Oda Nobunaga

A representative daimyo of the Sengoku period. After the sudden death of his father in 1560, he was left dangerously exposed, but his victory over Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama propelled him strongly onto the stage. In 1567 he quelled the neighbouring state of Mino and established his base there, calling it Gifu Castle. The following year he brought Ashikaga Yoshiaki onto his side and marched on Kyoto. Nobunaga had Yoshiaki declared shogun, reviving the authority of the Muromachi (or Ashikaga) shogunate while also allowing him to take real control of the Kinki area (the central administrative and financial hinterlands of Kyoto and Osaka) himself. Thereafter, he made able use of musketry - still new in warfare - and successively overthrew rival daimyo and independent religious fiefdoms. His hegemony grew and grew.

In 1576, he built Azuchi Castle in the state of Omi, and pacified the eastern provinces, long with the Kaga region, Kai and Mino, while also suppressing religious uprisings. In the 6th lunar month of 1582, while lodging at the temple of Honn・ji in Kyoto, he was overwhelmed the forces of his subordinate, Akechi Mitsuhide, and took his life at 49 years of age.

The secret of Nobunaga's army lay in its mobility. He relied on local samurai as well as established generals, and armed them all with muskets and pikes. He made the first fully professional fighting body.

Nobunaga also fixed land ownership and carried out surveys and cadasters. He established the principle of the open markets, and abolished guilds. After his death, many of these policies were continued under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and they came to form the bases of the early modern unified Japanese state.

Nobunaga was opposed to the religious authorities wielding secular power, and he unceremoniously burned any temple that resisted him, massacring countless monks and lay believers. But he was generous towards the newly arrived Christian missionaries, and allowed them to build seminaries and churches. Not a few daimyo had become Christian, and this stance allowed Nobunaga to pressurise them while at the same time marginalising the power of the Buddhist clergy.

Nobunaga was an enthusiast for tea. Thanks to this he was able to associate with the fabulously wealthy merchant elite of Sakai. He gave tea vessels to his retainers as gifts, and allowed privileges to the tea industry. This allowed him to absorb the authority of the merchant class and also keep the warrior clans under his control.