Episode 280 – The Fool of Owari, Part 1

March 16, 2019 5 Comments

This week, we turn to the life and legacy of the first of Japan’s three unifiers: the warlord Oda Nobunaga, who expanded his domains from part of a backwater province to 1/3rd of all Japan in just a few decades. Who were the Oda? Where did they come from? And how did Nobunaga go from a nobody to a major force in Japanese politics in just a few years?

Sources

Berry, Mary Elizabeth. Hideyoshi.

Lamers, Jeroen. Japonius Tyrannus: The Japanese Warlord Oda Nobunaga Reconsidered 

Lamers, Jeroen. The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga [Shinchou Kouki] of Ota Gyuichi

Images

Oda Nobunaga, who would start from nothing and rise to tremendous heights.
Kiyosu Castle, the base of Nobunaga’s branch of the Oda clan.
The location of Owari province.
A detail map of the Oda home region. Mino belonged to the Saito clan; Mikawa to the Matsudaira/Tokugawa; Totomi and Suruga on the right to the Imagawa, and Shinano would eventually become the heart of the Takeda lands.
The site of the former Iwakura Castle, which Nobunaga had destroyed to cement his hold on Owari.
An Utagawa school print of the Battle of Okehazama. Oda troops attack from the right; Imagawa Yoshimoto is on the left, fighting for his life.
Another print of Okehazama; Yoshimoto is the central figure in red (not that his armor is similar to the first).

5 thoughts on “Episode 280 – The Fool of Owari, Part 1”

  1. The episode isn’t available for listening to/downloading. It isn’t on libsyn like the older ones

    1. Sorry, had an issue with the file upload to my hosting service that I must have missed. Should be fixed.

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