Editing Oda Nobunaga (section)

===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.