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This
is the Kiyosu castle. At 21 years old, Oda Nobunaga
took control of his whole clan. He got there the usual way according
to the standard of 16th-century 'warring states period' ('Sengoku'
in Japanese) -- he got into an internal war against the former
head of clan, Oda Nobutomo.
He had to fight his own younger brother Oda
Nobuyuki, who was backed up by his super-doting
mom. Such things were normal those days. It is stupid to judge
them using your neo-humanism today. Anyway, scroll down and click
the word 'family' somewhere on this page,
if you want to see Oda Nobunaga's riotous domestic life. |
Kiyosu castle up close.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi found his first love
here.
(Click here for story & pictures)
Nagoya
castle, Oda Nobunaga's first base.
It was here that Oda Nobunaga was called 'Lord Fool'.
Click
here to see pictures of how he looked those years, and why he let people
to call him that.
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In
1563 Oda Nobunaga built this Komaki castle. He
liked the spot, that's why; on a flatland upon a hill, the castle
was a good lookout place whenever there was a battle downhill.
Around this area Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought Tokugawa Ieyasu after
Oda Nobunaga's death, in a famous inconclusive war, ended with,
however, peace -- until Toyotomi's own death. The war
was a fake anyway: both Toyotomi and Tokugawa wanted to be the
successor of Oda Nobunaga, but there was the usual problem --
Oda Nobuo, the
second son, and Oda Nobutaka,
the third son, were ahead of both of them in the line of succession.
Tokugawa backed up Nobuo, General Shibata Katsuie (Oda Nobunaga's
brother in-law) backed up Nobutaka. Toyotomi himself chose to
plea the case of Oda Nobutada's
son, Oda Hidenobu,
who was only three years old when his daddy -- Nobunaga's eldest
son -- died in the Akechi ambush in Kyoto. Toyotomi won this internal
dispute. Predictably, none of Oda Nobunaga's heirs lived to rule.
In time, it was Tokugawa Ieyasu who fought against Hideyoshi's
heir, Toyotomi Hideyori, and his famous mom Lady Yodogimi. Tokugawa
turned the beautiful Osaka castle to ashes and gained Japan.
Click
here for history and pictures of these people. |
Nagoya
in 2005
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