Japan's first great unifier was once mocked as the Fool of Owari
As a teenager Oda Nobunaga wore sleeveless bathrobes in public, ate melons riding backwards on his horse and danced in women's clothes in taverns. People called him the Fool of Owari. He went on to topple the Ashikaga shogunate and bring most of Honshu under his control.
Born in 1534 in Owari Province, he was heir to Oda Nobuhide, head of the powerful Oda clan. He was once thought to have been born in Nagoya Castle, though Shobata Castle is now the more accepted birthplace. His older brothers were illegitimate, so as first legitimate son he was separated from his mother and tutored by four chief retainers. His father gave him Nagoya Castle at 8, and he lived there until taking Kiyosu Castle at 21.
Between 13 and 18 he hunted, rode, wrestled, swam and practised archery and the arquebus, still a novelty in Japan, when not visiting taverns with friends. His scorn for courtly dress and manners earned the fool nickname, but it hid serious ambition. From the 1560s he waged a string of wars against rival daimyo, and in 1573 he ousted the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki and ended the Ashikaga Shogunate.
By 1580 he held most of Honshu, and in that decade he defeated the Ikko-ikki. His rule brought innovative tactics, free trade, civil reforms and the start of the Momoyama art period, alongside brutal treatment of anyone who defied him. Some called him the Demon Daimyo. The era he shared with his successor is called Azuchi-Momoyama, after his Azuchi Castle and the Momoyama site of Hideyoshi's retirement residence at Fushimi.
In 1582 his own retainer Akechi Mitsuhide trapped him in a Kyoto temple in the Honno-ji Incident, and Nobunaga died by seppuku. Two of his retainers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, soon finished unifying Japan, and the three are remembered together as its great unifiers.
Source: Oda Nobunaga
