Re: Sengoku Jidai only the best Daimyos survive!
Oda Nobunaga who was born in 1534, became head of the Oda of Owari in 1551 after his father Oda Nobuhide was killed in battle against the Imagawa. At this point Nobunaga was considered a spoiled teen who hung out with gangs and was extremely unstable at his father's death. Because of his emotional outbreak at his father's funeral and a fit of rage, his retainers defected to his younger brother Oda Nobuyuki. Nobunaga only had Hirate Masahide on his side; this proved to be for a short time as Nobunaga and his lack of control dishonoured him so much that Masahide killed himself. It was at this point that Nobunaga straightened himself and became dedicated to reclaiming Owari. After 3 battles fought by Nobunaga himself and 7 years, Nobunaga destroyed any retainer who did not submit and his brother committed suicide.
By 1560 the Imagawa wanted Owari itself and marched an army of about 30,000 troops led by Imagawa Yoshimoto himself, and their very young vassal; Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ieyasu had been a hostage of the Oda and he befriended the young Nobunaga before Nobuhide had let him go. Here is where a look at the bigger picture is important. Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin had already met in battle 3 times and in 1561 they would meet for a fourth time. Takeda Shingen was a mighty warlord who had prospects of becoming Shogun (being a Minamoto after all, while Oda was a Taira and Uesugi was Fujiwara and could not claim this title). The Takeda had made a triple alliamce with the Imagawa and Hojo; the Oda would soon counter this by allying with the Tokugawa and Uesugi. Nobunaga stopped the young Ieyasu dead in his advance at Terabe, which is why Ieyasu did not fight at Okehazama (but the bulk of his army did). At Okehazama, with only 3,000 men Oda defeated the Imagawa by killing their daimyo with a good sense of strategic mind and tactical surprise as well as the stroke of luck that would characterize his career. The Tokugawa were freed from the Imagawa and struck an alliance with the Uesugi and Oda. Now Nobunaga would show us how he exploited his victory as well as his consistency with victories. He took advantage of this and attacked vassals of the weaker Imagawa (like his father-in-law Saito) as well as defeated a usurping Shogun and restoring that man's brother. He besieged fortresses such as Dong Temple, a failed siege of Kawano (a first defeat! GASP), succesful sieges of Inabayama, Kanonji, Kyoto, Okochi, Kanegasaki and Yokoyama. Until now (1570) Nobunaga had accomplished little, of course he had captured Kyoto and installed the "rightful" Shogun (thereby making himself the puppet master) but he had not accomplished a battle or permanent conquest worthy of his glory. Alas the "Fool of Owari" had subjugated the ever important Kyoto, but he was still considered the fool because of a conquest that he could not hold (every other daimyo such as Shingen, Asakura Yoshimoto and Kenshin had turned down the offer to help for the same reason). His next accomplishment would soon change everything. He married his sister to Azai Nagamasa (who was allied to Asakura) in order for Azai to help him against the Saito and Asakura. Of course the Saito were the parents of his wife but he cared little for them, as did the Saito care for any implied "alliance" or well being of Nobunaga that they promised from his marriage to Nohime. Oda Nobunaga declared war on the Asakura and he was aided by Azai and Tokugawa and then marched against them. The Azai defected and the process took a year for Tokugawa and Oda to face them outside of the Azai capital at Anegawa and finally achieve a worthy victory. Unfortunately for Nobunaga his army was of poor quality, the good quality Tokugawa forces were only numbering from 4,000-8,000 men. Regardless of the quality of his troops, Nobunaga managed to score a great victory (with the help of Ieyasu) and turn the tide of the war decisively. The religiously motivated Honganji rebels and Ikko-Ikki monks did not let him exploit this victory and it would take some time before he could take the Azai capital, and defeat Asakura and Azai once and for all. This would put Nobunaga in a possibly tighter corner than Okehazama and would find him facing the majority of the major clans of Japan; his greatest rise would soon ensue.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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