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Oda Nobunaga
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Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was the first individual to attempt to unify Japan at the end of the Warring States period; his ultimate goal, though he never realized it, was to bring all of Japan "under a single sword" (tenka-fubu). Like so many others in the history of Japan, he rose from an obscure family through ruthless ambition to become one of the most powerful men in Japan. His rise to power was slow and deliberate and his use of power unforgiving. The most significant step he took in unifying the country was the destruction of the Buddhist monastery of Mt. Hiei. All throughout the medieval period in Japan, from the Heike war onwards, the monks of Mt. Hiei had played a significant role in both the political and military course of Japan. Seeing Mt. Hiei as a threat to future stability, he destroyed the monastery and hunted down every single Hiei monk and slaughtered them, regardless of their age or innocence.
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Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was the first of the three unifiers of Japan at the end of the Warring States period. Nobunaga was of middling status in the feudal hierarchy of the day, his father being daimyo of a fief with its castle at Nagoya on the Tokaido highway. Nobunaga gradually came to control about a third of Japan before a retainer murdered him. He developed new methods of controlling the economy of his domains, systems which his successors benefited from greatly.
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Their defeat by Oda Nobunaga in 1560 freed Ieyasu to regain leadership of the Matsudaira, and he immediately allied with Nobunaga, changing his name to Tokugawa Ieyasu and seizing Imagawa land. In 1570 he moved his headquarters to former Imagawa territory and for the next 12 years expanded his lands and influence through Nobunaga’s campaigns, despite being forced to kill his first wife and order his son’s suicide in 1579 as proof of his loyalty to Nobunaga. He seized more land on Nobunaga’s death in 1582, becoming master of five provinces by 1583. After inconclusive fighting in 1584, Ieyasu allied with Nobunaga’s successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi and married his sister.
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Oda Nobunaga (b.1534 - d.1582) played a key role in shaping the course of history in feudal Japan. His policies of unifying a country controlled by many feuding daimyo (warlords) was furthered in a series of victories characterized by his brilliant tactics and the very first organized use of firearms in the history of warfare. His unification policy became a reality under his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, shortly before the end of the 16th century (1500's, Edo period).
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Oda Nobunaga was born in 1534, to the off-shoot of an old daimyo family of south central Honshu whose hereditary fiefdom comprised some three provinces to the east of Kyoto near the modern city of Nagoya. He inherited his father's domains at the age of 15, including an "army" that may have numbered only a few hundred men. From these meager beginnings, he launched his bid for supremacy with ruthless ambition. Using his family's small kingdom as a base for further operations, he set about consolidating his power. This fast-rising daimyo used charisma, skill, and luck to subdue any combination of rivals that stood in the way of his ultimate goal in life; to bring all of Japan "under a single sword," tenka-fubu."
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Oda Nobunaga was born in the land of Owari (now western Aichi) in 1534. Nobunaga's career as a local warlord took a major turn in 1560, when he stopped Imagawa Yoshimoto's army just before it reached Owari, catching the enemy off guard with a surprise attack and routing the invaders. This was the so-called Battle of Okehazama (now Toyoake). With this victory, Nobunaga became convinced of his life's ambition: to quell the country's vortex of war, unifying Japan and becoming its ruler.
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Oda Nobunaga