Oda Nobunaga biography
Oda Nobunaga Statue
The Sengoku period of the pre-modern Japan is widely branded by the distinctive life of Oda Nobunaga. Born on 1534, Nobunaga was the second son of Oda Nobuhide, a military governor with land holdings in the Owari province. Nobunaga was known throughout his youth as a peculiar young man who had a remarkable fondness for Tanegashima firearms. Being quite strange in his ways, he was both liked as well as loathed by the Japanese people of his own time.
On the good side, Nobunaga had done numerous remarkable improvements in Japan’s military, political, and economical status during his leadership. He popularized the use of long pikes, firearms, ironclad ships, and castle fortifications and totally altered the way war was fought during his period. In contrast to the old Japanese leaders, he selected his subjects and retainers on the basis of their capabilities and not merely on rank and societal status.
His virtuosity was also apparent in business and economic dealings and found clever ways to modernize the economy by building castle towns and roads. Nobunaga also developed international trade beyond the confines of the country and went on to trade with European countries as well as other Asian territories including the Philippines and Indonesia.
While striving to develop pre-modern Japan, Nobunaga also accumulated immense wealth in the process and used this as a means to support his long-time interest in the arts. Beautiful gardens and extravagant castles were built which later became a symbol of his authority and stature. The Japanese tea ceremony was also established during his time which he initially used for political and business relations.
Although Nobunaga was regarded as a vicious Japanese leader, it was worthy to note that he was the first of the three unifiers who initiated the military unification of Japan during the Sengoku period. He lived a life of continuous military conquest until his death in 1582. His efforts resulted in the invasion of a third of the Japanese daimyo and this was continued on by his loyal followers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. It was Hideyoshi who eventually conquered all of Japan through his strategic cleverness and acumen that earned him the title, the Greatest General in Japanese history.
Nobunaga apparently used extreme ruthlessness and mercilessly killed thousands in his attempt to conquer and unify most of Japan. Because of this, he was later regarded as a “callous brute” by the 20th century’s most popular Western scholar of Japan, Sir George Sansom, who wrote a book which chronicled Nobunaga’s rise to power. But despite his wicked reputation and apparent brutality, it is still noteworthy to mention that the unification of the entire Japan was a direct by-product of his constant struggles and outstanding achievements.
His untimely death in 1582 undeniably took away his chance to earn a more decent place in the Japanese history than what he actually holds. While resting in a temple in Kyoto, Akechi Mitsuhide, one of Nobunaga’s generals, attacked him which ensued in a battle and ended in Nobunaga committing suicide. Indeed it was a sudden and tragic ending to a life of struggle and never ending quest to Japan’s absolute military unification.
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