Oda Nobunaga: Kiyosu to Honnō-ji

Kiyosu is where Oda Nobunaga's rise becomes a family story. Nobunaga retook the castle and captured his uncle, and his younger brother Nobuyuki was assassinated in its donjon in 1557. In the park, a bronze statue of a young Nobunaga, put up in 1936, shows him on the eve of the Battle of Okehazama. A reinforced concrete replica donjon was built here in 1989, and the Tōkaidō Main Line railway tracks were laid directly across the site.

訪問のヒント: A park with a replica donjon and statue; check local opening details.

Facing an Imagawa army of 25,000 against only 2,000 to 3,000 Oda men, Nobunaga led his men in person from Kiyosu via Atsuta Shrine to the fortified temple of Zenshō-ji. Using a thunderstorm to mask their movements, the Oda troops struck the heart of the Imagawa camp. The course of the battle is much embellished by legend. Today the battlefield, a National Historic Site, is a park in Toyoake City with seven granite pillars; the first reads "Imagawa Yoshimoto was killed here."

場所の精度: The sources describe the battle area only loosely; the pin marks the memorial battlefield park.

訪問のヒント: A park with memorial pillars; check local access details.

Nobunaga besieged Inabayama Castle on 13 September 1567, and renamed the stronghold "Gifu Castle", following an ancient Chinese practice. He then renovated it into a far more impressive and grandiose structure. The present keep is a 1950s concrete reconstruction, with a museum inside and an observation deck on the top floor giving a 360-degree view of the Nagara River and Nagoya.

訪問のヒント: The keep has a museum and a top-floor observation deck; check opening hours.

In September 1571 Nobunaga attacked the Enryaku-ji temple, then besieged Mount Hiei and razed it. At its peak the complex had as many as 3,000 sub-temples and a powerful army of warrior monks. The attack ended that militancy: buildings were levelled and monks slaughtered. The present structures date from the late 16th century to the first half of the 17th, after the temple was rebuilt. Most buildings are clustered in three areas: Tō-dō, Sai-tō and Yokokawa.

訪問のヒント: Sai-tō is a 20-minute walk from Tō-dō.

In May 1575 the Takeda laid siege to Nagashino with an army of 15,000. Nobunaga came to the rescue and waited behind long horse defence fences with his new weapon: 3,000 matchlock guns. Katsuyori drove his cavalry at them, and the battle is often cited as the first "modern" battle in Japan. Only remnants of moats and stonework remain, including a huge clay wall ten metres high, and the Nagashino Castle Ruins Museum is on site.

場所の精度: The pin marks the castle ruins; the sources do not give the exact ground of the main battle.

訪問のヒント: The castle ruins have a museum on site.

Azuchi was Nobunaga's showpiece. Niwa Nagahide built it between 1576 and 1579 on Azuchi-yama, which rises 100 meters above Lake Biwa. Its keep had seven storeys, six above ground, and its top floor was octagonal. In 1581, on the night of the Feast of Lanterns, Nobunaga had the town put out its lights and lit the castle with lanterns. All that remains today is the stonework, and a full-scale replica of the top floors is on display at the Nobunaga no Yakata Museum near the ruins.

訪問のヒント: The ruins are stonework; the replica is at the Nobunaga no Yakata Museum.

Nobunaga lodged at Honnō-ji with only about 150 men, while Akechi Mitsuhide led 13,000. By about 6:00 a.m. the temple was surrounded. Told it appeared to be Akechi's doing, Nobunaga said there was no need to discuss it and began to fight back with bows and arrows. The temple burned, and Nobunaga's body was never found. Honnō-ji was rebuilt on a different site, so the pin marks the present temple in Nakagyō Ward, not the place of the attack.

場所の精度: The temple was rebuilt on a different site, so the pin marks the present temple, not the original.

訪問のヒント: The rebuilt temple stands in Nakagyō Ward, near Kyoto Shiyakusho-mae Station.