The other two of the triad, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), also make frequent appearances in this chronicle, playing prominent although clearly subordinate roles. So the chronicle also is an important source on their early careers, as it is on a constellation of other actors in Japan s sixteenth-century drama. The chronicle s author, ta Gy ichi, was Nobunaga s former retainer and an eyewitness of some of the events he describes. He completed his work about the year 1610.