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 Biography of Oda Nobunaga
By: akusunokimasa

Pages:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

In a miraculous effort Hideyoshi managed to get out of the noose and made it back to Kyoto where Nobunaga’s forces had arrived. Nobunaga remarked, “You are like gods. You are truly like gods!” Nobunaga’s respect for Hideyoshi grew even higher and senior Oda generals respected him more as well.
In this time the Shogun Yoshiaki had privately turned against Nobunaga. Once grateful he now became greedy and unsatisfied. Too used to a life of luxury he was unhappy with Nobunaga having control over matters. He began sending letters to various daimyo clans over the country, like the Mori and the Takeda, to join together and invade the Oda lands. Nobunaga was, needless to say, quite angry about these moves and approached the shogun. Yoshiaki pledged repentance but continued his efforts nonetheless.
With the shogun in his place, for now, Nobunaga turned his eyes upon his revenge against the Asai clan. He joined together with a small Tokugawa force and destroyed much of the Asai and Asakura reinforcement forces at the battle of Anegawa, although it was a near defeat for the Oda and Tokugawa forces as well. Nobunaga proceed with the following siege of Odani castle, the Asai capital. Hideyoshi mediated for the life of Nobunaga's sister, who was the wife of Asai Nagamasa, and their children. Nagamasa agreed and sent them out of Odani as Oda forces stormed in and killed Nagamasa. With the fall of the Asai clan Nobunaga now controlled most of the central portion of Japan, Kinai region, except for portions controlled by religious groups, but he still had a few problems in front of him.
Nobunaga had to deal with the 'warrior priests' of Mt. Hiei. For centuries these priests had used physical threats and violence to influence directions in the court in Kyoto and had been a major influence in many other events of earlier Japanese history. When Nobunaga had re-established the shogun in Kyoto and restored the Emperor's palace the warrior monks constantly stirred up trouble with the help of the shogun and the Asai and Asakura clans. Nobunaga first led a campaign against Mt. Hiei and besieged the mountain during the winter. The armies on top were driven to such desperate measures as eating bark and other substances. Nobunaga had offered a settlement at the beginning of the siege for the monks to give up arms and their political powers and the siege would end but they had refused. When things became rough for the monks they sent people down to offer agreement to the settlement but Nobunaga angrily refused and had the men cut down. Only do to threats from other parts of Japan did Nobunaga have to abandon his siege. The monks, however, did not learn their lesson and so Nobunaga was forced to re-besiege Mt. Hiei in the following summer. Nobunaga was done with the monks and so in an all out assault the forces attacked Mt Hiei and burned down all the temples and monasteries which had been standing for centuries and killed almost every last man, woman, and child inhabiting the place. In this heroic move Nobunaga ended the years of terror created by these monks and brought peace to the area. Many of Nobunaga's rivals did not see it this way and called him a demon for slaughtering everyone and burning down such a sacred place.
Former allies out of convenience the Takeda clan decided, under Takeda Shingen, decided to march to take the capital. This occurred as Nobunaga’s first besiegement of Mt. Hiei was underway, and was the cause for him to abandon that siege. The famous Takeda forces met the Tokugawa lands and the Tokugawa forces and at Mikatagahawa they fought. Shingen dealt Ieyasu a resounding defeat. Ieyasu barely escaped with his life back to his capital of Hammamatsu. There he left all the gates wide open and had bonfires placed at the entrances to the castle. As the Takeda vanguard reached the castle they were so confused and afraid of an ambush that they had to fall back. As Shingen himself was present at the besiegement of a nearby Tokugawa castle a Tokugawa gunner shot at him and severely wounded him. Shingen was rushed to camp but he died soon after. The Takeda forces immediately pulled back into their home province of Kai and left the Tokugawa safe. Takeda generals decided to keep his death a secret from the world and so had decoys go around to keep up the illusion that he was still alive. Only a few men outside of the Takeda elite new of Singen’s death.