Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was fifteen years of age when he succeeded his father in the headship of a small daimyate in Owari. He did not at first realize the importance of his position at this critical period of his country's history, when the supreme power in Japan lay waiting for the first bold man to come and take it, and his youthful escapades gained for him the nickname of Bakadono, "the Fool-Lord." He was recalled to a sense of duty by one of his retainers, who wrote and presented to his master a dignified protest against his follies, and then added point to his remonstrances by committing suicide. Nobunaga mended his ways, and, fortunately for himself, found amongst his retainers another faithful adviser--an old man, Tokichiro, who is considered to have been a very great judge of human character.

Acting on Tokichiro's advice, he put down, in 1557; a revolt amongst his own subjects to which his foolish conduct had given occasion, and in which his own brother was a participator. Three years later, his neighbour, Imagawa, lord of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa, one of the most powerful of the great princes, started for Kyoto with an army, intending to seize the persons of the Emperor and Shogun, and thus to legalize his own designs of making

himself supreme in Japan. Nobunaga refused permission for Imagawa to pass through his diminutive territories, met the invader at the village of Okehazama, and defeated him utterly. He now found himself the master of four wealthy and populous provinces, and universally looked up to as the "coming man." In 1562, two years after his victory over Imagawa, he received from the Emperor Ogimachi, the son of Go-Nara, who had succeeded in 1558 to the impoverished Imperial throne, a secret commission authorizing him to take steps for the pacification of the country. Nobunaga accepted the task, and set his hand to the work, being assisted therein by Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Iyeyasu, who had passed into his service as a consequence of the defeat of the Imagawas. By 1568 he had overthrown the Saito family in Mino, which he annexed, moving his own residence to Gifu, and had further spread his victorious arms into Ise.

But his progress was not rapid enough to satisfy the Emperor, who saw himself harassed on all sides. A second envoy reached Nobunaga, urging him to make his way to the capital, and this message was enforced by an appeal from Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the brother of the last Shogun, Yoshiteru, who had been assassinated by his ministers, Miyoshi and Matsunaga. The assassins had appointed a puppet Shogun of their own, and now Yoshiaki appealed to Nobunaga for assistance in the recovery of his rights. Nobunaga, who had in the meantime strengthened