Hi everyone!

In my last-last article, I talked about the differences in Western and Eastern Japan and talked a little about how Tokugawa moved the capital to Edo (Tokyo).
Today I would like to talk more about him and some other Samurai warriors that ruled Japan in one of the chaotic times in history.
They all had strategies that might be useful to our daily lives.

The Sengoku Era

All of the warriors I'm going to talk about is from the Sengoku era (=戦国時代) (sometimes divided into Azuchi-Momoyama era= 安土桃山時代), which literary means the era of war.
In the late 15th century, Japan was ruled by the Ashikaga (足利) family who was the Shogun (military dictator) of the time.
(Japan has always been ruled by the emperor but the political power was under the shogun)
However, due to the loss of supremacy in the shogun family, the regional rulers (who used to work under the shogun) started to gain more power and a nationwide conflict occurred (which is referred to as Onin war= 応仁の乱).

In the following years, the conflict continued for nearly a century (and we call this century Sengoku era).
Each ruler was then called Sengoku Daimyo (=戦国大名) and they fought to expand their lands.
The people I am going to talk here are those who ruled in this time of conflict and achieved (or almost achieved) the unification of our country.

I am also going to attach a famous Haiku (whose author still remains unknown) that represents each of the warriors.
The Haiku smartly shows the characters of each man by how they may react to a Coocoo that won't tweet (which is a metaphor to obstacles for uniting the country).

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This kind of castles was used during this era as a fortress.

1. Oda Nobunaga

The Oda (=織田) started from a very small land but thanks to the leadership of Nobunaga(=信長), their
land expanded rapidly and very close to unification.

One of his first and famous war was the battle of Okehazama (=桶狭間の戦い) occurred in 1560.
The Oda was under threat of Imagawa (=今川), a much stronger clan with bigger land and military force.
The Imagawa had already taken down some of the lands occupied by Oda's retainers and were nearing the headquarters of Oda.
The outcome was quite obvious, but this 'assumption' proves to be fatal for the Imagawa.
After taking down some of the lands, the Imagawa decided to have an early celebration of their victory.
They had a good reason to be celebrating since it was raining hard (some even say it was hail) with low visibility and there was no way they were going to expect an attack.
However, Nobunaga saw this as a great chance and conducted a surprise attack.
The Imagawa surrendered after their master got killed.

The battle of Okehazama made a reputation of Oda, and he entered the 'race' to unite the country.
Another of one of his famous battle is perhaps the battle of Nagashino (=長篠の戦い) in 1575.
The battle was between an allied force of Oda and Tokugawa against Takeda (=武田), one of the strongest (but perhaps less ambitious for unification) clan at the time.
Nobunaga made use of the latest weapon from the west: guns.
Guns at the time were highly unreliable as they took a great amount of time to reload and only had a capability to fire one at a time.
However, Nobunaga purchased thousands of them and assigned it to an army of a group of three: the reloader, the preparer, and the shooter.
This enabled a smooth firing of the guns.
There are some skeptics that argue the guns were only capable of frightening the horses and did not give much damage, but it is clear the guns played an important role in the battle.

Aside from all this, he is usually referred to as a cold-blooded warrior and showed no mercy to those who do not follow him.
One example is the Ikkou rebellion (=一向一揆) by some of the Buddhists in the mid-1570s.
The rebellion was successfully suppressed by Oda, but he ordered to kill everyone (including women and children) after their surrender.
Because of that, he is pictured in the Haiku of Coocoo as follows; 鳴かぬなら 殺してしまえ ホトトギス (Should it not cry, kill the Coocoo).
This shows his brutality towards all of those who oppose.
And it is for this reason that he eventually gets killed in a mutiny by Akechi halfway to his achievement of unification at age of 49.
(The mutiny will be further explained in the next article)

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Remnants of the Azuchi castle (=安土城), which is said to be the largest castle ever built. (There is an ongoing project to reconstruct the
castle)

2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (=豊臣秀吉) started his life as an ordinary farmer whose family was close to nameless.
No one would ever have believed that someone like him to become one of the most remembered men in history.
He worked as a servant in some clans and ended up serving for Oda.
He showed his intelligence under Nobunaga and soon became one of Nobunaga's favorites.
One famous story of Hideyoshi is how he warmed Nobunaga's shoes (slippers) in his pockets on a cold winters day.

Later on, he would become one of Oda's retainers and fought in many battles.
It was when he was in the Chugoku region that he learned about the mutiny by Akechi and death of Nobunaga.
It is said that he concluded the war with a treaty (without telling the death of his master) and returned to revenge at an incredible speed (which is later known as the great return from Chugoku =中国大返し).
In the following years, he gains support from many of Nobunaga's former retainers and became the leader.
He also gains status as the 'assistant' of the emperor (which generally means he gained more power than the emperor).

In 1590, he takes down his last enemy (the Hojou =北条) and accomplishes the unification of the country.
His ambition did not end there and he sends an army to Korea (which worked at first but resulted in failure).
He lived a long life of 62 years.
Starting as a normal farmer, he ended up as the man more powerful than the emperor thanks to his intelligence and his power to move on.
He is remembered in the Haiku as; 鳴かぬなら 鳴かせてみよう ホトトギス (Should it not cry, only to force the Coocoo).
This shows the man with great ambitions who achieved his dreams.
...

So, here were the first two of the great warriors.
I will be writing the next two warriors soon so stay tuned!!

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