THE RISE OF THE SAMURAI


families only too eager to ally themselves with him. This gave him the opportunity to carry out his own successful march on Kyoto, where he deposed the current Shogun in 1568 and gave himself powers of regency.


Imagawa Yoshimoto is struck by consternation as he surprised at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560 where he was defeated and killed.


the Takeda, Uesugi, or Hojo ever dared to risk such a venture.


In 1560, one particular daimyo had felt sufficiently secure to risk such a move by making a march on the capital. His name was Imagawa Yoshimoto. He had a huge army and was based on the Tokaido, the Pacific coast road, which gave him excellent communications towards Kyoto. The only obstacle in his way was Owari province, the territory of a comparatively minor daimyo called Oda Nobunaga, whose army Imagawa outnumbered by a factor of twelve to one.


The advance towards Kyoto began with the capture of Nobunaga’s border castles, which Imagawa celebrated in some style with the customary head inspection ceremony in a little valley called Okehazama. His success had made him careless, and Oda Nobunaga took advantage of the situation to launch a surprise attack under the cover of a thunderstorm. Imagawa Yoshimoto at first thought a brawl had broken out among his own troops, but no sooner did he realise what was actually happening than his head was off his shoulders, and young Oda Nobunaga had achieved one of the least expected victories in Japanese history.


As had happened so often in Japanese


history, success bred success, and Oda Nobunaga soon found other samurai


6


There were many challenges following this impertinence, but in battles such as Anegawa (1570) and Nagashima (1574), Nobunaga defeated all his rivals, and his victory over the mighty Takeda at Nagashino in 1575 sealed his reputation as a military genius. Setting to one side the traditional samurai contempt for, and mistrust of foot soldiers, Nobunaga trained his ashigaru to fire arquebuses (matchlock muskets) in controlled volleys. This broke the charge of the renowned Takeda cavalrymen, and even though the Battle of Nagashino lasted another seven hours, a new trend had been set in samurai warfare.


DEATH AND REVENGE Oda Nobunaga also encouraged trade with the newly arrived European merchants, the supplies of guns and gunpowder being their most highly valued commodity. But even Nobunaga’s superlative battlefield skills could not save him from falling victim to an assassination attempt, and in 1582 he and his bodyguard were suddenly overwhelmed by one of his own generals, Akechi Mitsuhide. Nobunaga’s ablest general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was campaigning many miles away when the coup happened. On hearing the awful news, Hideyoshi rushed back to Kyoto and defeated the usurper at the Battle of Yamazaki. As Nobunaga’s avenger, Hideyoshi felt that he had the right to inherit his late master’s empire. Nobunaga’s own family naturally objected, and once again the matter was resolved by force. In a furious year of sieges, marches, and battles such as Shizugatake (1583), Hideyoshi swept all local opposition to one side. After an indecisive encounter with another up-and-coming daimyo called Tokugawa Ieyasu, with whom Hideyoshi reached a peaceful agreement, Hideyoshi felt secure in central Japan. By 1585 he felt both confident and strong enough to extend Nobunaga’s former territories still


Military Times in association with Intel and Total War: Shogun 2


further. Invasions of Japan’s other main islands of Shikoku and Kyushu followed. The latter operation was a huge undertaking, as he transported a massive army, the largest Japan had ever seen, along the roads of Japan and across the Shimonoseki Strait to Japan’s great southern island. With the defeat of the Hojo and a largely peaceful submission of the northern daimyo in 1591, Japan was re-united once again, and under the sword of a man who had started his military career as one of Nobunaga’s foot soldiers.


Unfortunately for Japan, Hideyoshi’s


military ambitions included a wild desire to conquer China. An invasion force was despatched in 1592 with the intention of marching up the Korean peninsula and


Nagasaki Jinzaemon was the samurai who gave his name to the great port city of Nagasaki


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