Nobunaga Oda

Nobunaga Oda (, June 23rd 1534 - June 21st 1582) was a important Daimyō of the Period Sengoku of the history of Japan. Wire of Nobuhide Oda, a minor lord of war which had only few grounds in the Province of Owari, Nobunaga Oda passed its life on the battle fields and conquered most of the Japan before its death in 1582.

Oda is the first of the three unifiers of the Japan for the Sengoku period. These unifiers are, in the order, Nobunaga Oda , Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa.

Life

The youth of Nobunaga

In 1534 is born Nobunaga Oda, wire of the regional Daimyō Nobuhide Oda with the castle of Shotaba. It is the third wire of Nobuhide, however, it is the first which was not born from a concubine and is thus the heir to the Clan Oda and of the field in the province of Owari. He becomes Master of the castle of Nagoya to an young age, and is educated under the supervision of a vassal old man of the clan Oda, Masahide Hirate, far from his brother Nobuyuki. During its youth, Nobunaga is pointed out by its eccentric behavior and its lack of reserve. People call even openly it the " Large imbecile of Owari".

During the year 1546, Nobunaga is 12 years old and the civil majority, and sees the following year its first, although short, military action in the Province of Mikawa.

In a political operation, Masahide Hirate sends a proposal the daimyō of the rival clan of Oda of the Province of Mino, Dosan Saito, to arrange a marriage between Nobunaga and to the girl of Dosan, Nōhime (also called Kichō, 15 years old). This marriage forges an alliance between the two former rival clans.

Unification of the province of Owari

In 1551, his/her Nobuhide father dies suddenly, and during its funeral, Nobunaga acts outrageusement while launching the incense ceremonial on the furnace bridge. This act alienates to him many vassal Oda, by confirming their prejudices of lack of discipline and mediocrity of Nobunaga; his/her Nobuyuki brother, more polished, has their preference.

Ashamed of the behavior of Nobunaga, Masahide Hirate makes the Seppuku . It is a large hard blow for Nobunaga, which loses there a mentor and vassal of value. It will build later a temple in the honor of Hirate.

Although Nobunaga is recognized like the legitimate successor of Nobuhide, the Oda clan is divided between many factions, and even thus, the whole clan is theoretically under the control of the Kanrei of Owari, Yoshimune Shiba, which itself dépent completely Shugo (representative of the shogun): Nobutomo Oda . Nobutomo is able to again defy Nobunaga for the place main of Owari, and he assassinates Yoshimune when it is clear that it supports Nobunaga.

However, Nobunaga manages to persuade his/her uncle Nobumitsu Oda (a young brother of Nobuhide), to join its camp, and with this help Nobunaga makes massacre Nobumoto with the Château of Kiyosu, which later becomes the residence of Nobunaga during more than ten years.

With the death of Yoshimune Shiba, it is his/her son Yoshikane Shiba who becomes kanrei legitimate province. Nobunaga exploits this position by forging an alliance with the Imagawa clans of the Province of Suruga and Kira of the Province of Mikawa, since the two clans were also Kanrei and did not have any excuse to refuse. Thanks to that, Nobunaga was sure that Imagawa would stop attacking the borders of Owari.

Nobunaga remains in precarious position within its own clan, it must always take into account his always many Nobuyuki brother and his partisans. In spite of that, it directs an army on the Province of Mino to help Dosan Saito whose son Yoshitatsu Saito revolted. The countryside is however a failure, because Dosan is killed and Yoshitatsu becomes the new Master of Mino in 1556.

A few months later, with the support of Katsuie Shibata and Hidesada Hayashi, Nobuyuki rebels against Nobunaga. They are demolished with the battle of Inō. The three receive forgiveness thanks to the intervention of the mother of Nobunaga and Nobuyuki. However, the following year, Nobuyuki again intends to rebel. Informed by Katsuie Shibata, Nobunaga pretends the disease and assassinates Nobuyuki with the castle of Kiyosu.

In 1559, Nobunaga eliminated any opposition as well within the clan as in the province from Owari. Yoshikane Shiba is used to him always as folding screen to maintenair peace with the others daimyō (the clans Kira and Imagawa). But Yoshikane Shiba cannot be satisfied with this position of puppet, it wishes to restore the place of the Shiba clan and corresponds secretly with its allies to get rid of Nobunaga. It is Nobunaga which strikes Yoshikane the first, and the alliances concluded in the name of the Shiba clan become thus null and void.

The Battle of Okehazama

In 1560, Yoshimoto Imagawa gathers an army from 20.000 to 40.000 men and starts to go on Kyoto, with for excuse helping frail the shogunat Ashikaga. The Clan Matsudaira of Mikawa must also join the forces of Yoshimoto.

In comparison, the Oda clan can hardly gather an army of 5.000 men, and the forces must also be distributed to defend various forts at the border. One says that in such circumstances, Nobunaga carried out its preferred dance Atsumori, before overlapping with only some men to request in a sanctuary. Helped by a sudden storm, Nobunaga launches the attack on the basis of Yoshimoto and kills it, which results in a victory astounding the whole country. This battle, called Battle of Okehazama, gives in the name of Nobunaga a national prominence.

Weakening quickly, the Clan Imagawa does not exert any more any control on the Matsudaira clan. In 1561, an alliance is forged between Nobunaga Oda and Motoyasu Matsudaira (which will be later famous Ieyasu Tokugawa), in spite of the decades of fight between the two clans.

Tenka Fubu

In 1561, in Mino, Yoshitatsu (which had held Nobunaga in failure in 1556) dies suddenly of disease, and his/her son Tatsuoki Saito succeeds to him. Tatsuoki, however, is young and less good leader and strategist that his father and his grandfather. Tie profit of this situation, Nobunaga moves its base with the castle of Komaki and begins its countryside with Mino.

Nobunaga sticks during plusiseurs years to convince the vassal ones of Saito to give up their Master, weakens the Saito clan significantly, then lance the final attack in 1567. Nobunaga takes the Inabayama castle and sends Tatsuoki Saito in exile.

Then, Nobunaga settles in Inabayama, and re-elects its new castle as well as the city in Gifu, according to legendary Mont Gi in China ( Qí in Mandarin), on which the Dynastie Zhou started, thus revealing its ambitions of conquest in all Japan. It also starts to use new a Sceau which is read Tenka Fubu (天下布武), which means " Cover what is under the Sky with the épée".

In 1564, Nobunaga Marie her Oichi sister with Nagamasa Asai, a daimyō of the north of the Province of Omi. That will open later the road to him towards Kyōto.

In 1568, Yoshiaki Ashikaga comes in Gifu, Yoshiaki was the brother of the 13th shogun Ashikaga, Yoshiteru, who had been assassinated and replaced by Yoshihide Ashikaga, puppet between the hands of the assassins of Yoshiteru. Yoshiaki wants to become shogun and requires of Nobunaga to help it, while launching a military action against Kyoto. Nobunaga accedes to the request of Yoshiaki, seizing the occasion to enter Kyoto.

However, the road of Kyoto is closed by the Rokkaku clan, which holds the south of the province of Omi. Directed by Yoshikata Rokkaku, the Rokkaku clan refuses to recognize Yoshiaki as a shogun and is ready with the war. Nobunaga launches a fast attack and expels the Rokkaku clan of his castles.

In little time, Nobunaga joined Kyoto and expels the Miyoshi clan out of the city. Yoshiaki becomes the 15th shogun Ashikaga. It will be the last…

Yoshiaki indeed chose most dangerous of the assistants: Nobunaga refuses the station of kanrei, and bad temper gradually the capacities of the shogun, showing clearly that it for making use of him as of a puppet (as it already did with Yoshikane Shiba) to justify his future conquests. Yoshiaki is not satisfied this situation and corresponds secretly with various daimyō, forging an anti-Nobunaga alliance (信長包囲網).

The Asakura clan, in particular, was irritated rise in being able of the Oda clan. Historically, the Oda clan was vassal of the Asakura clan. Yoshikage Asakura had temporarily protected Yoshiaki Ashikaga but was not laid out to go on Kyoto, this why Yoshiaki had been addressed to Nobunaga.

Nobunaga takes the initiative to attack the Asakura clan. That forces Nagamasa Azai (husband of Oichi, sister of Oda) to choose between its very new alliance with Oda and the Azai-Asakura alliance which lasted since generations. It chooses the Asakura camp. With the assistance of the rebels of Ikko, anti-Nobunaga alliance attacks with all its forces, causing heavy losses with the Oda clan during a several year campaign

Nobunaga and Ieyasu Tokugawa demolish the combined forces of the clans Asakura and Azai with the Bataille of Anegawa, but that is not enough. Year after year, Nobunaga consolidates its position and overrides its enemies, with methods without pity.

In 1571, tired warlike monks Tendai who hid in the Enryakuji on the Mont Hiei, a strong cultural symbol, Nobunaga the attack and destroys it in 1571, killing with the passage of many civilians.

With Nagashima, the resistance of Ikko inflicts in Nobunaga many losses, including two of his/her brothers. Finally, Nobunaga encircles the enemy complex and the fire, killing again out of tens of thousands of civilians, mainly of the women and the children.

With the apogee of anti-Nobunaga alliance, Shingen Takeda is convinced that it must rise against the Oda clan. Ieyasu Tokugawa being overcome with the Battle of Mikata-Ga-Hara in 1572, Nobunaga must send helps to him, the fight does not seem to be able to end.

However, after the battle, the Takeda forces are withdrawn because Shingen dies of disease (or, as some think it, of serious wounds or the hand of an assassin) in 1573.

Nobunaga can now concentrate on Yoshiaki, which has him several times declared its hostility, in spite of the interposition of the imperial court. Nobunaga overcomes the weak army of Yoshiaki and sends it in exile, putting fine at the shogunat Ashikaga in the same year.

Always the same year, Nobunaga successful to destroy the clans Asakura and Azai, and Nagamasa Azai returns Oichi to Nobunaga and commits suicide. With the destruction of Nagashima in 1574, the only threat which still weighs on Nobunaga is the Takeda clan, now directed by Katsuyori Takeda.

With the decisive battle of Nagashino, the combined forces of Nobunaga and Ieyasu override the Takeda clan thanks to the strategic use of Mousquet S.

Nobunaga continues its expansion, sending Katsuie Shibata and Toshiie Maeda to north and Mitsuhide Akechi in the Province of Tamba.

The seat of the Ishiyama Honganji with Osaka by the Oda clan continues to progress a little, but the Mori clan of the Chigoku area starts to send by the sea of the resources to the firmly strengthened complex, breaking the maritime blockade.

In 1577, lieutenant de Nobunaga, Hideyoshi Hashiba (future Hideyoshi Toyotomi) receives the order to extend towards the west to face the Mori clan.

In 1578, the construction of the castle of Azuchi, in the Omi province is finished. It is a castle impressive and decorated in an extravagant way which shocked as well the European missionaries as the ordinary courtiers.

However, same year, Kenshin Uesugi, which one says that he is the only military commander to have had the top on Shingen Takeda, starts in his turn to walk on the field of Oda. It demolishes the army of Oda, is withdrawn only at the winter for réattaquer next spring, but dies of an attack before to have made any progress (certain versions say that it was assassinated).

Nobunaga obliges Ishiyama Honganji to go in 1580 and destroyed the Takeda clan in 1582. The administration of Nobunaga is then at the top of its force, and is ready to launch the invasions of the province of Echigo and the Shikoku.

End of Nobunaga

In 1582, Hideyoshi Hashiba invades the Province of Bitchū, and puts the seat in front of the Takamatsu castle of the Mori clan. This castle was strategic, Mori could not allow its loss, also Terumoto Mori carries out an army of help, and the two camps arrive at a status quo.

Hashiba requires reinforcements of Nobunaga Oda. Nobunaga gives various orders then (it orders with Nagahide Niwa to prepare for an invasion of the Shikoku and with Mitsuhide Akechi to assist Hideyoshi Hashiba) and gets under way for the Région of Chūgoku. Nobunaga makes a halt with the Honnō-ji, a temple of Kyōto; it is then in the middle of its firmly controlled grounds, its procession is limited to a few dozen servants and bodyguards.

Mitsuhide Akechi suddenly attacks Honnoji in a Coup d'etat. Its forces attack at the same time the castle of Nijo, and Nobunaga Oda is made Seppuku after being removed from the Kōtaishi .

It was often said that Hashiba did not have in fact no need for reinforcements, but that he nevertheless asked some Nobunaga for various reasons. Those which it think faithful to Nobunaga advance that he wanted to prevent adding a new victory on his account, and that he preferred to leave the merit to Nobunaga of it itself: indeed, Hashiba had made a fulgurating progression of the statute of simple infantryman to that of general-in-chief under the orders direct of Nobunaga, to the great displeasure some of generals who had become his subordinates; it could then be reasonable show humility. Others suspect that Hashiba or its vassal wanted in makes put Nobunaga in a vulnerable position on the face, where it could easily have been assassinated. Another thesis makes of Hashiba the head thinking behind the treason of Mitsuhide Akechi, which it will eliminate then quickly.

Policy

Militarily, the revolutionary dream of Oda did not only change the way in which one made the war with the Japan, but did of it one of the most modern armed forces of the time. It develops, implements, and extends the use of long the Lance S, the firearms, the Tekkōsen ( Navire protected by iron , kind of ancestor of the armoured modern), and fortifications of castles adapted to the great battles which strew this period. Oda institutionalizes also a system of specialized warlike class and names its subjects and vassal while being based on their competence, and not only on the name, the row, or the family relations as during the previous time. The grounds given to vassal are also now given according to their production of rice (number of koku ) and not on their size. In particular, the organisational system of Oda later will be used and extensively developed by its ally Ieyasu Tokugawa for the formation of the shogunat Tokugawa with Edo.

The domination and the brightness of Oda were not limited to the battle field, he was also an advised business man and included/understood the principles of Microéconomie and Macroéconomie. He leads a transition from an agricultural economics to an industrial and tertiary economy. Initially, it makes build city-castles of which it makes the center and the base of the local economy. Roads are also created in its fields between the city-castles, not only to facilitate the Commerce, but also to quickly move its armies at long distances. The International business also increased in direction of the China and the Korean peninsula , whereas the Namban (Cruel of the South, i.e. Europeans) start to trade with Japan since the Europe, the Filipino , the Siam and the Indonesia.

Oda institutionalizes also the policies rakuichi rakuza like means of stimulating the businesses and the general economy. These policies abolish and prohibit the monopolies and open associations, trade unions and formerly closed and privileged guilds, that he sees like as many obstacles to the Commerce. It develops also exemptions of taxes and establishes laws which regularize and facilitate the loan.

As Oda conquers Japan of the Period Sengoku and piles up a great quantity of goods, it gradually supports the arts for which it always had interest, but that it uses later and more and more to show its capacity and its prestige. It builds large gardens and castles which are themselves of works of Article the castle of Azuchi, on banks of the Lac Biwa, is supposed being the most marvellous castle of the Histoire of Japan, covered of Or and statues outside and decorated with vertical panels, sliding doors, walls and ceilings painted by Eitoku Kano inside. Oda left in Japan the image of one of the most brutal men of the Sengoku period. During this time, the subjects of Oda and the Master of the The SEN No Rikyū establish the Japanese ceremony of the that Oda popularizes and uses at the beginning as means of speaking Politique and Affaires. The modern Kabuki makes its beginnings, then develops completely during the beginning of the Period Edo. Moreover, Oda is very interested by the European culture, which was very new in Japan. It collects Western works of art, but also weapon and armor. It is one of first Japanese to have worn European clothing which one kept the trace. He becomes also the owner of the missionaries Jesuits in Japan, although he does not convert with the Christianisme.

Nobunaga is about to finish its conquest and unification of Japan when Mitsuhide Akechi, one of its generals, obliges it to commit suicide in Honnoji with Kyoto. Akechi declares main Oda fields then, but is quickly demolishes by Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

Nobunaga Oda in the fiction

Nobunaga Oda was largely used as reference in fictions, appearing in video games like Onimusha , of the Manga S and Anime S (like Flame off Recca, Samurai deeper Kyo, or Inu-Yasha). It is often described like malicious, with a capacity of monstrous origin. In other series of video games like Kessen , Samurai Warriors , Nobunaga' S Ambition and Nobunaga No yabou , Oda Nobunaga east depicts like a hero. Nobunaga is also a central figure of the Historical novel of Yoshikawa Eiji Taiko ki . Oda is also one of the 20 historical figures of the play of History Chanel, Anachronism , or of people of various places and times clash in an arena. Oda carries the yumi, or arc of the samurai, the kyudo, the way of the arc, a Japanese equivalent of the punt armor, and Izanagi, the god of the life in the Shinto religion.

The festival in Japan

Every year, from October 1st to November 30th, close to Aichi Kiyosu-OJ Furusato Matsuri is held (“Festival of the traditions of the castle of Kiyosu”). Its principal attraction is the Jodai Gyôretsu: Oda Nobunaga KB Ichidaiki (“Ravelled historical of the clan of Oda Nobunaga”), where more than 650 observers ravel in the streets of the borough of Kiyosu in costume of time, of which an army of 170 samurais who représententent the forces of Nobunaga Oda.

See too

External bonds

http://samourais.free.fr/S_Taisho.html
Biography of Nobunaga Oda
Temple of Shunkoin the bell of Nanbanji
Oda Nobunaga information
The coverage off nobunagaou

Zh-classical: 織田信長 Zh-yue: 織田信長

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