Oda Nobunaga Samurai Warlord
1534-1582
1534-1582
Oda Nobunaga grew up in a time of incredible strife, rioting, and dischord. He was the first samurai to bring some semblance of unity to Feudal Japan - but it wasn't easy. He burned 20,000 Jodo Shin members alive for resisting him - but he also was a strong supporter of culture. His reign began in 1560 when he defeated Imagawa at a battle at Totomi. By 1661 he had reached Tokyo and had aligned himself with Toshiaki, the brother of the assassinated shogun.
Oda was helped in his quest by his advisor, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and a subordinate lord, Ieyasu Tokugawa. Both men would later help to continue what Oda had begun. Few could stand against the three men when they worked as a group.
The two main foes who remained to stand against Oda's forces were Sasaki and Asai. Nobunaga kept Asai quiet by marrying off his sister to Asai. By 1668 he had conquered Sasaki. Ieyasu took on the Hojo clan to make sure they did not cause trouble. By 1673 they had deposed Toshiaki, to take full control. By now Asai was quite irate and rose up - but Ieyasu once again stepped in to help out.
Nobunaga was a brilliant strategist. Nobunaga's wife, Nohime, was originally from the Mino clan. Nohime noticed that Nobunaga was sneaking out each night and was upset by this. Nobunaga explained that he was plotting with two retainers from Nohime's clan in order to overthrow Nohime's father. Nobunaga told Nohime that her loyalties should lay with him as her husband. Nohime promptly went to tell her father of the danger. The father then killed the two disloyal retainers. But actually, Nobunaga had made up the entire story, and simply wanted those 2 retainers slain, as they were becoming a threat to his power.
By 1681 Nobunaga was allied with Akechi Mitsuhide. Mitsuhide was in a battle and asked for help. Nobunaga wanted Ieyasu to rest up, so Nobunaga went in himself. On the way he stayed at the Honnoji temple in Kyoto. Unfortunately, Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunaga and burned down the temple. The body was never found.
All three of the Nobunaga team were asked to fill in the same poem -
"If it won't sing - xxxxx - the nightingale"
The responses were quite different. In Nobunaga's case, his poem was -
If it won't sing,
I'll kill it,
the nightingale.
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