patch every day, and when he dominated tohoku and wanted to expand further, he was pushed back by the mighty Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and eventually served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and became the lord of the 620,000-stone sendai domain of the Edo shogunate.
Date Masamune's one-eyed image, coupled with his image of martial courage, was evaluated by posterity as a person who could seize the world ten years early (there are also conservative twenty years), and was very popular.
"Oshu Pen Head" one-eyed dragon Date Masamune, is the game, anime "Sengoku basara" to date Masamune to give date Masamune nickname, in the glorious game "Sengoku Matchless", Date Masamune is also a one-eyed dragon image, which is now the Japanese understanding of Date Masamune. It is said that when Date Masamune was a child, he suffered from an illness that led to blindness in one eye, and his side near Katakura Koshiro cut off Date Masamune's blind eye with a knife and gave him an eye mask, after which Date Masamune was no longer discouraged by blindness in one eye, but instead turned his grief and anger into motivation and became a famous warring general who swept through Mutsu Kingdom. The daimyo around Date's house called Date Masamune a "one-eyed dragon" to describe his horror.
However, how can it not be said that Date Masamune's talent is really a one-eyed dragon like it is now in TV series, movies, video games and anime? From the historical records of the Warring States period, it is not recorded that Date Masamune was a one-eyed dragon with an eye mask, and from the excavation of date Masamune's bones, Date Masamune's skull has not been removed from the eyeball.
So what's going on here?
In fact, Date Masamune's image of a "one-eyed dragon wearing an eye mask" was entirely created by later Generations of Japanese, and Date Masamune was first called a "one-eyed dragon" by the Confucian scholar Raiyama Yo in the mid to late Edo period. Lai Shanyang liked Chinese culture, Confucianism and historiography, and when writing a poem, he compared Date Masamune with Li Keyong, a famous general of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, saying that Date Masamune was a famous general like the one-eyed dragon Li Keyong. Lai Shanyang was the author of the "History of Foreign Japan", and his students were also relatively famous Sinology Masters, so the Chinese poems written by Lai Shanyang were accepted by people over time, and Date Masamune was inexplicably "blinded by one eye".
By the Time of the Showa period, the image of Date Masamune gradually became active on the artistic stage. In 1942, Japan filmed a film called "One-Eyed Dragon Masamune", in which Date Masamune appeared as wearing an eye mask. However, after this, many of Date Masamune's artistic images are one-eyed dragons who "turn a blind eye" rather than "one-eyed dragon with an eyepatch on it".
However, in 1987, nhk TV filmed the Ōkawa drama "One-Eyed Dragon Masamune", and the original crew was ready to let the lead actor Ken Watanabe turn a blind eye to play the "One-Eyed Dragon", but because every time he shoots, it is too difficult for the actors, and finally decided to use eye masks to ease the pressure on the actors. It was from the Okawa drama "One-Eyed Dragon Masamune" that Date Masamune's image of "one-eyed dragon with an eye mask" officially became a definite term.
In fact, the portrait of Date Masamune in the Edo period is like this.
Even if Date Masamune is really a one-eyed dragon, no signs of surgery have been found on his bones, and as for Katakura Koshiro's anecdotes about helping Date Masamune cut his eyeballs, as well as Date Masamune's own version of cutting eyeballs, it is not at all credible. So, in general, Date Masamune's one-eyed dragon image with an eye mask is actually the creation of later generations.
In the records of Date Masamune's enemy, the Satake family, Date Masamune was a warrior who covered his eyes with a white cloth, so Date Masamune may indeed suffer from eye disease (blind or not uncertain), but it will certainly not reach the point of wearing an eye mask.
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