July 21, 2025 • 60 mins
Welcome back! Today I'm going to look at the life of one of Japan's three great modern unifiers: Oda Nobunaga. We're going to especially feature his most famous battle at Nagashino (1575), his forward-thinking with regards to firearm use, and the attributes that led to his success and downfall. Towards the end, I try to answer the question: Was Nobunaga mentally ill?
Sources:
The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga by Ôta Gyûichi, translated by J.S.A. Elisonas and J.P. Lamers.
A History of Japan by George Bailey Sansom
Nagashino 1575: Slaughter at the Barricades by Stephen Turbull
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
The 12th of June 1560 Awari Province, Japan.
Imagawa Yoshimoto with an army of 25,000 men sets up camp near
the village of Okahazama as nightfall approaches.
Emboldened by their string of recent victories, the Imagawa
army relax, remove their armor, and prepare for a night of sake
(00:30):
and celebration. It had been raining during the
day, and a thunderstorm was approaching.
Imagawa himself had just begun to rest when he hears a
commotion in the camp, which he suspects is from a couple of
drunken idiots among his soldiers.
Annoyed, he rises to call them to order.
(00:52):
Little did he know, however, that his army was about to be
struck by Thunder and lightning,not from the storm, but rather
the swords and Spears of the OTAarmy.
Suddenly, the noise in the camp heightens and a mass panic
sweeps the Imagawa army. 2 samurai emerge from the shadows,
and with one clean strike, Imagawa Yoshimoto's head hits
(01:15):
the ground. Welcome back guys.
Today we're going to be coveringthe life of OTA Nobunaga, the
fool of Awari. OTA lives through the end of the
Sengoku Jedai, a period of constant warfare among the
(01:37):
feudal warlords of Japan, and sothis period is actually
sometimes known colloquially as the Warring States Period of
Japan. It's also when the W 1st began
to have substantial contact withJapan, especially the
Portuguese, and so it's contributed to the many
stereotypes we have nowadays about the samurai and Bushido.
(01:57):
It's been said that the end of this period can be told through
the lens of three men who are considered the modern unifiers
of Japan, ODA Nobunaga, Toyotomihediyoshi and Tokugawa
Iyasu. These men were very similar in
some ways yet different in others, as demonstrated by
famous Japanese parable which tells the story of a cuckoo bird
(02:20):
that won't sing. If ODA was there, he would say
if you don't sing, I will kill you.
Toyotomi would say if you don't sing, I will make you sing.
And lastly, Tokugawa would say if you don't sing, I will wait
for you to sing. And so today we're going to
(02:42):
start with a story of ODA Nobunaga.
To better understand Nobunaga, we do have to be aware of the
context of the times he lived inthe Sengoku Jodai.
So when did this period start? Well, different people will give
different answers, and there isn't a black or white numbered
year. But I'm going to use the Onan
War, which took place from around 1467 to 1477.
(03:08):
And like a lot of wars, it all came down to a disruption of the
balance of power for centuries. Although Japan did have a
reigning emperor, power lay in the hands of the Shogun, who was
a kind of military dictator since the early 1300's.
The ruling authority was in the form of the Ashikaga Shogunate
(03:29):
and the current Shogun was Ashikaga Yoshimasa.
Yoshimasa was interesting because he seemed to be mainly
interested in the arts as well as Zen Buddhism, rather than
being politically savvy and reading about his story.
I think he really would have been happier as a monk or
painter, but unfortunately he was thrust into a position of
(03:51):
power as a 13 year old. In 1464, Yoshimasa asked his
brother Yoshimi, who was actually a monk, to come out of
secular life to be his heir, as at this time he did not have a
legitimate male child yet, even though Yoshimasa was still only
28 years of age. Yoshimi agreed.
(04:13):
However, the problem was that the following year, Yoshimasa
and his wife Tomiko did have a male child, and a succession
struggle began to brew. Yoshimasa wanted to make his
infant child his heir, but his brother Yoshimi was like, what
the hey man, I just gave up nastic life and now you're
kicking me out? So what ends up happening is
(04:34):
that Yoshimi gets the support ofa very powerful family in Japan,
the Hosokawa clan, and on the other side Yoshihasa and Tomiko
are able to secure the support of another powerful family, the
Yamana clan. These two clans, under the
leadership of Hosokawa Katsumotoon one side and Yamana Sozen on
(04:54):
the other side, form 2 armies known as the Eastern and Western
armies, both around 80,000 men or so in size.
Both armies reach the capital city of Kyoto, and at first it's
a standoff because it's declaredthat whoever attacks first is a
rebel. However, after a Hosokawa
(05:15):
mansion gets burnt down, fighting ensues in the coming
years. Neither clan wins, but Kyoto is
badly damaged and looted. What did result from the
aftermath of the war was that the Ashikaga Shogunate had lost
power. It had made itself look weak and
(05:35):
without authority during the Onan War, permitting different
warlords to fight and cause chaos.
And so now power was in the hands of the Daimyo, regional
feudal warlords like the Hosokawa clan.
Other clans would come to prominence in the next century
and some of these like the Takeda, Yuosugi and Date clans
(05:57):
would become famous. The ODA clan occupied Owari
province, so looking at the map it's a fairly small area of land
wise in South Central Japan. And this is where ODA Nobunaga
is born, around 50 or 60 years after the conclusion of the Onan
War on June 23rd 1534 in the castle town of Nagoya.
(06:20):
Nobunaga is the eldest legitimate son and heir of ODA
Nobuhide, known as the Tiger of Owari and his wife Dota Gozen.
Not too much is known about Nobunaga's early life, but he is
said to have had a lot of interest in physical training
and spent much of his time engaged in riding, swimming, and
practicing with bamboo Spears. Growing up, Nobanaga was
(06:44):
surrounded by samurai retainers,war banners, and fortress walls.
But even in this Marshall world,he stood out not for valor, not
yet at least, but for his eccentric behaviors.
Contemporary counts described him as unruly, brash and utterly
unpredictable. As a youth, he already became
(07:05):
famous for his erratic behavior,and he's described as wearing a
bathrobe with its sleeves removed, half trousers over it,
and carried any number of pouches for flints and that sort
of thing around his waist. He kept his hair straight up
like a tea whisk tied with Crimson and fresh green cords.
Here's another description of him from his biography,
(07:26):
describing his actions as Nobinaga would quote, gnaw away
at chestnuts, persimmons, and even melons, completely
unembarrassed by the looks people gave him, where he would
eat rice cakes while standing inthe center of town.
He did not walk on his own 2 feet, but always leaned on
others or hung on their shoulders.
In those days, people still paidattention to the rules of proper
(07:48):
behavior, so the only thing anyone ever called him was Big
Idiot. And so locals in Awari began to
whisper about him. The Fool of Awari.
This was the name that stuck a disparaging play on the Tiger of
Awari, the nickname his father received.
(08:09):
But the so-called fool was watching, learning and
calculating. Let's backtrack a little now and
go back to the year 1543, when Nobunaga would have been around
nine years old, and this is whenthe first Europeans had reached
Japan. It had been a complete accident,
as the three Portuguese men who reached the island had their
(08:31):
ship blown off course by a typhoon.
They soon began to ingratiate themselves with the locals and
carried mysterious explosive weapons with them that shocked
and excited their rescuers. These of course, were early
firearms, a type of matchlock musket known as the Arcubus.
The locals quickly began to reverse engineer and copy the
(08:53):
guns in large numbers, and soon after Portuguese traders would
frequent Japan to trade more guns along with other goods.
This event would greatly affect the trajectory of Nobunaga's
life and in his youth it's been documented that his novelty
seeking behavior got him to be interested in these new weapons,
and he would spend a lot of timepracticing shooting with the
(09:14):
archivists. This was somewhat unusual for
the time, as the choice of weapon for warriors in Japan
tended to be the spear, the Cortana, or the bow and arrow,
but his early interest in innovation and technology with
these firearms would play a critical role in his later
military life. In his late teens, his father
Nobuhide dies of disease and a funeral is arranged, which
(09:37):
Nobunaga attends. When it is his turn to burn
incense, he walks up to the altar dressed bizarrely, having
his hair tied up straight, not wearing morning trousers, and
worse, his sword and dagger was held in a straw rope that he
just wrapped around himself. His family is shocked and
exasperated at his appearance, which only intensifies when his
(09:58):
behavior now becomes erratic. Nobunaga grabbed a handful of
incense, threw it in the air, and basically just pieced out of
the funeral. Now, I don't really know too
much about proper Japanese ritual behavior in the 1500s,
but it's noted that Nobunaga's entire family finds this
behavior embarrassing, in contrast to his younger brother
(10:19):
who is dressed appropriately andbehaves honorably.
Despite all of this, because Nobunaga is the oldest
legitimate male in his family, it is he who has chosen to
succeed his father as head of the old clan, as well as Lord of
Awari Prophet. As expected, members of his
family are not exactly happy about this, so Nobunaga has to
fight against his brother ODA Nobayuki, as well as his uncle
(10:43):
ODA Nobutomo. Despite his apparent madness,
however, Nobunaga was a skilled warrior and military commander,
so as a result, he's able to outmaneuver and outfight them to
seize power of the OTA clan. Also, around this time in his
early career, one of his highestranking subordinates, Harate
(11:03):
Masahide, who also served his father, faithfully dies by
sepulchre. So for those who don't know what
sepulchre is, it's a type of honorable ritual suicide usually
reserved for those of the samurai class.
It usually involved taking a short sword and slicing open
your belly, basically disemboweling yourself.
Sometimes there would be a second standing behind you
(11:26):
instead of letting you bleed to death slowly and painfully.
So why does Masahide complete seppuku now?
Well, it turns out that he was so upset by Nobunaga's behavior
specifically that he lacked seriousness and maturity that he
took his own life in protest, hesays.
I can discover no sign of the upbringing I gave him, so
(11:47):
there's no point to my life anymore.
So now I want to discuss, is Nobunaga mentally ill or just a
little weird? Well, we'll talk about this
later in the episode. But there is evidence that at
least sometimes he was putting on a show.
So he later meets a Daimio by the name of Saitodosen who
(12:07):
wanted to embarrass Nobunaga by having him walk through a
ceremony in his bizarre attire. However, it's said that
Nobunaga, for the first time in years, dressed properly, had his
hair done and even carried his sword properly, quickly earning
the respect of the people aroundhim.
He knew what the right way to act was.
(12:28):
He was playing the fool. Dosan, by the way, was
Nobunaga's father-in-law as he married his daughter Nohime to
this young upstart. So, as illustrated by this
anecdote, Nobunaga had the ability to act normal.
The question is, was he a mad person who could sometimes act
normal or a normal person who put on a show of being mad?
(12:51):
He really reminds me of Hamlet, who just like Nobunaga, could
have periods of madness, but then periods of normalcy.
And furthermore, he was able to have the insight to say that he
was mad. And for centuries, English lit
people have debated whether or not Hamlet was actually mad.
And I think historians have alsodebated whether or not Nobunaga
(13:11):
was mad. Some historians argue that his
eccentric behavior was a mask, away to test loyalty, to separate
the truly devoted from the opportunistic.
Others see a restless mind struggling against the rigid
structures of samurai culture. I mean, certainly some of these
behaviors could be attributed tonatural contrarian or rebellious
(13:32):
nature stuck in a conformist society.
Plus, madness, which is not exactly a precise word, has a
spectrum. So maybe for now we'll call them
neurodivergent, but I definitelywant to talk about this more at
the end of the episode. Going back to his life, Nobunaga
at this time is cleaning up the fight against his brother and
(13:53):
uncle. He demonstrates early genius as
a commander, showing great personal bravery, speed of troop
movement, bold military tactics,and an openness to foreign
ideas. Specifically, he was willing to
employ a lot of ashigaru in his army or soldiers of the peasant
class in addition to the samuraiwarrior class that traditionally
(14:15):
dominated combat. So as a result, his ranks began
to swell. Another one of his innovations
was his use of firearms. So contrary to popular belief,
he wasn't the first warlord to use firearms in battle.
So that was someone from the Shimazu clan.
And he wasn't the only one to use them in large numbers
either. So for example, Takeda Shingen
(14:37):
of Kai Province, whom we'll hearabout later, had hundreds of
archibouses in his army. But what did seem to make
Nobunaga unique was his willingness to equip his common
ashugaru with firearms and his use of volley fire.
So let me explain. During the Senguku period, the
Yumi bow was still a common weapon, and although it lacked
(14:58):
the firepower of matchlock firearms, it still did have its
advantages, such as faster reloading time and better
accuracy. The problem is that using the
bow well requires years of practice and physical strength.
Firearms required less skill andstrength comparatively, so these
ashigaru could be taught to use them quickly and effectively.
(15:21):
The poor accuracy could be mitigated through firing on
mass. So yeah, trying to snipe someone
is going to be hard with these guns, but if you have hundreds
of soldiers just firing at once,the enemy is going to be facing
a wall of musket balls and surely some of them are going to
hit their mark. And what about the last problem
that is reloading time? Well, Nobunaga comes up with the
(15:44):
idea of volley fire and he may be one of the first people to
have used it on a large scale. Nobunaga's volley fire work like
this. He would have 3 ranks of
Musketeers and his attack would start when line one would shoot
their first round. They would then drop to the
ground where upon line 2 would be ready to shoot and finally
(16:06):
the first two lines of gunmen would get down while line 3
would shoot. And so during the lag time
between other lines shooting, the other soldiers were able to
reload and generate continuous fire.
Now, some historians have questioned whether Nobunaga used
volley fire at all or if this was later romanticization, but
(16:26):
for the sake of this episode, let's just go with yes, he did
use volley fire. Anyway, getting back to the
story, after cleaning up some family affairs, Nobunaga has now
established A stronghold at Kyosu Castle.
One of the neighboring daimyos, Imagawa Yoshimoto, who was a
long time rival of Nobunaga's father, decides to invade Awari
(16:49):
province to try to expand his territory under the pretext of
marching to Kyoto to help the Shogun.
He comes with a very large army of around 25,000 or so, a much
larger force than anything Nobunaga can put together.
They quickly take over some border fortresses, so OTA's
subordinates advise him to hold behind the fortifications of
(17:12):
Kyosu Castle because they just don't think that OTA can take
Imagawa in a pitched battle. The hot headed and brave
Nobunaga refuses, saying that only a strong offensive policy
could make up for the superior numbers of the enemy, and calmly
orders a counter attack. Nobunaga hastily puts together a
small force of 2 to 3000 soldiers so he's outnumbered by
(17:34):
around 12:50. Here the Imagawa army had spread
out to fight the different garrisons of the OTA army, so
Imagawa Yoshimoto had only 5000 soldiers with him, still twice
as many as Nobunaga, and so his army rests near a narrow
forested gorge. During the day Yoshimoto
(17:58):
participates in Jenkin, or a formal ceremony, where he is
presented with a dressed up heads of defeated enemy
soldiers. We're to us now, but not
necessarily uncommon for the time.
Soon after, the winds and rain start blowing and pouring due to
the elements. Their bows, Spears and swords
(18:19):
become muddy and worse, the few muskets, they had become
drenched and useless. ODA had travelled across this
area of the country frequently as a boy, so he knew the
geography well. He takes his men to the back of
the camp and quietly as he sees his drunk enemy stumbling
around, he signals his men to attack and like lightning they
(18:41):
spring into action. At first Yoshimoto thought the
commotion was from some drunkards in his camp, but as
the battle cries intensify, he realizes that it is the OTA army
and a ferocious battle breaks out.
With speed and audacity, the OTAarmy pushed the Imagawa back and
eventually 2 samurai reached thecommander in chief and with one
(19:04):
clean strike, Imagawa Yoshimoto's head hits the
ground. After they see their general
dead, many of the troops lose heart, turn and run.
It's said that around 3000 Imagama troops were killed and
furthermore, Yoshimoto's prize sword Samonji was taken by
Nobunaga as a trophy and he carried it with him.
(19:25):
Henceforth this is a big battle for the 26 year old Nobunaga,
who prior to this was kind of seen as a minor warlord.
But this victory brings some respect and fear in Japan, while
the Imagawa clan would start to fade away.
Essentially, this battle was like playing chess.
Nobanaga just went straight to checkmate the king to win the
(19:48):
game. And the battle of Okazama, as it
is later known, is also important because Nobanaga
forges 2 very important relationships.
The 1st is his sandal bearer, Kinoshita Tochekiro, whose
bravery and skill in the battle impresses Nobanaga and he would
soon come to be one of his closest and most trusted
(20:08):
retainers. Secondly.
One of Yoshimoto's allies, Matsudaira Motoyasu, defects to
the OTA cause and instead becomes his ally now.
So you might not be familiar with his people right now, but
both of these individuals changetheir names later on and become
to be known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Iyasu
(20:32):
respectively. To avoid confusion, I'm just
going to refer to them by their eventual names for the rest of
the episode. Over the next 10 years, Nobunaga
continues to expand his power like a nearby Meno province
against the Saito clan. His father-in-law, Saito Dosan,
is killed by his own son who is rumored to be fathered by a
(20:53):
different man. One of the most important
battles here is the siege of Inabayama Castle, where once
again Hideyoshi distinguishes himself.
Nobunaga relocates his primary residence here and renames it
Gifu Castle. He later invades Isay Province
as well as Omi Province, and towards the end of the decade
(21:15):
makes his way to the capital city of Kyoto.
Around this time he gets into contact with Ashikaga Yoshiaka,
the brother of the recently murdered Shogun Yoshi Teru.
So getting back to the beginningof the episode, the Ashikaga
Shogun's had long lost power by now, but Nobunaga decides to
help Yoshiaki and restores him as Shogun, giving the clan some
(21:38):
legitimacy again. Now he didn't do this because he
was just a nice guy, but rather he did this because by doing
them a favor, he was hoping to use the Shogun as a puppet for
his own ambitions. A tried and true strategy in
history. This way he could use the Shogun
to influence the Daimyo in Japanwithout making it explicit.
(22:02):
Things initially go OK as Yoshiaki is grateful for being
restored, but Nobunaga refuses to accept a position under the
shogunate and acts disrespectful, which infuriates
Yoshiaki. As a result, he tries to call on
different warlords in the country to get rid of Nobunaga,
who then deposes the Shogun and chases him out of the capital.
(22:26):
Yoshiaki eventually runs away toa monastery and becomes a Zen
Buddhist monk, changing his name.
It's interesting because sometimes when I get annoyed at
my own life, I tell people I'm going to run away and become a
monk, so it's cool that people actually do it sometimes.
So now with several provinces, the Shogun and the capital Kyoto
(22:47):
under his control, you see earlysigns that perhaps Nobunaga is
the one who might one day be able to reunite Japan.
There's an anecdote about a monknamed Tantaku who knows Nobunaga
well, and he's traveling throughKai province before being
stopped by Takeda Shingen. So Shingen, curious about
(23:08):
Nobunaga at this time, asks about his interests and habits,
trying to figure out what kind of guy he is.
So the monk says, well, Nobunagais really into riding, archery,
shooting, Hawking, which takes up most of his days.
He's also a man of drama and music and in fact, sings songs
frequently. And Shingan is like, hmm, what
(23:31):
songs? And the monk is like, well,
something that goes like this death is certain.
What can I do to be remembered by, to make certain someone
recalls and tells my story? And so through this anecdote,
you really get the sense of Nobunaga's obsession with
legacy, the desire to be remembered.
(23:54):
This kind of reminds me of the movie Troy, where Achilles is
told that if he chooses to stay home from the Trojan War, he
will live a long life, but no one will remember his name after
a few generations. However, if he chooses to go and
fight, he will die. But people remember his name for
1000 years and of course he goesto fight.
(24:16):
And I bet if Nobanaga was given the same options, he would
choose the same. Getting back to our narrative,
OTA fights a bunch of other people like the Asakura and Asai
clans at the Battle of Anagawa. But I'm not going to go through
all of his campaigns in this episode because it's going to
drag. It's also around this time, the
(24:38):
early 1570s, that Nobunaga starts to have a bunch of run
insurance with the Eco Iki as heand his retainers begin invading
some of their lands. So who are these people?
Well, they're a sect of militantBuddhist monks composed of
priests, often people the lower classes, and sometimes even low
ranking warriors. They generally did not like the
(24:59):
rule of the daimyos, so they operated pretty independently.
They came into conflict with Nobunaga for a few reasons.
For one, the man seemed to really hate Buddhism.
Interesting because he was actually very tolerant of
Christianity and treated the Jesuits very well.
Secondly, the Eco Iki felt that Nobunaga was encroaching on
(25:23):
their territory and so they would ally with some of his
enemies like the Asai and Asakura clans to fight him in
battle. The Eco Iki, who specialized in
guerrilla warfare and had occupied many strongholds near
Kyoto, start to drive Nobunaga nuts.
It ends up being a 10 year or sowar, and one particularly bloody
(25:44):
engagement is the siege of MountHeii in 1571, which overlooks
Kyoto to the north. On top of the mountain is a
temple known as Enriakuji, and it is here where Nobunaga
displays some of the worst cruelty in his life.
He orders his men to go up the mountain, raised down as many of
(26:04):
the trines, pagodas, and chapels, and then
indiscriminately slaughters monks, laymen, women, and
children, earning the nickname the Demon King.
As one of my sources writes, thewhole mountainside was a great
slaughterhouse, and the site wasone of unbearable horror.
(26:25):
During this time, even some of Nobunaga's own generals and
retainers were hesitant to orderthe slaughter, especially
because some of them were Buddhists themselves.
This act of barbarism angers many of the daimio throughout
Japan, including Takeda Shingen,who was a Buddhist himself.
Shingen, based in Kai Province, was one of the greatest
(26:48):
militaries of the Sengoku period, and the Takeda Cavalry
in particular were renowned for being the best in the nation.
O In 1573, spurred on by Shogun Yoshiaki, who at this time had
not quite yet become a monk and is still trying to undermine
Nobunaga, organizes a force of 30,000 troops and marches his
(27:09):
army on the road to Kyoto from the east.
Now Shingen is a real warrior and someone who sometimes I feel
like fought just for fun. So there was this big rivalry
between Shingen and another daimyo, Ussugi Kenshin, who is
based in Ichigo province. The two of them fought at a
place called Kawankajima five times inconclusively.
(27:33):
It almost became like an annual sporting event where the two
armies would meet, Duke it out like gentlemen, and then go back
home to prepare for the next 1. And so the Takeda soldiers had a
lot of experience. Anyway, Shingen engages
Nobunaga's ally Tokugawa Iyasu and routes him with his powerful
(27:54):
cavalry at the Battle of Mikata Gahara.
I won't go over this battle in too much detail because I'm
going to save it from my Tokugawa episode, but basically
the Tokugawa army is defeated, but through some clever tactics,
the Takeda army is unable to follow up and retreats back
home. Not too soon after, Shingen dies
(28:17):
and is succeeded by his son Takeda Katsuyori, and a period
of bad blood between the OTA andTakeda clans would persist
despite the fact that they had been allies before and even
intermarried. I think I should mention that
during the Sengoku period, different clans would alternate
between periods of fighting and peace, and would often
(28:39):
intermarry to strengthen their alliances.
This is important to note because sometimes the daimio and
samurai especially get this reputation for being extremely
honorable. But in fact, there was a lot of
betrayal and backstabbing duringthis period.
And since I've already taken a brief interlude, I want to add
that much of this episode so farhas focused on Nobunaga's
(29:01):
military career. But he also made significant
changes to civil administration,much of which have been lauded
by historians. So for one, he standardized
currency, setting a fixed ratio between copper, silver, and
gold. He took a strong stance against
counterfeit currency and opened up free trade, dismantling
(29:22):
monopolies. He repaired roads, bridges and
loosen up the barriers within the provinces that he
controlled, encouraging travel and free trade.
And despite his fury towards theBuddhists, he was actually a
friend of Christianity and the Jesuits, who had a very high
opinion of him, both in terms ofmilitary, economic and
(29:42):
administrative ability. In fact, my sources state that
there were probably 15,000 Christians in central Japan
alone by the year 1582, and perhaps as many as 150,000 in
the country total, along with 200 churches for Nobunaga.
He didn't seem to mind religion as long as it didn't interfere
(30:05):
with politics, which was probably why he had a problem
with the eco Ikki rather than Buddhism itself.
But let's get back to our story.After Takeda Shingen dies, his
son Takeda Katsuyori continues to have poor relations with the
OTA Tokugawa alliance, and in 1575, tensions escalate further.
(30:29):
There are a few triggers here, such as the defection of a man
named Okadaira Satamasa from theTakeda side to the Tokugawa
side. The Okudaira clan had previously
been serving under the Tokugawa clan, but were forced to join
Takeda Shingen years ago. Katsuyori is infuriated by this
betrayal and has Sadamassa's wife and brother slaughtered in
(30:51):
revenge. Additionally, on the flip side,
a member of the Tokugawa side, Olga Yoshiro, tries to betray
his master and lead the Takeda army to Okazaki Castle, where
Tokugawa Iyasu has established his base, but is found out and
executed. So angered by these
(31:12):
developments, Katsuyori leads anarmy into Makawa Province, which
is Iyasu's turf with a large army of around 15 to 20,000 men
and besieges Nagashino Castle. Iyasu only has an army of around
8000 troops, so he sends a message to Nobunaga requesting
aid, who marches with 30,000 troops of his own.
(31:34):
It's going to take some time fortheir army to reach Nagashino
however, and so the Garrison sends a messenger out by the
name of Tori Suniman, who races to Okazaki Castle to request
aid. He meets the ODA Tokugawa army
on the way, so invigorated, he goes back to Nagashino Castle to
deliver the good news, but disaster strikes as he is
(31:55):
captured by the Takeda army. Instead of executing him,
Katsuyori decides to make Suniman an offer, go up to the
castle wall, tell the defender that no help is coming to
dishearten them, and he will accept his surrender and richly
reward him. So Suneeman agrees and marches
the castle fortifications. But instead of saying what he's
told, he tells the defenders stand fast, help is on its way,
(32:21):
which invigorates the soldiers on the wall and strengthens the
resolve to hold out until the relief force arrives.
Katsuyori realizes that he's double crossed and immediately
orders Suniman to be put to death.
But it is too late and the damage is already done.
His sacrifice not only perhaps saves the Nagashino castle, but
(32:42):
also elevates his family who arepromoted from the Ashigaru class
to the Samurai class. Because of this, the combined
ODA Tokugawa army finally arrives and meets the Takeda
army in an area a few kilometersWest of Nagashino Castle known
as Shataragahara that has a small stream running across the
middle. The two armies begin to deploy
(33:03):
and Katsuyori leaves around 3000troops to continue the siege
while he leaves 12,000 troops for the pitched battle against
38,000 troops of the combined OTA Tokugawa army.
So he is badly outnumbered, but remember the Takeda were famous
for their legendary cavalry. Prior to the battle, OTA sends a
(33:23):
few thousand men to sneak aroundthe back of The Maine Takeda
force to coordinate with a Nagashino Castle Garrison to
attack the besieging troops. So on the day of battle, they
probably have a little over 30,000 troops against 12,000
Takeda troops, an advantage of more than two to one.
Despite this, Catsiori decides to fight, besides being
(33:45):
confident in his legendary cavalry which had routed Iyasu 2
years ago. Number 1.
He thought that the recent rain would have made the firearms in
the OTA Tokugawa army useless and #2 the armies were very
close to each other at a distance of around 2 to 400
meters, so he believed even if some of the guns did fire, his
men were close enough that they could still reach melee distance
(34:08):
soon enough where ranged weaponswould be at a disadvantage.
As Cassiori scans the battlefield, he sees a row of
Palisades, or wooden stakes in the ground in front of the OTA
Tokugao army, but orders a charge and the first wave of
cavalry make their way across the battlefield.
(34:30):
Now, because of the rain recently the ground had become
muddy and this, combined with a stream in the middle slows down
the speed of the charge as the horses make their way closer and
closer to the wooden Palisades. The ODA Arcabusiers, 3000 in
total, hold their fire until thehorsemen are about 50 meters
away and then unleash a hail of musket falls.
(34:56):
Now, the fact that they were able to do this shows great
discipline because if a wall of horses and armored men with
swords and Spears are charging at you, well, your first
instinct is probably to run, andyour second instinct is probably
to fire as quickly as you can when they're still far away.
So they don't come closer. But with the technology
available at the time, firing from 1 to 200 meters away
(35:20):
usually wasn't as powerful or effective even in mass, and
instead you wanted to hit the enemy at a critical distance of
50 meters or closer. And this concept can be seen
even 200 years later during the American Revolution, at the
Battle of Bunker Hill. In this battle, one of the
American officers tells his men famously don't fire until you
(35:40):
see the whites of their eyes. Anyway, many Takeda troops fall
after the first volley, which was expected.
But then a second volley strikessoon after, and then a third
with rotating fire. The ODA Tokugawa army is able to
continuously # the Takeda soldiers and men and horses drop
(36:04):
and soon corpses leaded to battlefield.
However, the battle is not a complete slaughter as some
Takeda cavalry are able to reachthe Palisades, sweep them away
and vicious hand to hand fighting ensues.
Hideyoshi Nobunaga's * general is deployed in the center and
quickly leads a contingent to repel the enemy.
(36:27):
Things become even more heated on the right flank of the army,
which is the only part of the battlefield that is not
protected by wooden Palisades. This is where Iyasu is located,
and he leaves his troops to holdthe line.
If the Takeda cavalry breakthrough, the situation
could get very dire as the OTA Tokugawa army get outflanked.
(36:47):
Iyasu calls upon some of his greatest orders, including Honda
Tata Katsu, to go forward and gradually they're able to
stabilize their position. Katsuyori, seeing the intensity
of the battle, orders a general advance.
(37:07):
As the battle at Cheetah Kahara rages on.
The few 1000 troops at Nobunaga had sent to coordinate with the
Nagasino Pass at Garrison began furiously attacking the 3000
Takeda troops still carrying on a siege and the OTA Topigawa
forces quickly get the upper hand and Katsuyori is about to
get sandwiched. Nobunaga's gunman continue to
fire volley after volley as the other soldiers engage in close
(37:31):
combat. Seeing his men tired, Nobunaga
orders them to retreat behind the wooden palisade fences, but
all of a sudden he sees the spent Takeda army retreating
themselves and he orders the drums to be beat, the horns to
be blown, and inspires his men to make a final charge.
The bloodshed is colossal, and the Takeda army suffers around
(37:54):
10,000 casualties, about 2/3 of their total force, as well as 8
out of 24 generals. Katsuyori himself is only able
to escape due to this stubborn, brave rearguard action from some
of his warriors. The ODA Tokugawa army loses
around 6000 men, a little over half of the Takeda army, so
certainly substantially less casualties, but it's not like
(38:17):
they were left unscathed either.Although the Takeda clan was not
completely broken, they would never fully recover and in the
early 1580s Nobunaga would defeat them for good.
Looking back at other battles inhistory, you can kind of think
of the Battle of Nakashino as like the Japanese version of the
Battle of Agincourt. Between the English and the
(38:39):
French there's a lot of similarities, as in that battle
the English also put up a bunch of wooden stakes in the ground
and the French charged with their heavy cavalry, but are
slowed by the mud and then are mowed down by the English
longbows. Some have even called this
battle the first modern battle in Japanese history, because now
the regular peasant with a firearm could take down mounted
(39:01):
samurai. I quote from one of my sources.
It was Nobunaga who led the way in introducing the new patterns
of warfare in which the foot soldier armed with a matchlock
displaced the mounted man carrying a bow and a sword.
And I think another historian commented that the battle
tactics used by Nobunaga were infact not all that different from
(39:23):
the world wars in the 20th century.
Because if you think about it, what did they do?
Well, often times they would putup some kind of barricade,
perhaps barbed wire, and then utilize machine guns, a type of
continuous fire. And besides the innovative use
of firearms, I forgot to mentionthis earlier, but Nobunaga early
on had significantly lengthen the Spears that his men used,
(39:46):
even prior to the battle of Nakashino.
This idea came to him as a youthwhen he and his friends would
spar with bamboo Spears and he noticed that the warrior with a
longer spear would generally win.
And so he equips his troops, many of whom who are ashigaru,
with very long Spears around 5 to 6 meters in length.
And essentially they serve as pikemen against cavalry.
(40:10):
This part reminds me a lot of Alexander the Great's father,
Philip. Who had reformed the Macedonian
army and introduced the Serissa,another very long spear for its
time, into the Macedonian phalanx, which was the backbone
of one of the greatest armies ofall time.
Anyway, after this battle, Nobunaga really solidifies his
position as the dominant warlordof the period and builds a new
(40:33):
structure to flaunt his power the following year.
This is the Azuchi Castle, whichoverlooks the capital Kyoto, so
he can keep a close watch on theEmperor, and this was said to
have been a spectacular fortressand would attract money and
trade. Nobanaga's biography gives a
really nice description of it, which I'll recite here.
(40:54):
All around, the scenery left nothing to be desired.
The castle itself followed the style of Chinese architecture.
The residents of the general shone with precious stones and
layers of lapis lazuli, and his hundred officers
enthusiastically did their best to exhibit the ultimate elegance
and beauty in the design of their houses.
It was as though the flowery capital had been transported
(41:16):
here. Nobunaga's glory and his prowess
were immeasurable. The following year, in 1577, he
engages in a campaign against Uasuki Kenshin, who I remember
was Takeda Shingen's rival for many years.
Kenshin had broken off his alliance with Nobunaga after the
Battle of Nagashino, and the twoarmies, with 10s of thousands of
(41:38):
men each met at the Tadori Riverin Kaga province.
Prior to the battle, Kenshin haddammed up the river a downstream
from the site of the engagement and orders a decoy force to tie
up the OTA force. As the battle heightens, Kenshin
opens up the floodgates, literally, and the flowing river
smacks right into the OTA army, drowning many and incapacitating
(42:02):
others. So now the OTA force has the
river behind them and the Uisugiforce in front of them, and they
suffer a defeat. Oda's first and only defeat in a
pitched battle. It's not a catastrophic loss
like Nagashino was for the Takeda, but it does put a halt
to Nobinaga's advance and he is forced to retreat.
(42:23):
Luckily for him, the following year Kenshin dies of illness and
is no longer a threat. So yes, Nobinaga is good, but
also lucky. Previously Takeda Shingen had
died of illness and now Uisuki Kenshin follows him, two of the
best military commanders in Japan at the time.
Over the next few years, Nobunaga continues to expand and
(42:46):
his army actually fights in a couple of naval battles against
the Mori clan. They lose the first battle due
to lack of experience, but are victorious in the second battle.
In these engagements, the innovative Nobunaga may have
experimented with it iron platedships known as Tekosin, not
unlike the famous turtle ships that Admiral Yi Sun Shin would
(43:08):
use a few decades later. But this is still hotly debated.
And some think that if there were any iron plates, it was
probably only a few here or there rather than a ship
completely covered by metal. Because one, this would have
been very expensive and difficult to make, and two, this
would have greatly slowed down the speed and maneuverability of
(43:29):
the ship. And if you remember my episodes
on Admiral Yi, historians also doubt if the turtle ships were
lined with iron plates as well. So in 1579, his son Nobukatsu
tries to take the initiative andinvade Eega Province, but is
badly defeated. Eega province is known for
(43:50):
having difficult terrain to March troops in with lots of
mountainous areas, and the elusive guerrilla fighters cause
a lot of trouble. Once Nobunaga hears about this,
he's absolutely furious and threatens to disown his own son.
Nobunaga then personally leads an invasion and basically just
overwhelms the locals there and takes over the province in the
(44:14):
early 1580s. Nobunaga, now in his late 40s,
is at the height of his powers, being master of most of central
Japan. He continues his conflict with
the Mori clan and orders Hideyoshi to invade Bichu
Province to lay siege to Tekamatsu Castle, a key
stronghold. Hideyoshi sends a messenger to
(44:36):
Nobunaga asking for reinforcements, who orders one
of his senior generals, a Kechi Mitsuhide, to immediately
assist. And then something happens that
would radically change the course of Japanese history.
Nobunaga leaves his fortress at Azuchi Castle to visit a temple
(44:58):
in Kyoto called Hanaji, bringinghis son and only a small force
as a bodyguard. On the early morning of the 21st
of June 1582, Nobunaga and his entourage are startled by a
commotion outside, reminiscent of Imogawa Yoshimoto at Oka
Hazama over 20 years ago. At first they think it's perhaps
(45:20):
just some street fighting, but as the noise intensifies, they
realize it's they who are being attacked with only 150 men with
them. Nobanaga quickly scans the
situation and realizes that it'sthe troops of a catchy Mitsuhide
who have betrayed him and now are laying siege to the temple.
He allegedly told his men there is no need to discuss the pros
(45:42):
and cons, there is no choice andbegan to gather his weapons and
started fighting the enemy with spear and thought.
But the resistance is futile, aswith only himself and 150 men,
he can do nothing against the 13,000 troops of Mitsuhide who
have totally surrounded the temple and set fire to the
building. As the blazing flames rise,
(46:03):
Nobunaga knows that it is all over.
He enters the backroom of the palace, closes the door and
commits Sepa crew. His body, consumed by the fire
is never found. So what happened was that Akechi
Mitsuhide, who was supposed to assist Hideoshi against the Mori
(46:24):
clan, instead betrayed his master.
In legend, he is to have said the enemy awaits that Honoji to
his troops without telling them more, but this probably did not
actually happen. Despite this, it is true that
most of his soldiers did not know who they were even
attacking at Honoji. And so, after a career of
(46:45):
repeated military success and relentless pursuit of
reunification, Nobunaga dies, betrayed by his own retainer.
His legacy in many ways is stillnixed.
On one hand, he was a brilliant military innovator, brave
commander and capable economic and political administrator, But
(47:06):
on the other hand he could be a cruel, erratic, temperamental
tyrant whose actions directly led to the death of thousands of
Japanese, including civilians. So I'm going to end the main
part of this episode with a quote from one of my sources.
Although Hideyoshi was more fertile in individual
stratagems, it was Nobunaga who led the way in introducing the
(47:28):
new patterns of warfare, in which the foot soldier, armed
with a matchlock, displaced the mounted man carrying a bow and a
sword. The Battle of Nagashino in 1575
showed the deadly efficacy of firearms.
Nobunaga also experimented in the building of warships with
iron plate armor, and he encouraged the manufacture of
(47:49):
large bore artillery, which was used with success at Nagashima.
All right, I'm going to finish this episode off with some
informal discussion now. First off, I forgot to list my
sources at the beginning of the episode, so I'll do that here.
I looked at a few books for thisepisode, starting with The
Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, which is the biography composed
(48:10):
by one of his vassals, OTA Yuchiin 1598, which is about 16 years
after Nobunaga's death and is based off some of the man's own
papers that were still available.
I also looked at Nagashino 1575 Slaughter at the Barricades by
Stephen Turnbull, which focuses largely on the Battle of
Nagashino. And lastly I used A History of
(48:33):
Japan 1334 to 1615 by George Bailey Sansom, which is a well
written overview about the Sengoku period.
Easy to read, straightforward, but obviously not exclusively
about ODA Nobunaga. If you found this episode
interesting and want to read more, I'd probably start with A
History of Japan and then try The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga
(48:55):
after, because while the latter book is interesting and has a
lot of fun anecdotes, the writing is a little clunky,
especially in translation, and sometimes it focuses on minutia
instead of the salient events. There's another biography of
Nobunaga in English titled Japanis Tyrannis.
The Japanese warlord ODA Nobunaga Reconsidered, but I had
(49:15):
trouble getting an affordable copy of it so I can't comment.
It was like 100 bucks on Amazon and I was like Nah.
Well for our first discussion point, let's go over why a
catchy Mitsuhide betrayed his Lord at Honoji.
The short answer is we'll never know, but there have been some
proposed theories. Some of the more common ones
include Mitsuhide feeling that he was treated unfairly and felt
(49:37):
that he was not being promoted to the level of his talent OR
accomplishments. Some say Nobunaga had
embarrassed Mitsuhide publicly, and others say that Nobunaga
indirectly killed Mitsuhide's mother by attacking A rival clan
where she was serving a as a hostage.
There have even been conspiracy theories accusing Hideyoshi
Iyasu or even the militant Buddhist monks of orchestrating
(50:01):
a plot, although there isn't a lot of evidence on this front.
There's also just the possibility that Mitsuhide was a
very ambitious man who didn't want to play second fiddle to
Nobunaga and he saw an opportunity.
Perhaps it was just that he wanted to be the most powerful
daimio in Japan and unite the nation himself instead of
(50:23):
watching the ODA clan do it, butwho knows?
All right, next discussion topic, which I promised to get
back to. So was ODA Nobunaga mentally ill
or not? Well, these types of questions
are always very difficult to answer, especially for
historical figures in the 1500s.It's actually not that bad for
more contemporary historical figures like those that were
(50:45):
alive in the 20th century, because there's a lot more
validated sources about what kind of person they were.
But based on the information I have, I probably lean towards
no. In terms of Nobanaga having a
severe biological psychiatric condition, I just don't see it.
I don't consider his eccentric behaviors to be psychotic or
(51:05):
manic in nature. To be fair, we've kind of
broadened the definition of mental illness in the last few
decades, for better or for worse.
So I do think that Nobunaga did have some antisocial dark tribe
characteristics like Machiavellianism, narcissism,
and psychopathy. But many military leaders do,
and I think it's actually a reason why they're successful.
(51:28):
Instead, I attributed his erratic, eccentric behaviors as
a youth more to temperament and personality.
Specifically, I think Nobunaga was someone who very much liked
to March to the beat of his own drum.
He was someone who was very non conformist, didn't like rigid
rules or structure, and valued individualism and freedom.
(51:48):
So I think a lot of his weird behaviors, fashion style and odd
manners were due to being a rebellious youth rather than
psychosis. It's like nowadays when a
teenager thinks they're too coolfor their parents or society so
they might start dying their hair, getting a bunch of tattoos
and piercings to stand out. What's interesting is that there
are sources that suggest Nobunaga slept very little and
(52:11):
ate very little, but I'm not going to get into this too much
right now. I do find the intersection
between madness and genius very interesting, and I hope to make
more episodes about this in the future.
Specifically, I want to look at historical figures like Van
Gogh, Churchill, Tesla who have strongly been suspected of
(52:31):
having mental illness. Some of them, like Churchill,
were even diagnosed in their lifetime with a psychiatric
illness. In his case, I believe he was
diagnosed with cyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia.
I think overall people have focused a lot on the concept of
a mad artist, but not as much interms of political or military
leaders. All right, next discussion
(52:52):
point. What made Nobunaga so
successful? There had been many daimyos
since the beginning of the Sengoku period, but how did he
become the most powerful warlordof his time?
Because sure, he did inherit some power from his father, but
Owari province was quite small and weak relative to some of the
other provinces around him. Yet he was able to overcome many
(53:13):
of his adversaries. Well, number one, I talked about
this in the last series about YiSun Shin.
But Novum not a was an ultimate pragmatist who valued
practicality over traditionalism.
He didn't care about fighting quote UN quote honorable battles
and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
For him war was not a game and Ithink this pragmatic nature
(53:36):
along with his non conformist rebellious nature is also what
allowed him to make the militaryinnovations he did.
Even as a youth he was fascinated by spear lengths and
firearms and was not afraid to change things.
He didn't care about the traditional samurai fighting
honorably with swords and Spears.
Instead, he employed a much higher ratio of peasants or
(53:59):
ashigaru in his army and equipped them with guns.
He was open to new ideas, from gunpowder weapons to
Christianity, and readily accepted and implemented Western
ideas. Now this is in contrast to the
Tokugawa shogunate that would later succeed him.
Sorry for the spoiler who becamevery isolationist for centuries
(54:19):
and as a result Japan fell behind technologically until the
Meiji Restoration in 1868. And even just before his death
when he was surrounded by Mitsuhite's troops.
Do you remember what he said? Well, he tells his men quote.
There is no need to discuss the pros and cons, there is no
choice. Proceeds to grab a bunch of
(54:40):
weapons and then starts fighting.
So you see this pragmatic natureeven in death.
He doesn't just sit there and ruminate on the negative, but
immediately tries his best to make it out.
There were others alive at this time that romanticized the
traditional mounted samurai withsword, spear and bow as the
ideal warrior and didn't like the influx of firearms used by
(55:02):
Ashugaru because it wasn't as respectable.
But Nobunaga doesn't care. He realizes that firearms are
the future and whether you like it or not, they're here to stay
so you better learn how to use them.
I think if Nobunaga lived in 2025, I could definitely see him
being a tech guy who has the same attitude towards something
like artificial intelligence. There's a lot of people worried
(55:23):
right now about AI taking away jobs, radically changing
society, perhaps for the worst, and I don't think that's
completely unfounded. But what are you going to do?
AI is going to be here to stay, it's going to be the future.
So whether you like it or not, Ithink it's important to learn to
use it. In my own field, people are
worried about AI replacing physicians, and maybe this will
happen somewhat, but I can't do anything about it.
(55:45):
I'm not going to unabom anyone so I might as well learn to
adapt. There are definitely huge
upsides to AI as well. For example, the thing I hate
most about my job is probably writing patient notes.
Well now there's AI scribes being developed, so hopefully in
the future AI can just write allmy notes for me while I focus on
the things I actually enjoy. If any of you play video games,
(56:08):
specifically the Ghost of Tsushima, the same concept
applies. For those that are unaware, our
principal theme of the game is aphilosophical disagreement
between an uncle, Lord Shimura, and his nephew, Jin Sakai.
Basically in the game you play as Jin and you're fighting
against the Mongols who are a much stronger force and as a
(56:29):
result you can't engage them head on in battle.
Instead, the point of the game is to use stealth and guerrilla
tactics to overcome the enemy. Lord Shimura, your uncle is very
old school and still believes inhead on honorable fighting
rather than resorting to what heperceives to be dirty tactics.
Now the idea of the honorable samurai has probably been
(56:50):
overblown as even from this podcast episode you can see
several examples of backstabbing, betrayal, and
trickery, but the overall idea still applies.
All right, next discussion point.
How do we reconcile Nobunaga's cruelty?
He perpetuated a lot of violencenot only towards enemy soldiers,
(57:11):
but women, children, and civilians.
Probably nowhere worse than at Enriakuji, which was just a mass
slaughter. Well, this podcast is not titled
the Nice Guys of History podcast.
I like to read about people who are interesting and influential,
and Nobanagas definitely fits both of those categories.
The people I read about and talkabout on here are not
(57:33):
necessarily people that I want to emulate in every fashion.
In fact, I don't think I've readabout a single person or know
about a single person in real life that I want to be 100%
like. There's definitely things about
Nobunaga that I think we can learn from.
While not praising his barbarism, you also have to
consider the time and place he was born into.
(57:55):
The Sengoku period in Japan was a time of constant warfare and I
don't think it would have been unusual to have a kill or be
killed mentality. Already in his late teens and
early 20s, Nobunaga had already gotten attacked multiple times
by family members, specifically his brother and uncle, and would
be attacked by other warlords throughout his life.
(58:17):
And what's interesting is that although he has his reputation
of being incredibly cruel, thereare times when you see his soft
side come out. So for example, in the Chronicle
of Nobunaga, there's an anecdoteof a disabled beggar who was
nicknamed the Monkey of Yamanaka, who Nobunaga saw
begging on the street. Apparently several generations
(58:37):
ago this man's ancestor had killed a woman and the
perpetrator, subsequent male descendants were all born
crippled. Nobunaga sees him and takes a
lot of pity on him as he comes back one day and richly rewards
the man along with the inhabitants of the village.
He tells them quote, make sure you are kind to him so he
doesn't starve. Moreover, if you and the
(59:00):
villagers of the vicinity were to solace him by letting him
partake in of your harvest just a little twice every year, first
some barley when the barley is gathered in and then some rice
and autumn, you would make Nobunaga happy.
It's said that Monkey the beggarwas speechless with gratitude,
and there was not one among the male or the female inhabitants
(59:21):
of Yamanaka whose sleeves were not drenched with tears.
All of Nobunaga's companions, those of high as well as of low
rank, also shed tears. Now, this scene sounds a little
too dramatic, and Nobunaga refers to himself in the third
person, so I'm not sure how reliable it is, but it's still
(59:41):
an interesting story about a manwho was nicknamed the Demon
King. Anyway, I'm running out of
things to talk about now, but what happens next?
So we'd stopped our story after Nobunaga perishes at Hanoji, but
what is the fate of a Kechi, Mitsuhide and the rest of the
OTA faction? Well quick preview.
(01:00:02):
Hideyoshi makes a truce with a Mori clan and and rushes back to
engage Mitsuhide in a winner takes all battle.
This, along with A Life of Hideyoshi, is going to be
featured in the next episode, sostay tuned.
E-mail me at the address in the description if you'd like an If
you enjoy this eisode, feel freeto drop me a follow comment
(01:00:22):
rating or review and share with your friends as this helps me
reach larger audiences.
The 12th of June 1560 Awari Province, Japan.
Imagawa Yoshimoto with an army of 25,000 men sets up camp near
the village of Okahazama as nightfall approaches.
Emboldened by their string of recent victories, the Imagawa
army relax, remove their armor, and prepare for a night of sake
(00:30):
and celebration. It had been raining during the
day, and a thunderstorm was approaching.
Imagawa himself had just begun to rest when he hears a
commotion in the camp, which he suspects is from a couple of
drunken idiots among his soldiers.
Annoyed, he rises to call them to order.
(00:52):
Little did he know, however, that his army was about to be
struck by Thunder and lightning,not from the storm, but rather
the swords and Spears of the OTAarmy.
Suddenly, the noise in the camp heightens and a mass panic
sweeps the Imagawa army. 2 samurai emerge from the shadows,
and with one clean strike, Imagawa Yoshimoto's head hits
(01:15):
the ground. Welcome back guys.
Today we're going to be coveringthe life of OTA Nobunaga, the
fool of Awari. OTA lives through the end of the
Sengoku Jedai, a period of constant warfare among the
(01:37):
feudal warlords of Japan, and sothis period is actually
sometimes known colloquially as the Warring States Period of
Japan. It's also when the W 1st began
to have substantial contact withJapan, especially the
Portuguese, and so it's contributed to the many
stereotypes we have nowadays about the samurai and Bushido.
(01:57):
It's been said that the end of this period can be told through
the lens of three men who are considered the modern unifiers
of Japan, ODA Nobunaga, Toyotomihediyoshi and Tokugawa
Iyasu. These men were very similar in
some ways yet different in others, as demonstrated by
famous Japanese parable which tells the story of a cuckoo bird
(02:20):
that won't sing. If ODA was there, he would say
if you don't sing, I will kill you.
Toyotomi would say if you don't sing, I will make you sing.
And lastly, Tokugawa would say if you don't sing, I will wait
for you to sing. And so today we're going to
(02:42):
start with a story of ODA Nobunaga.
To better understand Nobunaga, we do have to be aware of the
context of the times he lived inthe Sengoku Jodai.
So when did this period start? Well, different people will give
different answers, and there isn't a black or white numbered
year. But I'm going to use the Onan
War, which took place from around 1467 to 1477.
(03:08):
And like a lot of wars, it all came down to a disruption of the
balance of power for centuries. Although Japan did have a
reigning emperor, power lay in the hands of the Shogun, who was
a kind of military dictator since the early 1300's.
The ruling authority was in the form of the Ashikaga Shogunate
(03:29):
and the current Shogun was Ashikaga Yoshimasa.
Yoshimasa was interesting because he seemed to be mainly
interested in the arts as well as Zen Buddhism, rather than
being politically savvy and reading about his story.
I think he really would have been happier as a monk or
painter, but unfortunately he was thrust into a position of
(03:51):
power as a 13 year old. In 1464, Yoshimasa asked his
brother Yoshimi, who was actually a monk, to come out of
secular life to be his heir, as at this time he did not have a
legitimate male child yet, even though Yoshimasa was still only
28 years of age. Yoshimi agreed.
(04:13):
However, the problem was that the following year, Yoshimasa
and his wife Tomiko did have a male child, and a succession
struggle began to brew. Yoshimasa wanted to make his
infant child his heir, but his brother Yoshimi was like, what
the hey man, I just gave up nastic life and now you're
kicking me out? So what ends up happening is
(04:34):
that Yoshimi gets the support ofa very powerful family in Japan,
the Hosokawa clan, and on the other side Yoshihasa and Tomiko
are able to secure the support of another powerful family, the
Yamana clan. These two clans, under the
leadership of Hosokawa Katsumotoon one side and Yamana Sozen on
(04:54):
the other side, form 2 armies known as the Eastern and Western
armies, both around 80,000 men or so in size.
Both armies reach the capital city of Kyoto, and at first it's
a standoff because it's declaredthat whoever attacks first is a
rebel. However, after a Hosokawa
(05:15):
mansion gets burnt down, fighting ensues in the coming
years. Neither clan wins, but Kyoto is
badly damaged and looted. What did result from the
aftermath of the war was that the Ashikaga Shogunate had lost
power. It had made itself look weak and
(05:35):
without authority during the Onan War, permitting different
warlords to fight and cause chaos.
And so now power was in the hands of the Daimyo, regional
feudal warlords like the Hosokawa clan.
Other clans would come to prominence in the next century
and some of these like the Takeda, Yuosugi and Date clans
(05:57):
would become famous. The ODA clan occupied Owari
province, so looking at the map it's a fairly small area of land
wise in South Central Japan. And this is where ODA Nobunaga
is born, around 50 or 60 years after the conclusion of the Onan
War on June 23rd 1534 in the castle town of Nagoya.
(06:20):
Nobunaga is the eldest legitimate son and heir of ODA
Nobuhide, known as the Tiger of Owari and his wife Dota Gozen.
Not too much is known about Nobunaga's early life, but he is
said to have had a lot of interest in physical training
and spent much of his time engaged in riding, swimming, and
practicing with bamboo Spears. Growing up, Nobanaga was
(06:44):
surrounded by samurai retainers,war banners, and fortress walls.
But even in this Marshall world,he stood out not for valor, not
yet at least, but for his eccentric behaviors.
Contemporary counts described him as unruly, brash and utterly
unpredictable. As a youth, he already became
(07:05):
famous for his erratic behavior,and he's described as wearing a
bathrobe with its sleeves removed, half trousers over it,
and carried any number of pouches for flints and that sort
of thing around his waist. He kept his hair straight up
like a tea whisk tied with Crimson and fresh green cords.
Here's another description of him from his biography,
(07:26):
describing his actions as Nobinaga would quote, gnaw away
at chestnuts, persimmons, and even melons, completely
unembarrassed by the looks people gave him, where he would
eat rice cakes while standing inthe center of town.
He did not walk on his own 2 feet, but always leaned on
others or hung on their shoulders.
In those days, people still paidattention to the rules of proper
(07:48):
behavior, so the only thing anyone ever called him was Big
Idiot. And so locals in Awari began to
whisper about him. The Fool of Awari.
This was the name that stuck a disparaging play on the Tiger of
Awari, the nickname his father received.
(08:09):
But the so-called fool was watching, learning and
calculating. Let's backtrack a little now and
go back to the year 1543, when Nobunaga would have been around
nine years old, and this is whenthe first Europeans had reached
Japan. It had been a complete accident,
as the three Portuguese men who reached the island had their
(08:31):
ship blown off course by a typhoon.
They soon began to ingratiate themselves with the locals and
carried mysterious explosive weapons with them that shocked
and excited their rescuers. These of course, were early
firearms, a type of matchlock musket known as the Arcubus.
The locals quickly began to reverse engineer and copy the
(08:53):
guns in large numbers, and soon after Portuguese traders would
frequent Japan to trade more guns along with other goods.
This event would greatly affect the trajectory of Nobunaga's
life and in his youth it's been documented that his novelty
seeking behavior got him to be interested in these new weapons,
and he would spend a lot of timepracticing shooting with the
(09:14):
archivists. This was somewhat unusual for
the time, as the choice of weapon for warriors in Japan
tended to be the spear, the Cortana, or the bow and arrow,
but his early interest in innovation and technology with
these firearms would play a critical role in his later
military life. In his late teens, his father
Nobuhide dies of disease and a funeral is arranged, which
(09:37):
Nobunaga attends. When it is his turn to burn
incense, he walks up to the altar dressed bizarrely, having
his hair tied up straight, not wearing morning trousers, and
worse, his sword and dagger was held in a straw rope that he
just wrapped around himself. His family is shocked and
exasperated at his appearance, which only intensifies when his
(09:58):
behavior now becomes erratic. Nobunaga grabbed a handful of
incense, threw it in the air, and basically just pieced out of
the funeral. Now, I don't really know too
much about proper Japanese ritual behavior in the 1500s,
but it's noted that Nobunaga's entire family finds this
behavior embarrassing, in contrast to his younger brother
(10:19):
who is dressed appropriately andbehaves honorably.
Despite all of this, because Nobunaga is the oldest
legitimate male in his family, it is he who has chosen to
succeed his father as head of the old clan, as well as Lord of
Awari Prophet. As expected, members of his
family are not exactly happy about this, so Nobunaga has to
fight against his brother ODA Nobayuki, as well as his uncle
(10:43):
ODA Nobutomo. Despite his apparent madness,
however, Nobunaga was a skilled warrior and military commander,
so as a result, he's able to outmaneuver and outfight them to
seize power of the OTA clan. Also, around this time in his
early career, one of his highestranking subordinates, Harate
(11:03):
Masahide, who also served his father, faithfully dies by
sepulchre. So for those who don't know what
sepulchre is, it's a type of honorable ritual suicide usually
reserved for those of the samurai class.
It usually involved taking a short sword and slicing open
your belly, basically disemboweling yourself.
Sometimes there would be a second standing behind you
(11:26):
instead of letting you bleed to death slowly and painfully.
So why does Masahide complete seppuku now?
Well, it turns out that he was so upset by Nobunaga's behavior
specifically that he lacked seriousness and maturity that he
took his own life in protest, hesays.
I can discover no sign of the upbringing I gave him, so
(11:47):
there's no point to my life anymore.
So now I want to discuss, is Nobunaga mentally ill or just a
little weird? Well, we'll talk about this
later in the episode. But there is evidence that at
least sometimes he was putting on a show.
So he later meets a Daimio by the name of Saitodosen who
(12:07):
wanted to embarrass Nobunaga by having him walk through a
ceremony in his bizarre attire. However, it's said that
Nobunaga, for the first time in years, dressed properly, had his
hair done and even carried his sword properly, quickly earning
the respect of the people aroundhim.
He knew what the right way to act was.
(12:28):
He was playing the fool. Dosan, by the way, was
Nobunaga's father-in-law as he married his daughter Nohime to
this young upstart. So, as illustrated by this
anecdote, Nobunaga had the ability to act normal.
The question is, was he a mad person who could sometimes act
normal or a normal person who put on a show of being mad?
(12:51):
He really reminds me of Hamlet, who just like Nobunaga, could
have periods of madness, but then periods of normalcy.
And furthermore, he was able to have the insight to say that he
was mad. And for centuries, English lit
people have debated whether or not Hamlet was actually mad.
And I think historians have alsodebated whether or not Nobunaga
(13:11):
was mad. Some historians argue that his
eccentric behavior was a mask, away to test loyalty, to separate
the truly devoted from the opportunistic.
Others see a restless mind struggling against the rigid
structures of samurai culture. I mean, certainly some of these
behaviors could be attributed tonatural contrarian or rebellious
(13:32):
nature stuck in a conformist society.
Plus, madness, which is not exactly a precise word, has a
spectrum. So maybe for now we'll call them
neurodivergent, but I definitelywant to talk about this more at
the end of the episode. Going back to his life, Nobunaga
at this time is cleaning up the fight against his brother and
(13:53):
uncle. He demonstrates early genius as
a commander, showing great personal bravery, speed of troop
movement, bold military tactics,and an openness to foreign
ideas. Specifically, he was willing to
employ a lot of ashigaru in his army or soldiers of the peasant
class in addition to the samuraiwarrior class that traditionally
(14:15):
dominated combat. So as a result, his ranks began
to swell. Another one of his innovations
was his use of firearms. So contrary to popular belief,
he wasn't the first warlord to use firearms in battle.
So that was someone from the Shimazu clan.
And he wasn't the only one to use them in large numbers
either. So for example, Takeda Shingen
(14:37):
of Kai Province, whom we'll hearabout later, had hundreds of
archibouses in his army. But what did seem to make
Nobunaga unique was his willingness to equip his common
ashugaru with firearms and his use of volley fire.
So let me explain. During the Senguku period, the
Yumi bow was still a common weapon, and although it lacked
(14:58):
the firepower of matchlock firearms, it still did have its
advantages, such as faster reloading time and better
accuracy. The problem is that using the
bow well requires years of practice and physical strength.
Firearms required less skill andstrength comparatively, so these
ashigaru could be taught to use them quickly and effectively.
(15:21):
The poor accuracy could be mitigated through firing on
mass. So yeah, trying to snipe someone
is going to be hard with these guns, but if you have hundreds
of soldiers just firing at once,the enemy is going to be facing
a wall of musket balls and surely some of them are going to
hit their mark. And what about the last problem
that is reloading time? Well, Nobunaga comes up with the
(15:44):
idea of volley fire and he may be one of the first people to
have used it on a large scale. Nobunaga's volley fire work like
this. He would have 3 ranks of
Musketeers and his attack would start when line one would shoot
their first round. They would then drop to the
ground where upon line 2 would be ready to shoot and finally
(16:06):
the first two lines of gunmen would get down while line 3
would shoot. And so during the lag time
between other lines shooting, the other soldiers were able to
reload and generate continuous fire.
Now, some historians have questioned whether Nobunaga used
volley fire at all or if this was later romanticization, but
(16:26):
for the sake of this episode, let's just go with yes, he did
use volley fire. Anyway, getting back to the
story, after cleaning up some family affairs, Nobunaga has now
established A stronghold at Kyosu Castle.
One of the neighboring daimyos, Imagawa Yoshimoto, who was a
long time rival of Nobunaga's father, decides to invade Awari
(16:49):
province to try to expand his territory under the pretext of
marching to Kyoto to help the Shogun.
He comes with a very large army of around 25,000 or so, a much
larger force than anything Nobunaga can put together.
They quickly take over some border fortresses, so OTA's
subordinates advise him to hold behind the fortifications of
(17:12):
Kyosu Castle because they just don't think that OTA can take
Imagawa in a pitched battle. The hot headed and brave
Nobunaga refuses, saying that only a strong offensive policy
could make up for the superior numbers of the enemy, and calmly
orders a counter attack. Nobunaga hastily puts together a
small force of 2 to 3000 soldiers so he's outnumbered by
(17:34):
around 12:50. Here the Imagawa army had spread
out to fight the different garrisons of the OTA army, so
Imagawa Yoshimoto had only 5000 soldiers with him, still twice
as many as Nobunaga, and so his army rests near a narrow
forested gorge. During the day Yoshimoto
(17:58):
participates in Jenkin, or a formal ceremony, where he is
presented with a dressed up heads of defeated enemy
soldiers. We're to us now, but not
necessarily uncommon for the time.
Soon after, the winds and rain start blowing and pouring due to
the elements. Their bows, Spears and swords
(18:19):
become muddy and worse, the few muskets, they had become
drenched and useless. ODA had travelled across this
area of the country frequently as a boy, so he knew the
geography well. He takes his men to the back of
the camp and quietly as he sees his drunk enemy stumbling
around, he signals his men to attack and like lightning they
(18:41):
spring into action. At first Yoshimoto thought the
commotion was from some drunkards in his camp, but as
the battle cries intensify, he realizes that it is the OTA army
and a ferocious battle breaks out.
With speed and audacity, the OTAarmy pushed the Imagawa back and
eventually 2 samurai reached thecommander in chief and with one
(19:04):
clean strike, Imagawa Yoshimoto's head hits the
ground. After they see their general
dead, many of the troops lose heart, turn and run.
It's said that around 3000 Imagama troops were killed and
furthermore, Yoshimoto's prize sword Samonji was taken by
Nobunaga as a trophy and he carried it with him.
(19:25):
Henceforth this is a big battle for the 26 year old Nobunaga,
who prior to this was kind of seen as a minor warlord.
But this victory brings some respect and fear in Japan, while
the Imagawa clan would start to fade away.
Essentially, this battle was like playing chess.
Nobanaga just went straight to checkmate the king to win the
(19:48):
game. And the battle of Okazama, as it
is later known, is also important because Nobanaga
forges 2 very important relationships.
The 1st is his sandal bearer, Kinoshita Tochekiro, whose
bravery and skill in the battle impresses Nobanaga and he would
soon come to be one of his closest and most trusted
(20:08):
retainers. Secondly.
One of Yoshimoto's allies, Matsudaira Motoyasu, defects to
the OTA cause and instead becomes his ally now.
So you might not be familiar with his people right now, but
both of these individuals changetheir names later on and become
to be known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Iyasu
(20:32):
respectively. To avoid confusion, I'm just
going to refer to them by their eventual names for the rest of
the episode. Over the next 10 years, Nobunaga
continues to expand his power like a nearby Meno province
against the Saito clan. His father-in-law, Saito Dosan,
is killed by his own son who is rumored to be fathered by a
(20:53):
different man. One of the most important
battles here is the siege of Inabayama Castle, where once
again Hideyoshi distinguishes himself.
Nobunaga relocates his primary residence here and renames it
Gifu Castle. He later invades Isay Province
as well as Omi Province, and towards the end of the decade
(21:15):
makes his way to the capital city of Kyoto.
Around this time he gets into contact with Ashikaga Yoshiaka,
the brother of the recently murdered Shogun Yoshi Teru.
So getting back to the beginningof the episode, the Ashikaga
Shogun's had long lost power by now, but Nobunaga decides to
help Yoshiaki and restores him as Shogun, giving the clan some
(21:38):
legitimacy again. Now he didn't do this because he
was just a nice guy, but rather he did this because by doing
them a favor, he was hoping to use the Shogun as a puppet for
his own ambitions. A tried and true strategy in
history. This way he could use the Shogun
to influence the Daimyo in Japanwithout making it explicit.
(22:02):
Things initially go OK as Yoshiaki is grateful for being
restored, but Nobunaga refuses to accept a position under the
shogunate and acts disrespectful, which infuriates
Yoshiaki. As a result, he tries to call on
different warlords in the country to get rid of Nobunaga,
who then deposes the Shogun and chases him out of the capital.
(22:26):
Yoshiaki eventually runs away toa monastery and becomes a Zen
Buddhist monk, changing his name.
It's interesting because sometimes when I get annoyed at
my own life, I tell people I'm going to run away and become a
monk, so it's cool that people actually do it sometimes.
So now with several provinces, the Shogun and the capital Kyoto
(22:47):
under his control, you see earlysigns that perhaps Nobunaga is
the one who might one day be able to reunite Japan.
There's an anecdote about a monknamed Tantaku who knows Nobunaga
well, and he's traveling throughKai province before being
stopped by Takeda Shingen. So Shingen, curious about
(23:08):
Nobunaga at this time, asks about his interests and habits,
trying to figure out what kind of guy he is.
So the monk says, well, Nobunagais really into riding, archery,
shooting, Hawking, which takes up most of his days.
He's also a man of drama and music and in fact, sings songs
frequently. And Shingan is like, hmm, what
(23:31):
songs? And the monk is like, well,
something that goes like this death is certain.
What can I do to be remembered by, to make certain someone
recalls and tells my story? And so through this anecdote,
you really get the sense of Nobunaga's obsession with
legacy, the desire to be remembered.
(23:54):
This kind of reminds me of the movie Troy, where Achilles is
told that if he chooses to stay home from the Trojan War, he
will live a long life, but no one will remember his name after
a few generations. However, if he chooses to go and
fight, he will die. But people remember his name for
1000 years and of course he goesto fight.
(24:16):
And I bet if Nobanaga was given the same options, he would
choose the same. Getting back to our narrative,
OTA fights a bunch of other people like the Asakura and Asai
clans at the Battle of Anagawa. But I'm not going to go through
all of his campaigns in this episode because it's going to
drag. It's also around this time, the
(24:38):
early 1570s, that Nobunaga starts to have a bunch of run
insurance with the Eco Iki as heand his retainers begin invading
some of their lands. So who are these people?
Well, they're a sect of militantBuddhist monks composed of
priests, often people the lower classes, and sometimes even low
ranking warriors. They generally did not like the
(24:59):
rule of the daimyos, so they operated pretty independently.
They came into conflict with Nobunaga for a few reasons.
For one, the man seemed to really hate Buddhism.
Interesting because he was actually very tolerant of
Christianity and treated the Jesuits very well.
Secondly, the Eco Iki felt that Nobunaga was encroaching on
(25:23):
their territory and so they would ally with some of his
enemies like the Asai and Asakura clans to fight him in
battle. The Eco Iki, who specialized in
guerrilla warfare and had occupied many strongholds near
Kyoto, start to drive Nobunaga nuts.
It ends up being a 10 year or sowar, and one particularly bloody
(25:44):
engagement is the siege of MountHeii in 1571, which overlooks
Kyoto to the north. On top of the mountain is a
temple known as Enriakuji, and it is here where Nobunaga
displays some of the worst cruelty in his life.
He orders his men to go up the mountain, raised down as many of
(26:04):
the trines, pagodas, and chapels, and then
indiscriminately slaughters monks, laymen, women, and
children, earning the nickname the Demon King.
As one of my sources writes, thewhole mountainside was a great
slaughterhouse, and the site wasone of unbearable horror.
(26:25):
During this time, even some of Nobunaga's own generals and
retainers were hesitant to orderthe slaughter, especially
because some of them were Buddhists themselves.
This act of barbarism angers many of the daimio throughout
Japan, including Takeda Shingen,who was a Buddhist himself.
Shingen, based in Kai Province, was one of the greatest
(26:48):
militaries of the Sengoku period, and the Takeda Cavalry
in particular were renowned for being the best in the nation.
O In 1573, spurred on by Shogun Yoshiaki, who at this time had
not quite yet become a monk and is still trying to undermine
Nobunaga, organizes a force of 30,000 troops and marches his
(27:09):
army on the road to Kyoto from the east.
Now Shingen is a real warrior and someone who sometimes I feel
like fought just for fun. So there was this big rivalry
between Shingen and another daimyo, Ussugi Kenshin, who is
based in Ichigo province. The two of them fought at a
place called Kawankajima five times inconclusively.
(27:33):
It almost became like an annual sporting event where the two
armies would meet, Duke it out like gentlemen, and then go back
home to prepare for the next 1. And so the Takeda soldiers had a
lot of experience. Anyway, Shingen engages
Nobunaga's ally Tokugawa Iyasu and routes him with his powerful
(27:54):
cavalry at the Battle of Mikata Gahara.
I won't go over this battle in too much detail because I'm
going to save it from my Tokugawa episode, but basically
the Tokugawa army is defeated, but through some clever tactics,
the Takeda army is unable to follow up and retreats back
home. Not too soon after, Shingen dies
(28:17):
and is succeeded by his son Takeda Katsuyori, and a period
of bad blood between the OTA andTakeda clans would persist
despite the fact that they had been allies before and even
intermarried. I think I should mention that
during the Sengoku period, different clans would alternate
between periods of fighting and peace, and would often
(28:39):
intermarry to strengthen their alliances.
This is important to note because sometimes the daimio and
samurai especially get this reputation for being extremely
honorable. But in fact, there was a lot of
betrayal and backstabbing duringthis period.
And since I've already taken a brief interlude, I want to add
that much of this episode so farhas focused on Nobunaga's
(29:01):
military career. But he also made significant
changes to civil administration,much of which have been lauded
by historians. So for one, he standardized
currency, setting a fixed ratio between copper, silver, and
gold. He took a strong stance against
counterfeit currency and opened up free trade, dismantling
(29:22):
monopolies. He repaired roads, bridges and
loosen up the barriers within the provinces that he
controlled, encouraging travel and free trade.
And despite his fury towards theBuddhists, he was actually a
friend of Christianity and the Jesuits, who had a very high
opinion of him, both in terms ofmilitary, economic and
(29:42):
administrative ability. In fact, my sources state that
there were probably 15,000 Christians in central Japan
alone by the year 1582, and perhaps as many as 150,000 in
the country total, along with 200 churches for Nobunaga.
He didn't seem to mind religion as long as it didn't interfere
(30:05):
with politics, which was probably why he had a problem
with the eco Ikki rather than Buddhism itself.
But let's get back to our story.After Takeda Shingen dies, his
son Takeda Katsuyori continues to have poor relations with the
OTA Tokugawa alliance, and in 1575, tensions escalate further.
(30:29):
There are a few triggers here, such as the defection of a man
named Okadaira Satamasa from theTakeda side to the Tokugawa
side. The Okudaira clan had previously
been serving under the Tokugawa clan, but were forced to join
Takeda Shingen years ago. Katsuyori is infuriated by this
betrayal and has Sadamassa's wife and brother slaughtered in
(30:51):
revenge. Additionally, on the flip side,
a member of the Tokugawa side, Olga Yoshiro, tries to betray
his master and lead the Takeda army to Okazaki Castle, where
Tokugawa Iyasu has established his base, but is found out and
executed. So angered by these
(31:12):
developments, Katsuyori leads anarmy into Makawa Province, which
is Iyasu's turf with a large army of around 15 to 20,000 men
and besieges Nagashino Castle. Iyasu only has an army of around
8000 troops, so he sends a message to Nobunaga requesting
aid, who marches with 30,000 troops of his own.
(31:34):
It's going to take some time fortheir army to reach Nagashino
however, and so the Garrison sends a messenger out by the
name of Tori Suniman, who races to Okazaki Castle to request
aid. He meets the ODA Tokugawa army
on the way, so invigorated, he goes back to Nagashino Castle to
deliver the good news, but disaster strikes as he is
(31:55):
captured by the Takeda army. Instead of executing him,
Katsuyori decides to make Suniman an offer, go up to the
castle wall, tell the defender that no help is coming to
dishearten them, and he will accept his surrender and richly
reward him. So Suneeman agrees and marches
the castle fortifications. But instead of saying what he's
told, he tells the defenders stand fast, help is on its way,
(32:21):
which invigorates the soldiers on the wall and strengthens the
resolve to hold out until the relief force arrives.
Katsuyori realizes that he's double crossed and immediately
orders Suniman to be put to death.
But it is too late and the damage is already done.
His sacrifice not only perhaps saves the Nagashino castle, but
(32:42):
also elevates his family who arepromoted from the Ashigaru class
to the Samurai class. Because of this, the combined
ODA Tokugawa army finally arrives and meets the Takeda
army in an area a few kilometersWest of Nagashino Castle known
as Shataragahara that has a small stream running across the
middle. The two armies begin to deploy
(33:03):
and Katsuyori leaves around 3000troops to continue the siege
while he leaves 12,000 troops for the pitched battle against
38,000 troops of the combined OTA Tokugawa army.
So he is badly outnumbered, but remember the Takeda were famous
for their legendary cavalry. Prior to the battle, OTA sends a
(33:23):
few thousand men to sneak aroundthe back of The Maine Takeda
force to coordinate with a Nagashino Castle Garrison to
attack the besieging troops. So on the day of battle, they
probably have a little over 30,000 troops against 12,000
Takeda troops, an advantage of more than two to one.
Despite this, Catsiori decides to fight, besides being
(33:45):
confident in his legendary cavalry which had routed Iyasu 2
years ago. Number 1.
He thought that the recent rain would have made the firearms in
the OTA Tokugawa army useless and #2 the armies were very
close to each other at a distance of around 2 to 400
meters, so he believed even if some of the guns did fire, his
men were close enough that they could still reach melee distance
(34:08):
soon enough where ranged weaponswould be at a disadvantage.
As Cassiori scans the battlefield, he sees a row of
Palisades, or wooden stakes in the ground in front of the OTA
Tokugao army, but orders a charge and the first wave of
cavalry make their way across the battlefield.
(34:30):
Now, because of the rain recently the ground had become
muddy and this, combined with a stream in the middle slows down
the speed of the charge as the horses make their way closer and
closer to the wooden Palisades. The ODA Arcabusiers, 3000 in
total, hold their fire until thehorsemen are about 50 meters
away and then unleash a hail of musket falls.
(34:56):
Now, the fact that they were able to do this shows great
discipline because if a wall of horses and armored men with
swords and Spears are charging at you, well, your first
instinct is probably to run, andyour second instinct is probably
to fire as quickly as you can when they're still far away.
So they don't come closer. But with the technology
available at the time, firing from 1 to 200 meters away
(35:20):
usually wasn't as powerful or effective even in mass, and
instead you wanted to hit the enemy at a critical distance of
50 meters or closer. And this concept can be seen
even 200 years later during the American Revolution, at the
Battle of Bunker Hill. In this battle, one of the
American officers tells his men famously don't fire until you
(35:40):
see the whites of their eyes. Anyway, many Takeda troops fall
after the first volley, which was expected.
But then a second volley strikessoon after, and then a third
with rotating fire. The ODA Tokugawa army is able to
continuously # the Takeda soldiers and men and horses drop
(36:04):
and soon corpses leaded to battlefield.
However, the battle is not a complete slaughter as some
Takeda cavalry are able to reachthe Palisades, sweep them away
and vicious hand to hand fighting ensues.
Hideyoshi Nobunaga's * general is deployed in the center and
quickly leads a contingent to repel the enemy.
(36:27):
Things become even more heated on the right flank of the army,
which is the only part of the battlefield that is not
protected by wooden Palisades. This is where Iyasu is located,
and he leaves his troops to holdthe line.
If the Takeda cavalry breakthrough, the situation
could get very dire as the OTA Tokugawa army get outflanked.
(36:47):
Iyasu calls upon some of his greatest orders, including Honda
Tata Katsu, to go forward and gradually they're able to
stabilize their position. Katsuyori, seeing the intensity
of the battle, orders a general advance.
(37:07):
As the battle at Cheetah Kahara rages on.
The few 1000 troops at Nobunaga had sent to coordinate with the
Nagasino Pass at Garrison began furiously attacking the 3000
Takeda troops still carrying on a siege and the OTA Topigawa
forces quickly get the upper hand and Katsuyori is about to
get sandwiched. Nobunaga's gunman continue to
fire volley after volley as the other soldiers engage in close
(37:31):
combat. Seeing his men tired, Nobunaga
orders them to retreat behind the wooden palisade fences, but
all of a sudden he sees the spent Takeda army retreating
themselves and he orders the drums to be beat, the horns to
be blown, and inspires his men to make a final charge.
The bloodshed is colossal, and the Takeda army suffers around
(37:54):
10,000 casualties, about 2/3 of their total force, as well as 8
out of 24 generals. Katsuyori himself is only able
to escape due to this stubborn, brave rearguard action from some
of his warriors. The ODA Tokugawa army loses
around 6000 men, a little over half of the Takeda army, so
certainly substantially less casualties, but it's not like
(38:17):
they were left unscathed either.Although the Takeda clan was not
completely broken, they would never fully recover and in the
early 1580s Nobunaga would defeat them for good.
Looking back at other battles inhistory, you can kind of think
of the Battle of Nakashino as like the Japanese version of the
Battle of Agincourt. Between the English and the
(38:39):
French there's a lot of similarities, as in that battle
the English also put up a bunch of wooden stakes in the ground
and the French charged with their heavy cavalry, but are
slowed by the mud and then are mowed down by the English
longbows. Some have even called this
battle the first modern battle in Japanese history, because now
the regular peasant with a firearm could take down mounted
(39:01):
samurai. I quote from one of my sources.
It was Nobunaga who led the way in introducing the new patterns
of warfare in which the foot soldier armed with a matchlock
displaced the mounted man carrying a bow and a sword.
And I think another historian commented that the battle
tactics used by Nobunaga were infact not all that different from
(39:23):
the world wars in the 20th century.
Because if you think about it, what did they do?
Well, often times they would putup some kind of barricade,
perhaps barbed wire, and then utilize machine guns, a type of
continuous fire. And besides the innovative use
of firearms, I forgot to mentionthis earlier, but Nobunaga early
on had significantly lengthen the Spears that his men used,
(39:46):
even prior to the battle of Nakashino.
This idea came to him as a youthwhen he and his friends would
spar with bamboo Spears and he noticed that the warrior with a
longer spear would generally win.
And so he equips his troops, many of whom who are ashigaru,
with very long Spears around 5 to 6 meters in length.
And essentially they serve as pikemen against cavalry.
(40:10):
This part reminds me a lot of Alexander the Great's father,
Philip. Who had reformed the Macedonian
army and introduced the Serissa,another very long spear for its
time, into the Macedonian phalanx, which was the backbone
of one of the greatest armies ofall time.
Anyway, after this battle, Nobunaga really solidifies his
position as the dominant warlordof the period and builds a new
(40:33):
structure to flaunt his power the following year.
This is the Azuchi Castle, whichoverlooks the capital Kyoto, so
he can keep a close watch on theEmperor, and this was said to
have been a spectacular fortressand would attract money and
trade. Nobanaga's biography gives a
really nice description of it, which I'll recite here.
(40:54):
All around, the scenery left nothing to be desired.
The castle itself followed the style of Chinese architecture.
The residents of the general shone with precious stones and
layers of lapis lazuli, and his hundred officers
enthusiastically did their best to exhibit the ultimate elegance
and beauty in the design of their houses.
It was as though the flowery capital had been transported
(41:16):
here. Nobunaga's glory and his prowess
were immeasurable. The following year, in 1577, he
engages in a campaign against Uasuki Kenshin, who I remember
was Takeda Shingen's rival for many years.
Kenshin had broken off his alliance with Nobunaga after the
Battle of Nagashino, and the twoarmies, with 10s of thousands of
(41:38):
men each met at the Tadori Riverin Kaga province.
Prior to the battle, Kenshin haddammed up the river a downstream
from the site of the engagement and orders a decoy force to tie
up the OTA force. As the battle heightens, Kenshin
opens up the floodgates, literally, and the flowing river
smacks right into the OTA army, drowning many and incapacitating
(42:02):
others. So now the OTA force has the
river behind them and the Uisugiforce in front of them, and they
suffer a defeat. Oda's first and only defeat in a
pitched battle. It's not a catastrophic loss
like Nagashino was for the Takeda, but it does put a halt
to Nobinaga's advance and he is forced to retreat.
(42:23):
Luckily for him, the following year Kenshin dies of illness and
is no longer a threat. So yes, Nobinaga is good, but
also lucky. Previously Takeda Shingen had
died of illness and now Uisuki Kenshin follows him, two of the
best military commanders in Japan at the time.
Over the next few years, Nobunaga continues to expand and
(42:46):
his army actually fights in a couple of naval battles against
the Mori clan. They lose the first battle due
to lack of experience, but are victorious in the second battle.
In these engagements, the innovative Nobunaga may have
experimented with it iron platedships known as Tekosin, not
unlike the famous turtle ships that Admiral Yi Sun Shin would
(43:08):
use a few decades later. But this is still hotly debated.
And some think that if there were any iron plates, it was
probably only a few here or there rather than a ship
completely covered by metal. Because one, this would have
been very expensive and difficult to make, and two, this
would have greatly slowed down the speed and maneuverability of
(43:29):
the ship. And if you remember my episodes
on Admiral Yi, historians also doubt if the turtle ships were
lined with iron plates as well. So in 1579, his son Nobukatsu
tries to take the initiative andinvade Eega Province, but is
badly defeated. Eega province is known for
(43:50):
having difficult terrain to March troops in with lots of
mountainous areas, and the elusive guerrilla fighters cause
a lot of trouble. Once Nobunaga hears about this,
he's absolutely furious and threatens to disown his own son.
Nobunaga then personally leads an invasion and basically just
overwhelms the locals there and takes over the province in the
(44:14):
early 1580s. Nobunaga, now in his late 40s,
is at the height of his powers, being master of most of central
Japan. He continues his conflict with
the Mori clan and orders Hideyoshi to invade Bichu
Province to lay siege to Tekamatsu Castle, a key
stronghold. Hideyoshi sends a messenger to
(44:36):
Nobunaga asking for reinforcements, who orders one
of his senior generals, a Kechi Mitsuhide, to immediately
assist. And then something happens that
would radically change the course of Japanese history.
Nobunaga leaves his fortress at Azuchi Castle to visit a temple
(44:58):
in Kyoto called Hanaji, bringinghis son and only a small force
as a bodyguard. On the early morning of the 21st
of June 1582, Nobunaga and his entourage are startled by a
commotion outside, reminiscent of Imogawa Yoshimoto at Oka
Hazama over 20 years ago. At first they think it's perhaps
(45:20):
just some street fighting, but as the noise intensifies, they
realize it's they who are being attacked with only 150 men with
them. Nobanaga quickly scans the
situation and realizes that it'sthe troops of a catchy Mitsuhide
who have betrayed him and now are laying siege to the temple.
He allegedly told his men there is no need to discuss the pros
(45:42):
and cons, there is no choice andbegan to gather his weapons and
started fighting the enemy with spear and thought.
But the resistance is futile, aswith only himself and 150 men,
he can do nothing against the 13,000 troops of Mitsuhide who
have totally surrounded the temple and set fire to the
building. As the blazing flames rise,
(46:03):
Nobunaga knows that it is all over.
He enters the backroom of the palace, closes the door and
commits Sepa crew. His body, consumed by the fire
is never found. So what happened was that Akechi
Mitsuhide, who was supposed to assist Hideoshi against the Mori
(46:24):
clan, instead betrayed his master.
In legend, he is to have said the enemy awaits that Honoji to
his troops without telling them more, but this probably did not
actually happen. Despite this, it is true that
most of his soldiers did not know who they were even
attacking at Honoji. And so, after a career of
(46:45):
repeated military success and relentless pursuit of
reunification, Nobunaga dies, betrayed by his own retainer.
His legacy in many ways is stillnixed.
On one hand, he was a brilliant military innovator, brave
commander and capable economic and political administrator, But
(47:06):
on the other hand he could be a cruel, erratic, temperamental
tyrant whose actions directly led to the death of thousands of
Japanese, including civilians. So I'm going to end the main
part of this episode with a quote from one of my sources.
Although Hideyoshi was more fertile in individual
stratagems, it was Nobunaga who led the way in introducing the
(47:28):
new patterns of warfare, in which the foot soldier, armed
with a matchlock, displaced the mounted man carrying a bow and a
sword. The Battle of Nagashino in 1575
showed the deadly efficacy of firearms.
Nobunaga also experimented in the building of warships with
iron plate armor, and he encouraged the manufacture of
(47:49):
large bore artillery, which was used with success at Nagashima.
All right, I'm going to finish this episode off with some
informal discussion now. First off, I forgot to list my
sources at the beginning of the episode, so I'll do that here.
I looked at a few books for thisepisode, starting with The
Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, which is the biography composed
(48:10):
by one of his vassals, OTA Yuchiin 1598, which is about 16 years
after Nobunaga's death and is based off some of the man's own
papers that were still available.
I also looked at Nagashino 1575 Slaughter at the Barricades by
Stephen Turnbull, which focuses largely on the Battle of
Nagashino. And lastly I used A History of
(48:33):
Japan 1334 to 1615 by George Bailey Sansom, which is a well
written overview about the Sengoku period.
Easy to read, straightforward, but obviously not exclusively
about ODA Nobunaga. If you found this episode
interesting and want to read more, I'd probably start with A
History of Japan and then try The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga
(48:55):
after, because while the latter book is interesting and has a
lot of fun anecdotes, the writing is a little clunky,
especially in translation, and sometimes it focuses on minutia
instead of the salient events. There's another biography of
Nobunaga in English titled Japanis Tyrannis.
The Japanese warlord ODA Nobunaga Reconsidered, but I had
(49:15):
trouble getting an affordable copy of it so I can't comment.
It was like 100 bucks on Amazon and I was like Nah.
Well for our first discussion point, let's go over why a
catchy Mitsuhide betrayed his Lord at Honoji.
The short answer is we'll never know, but there have been some
proposed theories. Some of the more common ones
include Mitsuhide feeling that he was treated unfairly and felt
(49:37):
that he was not being promoted to the level of his talent OR
accomplishments. Some say Nobunaga had
embarrassed Mitsuhide publicly, and others say that Nobunaga
indirectly killed Mitsuhide's mother by attacking A rival clan
where she was serving a as a hostage.
There have even been conspiracy theories accusing Hideyoshi
Iyasu or even the militant Buddhist monks of orchestrating
(50:01):
a plot, although there isn't a lot of evidence on this front.
There's also just the possibility that Mitsuhide was a
very ambitious man who didn't want to play second fiddle to
Nobunaga and he saw an opportunity.
Perhaps it was just that he wanted to be the most powerful
daimio in Japan and unite the nation himself instead of
(50:23):
watching the ODA clan do it, butwho knows?
All right, next discussion topic, which I promised to get
back to. So was ODA Nobunaga mentally ill
or not? Well, these types of questions
are always very difficult to answer, especially for
historical figures in the 1500s.It's actually not that bad for
more contemporary historical figures like those that were
(50:45):
alive in the 20th century, because there's a lot more
validated sources about what kind of person they were.
But based on the information I have, I probably lean towards
no. In terms of Nobanaga having a
severe biological psychiatric condition, I just don't see it.
I don't consider his eccentric behaviors to be psychotic or
(51:05):
manic in nature. To be fair, we've kind of
broadened the definition of mental illness in the last few
decades, for better or for worse.
So I do think that Nobunaga did have some antisocial dark tribe
characteristics like Machiavellianism, narcissism,
and psychopathy. But many military leaders do,
and I think it's actually a reason why they're successful.
(51:28):
Instead, I attributed his erratic, eccentric behaviors as
a youth more to temperament and personality.
Specifically, I think Nobunaga was someone who very much liked
to March to the beat of his own drum.
He was someone who was very non conformist, didn't like rigid
rules or structure, and valued individualism and freedom.
(51:48):
So I think a lot of his weird behaviors, fashion style and odd
manners were due to being a rebellious youth rather than
psychosis. It's like nowadays when a
teenager thinks they're too coolfor their parents or society so
they might start dying their hair, getting a bunch of tattoos
and piercings to stand out. What's interesting is that there
are sources that suggest Nobunaga slept very little and
(52:11):
ate very little, but I'm not going to get into this too much
right now. I do find the intersection
between madness and genius very interesting, and I hope to make
more episodes about this in the future.
Specifically, I want to look at historical figures like Van
Gogh, Churchill, Tesla who have strongly been suspected of
(52:31):
having mental illness. Some of them, like Churchill,
were even diagnosed in their lifetime with a psychiatric
illness. In his case, I believe he was
diagnosed with cyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia.
I think overall people have focused a lot on the concept of
a mad artist, but not as much interms of political or military
leaders. All right, next discussion
(52:52):
point. What made Nobunaga so
successful? There had been many daimyos
since the beginning of the Sengoku period, but how did he
become the most powerful warlordof his time?
Because sure, he did inherit some power from his father, but
Owari province was quite small and weak relative to some of the
other provinces around him. Yet he was able to overcome many
(53:13):
of his adversaries. Well, number one, I talked about
this in the last series about YiSun Shin.
But Novum not a was an ultimate pragmatist who valued
practicality over traditionalism.
He didn't care about fighting quote UN quote honorable battles
and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
For him war was not a game and Ithink this pragmatic nature
(53:36):
along with his non conformist rebellious nature is also what
allowed him to make the militaryinnovations he did.
Even as a youth he was fascinated by spear lengths and
firearms and was not afraid to change things.
He didn't care about the traditional samurai fighting
honorably with swords and Spears.
Instead, he employed a much higher ratio of peasants or
(53:59):
ashigaru in his army and equipped them with guns.
He was open to new ideas, from gunpowder weapons to
Christianity, and readily accepted and implemented Western
ideas. Now this is in contrast to the
Tokugawa shogunate that would later succeed him.
Sorry for the spoiler who becamevery isolationist for centuries
(54:19):
and as a result Japan fell behind technologically until the
Meiji Restoration in 1868. And even just before his death
when he was surrounded by Mitsuhite's troops.
Do you remember what he said? Well, he tells his men quote.
There is no need to discuss the pros and cons, there is no
choice. Proceeds to grab a bunch of
(54:40):
weapons and then starts fighting.
So you see this pragmatic natureeven in death.
He doesn't just sit there and ruminate on the negative, but
immediately tries his best to make it out.
There were others alive at this time that romanticized the
traditional mounted samurai withsword, spear and bow as the
ideal warrior and didn't like the influx of firearms used by
(55:02):
Ashugaru because it wasn't as respectable.
But Nobunaga doesn't care. He realizes that firearms are
the future and whether you like it or not, they're here to stay
so you better learn how to use them.
I think if Nobunaga lived in 2025, I could definitely see him
being a tech guy who has the same attitude towards something
like artificial intelligence. There's a lot of people worried
(55:23):
right now about AI taking away jobs, radically changing
society, perhaps for the worst, and I don't think that's
completely unfounded. But what are you going to do?
AI is going to be here to stay, it's going to be the future.
So whether you like it or not, Ithink it's important to learn to
use it. In my own field, people are
worried about AI replacing physicians, and maybe this will
happen somewhat, but I can't do anything about it.
(55:45):
I'm not going to unabom anyone so I might as well learn to
adapt. There are definitely huge
upsides to AI as well. For example, the thing I hate
most about my job is probably writing patient notes.
Well now there's AI scribes being developed, so hopefully in
the future AI can just write allmy notes for me while I focus on
the things I actually enjoy. If any of you play video games,
(56:08):
specifically the Ghost of Tsushima, the same concept
applies. For those that are unaware, our
principal theme of the game is aphilosophical disagreement
between an uncle, Lord Shimura, and his nephew, Jin Sakai.
Basically in the game you play as Jin and you're fighting
against the Mongols who are a much stronger force and as a
(56:29):
result you can't engage them head on in battle.
Instead, the point of the game is to use stealth and guerrilla
tactics to overcome the enemy. Lord Shimura, your uncle is very
old school and still believes inhead on honorable fighting
rather than resorting to what heperceives to be dirty tactics.
Now the idea of the honorable samurai has probably been
(56:50):
overblown as even from this podcast episode you can see
several examples of backstabbing, betrayal, and
trickery, but the overall idea still applies.
All right, next discussion point.
How do we reconcile Nobunaga's cruelty?
He perpetuated a lot of violencenot only towards enemy soldiers,
(57:11):
but women, children, and civilians.
Probably nowhere worse than at Enriakuji, which was just a mass
slaughter. Well, this podcast is not titled
the Nice Guys of History podcast.
I like to read about people who are interesting and influential,
and Nobanagas definitely fits both of those categories.
The people I read about and talkabout on here are not
(57:33):
necessarily people that I want to emulate in every fashion.
In fact, I don't think I've readabout a single person or know
about a single person in real life that I want to be 100%
like. There's definitely things about
Nobunaga that I think we can learn from.
While not praising his barbarism, you also have to
consider the time and place he was born into.
(57:55):
The Sengoku period in Japan was a time of constant warfare and I
don't think it would have been unusual to have a kill or be
killed mentality. Already in his late teens and
early 20s, Nobunaga had already gotten attacked multiple times
by family members, specifically his brother and uncle, and would
be attacked by other warlords throughout his life.
(58:17):
And what's interesting is that although he has his reputation
of being incredibly cruel, thereare times when you see his soft
side come out. So for example, in the Chronicle
of Nobunaga, there's an anecdoteof a disabled beggar who was
nicknamed the Monkey of Yamanaka, who Nobunaga saw
begging on the street. Apparently several generations
(58:37):
ago this man's ancestor had killed a woman and the
perpetrator, subsequent male descendants were all born
crippled. Nobunaga sees him and takes a
lot of pity on him as he comes back one day and richly rewards
the man along with the inhabitants of the village.
He tells them quote, make sure you are kind to him so he
doesn't starve. Moreover, if you and the
(59:00):
villagers of the vicinity were to solace him by letting him
partake in of your harvest just a little twice every year, first
some barley when the barley is gathered in and then some rice
and autumn, you would make Nobunaga happy.
It's said that Monkey the beggarwas speechless with gratitude,
and there was not one among the male or the female inhabitants
(59:21):
of Yamanaka whose sleeves were not drenched with tears.
All of Nobunaga's companions, those of high as well as of low
rank, also shed tears. Now, this scene sounds a little
too dramatic, and Nobunaga refers to himself in the third
person, so I'm not sure how reliable it is, but it's still
(59:41):
an interesting story about a manwho was nicknamed the Demon
King. Anyway, I'm running out of
things to talk about now, but what happens next?
So we'd stopped our story after Nobunaga perishes at Hanoji, but
what is the fate of a Kechi, Mitsuhide and the rest of the
OTA faction? Well quick preview.
(01:00:02):
Hideyoshi makes a truce with a Mori clan and and rushes back to
engage Mitsuhide in a winner takes all battle.
This, along with A Life of Hideyoshi, is going to be
featured in the next episode, sostay tuned.
E-mail me at the address in the description if you'd like an If
you enjoy this eisode, feel freeto drop me a follow comment
(01:00:22):
rating or review and share with your friends as this helps me
reach larger audiences.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.