EVERYTHING ABOUT THE ONE & ONLY ODA NOBUNAGA
ODA NOBUNAGA

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REAL-LIFE WARLORD OF OWARI, JAPAN (1534 - 1582)

 

Oda Who?

So you know Oda Nobunaga was one of those scary 16th century guys whose biz was to kill people and snatch their lands, right?

But this real-life Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) didn't monopolize what 21st century says as evil.

In Oda Nobunaga's days, this completely wretched planet earth was sparsely populated by a bunch of socially unpalatable but historically indispensible rulers. Ivan IV ('The Terrible', 1530-1584) told the world that he was sick of being just the Duke of Moscow and thereby proclaimed himself the first Tsar of Russia. The warlike Stephen Bathory (1533-1586) ascended the throne of Poland. Elizabeth I (ascended in 1558) was bringing about the 'Golden Age' of England. France was busy exterminating the (Protestant) Huguenots. The last great Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, Suleiman 'the Magnificent' (1520-1566) reigned far beyond his own country's boundaries, even added Hungary to his territory. Spain was ravaging America; Francisco de Toledo (created Viceroy of Peru in 1569) was making sure the terror would continue in the inimitable Pizarro's style. Every few dots away, the map showed war.

The name 'Oda' means 'great field', while 'Nobunaga' means 'grand and lasting'. 'Nobu' alone means a lot: great, grand, faith, bliss. (Click here if you're interested in knowing the meanings of Japanese names). 'Naga', besides carrying the sense of 'long' and 'lasting', is also loaded with exactly the same sense as what the word means in Indonesian language: 'dragon'. Considering that naming kids in the past was usually a tedious biz of seeking auspicious senses and such, this would get omenic to believers upon his Japanwide rise later.

Young Oda Nobunaga appeared onstage for the first time in 1542, in a nerve-wrecking bud of what we now dub 'Japan'. At 15, Oda was heir to a relatively obscure feudal lord of Owari (click here for the Oda family tree). He started out with a speck of earth and a band of samurai and lots of guts and nothing more than that. The Oda clan of Nobunaga's was dismissed by greater clans of the time as unworthy of insomnia because it was too poor to rob and too weak to conquer. The location of Oda Nobunaga's original territory is somewhere around today's Nagoya -- while the entire province of Owari itself is just a tiny slice of today's Aichi Prefecture (click here for map of Japanese warlords of 16th century, or here for maps of Oda Nobunaga's territory from the li'l spot he inherited from his dad in Owari until the vast addendum he gained himself 'til his death, or here for Tokugawa Ieyasu's territory after the decisive battle of supremacy at Seki plains in 1603) . Or click here for pictures of Oda Nobunaga's homebase in Nagoya, the exact village where the Oda clan came into being, and so on.

When even passersby called him 'Lord Fool' ('baka-dono'), Oda Nobunaga dreamt the greatest dream; from this tiny li'l base he hoped for Japan United or so. Click here if you really have never heard of why he was called 'Lord Fool', and why he let people to do that.

There was no Japan in 16th century, mind you; what existed was around 260 independent Imperial vassaldoms, i.e. warlords' territories (click here). Rulers of such spots were inferior only to the Emperor, spiritually-speaking; and to the nearest stronger warlord, practically-speaking.

These warlords' business was mainly to think up schemes of how to add a neighbor's land to theirs. Why? Because land meant rice. Why? Because rice was the measure of everything in 16th century Japan. Why? That's how agrarian feudalism functions. Wealth, wages, salaries, booties, all were converted notions of how much rice did one stack in the warehouse.

For a while, the young Oda Nobunaga and his inconsequential territory and his rather meagre portion of Japanese rice production could do nothing but to wait for a chance to move up the ladder of warlordism; during which, as was usual in feudal politicking, he spent time luring allies and drilling the army. When he started the campaign after his 19th birthday, he already got the right men marching along his side (click here for profiles and pictures) -- and so the fiery tale rolled on.

 

Is There Any Such a Thing as the Oda Clan?

Oda Nobunaga existed in the Age of Personalities. So he seemed as if he was all the Oda around. But yes, there was a clan whose members were all named Oda. Otherwise Nobunaga would have signed documents as something else ('P. Diddy' for example). In fact, there were 2 overloaded branches of Odas in Owari alone: Oda Nobunaga's family, of whom people say 'the Kiyosu Odas'; and others whose unofficial name was 'the Iwakura Odas'. Oda Nobunaga simply had to get rid of a lot of these other Odas vying for being the head of the clan first before doing anything else. Whatever happened to these other Odas? If you care, click here. Is there anybody named Oda this minute? Click here for Oda Nobunaga's most famous descendant in 21st century.

The Oda clan was a flock of descendants of one of the greatest samurai clans in Japan, the Taira (click here for story and pictures). It was one heck of a clan around the year 1000, the period portrayed in the 2003 blockbusting Japanese movie directed by Takita Yojiro, Onmyoji (a.k.a The Yin-Yang Master -- click here for movie scenes although the flick is about the arch-enemies of Oda Nobunaga's ancestors, the Minamoto clan).

Oda Nobunaga's career was slashed short by one of his own generals, Lord Akechi Mitsuhide of Tamba (click here for all about this man) -- virtually alone against Akechi's whole army (because Oda was in a personal holiday at a temple), Oda Nobunaga died at 49 (click here for everything about Oda's death).

And he didn't have a chance to leave a dynastic power. All his offsprings never got the chance to step into daddy's shoes (click here for these kids). They were either assassinated or stripped off any power by Oda's real successors: the illustrious Toyotomi Hideyoshi, his best general (click here for you know what); and the rocky Tokugawa Ieyasu, his ally (click here).

Oda Nobunaga's worst sort of son survived until old age, and his Catholic uncle (Nobunaga's younger brother) also lived until 84 years old or so (click here for both). They were crossovers -- they acknowledged the Tokugawa shogunate and went to its wars under the Tokugawas' command (Oda Nobunaga would have never ever imagined that!)

So -- no other Oda would rise after he's gone.

The military excelsior of the Oda clan started and ended with this one and only Nobunaga. Click here for Oda Nobunaga's family tree, though.

 

Why is Oda Nobunaga Always the Bad Guy?

Oda Nobunaga, as a matter of historically correct fact, earned the grudge people have been keeping across so many centuries until this very day; there was a reason for calling him the incarnate of evil and everything vicious and bad -- but only as long as Japanese Buddhism is concerned.

In 1571, Oda reduced one of the biggest Buddhist compounds of the time, at Mt. Hiei, and countless Hongan monks, to ashes. He spared nothing and no one in this campaign -- kids, women, cattle, grass and garbage, all was made to meet the exact same fate. Even his own soldiers shuddered at the deeds they were nonetheless to obey after protests failed to change it.

But don't get pictures of peaceful, smiling, gentle Buddhist bonzes in your mind -- the ones imprinted there after encountering the 20th-century Zen books. The Buddhist monks I mentioned, the bonzes Oda Nobunaga fought against, were zillions of lightyears away from today's orange-robed pacifists begging for alms. They were, for Christ's sake, soldiers.

These monks had been every warlord's headache; they switched sides as they pleased, according to which party of the conflicting two paid them better; they spent time not in endless gaze towards Nirvana or anything, but out in the field, not herding sheep, but practicing martial arts, perfecting swordsmanship, training archers and so forth. And if Buddhist monks make killing people their occupation like that, other known Buddhist taboos were of course never observed as well; the monks kept concubines, produced babies, had alcohol served any time they wanted, ate meat, etcetera.

These were the sort of monasteries Oda destroyed in his time. Personally, they heaped up more obstacles to Oda's way, more than others before him, because Oda Nobunaga seemed to give hearts to Jesuit missionaries -- although it was only a tactical endorsement, since he was always ready to use any weapon against the proud Buddhist monks up in the mountain (click here for story and pictures of how Oda Nobunaga made use of these Roman Catholic priests). So, hereby, just in case someone still get misled to believe that Oda Nobunaga was 'interested in Christianity', I say that's nothing but a post-Spanish Inquisition feel-good hallucination. Oda Nobunaga's interest in Roman Catholicism was exactly the same as his interest in sponge cakes, matchlock guns, sundials and red wine. Ask him if you don't believe me.

If this subject tickles you, click here for history, pictures and profiles of Christian samurai, warlords and rebels of 16th-17th century Japan and how Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu differently dealt with the issue.

Anyway, the total war Oda Nobunaga waged against Buddhist warrior-monks was why 'Devil Incarnate' came to be attached to his name by the pop culture of 20th and 21st century (click here for complete story and pictures of these bloodlusty monks anyway), even though he was -- now remember this -- not the first or the last person to have committed the same deed. Taira Kiyomori, Minamoto Yoritomo, Ashikaga Takauji, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, all have, among others, did the same. They, too, couldn't have helped it. Those monks were pain the unspeakable region to everybody.

 

Did Oda Nobunaga See Himself as God?

Most of what we know today about Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi came from caucasian mental lenses. The Japanese imported American and European views about themselves since the Meiji Confusion of 1868 (click here for everything about that), and it was part of the cargo. It's the same with their act importing Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai in 2003.

That is all you need to know about it; the dose of trust you can sanely give to its validity is as much as you can normally give to alchemy.

It was nothing but an archaic caucasian personal observation about Asian stuff. Don't ever forget that it was personal. Don't forget that it was an observation -- none of the writers of bulky tomes about Oda Nobunaga spent time with him 24/7, and none of them met him in interpersonal atmosphere (you can make as much observation by standing in line to make a curtsey to the Prince of Wales). Don't forget they were Roman Catholic missionaries talking about a Buddhist Japanese. Don't forget anthropology wasn't even thinkable yet, it being the year 1580.

You don't, this very day, believe that the sun spins around this planet, do you? Or that the northern landmass on the map was India, not America? But you would have, when that kind of view was in vogue in medieval Europe -- if, of course, you were a medieval European yourself. Catch my drift?

Now, Luis Frois, a Roman Catholic Portuguese missionary (click here), has been by far universally seen as the 'close friend' of Oda Nobunaga's, since he implied so in his weighty diaries.

Japanese biographers of Oda's nailed someone else as the so-called 'close friend', Italian Catholic priest Gnecchi-Soldo Organtino (click here).

It doesn't matter which one saw Oda more often or longer each time around. Oda Nobunaga was, whatever else he might have been, a true-blue Japanese samurai of his times. He knew exactly what these caucasians wanted, which he would never ever give to them; and he was sure of what he himself wanted, which he would somehow get from them. It's impossible that a 'friendship' ever occured between him and these people.

It was people like Frois and all his caucasian colleagues who said Oda Nobunaga 'saw himself as a god', 'he craved divinity of himself', and so forth, the usual bubbles, and left us a picture of a megalomaniac Nebuchadnezzar-like Oda Nobunaga, which, alas, even Japanese people in 21st century come to believe as a fact just because the world's mass-media is the caucasian one!

All that aspiration to divinity wouldn't even cross an Asian mind who already took his Emperor as the latest edition of divinity. The meaning of 'something-o-kami' that tailed Japanese rulers' and Generals' names, including Oda Nobunaga's (he's 'Owari no kami'), never meant 'god of something'. It only meant 'protector', a Shintoist expression that the spirits of the departed great men's would continue to stay with the living that way, geographically. Click here for everything about Shintoism so this kind of thing wouldn't confuse you.

Statues of warlords and Generals, the 'shogun jizo', were never meant to be worshipped, either; they were reps (in stone) of the protecting spirits that wouldn't get so convincing if inexistent, to a people accustomed to visual aids in religious matters. Click here for everything about Zen Buddhism, because this IS what samurai upheld.

More crucially, Japan in 16th century was crowded with 'clan gods', AKA 'ujigami'. The greatest of the clansmen were always made into a protector of the clan, an act that -- seen from a Semitic point of view -- can be translated into "they were deified". Takeda Shingen (click here for him) is the ujigami of his clan. Both Minamoto Yoshitsune the warrior and Minamoto Yoritomo the administrator are ujigamis (click here for the Minamoto clansmen).

There was no other Oda in the clan, so to speak, at this level, except Nobunaga. So, is it totally incomprehensible why there is a little shrine for him at the birthplace of the clan? (Click here for big photographs of Oda Nobunaga's places since birth).

'Clan gods' were of course to get installed at their little shrines only after they ceased to be some mere VIP's and had all shifted to be RIP's.

But in Japan the head of the clan was called 'ujinokami'.

So was, because that's his actual status, Oda Nobunaga.

This doesn't have anything to do with personal megalomania. If Jesus were Japanese, probably he, too, would have been called 'ujinokami'; while Adolf Hitler would have been, too.

Why?

Because 'ujinokami' contained nothing godlike. It meant simply 'Chief'.

The confusion between 'ujigami' and 'ujinokami' (and Oda Nobunaga was both) has been an observable constant part of non-Japanese minds, even today. And until this minute, too, there are still unreasonably wary tourists sweating around those little shrines of 'clan gods' cursing the 'paganism' of Japan and bemoaning the habit of erecting such little shrines everywhere for everyone -- with the exception being Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose remains were put into the most extravagant architectural piece ever in the history of Japan (click here for a glimpse).

So -- back to the proto-blogs of the Jesuits -- what can be believed as 100% true is only that Luis Frois got frustrated because his dream -- to convert Oda Nobunaga into Roman Catholicism -- never came to life.

He couldn't understand why. He had no tool to comprehend how. He took all the outward appearances as clues, and scanned all those without finding the answer. In the simple missionarian logic, someone so tolerant must sooner or later fall into conversion. But this one didn't. So he must have thought of himself as God. Otherwise the failure to convert him would have been unbearable, after all those gifts and waste of time and brags in Rome about a 'Japanese King' who 'was to be a Christian'.

You should never forget that this was the decade of 1580's that we are talking about.

Those days, Europeans still believed that somewhere out there among non-caucasian cannibals lived an extra-rich Christian king named 'Prester John'. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, ask Google or Yahoo!.)

Luis Frois and all the Jesuits wrote that Oda Nobunaga was 'King of Japan', and in their books all other warlords were 'Princes of Japan', and they called the Mikado 'Dairi-sama' (as in 'king Dairi-sama'), and took the colloquial apellation 'Kubo' as the official title of Tokugawa Ieyasu's, and you put all those aside with the thought that, well, they didn't know better at the time, poor padres.

So, why would you take the rest of the same poor padres' chirp as facts?

Click here for the basic Japanese beliefs, philosophy, ethics and so on that made the backbone of everything that went on there since the year 600, kept the Imperial House alive, secured the grip of the warrior class, enabled any system to work and radical changes to happen without whacking the country apart, and justified that Oda Nobunaga was NOT a bad ruler at all while what Akechi Mitsuhide did was criminal.

 

How Did Oda Nobunaga Look Like, For Real?

According to ancient pictures, Oda Nobunaga wasn't really a visual earthquake at all; even while we know enough about traditional Japanese (un-)realism in portrait-painting that tends to grind objects into caricatural fragments. But there is no room to doubt that he did strike everyone who saw him as nothing like average Japanese of the times.

Ancient chronicles usually never failed to mention his 'somewhat prominent nose', and his 'clear complexion', and his 'ronin-style' hair, and his goatee, and his 'piercing eyes that he tried to soften by laughter to avoid scaring the guests', while debates raged about his body height -- it was, some rather trustworty sources at last agreed upon, somewhere between 5'3" and 5'4"; i.e. nowhere around tall even for an Asian, at least today's Asians. My most beloved Japanese actor Ito Hideaki is six foot, you know (click here, just in case, for Ito Hideaki as himself -- or here for Ito Hideaki as Oda Nobunaga).

Physical description of Oda Nobunaga always matters somehow, sparked by the overall portrayal of him -- verbally painted -- by contemporaries. All through the ages the one thing he has been said of is that he had a 'striking appearance' -- not just good-looking but also extravagantly dressed-up -- he was his own fashion designer (click here for that).

My own preference says that actor Ryu Daisuke (playing the role as Oda Nobunaga in Kurosawa Akira's movie Shadow Warrior) has been the best Oda Nobunaga onscreen for the last 20 years (click here). A little bit too tense, maybe, but no other actor ever brought the nobunaganess of Nobunaga to life that way. Not even, alas, Ito Hideaki in 2005 -- although Ito is closer to nobunaganess than Ryu if it's just about being undisputably handsome, as Oda Nobunaga reportedly was.

Planet Pop itself yields three folders of Oda Nobunaga's looks: the Handsome Oda, the Ugly Oda, and the Clueless Oda. The fatter bin of the three has been, as you have known, the third -- representing Oda Nobunaga in every way that resembles none of the real thing. While the second is nearly as obese, oozing out of sources which have been routinely laddling out Oda Nobunaga as, at least, a vampire (click here for a shocking, though typical, specimen of this).

So I have amassed as many pictures of Oda Nobunaga as I could lay my hands on, since 1600 until approximately 10 o'clock this morning. Click here.

 

What the Heck Oda Nobunaga is Doing Here?

Why? Because Oda Nobunaga doesn't know html codes, that's why.

In 1998 there used to be a native Nagoyanese setting out to make homepages just about the real-life Oda Nobunaga -- in English -- and I waited in fiery enthusiasm for it to materialize -- but it never got past third page. I'm not Japanese, that far you might have gleaned from everything I have rapped of; naturally I thought a native person would have been better to tackle this kind of job. But like I said, I was unlucky. So my personal Oda-related pages -- which were made in 1996 -- were assembled as this bin in 2000, and I've been keeping on updating it until the glasshouse effect finally takes it toll on human race, or until Ito Hideaki is elected Prime Minister (in which case I'll switch all pages in my circuitous site to his trek), or until the next Windows crash, whichever comes first.

There are 389 pages about Oda Nobunaga at this site today. No kidding. They're still growing, as new facts or absolutely the opposite turns up every now and then.

And just in case you haven't noticed, this is a very English site -- no Japanese scripts (none that you can't read, anyway), no unintelligible titles and terms, no intellectualized elaborations, no nonsense (not that sort of nonsense, I mean). Japan is not exotic to me because, though not Japanese, I'm Asian. This view automatically colors the pix I see of Japanese history and the denizen within, and, without even intending it to be so, it is bound to be different from the way Oda Nobunaga, Japan, the Japanese and such have been seen through caucasians' eyes.

That's the way I want it to be. I've never been for computer or video gaming. I'd rather kick balls out there. So Oda Nobunaga is here not because of his notoriety that you heard of from game designers since late 20th century; he is here for his part in my life.

I fell for Oda Nobunaga a long long time ago as my raging hormones of the time demanded hero-worship. As fate would have it, I turn out to be devoid of such an exhausting human nature, but still I retain the medium-sized adoration towards several historical icons including Oda Nobunaga. This man fulfills diehard romanticism I am vulnerable against.

In High School I used to gaze oh-wow-ly at his motto: "One realm under one sword" ('Tenka Fubu' -- click here for story and pictures of why and when and how this slogan was decided upon by Oda Nobunaga). It sounded to my teenage ears like something out of Metallica. While his personal slogan, "I alone know that I'm okay with what I got" ("Ware tada shiru taru", click here for the origin & history of this) sounded really yummy to my individualist streak.

Nobunaga's zero desire in acquiring orthodox recognition (he never even considered the offers of official imperial titles -- click here), his outlawish manners, and so forth, fed exactly a girl's Saturday night fantasy while she was stuck with boring visits to the movies and unpromising stock of boyfriends with neither talent, ambition nor at least cash, though some of them got the looks.

Anyway, Oda Nobunaga initiated the unifying of Japan into what it is now, i.e. a nation-state; although this concept never came into the vocab before the Meiji Restoration (click here for story & pix of the churning and confusing and assassins-infested Meiji era). That is something not everyone could and did do.

What about Oda Nobunaga's 'sin against Buddha'?

Well, what about that?

I never agree with Akechi Mitsuhide. He always nailed Oda for that Mt. Hiei thing, as if he never did anything there on the same mountain in 1571 (oh, yes, Akechi commanded a battalion of monks-killers, sir).

I tell you what; because Oda Nobunaga crushed utterly the Buddhist warrior-monks, every ruler after him could check the formerly above-the-law men of religion easier -- a thing that couldn't be avoided, since the monks kept arming themselves and did what they used to do before Oda's purgatory. If the warrior-monks were not subdued, there would have always been a great obstacle in the way of building a nation-state. Even Emperors never dared to check them; only Oda Nobunaga did. And he knew what he was doing. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the entire Tokugawa shogunate thanked Oda Nobunaga for doing it; it made their monks-infested territories manageable. The Japanese beliefs, the codes of the warrior class, the samurai principles, the philosophy of being Japanese, are never against this action (click here).

As for other bloody deeds he had done, there was simply no other way; that was the way it got to be in feudal Japan. Every other warlord did it. Takeda Shingen, for instance (a good example because he was Oda Nobunaga's arch-enemy), waged wars against his brothers, cousins and uncles, to snatch the 'head of the clan' title (click here for biography and pictures of Takeda Shingen). Toyotomi Hideyoshi executed his nephew, wife of that nephew, dad and mom of theirs, and their kids and servants and dogs -- to quench his fear of a succession battle between the nephew and his own son. Tokugawa Ieyasu, besides letting his son be killed without doing anything, also killed his own wife; and after scooping up his triumph at the decisive battle at Seki plains, killed the General of the defeated pro-Toyotomi army specifically grotesquely: with a blunt sword (click here for story and pictures).

Moralizing in 21st century about such a thing is essentially wrong -- the standard determines the valuation, and we know nothing whatever of how Oda's time's mentality took it.

History is, essentially, nothing but the best guesses we can snatch from the air. There is no certainty in the lack of written records of what the peasants of 1580, for instance, really felt and thought. Oda Nobunaga was not the worst ruler over these perenially unfortunate subjects of feudalism; it is the feudalism itself that put farmers and others of rural biz at the lowest sphere of social pyramid (click here for story and pictures of typical hillbillies in 16th century Japan). Name one lord of an English manor, one Chinese Emperor, one German duke, or any such people that didn't tax peasants, and I'll send you a very formal apology via the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in New York.

I think what was good about Oda Nobunaga in that era of Personalities (following and differing from the era of Great Clans; click here for story & pix of these ones) should have been immortalized at least side by side with his wrongdoings.

Oda Nobunaga never did anything against his conscience. I think that is good enough for a man whose taste in dressing up is said to be closer to Flash Gordon's Emperor Ming (or Versace, whichever) than the League of Ordinarily Elegant Gentlemen. Actually such a trait have helped immortalizing Nobunaga because Planet Pop is never interested in The Great Average.

And I love men who dream of the impossible -- and who dream this to life.

Thank you for staying with me longer than my mom ever dared to.

Peace.

 

Postscript:

Oda Nobunaga's birthday is June 23. Just in case you care to know, though I can't imagine what for.

 
Nina Wilhelmina
1996 - 2006
     

Just before you click out of this page, I have to slush in a little note:
Everybody else seems to refer to the 16th century warlords' female relatives and such as 'Princess' in the English-speaking world. I never do that. And I will never do it here at this site. I will only translate the Japanese suffix '-hime' as 'Princess' if we are talking about daughters of the Emperor or wives of the Emperor's sons. Other than that, 'Lady' is the most correct form of address. You know their husbands and brothers and dads were not Kings.

 

 

 

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Pictures of Oda Nobunaga

 

A L L----I N ----O N E----C L I Q U E

Twilight of the TAKEDA Clan of Kai   Rise & Fall of the TOKUGAWA Clan   The Houdini of Warlords: Toyotomi Hideyoshi
         
SHINSENGUMI
the Wolves of Mibu
  TAIRA Warriors, Poets & Nondescript Others   MINAMOTO Princes, Fighters & Rappers
         
The Best Gigs of the KOGA Ninja Clan   SHIMABARA : Revolt of Catholic Warriors   Official Massacre: the Nagashino Battle
         
The Clan that Ruled Japan in 13 Days   The Real-Life
Last Samurai
  The Last Shogun
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SHOGUNS
for Dummies
  The Heart of Sword: Samurai Legends   The 47 Immortal Ronins of Edo
         
The Hype of
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  Bad Gamblers at Sekigahara Battle   Samurai Movie Bytes
         
Y A K U Z A   K A M I K A Z E   B U S H I D O
         
History of Japan   Bushido Heroes   U K I Y O

 

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Click one of the pix below for everything about the real Oda Nobunaga. Every page consists of stories and pictures. Including his portraits, his castles and towns both in his time and today, also his armors, musical stuff, daily objects, food, clothes, horses, dance, his favorite song, etcetera; plus of course the forepersons from whom he got the DNA from, his implacable enemies, his family, his buddies, his valet extraordinaire, his Generals, his spying wife, his concubine that everyone never remembers, and another woman whom he really loved; his kids, his headaching in-laws, his famous sister, his notorious niece, his ally, his killer, story and pictures of how he died, everything about his successor whose nickname was 'Monkey', his total CV, his map of conquests, how he has been depicted in popular culture since the start of the 21st century (in paintings, sculptures, etchings, sketches, drawings, as dolls and all sorts of toys, in feature films, in computer games, animation series, comic books, history books' illustrations, etc.); also pictures and stories of all other warlords that he had beaten up. Plus how he has been represented by actors (just to name a few: Ryu Daisuke, Ogata Naoto, Yakusho Koji, Sorimachi Takashi, Kimura Takuya, Ito Hideaki, and many others). And, of course, the best movie scenes featuring him.

 

ODA NOBUNAGA

 

Oda's faces
F A C E S

All sorts of Oda's portraits since 1600 until this morning.

 

Oda's Places
P L A C E S

All of Oda's hangouts since childhood until the last day on earth & how they are now.

 

Oda's Things
T H I N G S

All kinds of stuff that Oda used to have, from armors & letters to trinkets & food.

 

Oda Nobunaga's Roots
R O O T S

All about Oda's ancestors, the Taira clan of Kyoto.

 

Oda Nobunaga in the movie
M O V I E

Scenes of the movie that features Oda best, by Kurosawa Akira.

 

Oda Nobunaga's Enemy
E N E M Y

Story & pix of Oda's mightiest enemy, the Takeda clan of Kai.

 

Oda's family, people and conquests
F A M I L Y

Story & pix of Oda's wife, concubines, kids, sister, in-laws & such.

 

All about Oda Nobunaga and I
BIOGRAPHY

Complete & chronological biography since Oda was born until after his death.

 

Oda's family, people and conquests
VICTORIES

Story & pix of Oda's conquests
& the warlords he had beaten up.

 

Oda's ally
A--L--L--Y

Everything about Oda's ally, the would-be-Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.

 

Oda's army, generals, captains, etc.
A--R--M--Y

Story & pix of Oda's Generals, Captains, Army & Navy management, and so on.

 

Oda Nobunaga's killer
K I L L E R

Story & pix of Akechi Mitsuhide, why he attacked Oda, and what happened to him next.

 

Oda's warrior-dance
D A N C E

Story & pix of Oda's favorite song and dance, and how he performed it.

 

Oda's successor
SUCCESSOR

Everything about Oda's favorite General, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

 

Mori Ranmaru
V A L E T

Story & pix of the real-life Mori Ranmaru, and why he was special.

 

Oda's anime
A N I M E

Anime scenes that feature Oda, the Azuchi tower, and the Akechi attack.

 

The woman Oda loved
L O V E

Story & pix of the only woman that Oda ever loved.

 

Imagining Oda Nobunaga in Gifu
ENCORE

Pictures of Oda Nobunaga and the places he haunts.

 

The source of Oda Nobunaga's notoriety
NOTORIETY

Story & pix of why, where, how Oda Nobunaga came to be seen as an evil man all these years.

 

Click here
'LORD FOOL'

Story and pictures of why, when, how Oda Nobunaga got this nickname.

 

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' G E N I U S '

Story and pix of what & when Oda Nobunaga gave this planet's warcraft his own invention.

 

Oda Nobunaga's death
D E A T H

Chronology & pix of where & how Oda Nobunaga died, and who else died with him.

 

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M A P S

Oda Nobunaga's maps of Japanese territories that he has gotten until the time of his death.

 

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CHRISTIANITY

Story and pix of what, when, and how Oda Nobunaga dealt with Roman Catholicism, plus profiles & pix of Christian samurai & warlords in his time.

 

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W A R S

Pictures & complete accounts of all of Oda Nobunaga's wars between 1560 and 1582, and why he won most of these wars.

 

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DIPLOMACY

Pictures & story of Oda Nobunaga's diplomatic invention: the 'teacup politics' that Toyotomi and Tokugawa imitated and continued.

 

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SOCIETY

Pictures & story of real-life society and social structure of Oda Nobunaga's world in 16th century Japan, and what was his status there.

 

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21st CENTURY TOUR

Pictures of the real-life 'Mecca' of Odaists. Just in case you'd get there somewhere in time. Most of the pilgrims popping-up around the area have been Oda-haters, you know.

 

Oda Nobunaga's Family Tree: Click Here

 

NOBUNAGA TRIVIA

Oda Nobunaga madly wanted a horse that belonged to Hirate Gorozaemon (his soldier). Did he get the horse?

Do you know that Oda Nobunaga is the inventor of a war technique that didn't get in vogue in Europe until 30 years after Oda applied it?

Which Oda is it whose name is used as the name of a district in Tokyo today?

Did you notice that most of the important events in Oda Nobunaga's life happened in the month of June?

Do you know what was in Oda Nobunaga's last letter to Akechi Mitsuhide?

Do you know who Oda Nobunaga's babysitter was?

 

NOBUNAGA BASIX

 

RARE PICTURES OF

Oda's BIRTH

Oda's BIRTHPLACE

Oda's WEDDING

Oda NAKED

Oda's LETTERS

Oda's SWORD

Oda ROSE

Oda's GUNS

Oda's CONSTRUXION

Oda's HORSE

Oda's (Taira's) FLOWER

Oda's CONCUBINES

Oda's MONEY

 

ODA FOOTNOTES

Check out that darn Seishu temple that everybody keeps mentioning but no one's ever seen

Do you know the stuff that the cook of the Oda clan always gave to Nobunaga whenever he was angry?

What Oda Nobunaga is According to Shintoism

Oda Nobunaga in Zen Buddhism

Origin of Oda Nobunaga's PERSONAL Slogan ('Tenka Fubu' is his PUBLIC slogan) & Personal Battle-Banner

Shops, Restaurants, Pets, Cakes, etc. that are named 'Nobunaga'

What's the Connexion
Between Oda Nobunaga
& Yakuza?

Do you know that the Oda clan's crest can be substituted by a certain flower, which is the Japanese flower that symbolizes the Taira clan, i.e. the Odas' ancestors?

Do you know who among Oda Nobunaga's Generals has been one of the truest samurai heroes according to Bushido?

Do you know that Oda Nobunaga's HORSES were WEAPONS?

Do you know that the ARMORS in 99,99% of Oda Nobunaga's pictures (or even 99,99% of ALL samurai pictures) that you have seen everywhere are WRONG?

 

CHECK THESE OUT

Oda Nobunaga's View
of Life (Death)

Oda Nobunaga & Bushido

Oda Nobunaga & Suicide

Oda Nobunaga's
Authentic Sword

Oda Nobunaga's
Personal Retreat: Sofuku

Oda Nobunaga &
Samurai Calligraphy

Oda Nobunaga's Armor

How To Make
Oda's Shimenawa

Unknown Facts
About Oda Nobunaga

Big Pictures of
Oda Nobunaga's Places

Photographs of Actual
Locations of Oda
Nobunaga's Wars

More Oda Nobunaga's
Historical Artefacts

 

NEW ODA PAGES

Oda Nobunaga's
Descendant
in 21st Century

My answers to your questions about Oda Nobunaga & samuraihood

 

Why did the entire Japanese people of all classes
accept the hegemony of the samurai class?
  Do you think that you really know what Bushido is?
What if I say I don't think so?

 

Takeda Shingen   Uesugi Kenshin   Asai Nagamasa   Imagawa Yoshimoto   Warrior-Monks
                 
BIOGRAPHIES & PICTURES OF   Mori Terumoto   ODA NOBUNAGA'S ENEMIES

 

Johnny Depp Hideaki Ito Takeshi Kaneshiro Takashi Sorimachi Daisuke Ryu John Corbett Ueto Aya Odagiri Joe Kitano 'Beat' Takashi Nakai Kiichi Sanada Hiroyuki Fujiwara Tatsuya, Kimura Takuya, Sato Koichi, Miyazawa Rie, Kubozuka Yosuke, Watanabe Ken Nakamura Toru Their Fans in Indonesia

 

M A I N -- P A G E A L L -- C O N T E N T S P R O F I L E P I C T U R E S
P E R S O N A L I N S U L T S P E O P L E A N I M A N I A I N D O N E S I A
J A V A E S S A Y S S T O R I E S P O E T R Y H U M O R
M O V I E S I L L U S T R A T I O N S

 

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Site & rap © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Nina Wilhelmina