The sixteenth-century unification

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521223553.003

2 - The sixteenth-century unification

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Asao Naohiro and

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Asao Naohiro: Affiliation:
University of Kyoto
John Whitney Hall: Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut

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Summary

POLITICAL UNIFICATION

The rise of Oda Nobunaga

The prominent details of Oda Nobunaga's rise to power have been well established by historians. We know him as the son of a samurai from Owari and as a man who possessed enough unbridled ambition to slay several of his own kin in a struggle for control of the Oda family holdings. The same raw nerve – and military tactical genius – was equally evident in 1560 when his small band of followers defeated the considerably larger forces of Imagawa Yoshimoto, the military governor of Suruga who was crossing Nobunaga's land in what became a vain attempt to reach Kyoto and seize the symbols of national authority.

This victory at Okehazama in 1560 established Nobunaga as the foremost daimyo within Owari, and he soon moved beyond these narrow boundaries. First, he concluded an alliance with Matsudaira Motoyasu (the future Tokugawa Ieyasu) of Mikawa Province, who had been released as an Imagawa hostage after the defeat at Nobunaga's hands. Then Nobunaga attacked the Saitō of Mino; with their eventual defeat in 1567 he took control of Mino and the balance of Owari and moved his headquarters to Gifu Castle. From this time he began to use the seal inscribed with the slogan “the realm subjected to military power” (tenka fubu), showing his intention to unite all of Japan by military power.

Keywords

Bitchū Province military hegemony Muromachi bakufu Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi sixteenth-century unification Oda Nobunaga

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Japan , pp. 40 - 95

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521223553.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1991

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2 - The sixteenth-century unification

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