![]() Nobunaga promoted the arts, notably Kowaka drama and the Japanese Tea Ceremony, calling upon the skills of the recognised number one expert in this latter area, Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591). Curiously, Nobunaga did not go in for ostentatious clothing and although his dress sense was unusual he did set a trend, as one eyewitness account relates: In another strategy to build himself a cult of leadership, he declared his birthday a national holiday. The warlord was also keen on having people worship himself as a divinity and built a temple for that purpose. Regarding other religions, Nobunaga encouraged the work of Christian missionaries in Japan as he saw the benefit of European contacts which brought trade and technology such as the firearms he put to such devastating use. The result of this onslaught on the major Buddhist temples was that it finally ended their influence on government and regional powers, a position of privilege they had enjoyed throughout the medieval period. Toyotomi Hideyoshi would later build his famous Osaka castle on its ruins. ![]() The territories Nobunaga gained were given to his loyal commanders to govern, and the lands of captured warlords were frequently redistributed and relocated to break old ties of loyalty.Īnother influential Buddhist temple-fortress, Ishiyama Honganji in Osaka, was destroyed in 1580 by Nobunaga's fleet of cannon-toting ships. Nobunaga's army was also the first to have each man, including the infantry, issued with a full suit of armour. Nobunaga used his new weapons well, too, and was the first to employ rotating ranks of musket-men to create a continuous volley of fire. Seeing their effectiveness, the corps was increased to 3,000 men and once more brought a victory, this time at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575. This unit was sent into battle ahead of the other troops, and they proved decisive at the siege of Muraki castle in 1554 and at the Battle of Anegawa in 1570. Around 1549, when Nobunaga was a mere 15-year-old commander, he had created a specialist corps of 500 men each with his own matchlock muskets. Nobunaga was an innovator as he was one of the first Japanese leaders to adopt firearms. Nobunaga was able to defeat rival warlords and expand his territorial control thanks to his large army which was well-equipped and which included the gifted general Toyotomi Hideyoshi (who would become Nobunaga's successor). Nobunaga was well on his way to becoming Japan's most-feared military leader. ![]() In 1560 at the Battle of Okehazama, the warlord of Mikawa, Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519-1560), was defeated and killed when Nobunaga's outnumbered army sprang a surprise encirclement of the enemy. The warlord's reputation for ruthlessness was firmly established in 1557 when he ordered the murder of his own brother. Using the castle as his base, Nobunaga extended his domination over rival daimyo with notable successes coming in 1555 when he razed the town of Kiyosu and in 1559 when he captured and obliterated the fortress of Iwakura. Nobunaga would first come to prominence when, on his father's death, he became the lord of Nagoya castle. ![]() Rise to Powerīorn into a family of local administrators in 1534, Nobunaga's father, Oda Nobuhide (1510-1551) was a minor feudal lord or daimyo in Owari Province, central Japan. An innovative general who also used diplomacy as well as superior military tactics and weapons to see off his rivals, the warlord was infamous for his ruthless drive to conquer all before him. Nobunaga, along with his two immediate successors, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), is credited with unifying medieval Japan in the second half of the 16th century. Oda Nobunaga was the foremost military leader of Japan from 1568 to 1582.
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