Quick and Easy Sengoku History

Today we will continue the talk about Oda Nobuhide's attack on Okazaki Castle of Mikawa, leading to the clash of Oda forces and Imagawa/Matsudaira forces in the Battle of Azukizaka(1548). Picking up from where we left off in Part I of this talk, Nobuhide's son, Nobuhiro was the vanguard of this battle. However, when he saw Taigen Sessai's large force at an advantageous position, he stopped and waited for his father's main forces. After Nobuhide's main forces arrived, Nobuhiro informed his father of the situation, and they decided to approach carefully. The enemies in front of them was Matsudaira Hirotada, stopping them from reaching Taigen's Imagawa main forces on the Azukizaka slope. I'm not sure if you guys ever play team-based online games. Maybe psychologists can explain the mechanism but, it's actually pretty hard to stop advancing after charging against the enemy and winning. It's easy to laugh at other people for "YOLOing"

Today's article is Part I of a two-parter that covers the Battle of Azukizaka of 1548(小豆坂の戦い). The central figure of this talk and the next one is one of the few people who, in my personal opinion, made the greatest impact on the entire Sengoku period. If you are somewhat familiar with Sengoku history already, you will likely understand where I am coming from. If not, don't worry. This is what this website is for. Eventually the lasting impact of this person on the time period will unravel itself, and then you can decide whether you agree with me. Taigen Sessai His name was Taigen Sessai(太原雪斎, sometimes recorded as Taigen Soufu, 太原崇孚). As you can tell by the picture, he was a monk. Buddhist monks played various significant roles in the Sengoku period. Some served as advisers for daimyous, some served in military organizations as armed monks, and others took the role of religious leaders. I will go into more details with the different kinds of monks and their technicalit

Today's article is about someone you probably know from video games and anime. Nohime in Samurai Warriors One of the many fan-favorite female characters, Nohime(濃姫) is often depicted someone who is "fitting" to be the wife of the "evil" Nobunaga. Some like to go the "villain" route, some go for the "mature" and "sexy" route. Some do both. What was she like in history? Well, maybe some of these pop cultural depictions are true to a certain extent. We will never know for sure. Women in the era were usually not recorded as well as men were, but some of the modern depictions can probably be traced to the story I am about to tell. Last time we talked about the Battle of Kanouguchi(加納口の戦い), where Oda Nobuhide's invasion of Saitou Dousan's Mino province failed and he suffered great losses. After such a disastrous defeat, the Oda had to find ways to salvage the situation. They discussed what the next step shoul

Today's post will be about a pretty important figure in Nobunaga's life: Saitou Dousan(斎藤道三). At this time point of the story, he was the ruler of Mino Province(美濃国) directly north of the Oda-controlled Owari. The Viper of Mino The history of Mino Province actually was similar to that of the Owari Province. If you remember, Oda Nobuhide pretty much usurped another family's position that was considered unobtainable for him and became the de facto ruler of Owari. Saitou Dousan basically did the same in Mino. Except the man had a even humbler beginning. He grew up as a young monk in Kyoto. He later became an oil merchant and eventually a samurai. He traveled to Mino and became a retainer of Mino's governing family, the Toki family(土岐氏). One thing led to another, and long story short, every boss he ever had either died or disappeared, and he kept inheriting their family names and powers through what people speculated were questionable means. Even the la

In today's talk we will discuss the situation in the Oda family. This is the inevitable infodumping talk that will happen sooner or later, so let's get it over with. I'll make it as painless as possible with short descriptions. In previous posts we talked about how Nobunaga was seen as unfit to lead because of his weird personality and behaviors. There is an overwhelming voice of opposition in the Oda faction against him being appointed the successor of Oda Nobuhide as the leader of Danjou no jou(弾正忠) Oda branch. Here is a summary chart showing which team the Oda people were on. Feel free to reference back to this to remind yourself as you read. We will go over these people one by one. Oda Nobuyuki, Nobunaga's younger brother and rival. Oda Nobuyuki(織田信行) Childhood name Kanjuurou(勘十郎). Nobuyuki was a full brother of Oda Nobunaga, as in, they share the same father and mother. He was often described as a very polite and proper young man, directly cont