User:Soranin/Sandbox4

Landmarks

Gifu Castle

So you had, for example, Oda Nobunaga, which showed great familiarity to the Christians, to for example, Fróis, who he invited in Kyoto in Gifu Castle and showed him around in the castle. So it was very positively inclined towards the Christians, but still he never adopted the Christian faith himself.

So Nobunaga, his next target is this province to his north, Mino Province, which is much larger in size than Owari, and it's somewhat kind of the nexus of road networks in central Japan, where two of the major roads from Chiyoto into the capital in central Japan to the east runs through it. So it's a pretty strategic province to have. So he goes to war against Saitou Dousan and it takes a while, but through diplomacy and bribery of the Saitou generals, he's able to convince many of them to join his side. And by 1567, he's weakened them enough to besiege and take the main castle at Inabayama, which he then renames Gifu.

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.

Silver Pavilion, aka Ginkaku-ji

If anyone listening to this has been to Kyoto and they've been to see the silver pavilion, they may have been disappointed to find that there's no actual silver on it. It was supposed to be covered in glorious silver the way that the Golden Temple is gloriously covered in gold. But the pavilion was built in the early 1480s. 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.

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.

The Jesuits

Luis de Almeida

Luis de Almeida was the merchant and the surgeon, and he came to Japan in connection with the select trade between China and Japan. He was very wealthy, but in 1555, after three years in Japan, he decided to become a Jesuit himself. And so he gave all his wealth to the church, and he was also instrumental in establishing a hospital and an orphanage in Funai, which was the capital of Bungo, which was the domain of Otomo Yoshishige, a very powerful warlord in Kyushu.

Oda family

Oda Nobutomo

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. But initially from 1552 to 1554, he's contending with iterations of rebellion from his uncle, Nobutomo, who inspired to assassinate him and worked with, you know, other entities to try to make that happen. Nobunaga catches him and forgives him once. But you know, second time he continues to plot. Nobunaga captures him and has him put to death.

Oda Nobuyuki

In 1556, again, out of fears that Nobunaga is just not up to the task. Several of his major retainers side with his younger brother Nobuyuki, but Nobunaga, you know, warned of potential treachery at one point, feigns an illness instead of going to go meet his brother. So his brother comes to meet him. And when he does, Nobunaga has him and his entourage assassinated.

Oda Nobuyasu

So the 1550s is really the story of Nobunaga's consolidation of his power within the Oda family, establishing himself as the leader of the family. And by default, almost the ruler of the Oda province. In 1559, his final obstacle is the castle of Iwakura and his cousin Nobuyasu, who belongs to the senior branch of the Oda line. But he manages to take Iwakura castle and eliminate Nobuyasu. And this ends the internal threats now.

Oichi

So then he works to consolidate his position by doing some preliminary campaigns into neighboring Issei province and establishing diplomatic relations. So he marries his younger sister, Oichi, to a warlord named Azai Nagamasa who rules northern Omi province. And this is significant because Omi is the province that lies between Mino and Owari, which he owns, and the capital of Kyoto. So he's in essence securing a line of, you know, advance for future endeavors.

Imperial Court

Yamabe, Emperor Kanmu

it was created as capital city. Emperor Kamu, who was the greatest emperor in Japanese history, he was the Charlemagne of Japan. And before his time, the capital had been in Nara, but it was kind of taken over by the Buddhist priests. [...] There were all sorts of scandals to do with these Buddhist clergy. And then he, Emperor Kamu, founded a capital in Nagoka, which is near Nara. And that one, there was an uprising, people got killed, there were ghosts, obviously not going to be any good as the capital. So he then set out on a supposed hunting trip with his geomancers to find the perfect place. People were not particularly concerned with practical considerations, they were concerned with where it would be auspicious. And so he settled on Kyoto as the place to be his capital. And he then had it built, and that was an enormous job to build it. And it was in 794 that he was an enormous entourage of his attendants and his army and everybody else arrived by Palanquin in Kyoto, in the Imperial Palace there. And so it is, Kamu then still remembered as a foundational figure in Japanese history. Yes, he was the greatest emperor. He was the only emperor that really wielded a lot of power. After him, emperors stopped wielding power. And also before him, quite a lot didn't wield that power. There were always regents who were ruling instead. But Kamu was a very decisive emperor who was actually very strong and very brilliant.

Shoguns

Ashikaga Yoshitero

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.

Ashikaga Yoshimasa

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.

Other

Toyotomi Hideyori

unfortunately he dies when his son Hideyori is still too young to assume power and so you have this council of elders who are controlling things until Hideyori is old enough to rule by himself but unfortunately on that council of elders is one Tokugawa Ieyasu who while you know professing a certain amount of loyalty to Hideyori is plotting and scheming instead to take it all for himself and so he becomes our third major figure.

Hideyori is still around and that really isn't taken care of until a very famous incident 1614 to 15 which is the siege of Osaka it's one of these events in Japanese history which is told and retold on the stage in books in films in art even where the forces of the Tokugawa and their allies gather around Osaka castle trying to do some kind of deal trying to force Hideyori and those around him to give up but in the end the siege turns bloody the castle is on fire and we have these famous scenes of Hideyori and his mother huddled together as everyone around them is burning up and dying so the siege of Osaka

Mori Ranmaru

So Yasuke was there at Nobunaga's death. He possibly was the last person to see him alive. Nobunaga was killed in a coup d'etat, essentially. He was heading to the front with this small corps of men over which Yasuke was one, around 30 people. And one of his generals, basically, we still don't know to this day why, he brought his whole army of 13,000 and attacked. They were all gunned down, essentially. Nobunaga, with Yasuke and his lover, [Mori] Ranmaru, come into the middle of the temple where their last moments are held. The temple's on fire around them. And Nobunaga really is going to know what happened in that room because there's only three people and they all died, except for Yasuke. But we only know that Yasuke survived because the Jesuits recorded as such. We don't know what he saw, unfortunately. The normal legend goes Nobunaga cut his belly, Ranmarutook his head off as his second, and then one supposes that Ranmaru then cut his belly and Yasuke took off Ranmaru's head. And the supposed last order is Yasuke save my head. Yasuke runs with the head to Nobunaga's son, who is probably about five to ten minutes walk away, very close, in a different temple.

Takigawa Kazumasu

In 1578, he [Nobukatsu] 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. Well, the warriors of Iga are alerted to this and realize what this means. So they decide to attack and destroy it, which they do in November of 1578. Takigawa is taken completely by surprise. The castle is burned. Takigawa and his small force is forced to retreat. Obviously, they cease work on the castle and retreat back to Issei after losing a second battle where they tried to retake the ground.