Nobunaga+Oda

“If a bird doesn’t sing kill it,” (Barker). In  this short quote, or haiku by Nobunaga Oda, his “style” of ruling is being shown; as a brutal and rash tyrant. Over the course of his reign over Japan, Oda was able to make many changes to Japan and unify it all together with his brutality. He started off as a small lord, who soon succeeded to his father’s estate, which led him to his reign over Japan (Seal). In his short life of 49 years, Oda was able to accomplish many things that seemed impossible, and was remembered as a brutal, yet foolish tyrant (Okanoya 49).
 * Personal Background **

Nobunaga Oda, one of the three unifiers of Japan, was born on June 23, 1534, in the Owari Province (Okanoya 39). As a child, Oda was very active. He enjoyed training his horses, swimming in rivers, and learning how to fight with various weapons (Okanoya 29). He was also very brave, such as when he encountered a baby snake, his attendant mocked the snake for being small and tried to get Oda to step away from it. Instead, Oda replied to his attendant saying, “If you are not afraid of a snake because it is small, then do you disdain your lord if he is young and small?” (Okanoya 29). Throughout his childhood and teenage years, Oda had very strange and bizarre actions, which gave him the nickname, “The Fool of Owari” (Okanoya 30).

Oda was born into a minor political family, which had very high pride that led to conflicts within (Wanczura). His father was Nobuhide Oda, a minor warlord from the Owari Province, and succeeded his father’s estate after his death (Okanoya 29). Oda had many other siblings, and he was the oldest, legitimate son of Nobuhide (McMullin). However, because he was the oldest sibling, his younger siblings plotted against him so that they could inherit their father’s estate ("Everything About Real-Life"). One brother challenged Oda to a battle, but lost and because of his pride, he committed suicide. Oda started his rule as a warlord from inside his family (Wanczura).

Oda was able to make many accomplishments throughout the course of his life, even with his hardships and obstacles. After succeeding his father’s estate, he slowly fought his way up to the top of Japan, and ruled as a dictator (“Oda Nobunaga”). He ruled from 1568 to 1582, the Azuchi-Momoyama period (McMullin). He was able to unify Japan in just a few years and set up new systems within it (“Oda Nobunaga”). Throughout the course of his life, he was able to overcome many obstacles and wars, and created Japan into a better place. What he had accomplished is still left in Japan, and used in many events, such as war strategies (Taniguchi). However, his last obstacle was his own ally, who had conspired against him and pushed him to his death. Nobunaga Oda was forced to commit suicide by seppuku at the age of 49, on June 21, 1582 (Okanoya 28).


 * Personality Traits **

As a tyrant, Nobunaga Oda, of course was a very brutal leader. Being brutal as he was, he did not forgive traitors of any kind (Gay). However, Oda was easily betrayed by others because he trusted his loyal followers too much which led to his fall ("Oda Nobunaga’s Wars"). Although he was very gullible, he was still confident about his power and war tactics because he had pragmatic, decisive and non-ideological traits as a leader. He was also very stubborn when it came to wars and ruling over Japan. Since he was called the “Fool of Owari,” Oda was also known for making very rash decisions (Gay). Oda was also very direct and clear about what he liked and disliked, such as Buddhism and Christianity (Okanoya 29). Also, as a brutal and unforgiving tyrant, Oda was very ambitious for power and control over other land. He, as a successful war lord, was also very good at war and making tactics (Gay). As a war lord, Oda was very smart, with many tactics and tricks up his sleeve. As a child, he was very bright and talented, and that talent gave Oda the intellectual capacity to apply to many concepts to his war tactics (Gay). As a warring lord, he was attacked by and attacked many other lords, but had very quick reactions to surprises and was fearless against larger forces (McMullin). Whenever given the chance, Oda would take advantage over his enemies and overrun them. He would use misdirection and surprise to overwhelm the enemies’ forces, which led to his countless victories in war (Wanczura). Oda was very faithful to his loyal soldiers that would go die on his command. He trusted them to win the war and bring yet another victory under his name. Another one of his many talents was to be able to multitask and control several troops at once to overwhelm the enemy (Real-Life Warlord). However, his confidence in his power, and persistence to win the war was a key factor for his downfall (Wanczura).


 * Obstacles **

Throughout his 49 years of life, Nobunaga Oda had many obstacles that blocked his road to success. But through all these hills and mountains, Oda was able to find success one way or another. He had 3 main problems, opposition, religion, and unification (McMullin). All were very hard to get around, but he managed to overcome these obstacles and became a memorable historical figure (Wanczura).

One of Oda’s major obstacles was opposition, of many groups and people. Throughout his rule and life, he was besieged by many people who opposed him. In his family, his brothers all conspired against him, and tried to teach him a lesson. However, one failed and committed suicide as a result of his failure. Oda also had factions against him, and had an enemy named Shingen Takeda, who was a powerful member of the anti-Nobunaga alliance (Taniguchi). He also had a man named Yoshiatsu Saito, who tried to assassinate him, but Oda captured him and executed him (Okanoya 39).

 Another obstacle was religion. Oda strongly disliked Buddhism for many reasons and took action against it as he rose to power. Buddhist institutions came to great power and threatened his power (McMullin). To limit their growing power, Oda set out to war in 1576 against Honganji monks (Okanoya 47). He also burned Mount Hiei and damaged his honor by massacring many monks. As a result, he received much bitterness and vengeance lingering in the hearts of the people and couldn’t receive support from other monks (Gay).

His last major obstacle was unification. Oda had the task of unifying Japan to create a powerful nation, but it was not an easy task. In order to do so, he had to attacked groups that threatened his power, such as the Buddhist temples (McMullin). He soon was distracted, but his councilor committed suicide to get Oda to focus clearly on military affairs (Okanoya 31). Another of the three unifiers, Ieyasu Tokugawa, allied with Oda to help him unify Japan, and he took over the unification of Japan after Oda’s death (Okanoya 40). After wars, unifying big cities, such as Kyoto, were challenging due to the rugged roads that were filled with bandits. Also, other areas broke out with civil wars from little disputes and caused trouble for Oda (Okanoya 45).


 * Historical Significance **

The overcoming of his obstacles and accomplishing his many goals led Nobunaga Oda to be remembered as a great warlord (Gay). Although he lived a life of only 49 years, Oda was able to make accomplishments to be remembered. He was able to influence modern Japan’s military and spread his brutality throughout Japan (Taniguchi). He was able to reduce the temples’ powers in Japan and was able to unify Japan (McMullin). By unifying Japan, Oda was more known to others, and the other warlords reached out to him seeking help (Okanoya 42).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Oda’s influence over military carried on into Japan’s war tactics in World War II. He had also constructed cannon bearing warships to be used in wars (Taniguchi). Instead of sticking to Japanese technology, Oda embraced European technology: fire arms (Wanczura). Using firearms and the war tactic of volley fire led to his many victories in wars (Taniguchi). Because he was victorious often, Oda was remembered as an appreciated genius and a military and political tactician (Gay).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The spread of his brutality had changed sixteenth century Japan quite a bit. Oda led massive slaughters against his enemies and anyone who went against him, and brought back their heads to show his strength (Gay). Most of his wars were won, and Oda rarely retreated due to his pride (McMullin). However, Oda was not very lenient on his men who retreated early-he deliberately disgraced and ruthlessly treated the worthless vassals. This brutality, however, was the key to the unification of Japan under Oda (Gay).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The brutality spread to the temples as well, since Oda strongly favored Christianity over Buddhism. Since he was so powerful, Oda used his power to reduce the Buddhist temples’ power and also reduced the land holding and independence of temples (McMullin). An example of his brutality would be when Oda ambushed a temple and brought back 2,500 heads of the monks (Okanoya 38). Oda, favoring Christianity, had close ties with Christian missionaries, and often invited them over to entertain them, which led to his picking up of volley fire and firearms (Wanczura).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">After gaining enough power, Oda set to unify Japan, through political campaigns (McMullin). As he gained power, Oda defined himself as the national leader, not just the leader of samurais (Gay). In his process of unifying Japan, Oda came across other strong warlords and formed alliances with them, such as Ieyasu Tokugawa and Yoshiaki Ashikaga (Okanoya 42). Yoshiaki Ashikaga was a new shogun, and reached out to Oda for help, and let Oda control a small portion of land. Once Ashikaga was gone, Oda took his place in 1573 and enforced strict ordinances which kept order in Japan (Okanoya 56). After taking over the position of shogun, Oda began to climb even higher in power and was able to accomplish many goals and kept Japan in order. His goals were accomplished even after he had died because of his companions, and led to modern day Japan (Okanoya 59).

**References**
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Okanoya, Shigezane. __"Shogun and Samurai", Meisho Genkoroku.__ Web. 11 Dec. 2014 Source Evaulation 6
====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Seal, F.W. "Oda Nobunaga." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Oda Nobunaga //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Samurai-archives. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. ==== ====Taniguchi, Shinko. "Nobunaga no Sengoku Gunjigaku." //Journal of Military History// 63:4 (1990):960. //eLibrary.// WSeb. 17 September 2014. Source Evaluation 1==== ====Wanczura, Dieter. "Edutainment Oda Nobunaga - 1534-1582." //Artelino Japanese Prints.// 01 December 2002. Web. 15 October 2014. Source Evaluation 3==== ====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Useful Notes: Oda Nobunaga." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Useful Notes/Oda Nobunaga //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Tvtropes. Web. 4 Feb. 2015. ====