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When
visiting the Emperor in Kyoto, Oda Nobunaga stayed in this splendid
Nijo Palace (some call it 'castle', but it's
too lavishly gilded for that). He built this place for Shogun
Ashikaga Yoshiaki in 1568.
The
Oda clan spent a lot on buildings in Kyoto, but all was for other
people -- two Emperors and two Shoguns. Click
here. |
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The
picture above shows the quarters of Nijo where Oda Nobunaga used
to stay the night at.
Because
Tokugawa Ieyasu's clan stayed in power for so long, more than
200 years, of course the Tokugawas did much more for the Imperial
family. But in his short reign Oda Nobunaga never forgot that
no matter how powerful he got, he still was a mere vassal of the
Emperor. |
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HQ
of Oda's bitterest enemies, the Ikko sect's Buddhist warrior-monks,
in 2004. They still hate him that much today.
Click
here for story and pictures of these monks and their lairs.
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The 'geisha
district' Gion of Kyoto in 2005;
but Oda's idea of pleasure didn't go that way.
Click
here to see where.
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The temple
of the Golden Pavillion -- Kinkaku-ji.
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Places
from Oda's days are now super-crowded with tourists any day of every
year.
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A street
in Kyoto in 2002
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Some
parts of the city are deliberately kept the way they used to be, today,
like this row of shops; but the point of reference is usually the era
of the Tokugawan regime.
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The Imperial
Palace where Oda used to go to.
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The Hachiman
shrine, of the God of War
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This
kind of visual incongruency
is characteristic of Kyoto.
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The
monks' rooms in Kiyomizu temple. Oda Nobunaga used to spend the night
in such a place; for some reasons he never even thought of making a
palace for himself in the city and preferred to stay in temples. He
even died there.....
Click
here for story and pictures of Oda Nobunaga's death in 1582.
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Oda
Nobunaga's cenotaph. Perhaps today's Japan doesn't have much attention
to spare on Oda Nobunaga, but I hope they'd still remember that
Japan itself is a legacy of this man. Oda was
the one who started unifying the country and aiming at ending
the 'warring states period' of chronic disunity.  |
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Oda
Nobunaga's cenotaph in Kyoto. He died at 49 years old at the Honno
temple in Kyoto, in a rebellious attack by one of his own Generals,
Akechi Mitsuhide (click here for history
& pictures of this man), who was 55 years old at the time.
Nobunaga's heir Oda Nobutada,
who was only 25 years old but already a seasoned General, also
died in battle against the Akechi rebels that same morning in
the same town. 
Akechi, though, never got any older than 55 when he died. Toyotomi
Hideyoshi instantly dropped everything he was busy with in a far
province, marched against the Akechi clan, and sent it back to
oblivion.
Click
here for story and pictures of the day Oda Nobunaga died, including
pictures of Akechi Mitsuhide's attack and how Oda met his death. |
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