The “Sengoku” or “Warring States” period of 16th century Japan, a period that lasted for almost a whole century, was a time of unprecedented amounts of warfare, violence and suffering. The Ashikaga Shogunate, the country’s military government, had finally lost control over the Japanese provinces outside of the capital in Kyoto, and with no central government around, Japan was now a country divided between countless power-hungry clans and their warlords, the Daimyō. Land, wealth and power were all up for grabs, but who would be the one to TRULY come out on top? Who would be the one to pave the way for an eventual unification of this fragmented Japan?

The answer to both of these questions takes us to a small, unassuming province known as “Owari”, where a man by the name of Oda Nobunaga was born right into the chaos of the Sengoku period. Nobunaga was infamous for being just as rebellious and unconventional in his tactics as he was brutal, a combination which, in some ways, turned out to be EXACTLY what Japan needed in order to finally take the first step towards a prolonged period of peace.

Today, we will take a look at the life of Oda Nobunaga, his wars, his revolutionary tactics, his most cruel decisions and the people that he met along the way, some of which turned out to be arguably JUST as legendary AND important to the history of Japan as Nobunaga himself.

#japan #war #history


SOURCES:

Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan (Mini-series, 2021)

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/...

https://www.storiespreschool.com/oda_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nob...

https://www.worldhistory.org/Oda_Nobu...

https://thesengokuarchives.com/2018/0...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotom...

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/...

https://www.worldhistory.org/Tokugawa...

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifu

https://odaclan.tumblr.com/post/66286...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honn%C5...

https://thesengokuarchives.com/2020/0...

https://www.japanesewiki.com/literatu...

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14...


CHAPTERS:

00:00 - Intro
01:59 - The Fool of Owari
05:56 - Okehazama
14:08 - Entering Kyōto
19:36 - Tanegashima
25:27 - The Honnō-ji Incident