In 1569, Takeda Shingen granted the priests at Omuro Sengen Jinja, a large shrine just north of Mt. Fuji along Lake Kawaguchi, lucrative rights to collect a property tax on the lord's behalf.

The tradeoff? The shrine would send "bad coins" to the Takeda seat at Kofu...

...where they would be melted down into bullets (technically musket balls)!

Isn't that fascinating? Melting down debased currency for bullets. What could be more Sengoku than that? This illustrates a few notable points:

The Takeda, and virtually every else, had access to firearms and recognized their importance in 16th century warfare, completely undermining the traditional narrative of the battle of Nagashino in 1575.

That traditional version states that Takeda cavalry lost to Oda gunners because the former lacked firearms and were completely unfamiliar with their use on the battlefield. Nonsense.

It also shows that the raw materials for ammunition, in this case iron from the impure coins, was more valuable than the face value of the currency.

And it further indicates the crucial role that large religious institutions, especially ones along pilgrimage routes like Omuro Sengen, played as centers of commerce, travel, resource concentration, AND domain administration.

Wouldn't you love to read more interesting tidbits like this from Japanese Warring States history? Well I've got a bunch!

Just need a job that will allow me to write the book.