Japanese hand painted and hand written manuscript book of Castle Plans and Fortifications.

According to scholar Peter Kornicki, “This is rather a book about military strategy and tactics based at least partly on Sonzi (Sun Tzu) and it carries a very interesting collection of colophons dated 1579, 1668 and finally 1697.

The title on the cover is missing but the internal title is Hachijin no sho. There is a single copy in Okayama of a book entitled Takeda Shingen Hachijin no sho (using the character 陣 not 陳 as in this book, which I am inclined to think is a scribal error), thus associating it with the famous warlord Takeda Shingen (see Wikipedia).”

Takeda Shingen (武田 信玄, December 1, 1521 – May 13, 1573), of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent daimyō in feudal Japan. Known as the “Tiger of Kai”, He was one of the most powerful daimyōs with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period Shingen had been a ‘Warlord’ of great domestic skill and competent military leadership.