![]() In 1580, its defenders surrendered, and this time were spared. It took a total of ten years for Nobunaga to take Ishiyama Hongan-ji. It took three costly sieges before the fortifications fell, and again there was a great slaughter of warrior monks and their followers. This won Nobunaga a reputation as a murderous villain. He destroyed Enryaku-ji and his forces killed everyone they could lay hands on, including monks, women, and children. The Ikkō-ikki, a resistance movement of the Jōdo Shinshū sect, held fortifications at Nagashima in Owari and Ishiyama Hongan-ji in today’s Ōsaka, while Tendai monks opposed him from Enryaku-ji monastery on Mt. In addition to rival samurai clans, Nobunaga was resisted by militant Buddhist sects. Following the Battle of Anegawa and the Siege of Odani Castle in Ōmi, Nobunaga destroyed the Asakura and Azai in 1573. This led his allies, the Azai, to side with their old allies the Asakura. Soon however, Yoshiaki began plotting with the Asakura clan of Fukui against Nobunaga, who took the offensive against them. Having secured the area around today’s Ōmihachiman, Nobunaga continued to Kyōto and installed Yoshiaki as shōgun. Nobunaga responded by attacking Chōkōji Castle, driving the Rokkaku clan out, while his forces defeated the Rokkaku on the plain and entered Kannonji Castle. In 1568, Nobunaga resolved to help Ashikaga Yoshiaki oust his rival Ashikaga Yoshihide as shōgun, but the Rokkaku clan in southern Ōmi resisted this initiative. This meant that he had to control the Shōgunate in Kyōto, and to do so, he needed to control Ōmi which stood on the road to Kyōto. Next Nobunaga forcibly annexed the area north of Nagoya which he renamed Gifu, and he began using a seal with the motto “Take the world by force”, thereby signalling his intention to rule all Japan. Around this time, Nobunaga came to rely on the services of a talented subordinate, Kinoshita Tōkichirō, who later become Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He made allies of the Azai in Ōmi by marrying his sister Oichi to Azai Nagamasa. In 1561, Nobunaga made an alliance with Matsudaira Motoyasu, who later become Tokugawa Ieyasu, and with Takeda Shingen in today’s Yamanashi. Yoshimoto was killed in the rout, and impressed by his victory, other clans swore fealty to the Oda. ![]() Using the ruse of straw dummies dressed up as soldiers and by attacking the Imagawa immediately after a rainstorm, Nobunaga succeeded in defeating his rival. ![]() ![]() Despite being vastly outnumbered, Nobunaga ignored advice and determined to attack Yoshimoto. In 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto gathered a large army and marched on Kyōto, under the pretext of assisting the Ashikaga Shōgunate based there. Having taken control of his own clan, Nobunaga came into direct conflict with the Imagawa, a rival clan in Owari. As he matured, Nobunaga proved himself a shrewd operator, prevailing over other claimants in his family to succession as governor by 1559. Born into the family of the military governor of Owari, he was known as an unruly youth with a fondness for the matchlock guns that had recently been introduced to Japan. Nobunaga emerged as head of the powerful Oda clan of Owari Province, the area corresponding to today’s Nagoya. He was followed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the first of three samurai warlords from the Nagoya area who worked successively toward the unification of Japan by force. Nobunaga built a huge castle at Azuchi in today’s Ōmihachiman, and the historic time in which he lived is now known as the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Although Oda Nobunaga wasn’t originally from Ōmi, he spent so much time here and left such a mark that we’ll consider him one of the people of Ōmi.
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