This week on the Revised Intro to Japanese History: the beginning of the end of the age of war and the rise of Oda Nobunaga. How did Nobunaga go from the ruler of less than a single province to the most powerful man in Japan in just a few decades? And what do we really know about the man himself, his plans, and his vision for Japan’s future?
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
Asao, Naohiro. “The Sixteenth-Century Unification.” in The Cambridge History of Japan, Vol IV: Early Modern Japan
Images
The expansion of the Oda clan during Nobunaga’s lifetime. The Oda would never go on to rule Japan, but this territory would form the basis for Hideyoshi’s eventual reunification of Japan.Kiyosu Castle, the base of Nobunaga’s branch of the Oda clan.Oda Nobunaga, who would start from nothing and rise to tremendous heights.A Meiji-era print of the attack on Honnoji. Nobunaga, on the right, is stabbed by an Akechi retainer. On the left, Nobunaga’s loyal page Mori Ranmaru attempts to save him.The Shincho Koki; among other things, this is one of the sources recording the meeting between Nobunaga and Yasuke.A bronze swivel mounted cannon manufactured at Nobunaga’s Kunitomo gunworks.
