Battle of Okehazama

     In 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto gathered an army of 20,000 to 40,000 men and started his march toward Kyoto, with the excuse of aiding the frail Ashikaga shogunate. The Matsudaira clan of Mikawa was also to join Yoshimoto's forces.
   In comparison, the Oda clan could barely rally an army of 5,000, and the forces would also have to be split up to defend various forts at the border. Under such dire circumstances, Nobunaga was said to have performed his favourite Atsumori dance, before riding off with only a few attendants to pray in a shrine. Aided by a sudden thunderstorm, Nobunaga assaulted Yoshimoto's base and slew Yoshimoto, resulting in a victory that stunned the entire country. This was known as the Battle of Okehazama, and brought Nobunaga's name to national prominence.
   Rapidly weakening, the Imagawa clan no longer exerted control over the Matsudaira clan. In 1561, an alliance was forged between Oda Nobunaga and Matsudaira Motoyasu (later Tokugawa Ieyasu), despite the decades-old hostility between the two clans.


"Tenka Fubu"    In Mino, Saito Yoshitatsu died suddenly of illness in 1561, and was succeeded by his son, Saito Tatsuoki. Tatsuoki, however, was young and much less effective as a ruler and military strategist compared to his father and grandfather. Taking advantage of this situation, Nobunaga moved his base to Komaki Castle and started his campaign in Mino.
   By convincing Saito retainers to abandon their incompetent and foolish master, Nobunaga weakened the Saito clan significantly, eventually mounting a final attack in 1567. Nobunaga captured the Inabayama Castle and sent Saito Tatsuoki into exile.
   Oda Nobunaga then moved into Inabayama, and renamed his new castle as well as the city to Gifu. Naming it after the legendary Mount Gi in China (Qí in Standard Mandarin), on which the Zhou dynasty started, Nobunaga revealed his ambition to conquer the whole of Japan. He also started using a new personal seal that read Tenka Fubu (????), which means "Cover that which is under the sky with the sword".
   In 1564, Nobunaga had his sister, Oichi marry Azai Nagamasa, a daimyo in northern Omi province. This would later help pave the way to Kyoto. In 1568, the last Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki went to Gifu, requesting that Nobunaga start a campaign toward Kyoto. Yoshiaki was the brother of the murdered 13th Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiteru. The killers of Yoshiteru had already set up a puppet shogun, Ashikaga Yoshihide.
   Nobunaga agreed to Yoshiaki's request, grasping the opportunity to enter Kyoto, and started his campaign. An obstacle in the southern Omi province, however, was the Rokkaku clan. Led by Rokkaku Yoshikata, the clan refused to recognize Yoshiaki as shogun and was ready to go to war. Nobunaga launched a rapid attack, driving the Rokkaku clan out of their castles.
   Within a short amount of time, Nobunaga had reached Kyoto and driven Miyoshi clan out of the city. Yoshiaki was made the 15th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate.
   Nobunaga refused the posts of kanrei, and eventually began to restrict the powers of the shogun, making it clear that he intended to use him as a puppet to justify his future conquests. Yoshiaki, however, was not pleased about being a puppet, and thus, he secretly corresponded with various daimyo, forging an anti-Nobunaga alliance (?????).
   The Asakura clan, in particular, was disdainful of the Oda clan's rising power. Historically, the Oda clan had been subordinate to the Asakura clan, and Asakura Yoshikage also temporarily protected Ashikaga Yoshiaki but was not willing enough to march toward Kyoto; thus, the Asakura clan despised Nobunaga the most for his success.
   When Nobunaga launched a campaign into the Asakura clan's domain, Azai Nagamasa, to whom Oichi was married, broke the alliance with Oda to honour the Azai-Asakura alliance which had lasted for generations. With the help of Ikko rebels, the anti-Nobunaga alliance sprang into full force, taking a heavy toll on the Oda clan.
   At the Battle of Anegawa, Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the combined forces of the Asakura and Azai clans. Finally, tired with the Tendai warrior monks who hid in the Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei, a significant cultural symbol, Nobunaga attacked it and burnt it to the ground in 1571, killing many non-combatants in the process.
   Through the years, Nobunaga was able to consolidate his position and conquer his enemies through brutality. In Nagashima, for example, Nobunaga suffered tremendous losses to the Ikko resistance, including a couple of his brothers. Nobunaga finally surrounded the enemy complex and set fire to it, again killing tens of thousands of non-combatants, mostly women and children.
   At the height of the anti-Nobunaga alliance, Takeda Shingen was convinced that he should rise against the Oda clan. Tied down in perpetual warfare, Nobunaga sent lacklustre aid to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who suffered defeat at the Battle of Mikatagahara in 1572.
   However, after the battle, the Takeda forces retreated as Shingen died of illness (or perhaps, as it had been speculated, of aggravated wounds or at the hand of an assassin) in 1573. This was a relief for Nobunaga, who could now focus on Yoshiaki, who had openly declared hostility more than once, despite the imperial court's intervention.
   Nobunaga defeated Yoshiaki's weak forces and sent him into exile, bringing the Ashikaga shogunate to an end in the same year. Still in the same year, Nobunaga successfully destroyed the Asakura and Azai clans, and Azai Nagamasa sent Oichi back to Nobunaga as he committed suicide. With Nagashima's destruction in 1574, the only threat to Nobunaga was the Takeda clan, now led by Takeda Katsuyori.
   At the decisive Battle of Nagashino, the combined forces of Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu devastated the Takeda clan with the strategic use of muskets. Nobunaga compensated for the musket's slow reloading time by arranging the musketeers in three lines. After each line fired, it would duck and reload as the next line fired. The bullets were able to pierce the Takeda cavalry armor (Nobunaga had purchased the 3000 muskets from Italy; Japanese muskets would have pierced the armor but had less of a chance to kill)
   Nobunaga continued his expansion, sending Shibata Katsuie and Maeda Toshiie to the north and Akechi Mitsuhide to Tamba province. The Oda clan's siege of Ishiyama Honganji in Osaka still had little progress, but the Mori clan of Chugoku region started sending supplies into the strongly-fortified complex by sea, breaking the naval blockade.
   In 1577, Hashiba Hideyoshi was ordered to expand west to confront the Mori clan. In 1578, the Azuchi Castle in the Omi province was completed, an impressive and extravagantly decorated castle that shocked European missionaries and ordinary courtiers alike.
   However, in the same year, Uesugi Kenshin, who was said to be the only military commander to have bested Takeda Shingen in battle, started his march toward the Oda domain as well. He defeated the Oda army, retreated in winter only to return the next spring, but eventually died of stroke before making any progress (it is speculated that he may have been assassinated).
   Nobunaga forced the Ishiyama Honganji to surrender in 1580 and destroyed the Takeda clan in 1582. Nobunaga's administration was at its height of power, and was about to launch invasions into Echigo province and Shikoku.

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