structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:paraphrasing
Reputation in youth

The young Nobunaga was famous for his bizarre outfit and eccentric behaviour, and people called him Ōutsuke (大うつけ, lit. ' great fool '). At that time, he was dressed in his yukatabira sleeves removed, half hakama with a flint pouch and others hanging from it, his hair tied into a chasen-mage with crimson or light green threads, a sword in a vermilion sheath, and all his attendants carried vermilion arms. He also devoured fruits and mochi standing up without caring about the public gaze in the streets, or walked in a dishevelled manner, leaning on others or hanging on their shoulders.

Nobunaga had no particular pastimes, but practised horsemanship in the morning and evening, and from spring to summer he would go into the river to practice water drills. He also learnt archery from Ichikawa Daisuke, marksmanship from Hashimoto Ippa and military tactics from Hirata Sanmi. Also at that time, he watched a mock battle using bamboo spears and said that spears could not be used if they were too short, so he had all his spears replaced with longer ones of 3 ken (5.4 metres or 18 ft) or 3 and a half ken (6.3 metres or 21 ft).

At the funeral of his father Nobuhide, his younger brother Nobuyuki (Nobukatsu) wore a formal kataginu and long hakama and burnt incense according to etiquette, while Nobunaga came without long hakama, with his hair tied in a chasen-mage, a tachi sword and a wakizashi with a long handle wrapped in straw rope. He then grabbed some powdered incense, threw it at the tablets and walked away.

At a meeting between Nobunaga and his father-in-law, Saito Dōsan, Dōsan sneaked a peek to determine what kind of man his son-in-law was before they actually met. Then Nobunaga appeared with his hair tied up in a chasen-mage with a light green flat cord, wearing a yukatabira with one sleeve off, a tachi sword and wakizashi with gold and silver flakes pasted on the sheath and the long handle wrapped in straw rope, a thick taro stem rope as an arm band, seven or eight flint pouches and gourds hanging around his waist like monkey trainers, and a half hakama made of four pieces of tiger and leopard leather. According to Rōjin Zatsuwa, a compilation of stories by local elders, he also had a large picture of a penis dyed on the back of his yukatabira. On the other hand, he was accompanied by a large contingent of a peculiarly organized force of 500 long spearmen and 500 archers and matchlock troops. Dōsan went to the meeting place in his regular clothes, thinking that he would not need formal attire if he were to meet such a fool, but Nobunaga changed back into his haori and long hakama, and for the first time in his life, he appeared in formal attire with his hair neatly folded in futatsu-ori. On the way home, Dōsan's retainers laughed at him, saying, "Nobunaga was a fool after all", but Dōsan replied, "That is why I am frustrated. My children will be under the command of that fool in the future", he said with a bitter look on his face.