Editing Oda Nobunaga (section)

==Unification of Japan (1568–1582)==
[[File:Oda-Nobunaga-by-Utagawa-Kuniyoshi.png|thumb|[[Ukiyo-e]] of Oda Nobunaga by [[Kuniyoshi Utagawa]]]]

===Conflict with Asakura, Ashikaga and Azai===
{{Main|Siege of Kanegasaki (1570)}}
After installing Yoshiaki as shogun, Nobunaga forced Yoshiaki to call all ''daimyō'' to come to Kyoto and attend the court banquet. [[Asakura Yoshikage]], head of the [[Asakura clan]] and regent of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, refused, which prompted Nobunaga to declare Yoshikage as a rebel.

Nobunaga then raised an army and marched on the Asakura clan's domain in [[Echizen Province|Echizen]].<ref name=Sansom2/>{{rp |281}} In early 1570, Nobunaga besieged [[Kanagasaki Castle]]. This action created a conflict between Nobunaga and shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Yoshiaki secretly started an "anti-Nobunaga alliance", conspiring with other ''daimyō'' to get rid of Nobunaga. Azai Nagamasa, to whom Nobunaga's sister Oichi was married, broke the alliance with the Oda clan to honor the Azai-Asakura alliance, which had lasted for three generations. 

With the help of the Rokkaku clan, Miyoshi clan, and the [[Ikkō-ikki]], the anti-Nobunaga alliance sprang into full force, taking a heavy toll on the Oda clan. After Nobunaga found himself facing both the Asakura and Azai forces and when defeat looked certain, Nobunaga decided to [[Siege of Kanegasaki (1570)|retreat from Kanagasaki]], which he did successfully.

====Battle of Anegawa====
{{Main|Battle of Anegawa}}
In July 1570, the Oda-[[Tokugawa clan|Tokugawa]] allies laid siege to [[Yokoyama Castle]] and [[Odani Castle]] in  Ōmi Province. Later, the combined Azai-Asakura force marched out to confront Nobunaga. Nobunaga advanced to the southern bank of the [[Anegawa River]].

The following morning, 30 July 1570, the battle began. Tokugawa Ieyasu joined his forces with Nobunaga, with the Oda and Azai clashing on the right while Tokugawa and Asakura grappled on the left. The battle turned into a melee fought in the middle of the shallow Anegawa River. 

For a time, Nobunaga's forces fought the Azai upstream, while the Tokugawa warriors fought the Asakura downstream. After the Tokugawa forces finished off the Asakura, they turned and hit the Azai's right flank. The troops of the Mino Triumvirate, who had been held in reserve, then came forward and hit the Azai left flank. Soon both the Oda and Tokugawa forces defeated the combined forces of the Asakura and Azai clans.<ref name=Sansom2/>{{rp|282}}

1573 represented the end of Azai and Asakura clans, as Nobunaga successfully destroyed the Azai and Asakura clans by driving them both to the point that their clan leaders committed suicide.<ref name="Sansom2" />{{rp|281, 285–86}}<ref name= "sam" />{{rp|156}} After [[Siege of Ichijōdani Castle|destroying Ichijōdani Castle]], the castle home of Asakura Yoshikage, then pursuing Yoshikage to the Rokubō-kenshō monastery, where Yoshikage killed himself, Nobunaga then finished off the Azai clan at the [[Siege of Odani Castle]]. 

===Ikkō-ikki Campaigns===
{{Main|Ikkō-ikki}}
Nobunaga faced a significant threat from the Ikkō-ikki, a resistance movement centered around the [[Jōdo Shinshū]] sect of [[Buddhism]]. The Ikkō-ikki began as a cult association for self-defense, but popular antipathy against the [[samurai]] due to the constant violence of the [[Sengoku period]] caused their numbers to swell. By the time of Nobunaga's rise to power, the Ikkō-ikki was a major organized armed force opposed to samurai rule in Japan. 

In August 1570, Nobunaga launched the [[Ishiyama Hongan-ji War]] against the Ikkō-ikki, while simultaneously fighting against his samurai rivals. In May 1571, Nobunaga besieged [[Nagashima]], a series of Ikkō-ikki fortifications in Owari Province, beginning the [[Sieges of Nagashima]]. However, Nobunaga's first siege of Nagashima ended in failure, as his trusted general Shibata Katsuie was severely wounded and many of his samurai were lost before retreating. Despite this defeat, Nobunaga was inspired to launch another siege, the [[Siege of Mount Hiei]].

====Siege of Mount Hiei====
{{Main|Siege of Mount Hiei}}
The [[Enryaku-ji]] temple on [[Mount Hiei]] was an issue for Nobunaga. The monastery's {{transliteration|ja|sōhei}} ([[Sōhei|warrior monks]]) of the [[Tendai|Tendai school]] were aiding his opponents in the Azai-Asakura alliance and the temple was close to his base of power. In September 1571, Nobunaga preemptively attacked the Enryaku-ji temple, then besieged Mount Hiei and razed it. 

In the process of making their way to the Enryaku-ji temple, Nobunaga's forces destroyed and burnt all buildings, killing monks, [[laymen]], women, and children and eliminating anyone who had previously escaped their attack. It is said that "The whole mountainside was a great slaughterhouse and the sight was one of unbearable horror."<ref name=Sansom2/>{{rp|284}} 
[[File:Oda Nobunaga armour.jpg|thumb|Oda Nobunaga's [[Japanese armour|armour]]]]

====Siege of Nagashima====
{{Main|Siege of Nagashima}}
In July 1573, after the successful siege of Mount Hiei, Nobunaga besieged Nagashima a second time, personally leading a sizable force with many [[arquebus|arquebusiers]]. However, a rainstorm rendered his arquebuses inoperable while the Ikkō-ikki's own arquebusiers could fire from covered positions. Nobunaga himself was almost killed and forced to retreat, with the second siege being considered his greatest defeat.

In 1574, Nobunaga launched a third siege of Nagashima as his general [[Kuki Yoshitaka]] began a naval blockade and bombardment of Nagashima, allowing him to capture the outer forts of Nakae and Yanagashima as well as part of the Nagashima complex. The sieges of Nagashima finally ended when Nobunaga's men completely surrounded the complex and set fire to it, killing the remaining tens of thousands of defenders and inflicting tremendous losses to the Ikkō-ikki.<ref name= Turnbull2 />{{rp |221–25}}

====Ishiyama Hongan-ji War====
{{Main|Ishiyama Hongan-ji War}}
Simultaneously, Nobunaga had been besieging the Ikkō-ikki's main stronghold at [[Ishiyama Hongan-ji]] in present-day [[Osaka]]. Nobunaga's [[Siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji]] began to slowly make some progress, but the Mōri clan of the [[Chūgoku region]] broke his naval blockade and started sending supplies into the strongly fortified complex by sea. As a result, in 1577, Nobunaga ordered Takigawa Kazumasu to suppress Ikko-ikki at [[Kii Province]], [[Hashiba Hideyoshi]] to conquer the Chūgoku region from the Mori clan, before advancing upon the Mori clan in [[Nagato Province]],<ref name=Sansom2/>{{rp|287, 306}} Akechi Mitsuhide to pacify [[Tanba Province]], Kuki Yoshitaka to support attack from the sea, and Nobunaga eventually blocked the Mōri's supply lines.<ref name=Turnbull2/>{{rp|228}}<ref name=Sansom2/>{{rp|288–89}}

In 1580, ten years after the siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji began, the son of Chief Abbot [[Kōsa]] surrendered the fortress to Nobunaga after their supplies were exhausted, and they received an official request from the Emperor to do so.<ref>{{Cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0jvJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT158|title=Samurai Road|last=Winkler|first=Lawrence|date= 2016 |publisher=Bellatrix|isbn= 978-0-9916941-8-1}}</ref> Nobunaga spared the lives of Ishiyama Hongan-ji's defenders but expelled them from Osaka and burnt the fortress to the ground. Although the Ikkō-ikki continued to make a last stand in [[Kaga Province]], Nobunaga's capture of Ishiyama Hongan-ji crippled them as a major military force.

===Conflict with Takeda===
{{Main|Siege of Iwamura Castle|Battle of Mikatagahara}}
One of the strongest rulers in the anti-Nobunaga alliance was Takeda Shingen, who had formerly been an ally of the Oda clan. At the apex of the anti-Nobunaga coalition, in 1572, Takeda Shingen ordered [[Akiyama Nobutomo]], one of the "[[Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen|Twenty-Four Generals]]" of Shingen, to [[Siege of Iwamura Castle|attack Iwamura castle]]. Nobunaga's aunt, [[Lady Otsuya]], conspiring against the Oda clan, surrendered the castle to the Takeda, and married Nobutomo. From there, the Takeda-Oda relationship declined and Nobunaga started a war against the [[Takeda clan]].

In the same year, Shingen decided to make a drive for Kyoto at the urging of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, starting with invading Tokugawa territory. Nobunaga, tied down on the western front, sent lackluster aid to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who suffered defeat at the [[Battle of Mikatagahara]] in early 1573. However, after the battle, Tokugawa's forces launched night raids and convinced Takeda of an imminent counter-attack, thus saving the vulnerable Tokugawa with the bluff. This would play a pivotal role in Tokugawa's philosophy of strategic patience in his campaigns with Nobunaga. Shortly thereafter, the Takeda forces were neutralized after Shingen died in April 1573.<ref name="sam" />{{rp|153–56}}

====Battle of Nagashino====
{{Main|Battle of Nagashino}}
[[File:Battle-of-Nagashino-Map-Folding-Screen-1575.png|thumb|[[Battle of Nagashino]] in 1575]]

In 1575, [[Takeda Katsuyori]], son of Takeda Shingen, moved to Tokugawa territory, [[Siege of Yoshida Castle|attacked Yoshida castle]] and later besieged [[Nagashino Castle]]. Katsuyori, angered when [[Okudaira Sadamasa]] rejoined the Tokugawa, had originally conspired with [[Oga Yashiro]] to take the Tokugawa-controlled [[Okazaki Castle]], the capital of [[Mikawa Province]]. This plot failed.<ref name= "battles">{{cite book |title= Battles of the Samurai |last1= Turnbull |first1=Stephen |date= 1987 |publisher=Arms and Armour Press|isbn= 978-0-85368-826-6|location=London|pages= 79–94}}</ref>{{rp |80–82}} Tokugawa Ieyasu appealed to Nobunaga for help and Nobunaga personally led an army of about 30,000 men to the relief of Nagashino Castle. The combined force of 38,000 men under Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu devastated the Takeda clan at the Battle of Nagashino, the greatest defeat of the Takeda clan.

Conventionally, the "Battle of Nagashino" was regarded as a historic defeat in which Takeda Katsuyori ordered his cavalry to charge recklessly into a horse guard fence where arquebusiers were waiting for them, losing many Takeda officers and soldiers. Moreover, it has been said that Nobunaga developed a new battle strategy called "three-stage shooting", in which arquebusiers were arranged in several rows with the front row firing a volley, and then making way for the second row to fire. Once the second row had fired and made way for the third row, the first row had reloaded and were ready to fire again. This way the Oda could keep a relatively steady rate of musket fire.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lyons |first1=Chuck |title=What We Learned From... Nagashino, 1575 |url=https://www.historynet.com/learned-nagashino-1575.htm |work=HistoryNet |date=27 October 2017 }}</ref>

However, this was a theory developed by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff based on Oze Hoan's Shinchō Ki and Tōyama Nobuharu's Sōken Ki, which are war chronicles. Later, as research based on documents, letters, and Ota Gyūichi's ''Shinchō Kōki'' progressed, many errors were pointed out. It is now believed that it was mainly the logistics in Nobunaga's hands that determined the winner.{{efn| Nobunaga brought Sakai and other areas under his control and obtained almost exclusive access to lead, the raw material for bullets, and nitre, the raw material for gunpowder, which were rarely produced domestically and could only be imported from overseas through the [[Nanban trade]].}}<ref name="president70430">{{cite web| url = https://president.jp/articles/-/70430| title =信長の｢天才的戦術｣は旧日本陸軍のウソである...長篠の戦いで大敗した武田勢の評価が見直されているワケ敵陣に突入する戦法は｢正攻法｣だった| last = Atobe| first = Ban | author-link =| date = 11 June 2023| orig-date = | editor-last = | editor-first = | website = Nikkei Business | publisher = [[Nikkei Business Publications]]| language = ja| trans-title = Nobunaga's "genius tactics" is a lie of the former Japanese Army... The reason why the evaluation of the Takeda forces, which suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Nagashino, is being reviewed. The tactic of rushing into enemy lines was "regular tactics".| access-date = 7 August 2023}}</ref><ref name="newsweekjapan101942">{{cite web| url = https://www.newsweekjapan.jp/stories/culture/2023/06/post-101942.php | title =教科書に書かれていない｢信長が長篠の戦いで武田勝頼に勝った本当の理由｣ 最新研究が明かす武田軍と織田軍の決定的な違い| last = Atobe| first = Ban | author-link =| date = 20 June 2023| orig-date = | editor-last = | editor-first = | website = Nikkei Business | publisher = [[Nikkei Business Publications]]| language = ja| trans-title = The Real Reason Nobunaga Defeated Takeda Katsuyori in the Battle of Nagashino Not Written in Textbooks. The Latest Research Reveals the Critical Difference between Takeda's Army and Oda's Army.| access-date = 7 August 2023}}</ref>

The end of the Takeda clan came in 1582 when [[Oda Nobutada]] and Tokugawa Ieyasu forces conquered [[Shinano Province|Shinano]] and [[Kai Province]]. Takeda Katsuyori was defeated at the [[Battle of Tenmokuzan]] and then committed suicide.

===End of the Ashikaga Shogunate===
{{Main|Ashikaga Shogunate|Revolt of Ashikaga Yoshiaki}}
In early 1573, Yoshiaki initiated a siege against Nobunaga under the directive of the monk [[Kennyo]]. Takeda Shingen and Asakura Yoshikage tried to subdue Yoshiaki. Azai Nagamasa, Matsunaga Hisahide, Sanninshu Miyoshi, [[Miyoshi Yoshitsugu]], and others also participated in the siege against Nobunaga. Although the siege initially cornered Nobunaga's forces, it failed, as it was interrupted by the death of Takeda Shingen.

In mid 1573, when Yoshiaki began a revolt in Kyoto, he requested the help of the Matsunaga clan and allied with them. Yoshiaki and the Matsunaga clan gathered an army in Makishima castle in April and again in July which is when the revolt started. This angered Nobunaga, who invaded Kyoto. However, when Matsunaga Hisahide saw the hope for success was not achieved he returned to Nobunaga to fight the Miyoshi.

Nobunaga's entry into Kyoto presented him with a situation very different from that from which he had come. Nobunaga reportedly set fire to Kyoto, which forced Yoshiaki to retreat. He focused on Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who had openly declared hostility more than once, despite the [[Imperial Court in Kyoto|Imperial Court]]'s intervention. Nobunaga was able to defeat Yoshiaki's forces, and the power of the [[Ashikaga clan|Ashikaga]] was effectively destroyed on 27 August 1573, when Nobunaga drove Yoshiaki out of Kyoto and sent him into exile. Yoshiaki became a Buddhist monk, shaving his head and taking the name ''Sho-san'', which he later changed to ''Rei-o In'', bringing the Ashikaga Shogunate to an end.

===Imperial Court appointments===
{{Main|Imperial Court in Kyoto}}
After the Ashikaga Shogunate came to end, the authority of the Imperial Court of Emperor Ōgimachi also began to weaken. This trend reversed after Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto in a show of allegiance that indicated that the Emperor had the Oda clan's support.

In 1574, Nobunaga was appointed to a rank of Lower Third Rank ({{transliteration|ja|Ju Sanmi}}) of the Imperial Court and made a Court Advisor ({{transliteration|ja|[[Sangi (Japan)|Sangi]]}}). Court appointments would continue to be lavished on a nearly annual basis, possibly in hope of placating him. Nobunaga acquired many official titles, including Major Counselor ({{transliteration|ja|[[Dainagon|Gondainagon]]}}), General of the Right of the Imperial Army ({{transliteration|ja|Ukon'etaishō}}), and Minister of the Right ({{transliteration|ja|[[Udaijin]]}}) in 1576.<ref>{{Citation |title=The Emergence of the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan: From Oda to Tokugawa | first=Wakita | last=Osamu | journal= The Journal of Japanese Studies | year= 1982 | volume=8 | issue=2 | pages=343–67 | doi=10.2307/132343 | jstor=132343}}</ref>

===Construction of Azuchi Castle===
{{Main|Azuchi Castle}}

[[File:近江国蒲生郡安土城之.jpg|thumb|Azuchi-jō-zu, a drawing of the [[Azuchi castle]]]]

[[Azuchi Castle]] was built from 1576 to 1579 on Mount Azuchi on the eastern shore of [[Lake Biwa]] in [[Ōmi Province]].<ref name=Hinago>{{Cite book |last=Hinago |first=Motoo |title=Japanese Castles |publisher=Kodansha International Ltd. and Shibundo |year=1986 |isbn=0870117661 |pages=17, 28, 118–21}}</ref> Nobunaga intentionally built Azuchi Castle close enough to Kyoto that he could watch over and guard the approaches to the capital. Azuchi Castle's location was also strategically advantageous in managing the communications and transportation routes between Nobunaga's greatest foes - [[Uesugi clan|Uesugi]] to the north, the Takeda in the east, and the [[Mōri clan|Mōri]] to the west.<ref name=tourist>Ōrui, N. and M. Toba (1935). <u>Castles in Japan</u>. Tokyo: Board of Tourist Industry & Japan Government Railways.</ref> The castle and its nearby town were depicted on the so-called [[Azuchi Screens]], which Oda Nobunaga gave to [[Pope Gregory XIII]], who displayed them in the [[Vatican Museums|Vatican collections]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKelway |first1=Matthew |date=2006 |title=Capitalscapes Folding Screens and Political Imagination in Late Medieval Kyoto |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |page=296 |chapter=The Azuchi Screens and Images of Castles |isbn= 978-0824861773 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref>

===Conflict with the Mōri Clan===
The fundamental policy of the Mōri clan was "to avoid conflict with Nobunaga" and in the early 1570s, even when issues arose, they continued a cautious diplomacy to prevent any decisive confrontations. However, when Terumoto placed Ashikaga Yoshiaki under his protection, war between the two families became inevitable.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bs11.jp/lineup/2024/06/47-61-311916-bs11youtube-ijin-mg.html|title=信長が都から追放した室町幕府十五代将軍・足利義昭を輝元が庇護したことで両家の対立は決定的となる|publisher=BS11|access-date=17 June 2024}}</ref> The Mōri were drawn into the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War, Nobunaga's siege of a religious stronghold in Settsu, which he had begun in 1570. beginning with the [[Battle of Kizugawaguchi]] in 1576.

====Battles of Kizugawaguchi====
{{Main|Battles of Kizugawaguchi}}
Terumoto turned to the vaunted Mōri navy. In 1576, First Battle of Kizugawaguchi Nobunaga's 'admiral', Kuki Yoshitaka, had cut the Honganji's sea-lanes and sat in blockade off the coast. Terumoto ordered his fleet, commanded by [[Murakami Takeyoshi]], to make for the waters off Settsu and, once there, the navy inflicted an embarrassing defeat on Kuki and opened the Honganji's supply lines.

Later in 1578, at Second Battle of Kizugawaguchi, Kûki Yoshitaka defeated Takeyoshi and drove the Mōri away. A further attempt by the Mōri to break the blockade the following year was turned back, and in 1580 the Honganji surrendered.

===Conflict with Uesugi===
{{Main|Siege of Nanao}}
The conflict between Oda and Uesugi was precipitated by Uesugi intervention in the domain of the [[Hatakeyama clan]] in [[Noto Province]], an Oda [[client state]]. This event provoked the Uesugi incursion, a ''coup d'état'' led by the pro-Oda general [[Chō Tsugutsura]], who killed [[Hatakeyama Yoshinori]], the lord of Noto and replaced him with [[Hatakeyama Yoshitaka]] as a puppet ruler. In response, [[Uesugi Kenshin]], the head of the Uesugi clan, mobilized an army and led it into Noto against Tsugutsura. Consequently, Nobunaga sent an army led by Shibata Katsuie and some of his most experienced generals to attack Kenshin. They clashed at the [[Battle of Tedorigawa]] in Kaga Province in 1577.

====Battle of Tedorigawa====
{{Main|Battle of Tedorigawa}}
In November 1577, the Battle of Tedorigawa took place near the [[Tedori River]] in Kaga Province. Kenshin tricked Nobunaga's forces into launching a frontal attack across the Tedorigawa and defeated him. Having suffered the loss of 1,000 men, the Oda forces withdrew south. The result was a decisive Uesugi victory, and Nobunaga considered ceding the northern provinces to Kenshin, but Kenshin's sudden death in early 1578 caused a succession crisis that ended the Uesugi's movement to the south.<ref name= Turnbull2/>{{rp|12–13, 228, 230}}<ref name= Sansom2/>{{rp|288}}

===Tenshō Iga War===
{{main|Tenshō Iga War|Siege of Hijiyama}}
[[File:Tensho Iga no Ran.svg|thumb|Map of locations]]
The {{nihongo|'''Tenshō Iga War'''|天正伊賀の乱|Tenshō Iga no Ran}} was two invasions of [[Iga province]] by the Oda clan during the Sengoku period. The province was conquered by Oda Nobunaga in 1581 after an unsuccessful attempt in 1579 by his son Oda Nobukatsu. 

The name of the war is derived from the [[Tenshō (Momoyama period)|Tenshō]] [[Japanese era name|era name]] (1573–92) in which it occurred. Other names for the campaign include {{nihongo|"The Attack on Iga"|伊賀攻め|Iga-zeme}} or {{nihongo |"Pacification of Iga"|伊賀平定|Iga Heitei}}.  Oda Nobunaga himself toured the conquered province in early November 1581, and then withdrew his troops, placing control in Nobukatsu's hands.

By the 1580s, Nobunaga was the most powerful lord in Japan, controlling 20 provinces in central Japan: Owari, Mino, [[Omi province|Omi]], Iga, [[Ise province|Ise]], [[Yamato province|Yamato]], [[Yamashiro province|Yamashiro]], [[Kawachi province|Kawachi]], [[Wakasa province|Wakasa]], Settsu, [[Echizen province|Echizen]], [[Hida province|Hida]], Kaga, [[Noto province|Noto]], [[Tango province|Tango]], [[Tanba province|Tanba]], [[Harima province|Harima]], [[Inaba province|Inaba]], [[Tajima Province|Tajima]], and [[Hōki Province|Hōki]].<ref name= Sansom2/>{{rp|309–10}}