This is one heck of a rare item among Oda Nobunaga's pictures on this planet since 1534.

He's always been, for more than half a millennium, depicted as someone constantly in action, except in official portrait-paintings when he might have sat impatiently in formal daily garb.

But Oda Nobunaga, too, was a samurai (just in case you're too much into videogaming!). A samurai meditated. They were all Zen practitioners.

So did he, in this picture; his 'wrong armor' and 'wrong sword' (click here for why I just said so) are shown nearby, but this pic was at a Zen Buddhism web site in 2000 and according to the site Oda was simply meditating -- perhaps for one and a half second or so, if we believe what everybody has been saying of his temperament and attitude.

Click here for the origins of Zen, what it's all about, and how it shaped Japanese warriors of all times.

Another Oda Nobunaga at war. The pictures above and below were sent by Takeo Nami from Tokyo (arigato gozaimasu Nami-san).

This picture is obviously based on the Gifu museum wooden statue of Oda Nobunaga that doesn't look like him at all (click here to see the statue).

This picture of Oda Nobunaga is from an advertisement in a local paper of Yokohama, sent by Muriel Lebovsky, whose great summer holiday around the area must have ended by now (thanks very much, Muriel).

Oda Nobunaga is the one in dark kimono at the right side of the pic. It's taken from the opening episode of a TV series in 1980's. The man at the left was supposed to be Toyotomi Hideyoshi, though that would have been historically incorrect -- Toyotomi would have shaved his scalp like all samurai did (except Oda Nobunaga).

This was the last phase of Oda's 'Lord Fool' years.

Click here for story and pictures of that episode in Oda Nobunaga's life.

Another anime version of Oda Nobunaga in his teenage years.

Still another 'official portrait' of Oda Nobunaga (see another page, too), sent by Nita Ardiana from Jakarta (makasih ya, Nit!)

A rare treat: original puppets for the theater (bunraku in Japanese) of Oda Nobunaga (left) and Takeda Shingen (not left). At the rather far background is Mori Ranmaru.

Click here for origins, pictures, and stories of Japanese dolls and puppets.

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'Black Orlando' sent this great snapshot from Cuenca, Spain.

It's a local artist's mixed-media collage on canvas, dated 2004.

It was, so Orlando wrote, a really huge picture even without counting the frame: 5.7 x 7.2 meters.

The only piece of info missing is who's the Spanish painter who did this pic (please send the name when you have time).

To 'Black Orlando', muchas gracias.

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