Owari

Owari (尾張国, Owari no Kuni) was a province of Japan whose territory now constitutes the western half of Aichi Prefecture.^[1] Located in the center of the Nōbi Plain, Owari was a small province but particularly wealthy one in terms of agricultural income, being in one of the few flat areas where large-scale cultivation was possible amongst the country's mountains.^[2]

By the time Oda Nobunaga was born in 1534, the Oda clan already governed Owari. Oda Nobuhide, then the family's de facto leader, was particularly capable in controlling his family, though was in constant conflict with his northern and eastern neighbors, the daimyō Saitō Dōsan of Mino Province and Imagawa Yoshimoto of Suruga Province, respectively. In 1549, Nobunaga married Dōsan's daughter Nōhime as part of a peace agreement.^[2] Nobuhide's death in 1551 meant Nobunaga inherited control over the province.^[3] After dealing with internal threats from his family, Nobunaga defeated Yoshimoto's attempted invasion in 1560 despite being outnumbered by 10 to 1, which led to Owari entering an alliance with Yoshimoto's other territory of Mikawa.^[2]