Why is であった used in this sentance?


I'm just starting to tackle non-textbook Japanese, so apologies if my question
is silly.

The sentence below gave me some headache even though I more or less know what
it's supposed to say (this is from a review of an old historical drama):

> 信長の有力武将であった乱丸の父と兄は戦で死んでいる。

My translation is something along the lines of "Ranmaru’s father and older
brother that were important military commanders of Nobunaga have died because
of war".

But why is であった used in this relative clause? Aren't 有力武将 animate?




The usage you quoted is the past form of である (formal/literary version of だ),
rather than of ある, so the question of animate vs. inanimate does not arise.

だ in fact derives from である, which is still used in literary or authoritative-
sounding written speech (for the difference between である and だ, I would refer
you to [Tae Kim's website](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/formal.html) or
Makino & Tsutsui, Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar, page 35).

I don't see any errors in your translation.




The usage you quoted is the past form of である (formal/literary version of だ),
rather than of ある, so the question of animate vs. inanimate does not arise.

だ in fact derives from である, which is still used in literary or authoritative-
sounding written speech (for the difference between である and だ, I would refer
you to [Tae Kim's website](http://www.guidetojapanese.org/formal.html) or
Makino & Tsutsui, Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar, page 35).

I don't see any errors in your translation.

