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==Echoes of Shadows==
==Echoes of Shadows==
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==Locations==
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==Locations==
===Owari===
So once Nobunaga has control of Owari province, how does he then go about looking outward and beyond his own borders? Because his province is quite a small one comparatively as well, isn't it? Yes, so Owari is small, but it centers on a plane, the Nobuy plane, Japan is very mountainous, right? There's only a few large flat areas where cultivation can take place at large scale, and Owari happens to sit in one of these, the Nobuy plane. So while it's a small province, it's a particularly wealthy one in terms of agricultural income. So it's a good place to be based out of. It's far enough away from the capital that you're not in the middle of the intrigues and plots going on there, but it's close enough that you can get there if you decide to be part of those plots.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 5: Oda Nobunaga</ref>
===Mount Hiei===
when Emperor Kamu had the capital built there, one of the things he knew was that there was already in the northwest a mountain called Mount Hiei on which was a huge Buddhist temple. So that therefore counteracted the unluckiness. That was very important. And then more Buddhist temples and more Buddhist temples were built on that same mountain. And in the end, there was something like 3000 Buddhist temples up there, which was all an excellent thing for countering the unluckiness, except it became rather unlucky itself, because those Buddhist priests then came down and started rampaging around the city. And then, unluckily, Nobunaga had to go up and destroy the entire temple compound, which he did. He burnt down the whole lot. But there are temples there again.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 07">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 7: Kyoto: Japan's Imperial City</ref>
===Kamakura===
Okay, that's really interesting question. So the first segment of the samurai rule, the samurai's so-called headquarters was in Kamakura that's currently Kamakura city near Tokyo. So the Tokyo city was not known at the time that Tokyo was a city yet, but the Kamakura was not known nationwide. So when the Kamakura rulership was going on and being consolidated, it's not that many people would know about the politics. So it's like say regional understandings of this is where Shogun lives and this is what Shogun does. [...] So around the first sort of segment of time, the very first samurai rules, I would say that not so many people would know about the politics. That will continue the middle segments of the samurai rule that we call usually medieval Japan. And then medieval Japan as well, this Kamakura headquarters of the samurai has been moved and taken by a different family.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 08">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 8: How To Fit In: Feudal Japan</ref>
==Timeline==
===Ōnin War [1467-1477]===
Ōnin War, running from 1467 to 1477. Huge damage done to Kyoto in the process of this war. It begins as a kind of succession dispute within the shogunate, but an enormous proportion of Kyoto is destroyed in fire. Lots of these different warrior constables from around the country end up coming to the Kyoto region to get involved. When that war ends, some of them go back to their provinces to find that someone else has usurped them. And that's someone else who has usurped them, manages to solidify their own power until they become what we would call daimyo, this real independent warlord. And in other cases, the warrior constables, when they go back to their provinces, they're the ones who managed to do that. Because this war, this Onin War, this 10 year conflict, pretty much destroys the idea of a functional shogunate. And so there really is no one in Kyoto anymore that you have to answer to.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 01">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 1: Civil War in Feudal Japan: The Sengoku Period</ref>
So it's a period when central authority in Japan has completely gone. So you've still got the emperor in Kyoto, but as we were saying a moment ago, they're kind of impoverished and not really able to do very much politically or militarily. You've also still got a shogun in Kyoto. So if we go to the end of the Onin War, 1477, which is also pretty much the beginning of this Sengoku era, you've got a shogun there, but they're also extremely poor.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 01"/>
This is the exact period after the Onin War when the Ashikaga shogunate is descending really into complete impotence. Their writ doesn't run far outside Kyoto and they haven't got much income. So they simply couldn't afford to put the silver on there.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 01"/>
So you mentioned the Onin War there, 1467 to 77, a bit of a succession crisis. Should we view that as the catalyst for the Sengoku period? I think that's right, yes.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 01"/>
These two lords, I think it was the Hashimoto's and the Yamunas, have been itching to fight for a long time, and they fought for 10 years. It's said that they destroyed the whole of Kyoto. That's not quite true. They destroyed the upper class part of Kyoto. So 10 years of fighting included looting, arson, and all these other things. But this mainly happened. This was the temples. This was the palaces. That lot got destroyed. Meanwhile, the shogun who lived at that point was a guy called Yoshimasa, who was living during the end of the 15th century. And he retired. He was very interested in the arts, and he was not remotely interested in fighting. And he kept well out of this fighting. And he went off to the east of the city, and there he built a fabulous pavilion, the silver pavilion. And there he carried on having a life of leisure and art with his friends. While all this was going on in Kyoto, his pavilion was facing away from the city, so it didn't have to see it was burning. And it was facing towards the lovely mountains on the east. And he was, again, an amazing patron of the arts. And under him, ink painting flourished, pottery flourished, every possible art form. Oh, linked verse became very important. So the war came to an end.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 07">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 7: Kyoto: Japan's Imperial City</ref>
The part of the city that had not burnt down was the part where the merchants and the artisans were, because they were poor chaps. And so nobody bothered with looting them, but they weren't that poor. So they were actually supplying and selling stuff to both sides in this war and getting richer. And the end of the Onin war, this is the Onin war, everything had sort of fallen apart, because Kyoto was in such a state of devastation.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 07"/>
The result of that was the whole society kind of fell apart. And a lot of the lords headed out to the provinces, partly because they were broke, because they'd had their houses burnt down. I mean, there are quite a lot of peasants and serfs could come out of the countryside into the city and recreate themselves as merchants or as artisans, because they could make things, they could sell things. And so a whole new culture grew from that period of incredible disaster.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 07"/>
===Battle of Okehazama [1560]===
In 1560, the powerful daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto to his east, enrolled [????] Toutomi, Suroga, and the Kawa provinces, and came from the illustrious Imagawa line, which was one of the pillars of the former Ashikaga shogunate. He decides, or it's usually assumed at least that he decides that he's going to make a run at marching on the capital of Kyoto to take charge of the central government. So he gathers together an army of 25,000 troops and begins his march east. And the first stop is, of course, his neighbor in Owari province, Nobunaga. So he has to go through Nobunaga's domain. On paper, this is going to be very easy. He's got 25,000 troops, which at the time was a very large army. And Nobunaga only has a few thousand men, maybe 2,500. So we're looking at roughly around a 10 to 1 disadvantage. But Nobunaga, despite the fact that his advisors all counsel him to withdraw into his castle at Kyosu and withstand a siege, he decides that that's a losing strategy. Because what's he going to do against an attack by an army that size? He decides that his best course of action is to try to seek an opening and attack.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 5: Oda Nobunaga</ref>
But the Imagawa forces by midday had made significant progress against the Odo forces invading. So the Imagawa army was much larger. It was rather spread out and divided. The vanguard had taken several of these forts that Nobunaga had. Yoshimori himself was with only a few thousand troops. And at his command post, they took a bit of a siesta, almost, if you will, in this small narrow gorge called Dengaku Hazama. And they were celebrating some of the Imagawa troops had already broken into the celebration sake in anticipation of their great victory that they saw coming because, you know, how could you see anything else? A little bit after this, there's a rainstorm. This was in the summer. So the rainy season in Japan. This thunderstorm breaks out and it really helps Nobunaga maneuver his forces through the mountains, through these narrow passes into position to attack Imagawa Yoshimoto's headquarters camp. They broke out of the tree line to attack the camp. And at first Yoshimoto assumes that it's a drunken brawl taking place amongst his men. Too late, he realizes that it's not that he's actually under attack. And shortly after that, two of the Otis samurai relieve him up his head. In the aftermath, the Imagawa forces deprived of their commander melt away in confusion. And we have this almost legendary victory by other Nobunaga outmanned ten to one, destroying the forces of this great daimyo.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
So it kind of makes a name for Nobunaga. Another key thing about this battle, though, and the aftermath is that in the confusion of the Imagawa family with the loss of their head, several of their more talented and younger retainers, one of which we know today as Tokugawa Ieyasu, are able to claim independence. And Ieyasu establishes himself in his home territory of Mikawa, which is just to the east of Owari, and establishes an alliance with Nobunaga, thus providing a secure flank to Nobunaga's east, allowing Nobunaga to then look in other directions as he begins to expand.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
===Siege of Mount Hiei [1571]===
So there were quite remarkable sieges along the way, a company that has to be said, certainly in the case of someone like Nobunaga, with extraordinary slaughter. I think he particularly hated the idea that Buddhist sects would interfere in the running of the country. So there's another Buddhist sect, the Tendai sect, which he attacked on their mountain base called Mount Hiei, sent thousands of troops up there, killed everybody, burned everything, just destroyed the entire sect, including people unrelated to the sect who were living on the mountain. So this gives you an idea of how bloody and uncompromising some of this warfare could be.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 01">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 1: Civil War in Feudal Japan: The Sengoku Period</ref>
But in 1571, he realizes that the only way to solve his problem of encirclement is to break kind of the circle. So he starts with Mount Hiei, the Enuryakuchi temple complex that had given refuge to his enemies. And in the fall, he brings them out and has his troops advance up deliberately. And according to eyewitness accounts from the time that are written down, his troops are killing anything that's alive, whether it be monks, laymen, women, children, reportedly even every animal that's on the mountain. And they burn almost every building of this massive temple complex.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 5: Oda Nobunaga</ref>
And of course, in addition to the human toll, which is horrific, this is a massive loss of life, but it's also a loss of culture, of history. This was a major religious complex. So it had important documents, texts, artwork that all went up in flames with the exception of one small building that got overlooked.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
when Emperor Kamu had the capital built there, one of the things he knew was that there was already in the northwest a mountain called Mount Hiei on which was a huge Buddhist temple. So that therefore counteracted the unluckiness. That was very important. And then more Buddhist temples and more Buddhist temples were built on that same mountain. And in the end, there was something like 3000 Buddhist temples up there, which was all an excellent thing for countering the unluckiness, except it became rather unlucky itself, because those Buddhist priests then came down and started rampaging around the city. And then, unluckily, Nobunaga had to go up and destroy the entire temple compound, which he did. He burnt down the whole lot. But there are temples there again.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 07">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 7: Kyoto: Japan's Imperial City</ref>
==Groups==
===Iga ikki===
Iga at this time is ruled by an independent league or ikki that did not recognize any daimyo's hegemony and even gone so far as to expel the military governor of the province that had been appointed by the Ashkaga.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 6: The Tensho Iga War</ref>
we have the names of a couple of the senior leaders, if you will, but it really was more of a collective than any hierarchical organization that we would associate with like there being a daimyo and samurai underneath him and so forth. That's not to say that there wasn't a hierarchy there was, but it's really hard to just name one person as an acting figure on the Iga side of things. And part of this is because of the way that they constructed it. This is born out of sort of the chaos resulting in the wake of the Onin War of 1467 to 1477.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
In response to this as a way to limit internal conflict in their own ranks, in 1494 we see two documents. They're not quite constitutions in the way that we would think of it, but they kind of form the rules for local life within Iga as a community. The first one is a document signed by 350 commoners, peasants, villagers, and so forth. And it's an agreement to abide by specific rules that limit conflict over rice paddy land, access to forests, mountains, and fields, and it kind of gives a general code of conduct. So in the absence of authority coming from the center, they decide to create their own sort of rules for them to live by. And then later on that same year, we see another document signed by 46 people representing families of note from Iga Province.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
So these 46 families sign an oath, vowing not to fight over taxes or the collection thereof to work together to prevent insubordination of the peasants underneath them. And these two groups form a united front in coordination to maintain local order and peace and limit the amount of violence, whether it's internal or whether it's coming from external sources like bandits or even larger warrior organizations like Daimyo from a neighboring province who wants to move in. [...] There is a hierarchy. There are the upper class. Those 46 samurai families are in charge and so forth. But it is much more of a collective, we driven organization than certainly the Daimyo houses that we are normally associated with this period. Other leagues like this have risen up in other places at this time, fairly common in the absence of central authority for locals to take measures to protect themselves. But most other places, they didn't last very long  [...] So it was much easier for the Iga Iki to keep outsiders out than it would have been for other similar organizations, which is why they lasted as long as they did.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
Some advantages that the Iga ikki had. One is this long experience with unconventional warfare, we'll say. Another is that because of their makeup, it's not quite egalitarian or democratic in the way that we would think of it, but they're led by lower level warriors, localized power base holding warriors, but they integrate the commoner population, if you will, into their organization. Often you'll hear people talk about the Iga Shinobi clan or ninja clan or something like that. And that's misleading because this wasn't a family based organization in the way that we think of like the Oda being a military and political entity organized around the Oda family. That's not what this was, but they were able to conscript almost the members of the community from all levels, give them military training and utilize them in ways that we don't necessarily see to the same extent in other locations. So it wasn't just these 46 families that signed the oath document saying that they would work together and their household warriors. It was a mobilization of the entire community in essence to resist external aggression.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
===Ikkō-ikki===
Another group that around this time rises up to challenge his authority and one that will probably his longest running enemy is what's known as the Ikkō-ikki or the Ikko League. This was a confederation of followers of the true Pure Land Sept of Buddhism. And its headquarters was the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, which was located in what is now present day Osaka. But it had groups of adherents called these Ikki or leagues scattered throughout the provinces of central Japan. And in 1570, Nobunaga starts a war with them because the self-defense groups, these Ikki and the Ishiyama Hongan-ji itself resisted political and military control by local warrior rule. In fact, in 1486, the Ikko Ikki of Kaga Province overthrew the local dainyo and ruled the province without any samurai rule for almost 100 years.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 5: Oda Nobunaga</ref>
For 10 years until 1580, he's in this constant on and off war with the Ishiyama Hongan-ji and their ikko followers in various locations throughout the provinces. And they're really the linchpin of the various coalitions that are opposing Nobunaga. You know, at this point, these are kind of like the main enemies that he's looking at.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
But in 1571, he realizes that the only way to solve his problem of encirclement is to break kind of the circle. So he starts with Mount Hiei, the Enuryakuchi temple complex that had given refuge to his enemies. And in the fall, he brings them out and has his troops advance up deliberately. And according to eyewitness accounts from the time that are written down, his troops are killing anything that's alive, whether it be monks, laymen, women, children, reportedly even every animal that's on the mountain. And they burn almost every building of this massive temple complex.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
The Ikko-ikki finally surrenders through the agency of the Court, the court noble is sent by the emperor to broker a settlement and a surrender by the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, which ends that.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
==The Jesuits==
===Gaspar Coelho===
And they also had a problem that after a while you have [Francisco] Cabral, you have [Gaspar] Coelho, so two Jesuits who became the head of the Japan sector. And they weren't very keen to adopt Japanese customs. They wanted to be as strictly Jesuits as in Europe. So they already have a problem from the Jesuit side and many like Vilela or Fróis were more inclined to adopt Japanese customs. But the heads of the provincials, as they call them, were against that.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 03">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 3: Portuguese Missionaries in Japan</ref>
And you had Otomo, which was a very powerful clan in the east of Kyushu. And then you had in the southwest, you had the Shimazu. And Otomo was losing against the Shimazu. So he asked Hideyoshi to intervene. And sometime before Hideyoshi marched towards Kyushu, he met with Coelho, which was then the head of the Christian mission in Japan, together with Fróis. And he treated Coelho very well, just like Oda Nobunaga had done with Fróis. So Coelho was really pleased with that. And then Hideyoshi asked him, I want to invade Korea. Then you provide two Portuguese ships to help me in this invasion. And if I conquer Korea, I will make it that there are a lot of churches being built. So Koelyo said, yes, I will do that for you. And I will make sure that we have two Portuguese ships, the Karak ships, as they were called by the English, gigantic ships. So Hideyoshi could very well use them for his invasion in Korea. And then he went a step further and he said, I will make sure that the Christian warlords in Kyushu will also support you. And I think at that moment that Hideyoshi, that there was a ring bell in his head, that the Christians, the Jesuits had too much influence in Japan.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 03"/>
And when he had conquered Kyushu, he again met with Coelho on a Portuguese ship. And Coelho again said that we will support you in whatever endeavor you will take. But the night suddenly he sent a questionary to Coelho, asking him why they came to Japan, why they are making so much converts. And why are they destroying the Buddhist temples? Of course Coelho was really shocked with that. He was so well treated and suddenly everything changed overnight. So he gave his answer that, well, they came to Japan just to propagate their faith, in good faith. And that it was not them who destroyed the Buddhist temples, but the Japanese converts. So the answer of Hideyoshi was that he made a decree that the Jesuits had to leave Japan in 20 days.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 03"/>
==Oda family==
===Oda Nobukatsu/Kitabatake Tomotoyo===
He gained control of neighboring Issei province by first having his second son Nobukatsu adopted into the Kitabatake family, which ruled that province. And then later on, having the members of the Kitapatake clan assassinated so that his son rose up the hierarchy and essentially took over the clan from within.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 6: The Tensho Iga War</ref>
Oda Nobukatsu, was in charge of the province next to it and was looking to kind of establish his own reputation, spread his wings a little bit. And so here we have Iga province next to him, a place where he can launch an invasion, take it over. It's small. How hard could it be, right? Be an easy victory. And it turns out not to be.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
Nobukatsu, Nobunaga's second son, takes that [Iga's expulsion of their military governor] as an excuse of, oh, see, they're not observing the proper order of things. They're not part of the structure. So he decides of his own accord that he's going to expand his domain into Iga without permission from his father. Part of this is ego driven. He wants to prove to his father that he can operate on his own and so forth. So in 1578, he dispatches one of his generals, men by the name of Takigawa Kazumasu, to build a castle just across the Iga border that they're going to use as a staging point for a future invasion.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
So the following year in October, he decides he's going to launch a much larger invasion. So he gathers around a little over 10,000 men and invades Iga Province through three of those passes that I mentioned. In his main body, he has 8,000 men going through the northernmost pass at Nagano. And then he has a group of 1,500 men through one pass and 1,300 through another pass, these two passes to the south. But again, the Iga forces, speaking to their ability to collect intelligence and know what the enemy is doing, are ready and waiting at these narrow sites to ambush Nobukatsu's forces, which they do. They use their skill in guerrilla tactics and their local knowledge of the terrain. They inflict heavy losses against Nobukatsu's forces, again forcing him to retreat in a humiliating defeat.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
Nobunaga is furious. He couldn't believe that his son had put himself in position to be defeated and humiliated like this. So he supposedly threatens to disown Nobukatsu. He doesn't end up following through on it, but he's not pleased.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
Nobunaga himself visits Iga in early November to take a tour of his new province, and then withdraws it and gives it to his son Nobukatsu as part of his domain to administer.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 06"/>
==Shoguns==
===Ashikaga Yoshiaki===
The previous shogun, Ashikaga Yoshitero, had been assassinated in 1565 and replaced by a puppet. So Yoshitero's younger brother, a man by the name of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, had been traveling around the provinces trying to seek a benefactor who would back his claim and help him march on the capital. So shortly after Nobunaga establishes himself in Gifu, Yoshiaki arrives on his doorstep in 1568, thus giving him a pretext to make his move on the capital.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 5: Oda Nobunaga</ref>
The fact that he can take a legitimate claimant to the Ashikaga shogunate and march on Kyoto with utter the pretext of putting him into power gives him the legitimate of his siege to do so. So November of 1568, he enters Kyoto with his army and installs Yoshiaki as the 15th Ashikaga shogun. However, here's where things start to differ from what you might have expected at the time, because rather than accept Yoshiaki's offer to be his deputy shogun, Nobunaga declines that in any other position that Yoshiaki offers.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
In 1570, Nobunaga sends an invitation, sensibly on Yoshiaki's behalf, to local warlords for a reception in Kyoto. And this is almost a way to test who was going to accept his authority and who wasn't.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
Early assessments of their relationship by historians assume that Nobunaga's plan all along was to use him as a puppet and then throw him away and take power for himself. I agree with more recent biographers, you see it as a little bit more complicated than that. Ashikaga Yoshiaki, obviously, as the Shogun, felt that he should be in charge. So after being installed in 1568, he attempts to rule, but he quickly sees that he cannot do anything without Nobunaga's help. And by 1572, there's some real tension between the two of who's in charge. Nobunaga issued several admonishments, which have been published and are famous, going so far as to note how the people call Yoshiaki the evil Shogun, in scare quotes there, and laying out rules for the Shogun's house to follow. Of course, Yoshiaki takes offense at this and who are you to tell me the Shogun how to run things? And so, like I said, early on, historians looked at this as Nobunaga's overstipping his bow, just trying to push Yoshiaki out.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
I see a different reading of it that is more compelling to me is that, no, he really saw that this was like the structure that should be in place and was trying to guide Yoshiaki back onto an actual correct path of governance, at least as Nobunaga saw it. And his efforts to maintain relations with Yoshiaki, at least initially, were very sincere. But Yoshiaki is the one who kind of pushes the relationship to the breaking point. And the early 1570s, he's orchestrating coalitions of enemies to move against Nobunaga. In addition to the Iko Iki, he's kind of another lynchpin of the different coalitions against Nobunaga, trying to convince different daimyo to turn against Nobunaga, invade, come rescue me in Kyoto and be my savior and I'll grant you XYZ, so forth.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
This continues until 1573, when it's very obvious that Nobunaga has run out of patience. In 1573, he does march on Kyoto and expel Yoshiaki, which more or less ends the Ashikaga shogunate for good. And then Ashikaga would escape to Western Japan, where he would take up residence in the lands of one of Nobunaga's enemies, the Mori family. And from there, he would continue to write different daimyo, constantly trying to create a coalition that could overthrow Nobunaga and reinstall him in power. How effective that was? Well, we see that it didn't happen, but he certainly was doing his best the entire time to undermine Nobunaga.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
So one of their descendants, Yoshiyaki, was around and he was a pretty hopeless guy. But he was officially the Shogun. So Nobunaga's excuse for entering Kyoto was to reinstate him as Shogun. But actually, he, like a lot of these guys, is this Yoshiyaki. The Shogun was very treacherous. We wanted to get rid of Nobunaga, and he instigated a plot against him. So Nobunaga had him arrested and taken off to a castle in the middle of nowhere and left there forever. So that was the end of him.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 07">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 7: Kyoto: Japan's Imperial City</ref>
==Oda's enemies==
===Imagawa Yoshimoto===
the Oda family, as I said, they were the deputy governors underneath the Shiba family in Owari, and he's born as the first legitimate son of a man named Oda Nobuhide, who is the defacto leader of the Oda family. Like I mentioned, his line was not the senior line, but Nobuhide was particularly capable and competent and brought his relatives under his control and for the most part dominated the governance of Owari province. But he was in constant conflict with his neighbors, particularly the powerful Imagawa Yoshimoto to his east and a daimyo named Saitō Dōsan to his north in Mino province.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05">''[[Echoes of History]]'' – Shadows – Episode 5: Oda Nobunaga</ref>
So his first fight is to simply gain control of his own family, you know, largely inside of Owati province. There's some pressure from external enemies that Imagawa to the east.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
In 1560, the powerful daimyo Imagawa Yoshimoto to his east, enrolled [????] Toutomi, Suroga, and the Kawa provinces, and came from the illustrious Imagawa line, which was one of the pillars of the former Ashikaga shogunate. He decides, or it's usually assumed at least that he decides that he's going to make a run at marching on the capital of Kyoto to take charge of the central government. So he gathers together an army of 25,000 troops and begins his march east. And the first stop is, of course, his neighbor in Owari province, Nobunaga. So he has to go through Nobunaga's domain. On paper, this is going to be very easy. He's got 25,000 troops, which at the time was a very large army. And Nobunaga only has a few thousand men, maybe 2,500. So we're looking at roughly around a 10 to 1 disadvantage. But Nobunaga, despite the fact that his advisors all counsel him to withdraw into his castle at Kyosu and withstand a siege, he decides that that's a losing strategy. Because what's he going to do against an attack by an army that size? He decides that his best course of action is to try to seek an opening and attack.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
But the Imagawa forces by midday had made significant progress against the Odo forces invading. So the Imagawa army was much larger. It was rather spread out and divided. The vanguard had taken several of these forts that Nobunaga had. Yoshimori himself was with only a few thousand troops. And at his command post, they took a bit of a siesta, almost, if you will, in this small narrow gorge called Dengaku Hazama. And they were celebrating some of the Imagawa troops had already broken into the celebration sake in anticipation of their great victory that they saw coming because, you know, how could you see anything else? A little bit after this, there's a rainstorm. This was in the summer. So the rainy season in Japan. This thunderstorm breaks out and it really helps Nobunaga maneuver his forces through the mountains, through these narrow passes into position to attack Imagawa Yoshimoto's headquarters camp. They broke out of the tree line to attack the camp. And at first Yoshimoto assumes that it's a drunken brawl taking place amongst his men. Too late, he realizes that it's not that he's actually under attack. And shortly after that, two of the Otis samurai relieve him up his head. In the aftermath, the Imagawa forces deprived of their commander melt away in confusion. And we have this almost legendary victory by other Nobunaga outmanned ten to one, destroying the forces of this great daimyo.<ref name="Echoes Shadows 05"/>
{{Reflist}}
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==Hook==
==Hook==

Revision as of 18:24, 12 October 2024

My primary sandbox.

FT

78

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80

LD

LD1

Prologue
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Epilogue

LD2

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LD3

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Epilogue

MTG

Missing full art

Id Name Type
1 The Capitoline Triad Syd Mills
2 Caduceus, Staff of Hermes Evan Shipard
3 Distract the Guards Torgeir Fjereide
4 Fall of the First Civilization L J Koh
11 What Must Be Done Syd Mills
17 Eagle Vision Kim Sokol
27 Jacob Frye Lie Setiawan
29 Phantom Blade Craig J Spearing
32 Roshan, Hidden Magister Marta Nael
33 Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos Bartek Fedyczak
37 Overpowering Attack Kim Sokol
40 Aveline de Grandpré Aurore Folny
45 Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad Axel Sauerwald
46 Arbaaz Mir Wangjie Li
49 Basim Ibn Ishaq JB Casacop
61 Mary Read and Anne Bonny Wangjie Li
62 Ratonhnhaké꞉ton Greg Staples
65 Shay Cormac Axel Sauerwald
67 Sokrates, Athenian Teacher Alice Xia Zhang
70 Apple of Eden, Isu Relic L J Koh
79 Abstergo Entertainment Alexander Gering
84 Coastal Piracy Wei Guan
91 Go for the Throat Torgeir Fjereide
94 Cathartic Reunion Syd Mills
104 Island Filipe Pagliuso
106 Swamp Wangjie Li
108 Mountain Jeremy Paillotin
121 Sokrates, Athenian Teacher JB Casacop
133 Roshan, Hidden Magister Astri Lohne
136 Adéwalé, Breaker of Chains Miguel Mercado
138 Arbaaz Mir Bastien L. Deharme
140 Aya of Alexandria Chase Stone
141 Basim Ibn Ishaq Astri Lohne
142 Bayek of Siwa Miguel Mercado
149 Lydia Frye Bastien L. Deharme
152 Shaun & Rebecca, Agents John Stanko
274 Eivor, Battle-Ready Fajareka Setiawan
292 Spartan Veteran Bartek Fedyczak
293 Surtr, Fiery Jötun Evan Shipard
297 Raven Clan War-Axe Kim Sokol
300 Stone Quarry Piotr Dura
307 Hidden Blade Evyn Fong
T005 Phobos Daniel Correia

The Big Issues

Id Name Type
6 Hookblade Thanh Tuấn
9 Tax Collector Miklós Ligeti
13 Ballad of the Black Flag Miklós Ligeti
15 Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass Thanh Tuấn
22 Assassin Initiate Mandy Jurgens
34 Hidden Footblade Néstor Ossandón Leal
38 The Spear of Leonidas Narendra Bintara Adi
41 Hunter's Bow Miklós Ligeti
42 Palazzo Archers Miklós Ligeti
47 Arno Dorian Narendra Bintara Adi
51 Bleeding Effect Néstor Ossandón Leal
52 Cleopatra, Exiled Pharaoh Mandy Jurgens
60 Lydia Frye Mandy Jurgens
72 Excalibur, Sword of Eden Thanh Tuấn
80 Brotherhood Headquarters Narendra Bintara Adi
82 Reconnaissance Mandy Jurgens
97 Reconstruct History Néstor Ossandón Leal
99 Sword of Feast and Famine Thanh Tuấn
110 Forest Miklós Ligeti
118 Leonardo da Vinci Miklós Ligeti
119 Cleopatra, Exiled Pharaoh Néstor Ossandón Leal
122 Apple of Eden, Isu Relic Thanh Tuấn
123 Staff of Eden, Vault's Key Narendra Bintara Adi
130 Desmond Miles Alex Negrea
137 Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad Alex Negrea
143 Edward Kenway Alex Negrea
153 Shay Cormac Alex Negrea
277 Detained by Legionnaires Néstor Ossandón Leal
284 Tranquilize Thanh Tuấn
286 Brotherhood Patriarch Néstor Ossandón Leal
290 Labyrinth Adversary Narendra Bintara Adi
296 Bureau Headmaster Thanh Tuấn
T001 Copy Miklós Ligeti
1559 Queen Marchesa Narendra Bintara Adi

Check

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Alex Negrea [1] [2] [3] [4]
Alexander Gering [5] [6] [7] [8]
Alice Xia Zhang [9] [10] [11]
Astri Lohne [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
Aurore Folny [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]
Axel Sauerwald [22] [23] [24] [25]
Bartek Fedyczak [26] [27]
Bastien L. Deharme [28] [29] [30] [31]
Chase Stone [32] [33]
Craig J Spearing [34]
Daniel Correia [35] [36] [37] [38]
Evan Shipard [39] [40] [41] [42] [43]
Evyn Fong [44] [45] [46] [47]
Fajareka Setiawan [48] [49] [50] [51]
Filipe Pagliuso [52] [53] [54]
Greg Staples [55] [56] [57]
JB Casacop [58] [59] [60]
Jeremy Paillotin [61] [62]
John Stanko [63] [64] [65] [66]
Kim Sokol [67] [68] [69] [70] [71]
L J Koh [72] [73]
Lie Setiawan [74] [75] [76] [77] [78]
Mandy Jurgens [79] [80] [81]
Marta Nael [82] [83] [84] [85]
Miguel Mercado [86] [87] [88]
Miklós Ligeti [89] [90] [91] [92]
Narendra Bintara Adi [93] [94] [95] [96]
Néstor Ossandón Leal [97] [98]
Piotr Dura [99] [100] [101]
Syd Mills [102] [103]
Thanh Tuấn [104] [105]
Torgeir Fjereide [106] [107] [108] [109]
Wangjie Li [110] [111] [112] [113]
Wei Guan [114] [115] [116]

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