Oda Nobunaga: The Great Unifier of Japan 

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6:57 he was a genius not just militarily. Way ahead of his time. Nobunaga’s army was the first in history to use volley fire on a large scale in rotating ranks during Nagashino. The Dutch were the first to develop the same technique 30 years later in Europe. Nobunaga’s army had 3000 arquebuses in three ranks to defeat Takeda’s powerful cavalry. He hired and rewarded retainers based on skill and merit rather than family lineage which was common practice at the time. In turn he was able to assemble the brightest and most skilled retainers in all of Japan. Nobunaga was the first to mobilize a professional army. Traditionally foot soldiers were peasants and they couldn’t be away too long from their farms especially during harvest. Nobunaga’s army could deploy at a moments notice and fight anywhere anytime 24/7. He taxed more on commerce than agriculture which was unorthodox at the time. He was able to bring in more income this way. He also abolished road tariffs on shipped goods and built guard stations across his territories to protect merchants. This led to great wealth, capital, and prosperity. His navy was the first in history to use iron clad type ships with large gun emplacements in the battle of Kizugawaguchi. Just six of these large ships were able to penetrate Mori’s naval force of about 600 vessels. Another is Azuchi castle was the first to have a Tenshukaku or keep which was influenced by structures with belvederes in Europe. The castle was so revolutionary he had tours. He was atheist which was unheard of for a Daimyo and loved European culture. It’s said he was the first samurai to wear western clothes. He greatly supported art and cultural festivities. He was so unique for the time period not just in Japan.

"To fulfill Nobunaga's Ambition..." He said it. He said the thing.

"I am the demon king of sixth heaven, come and get me!" - Oda Nobunaga

I've heard a lot about this guys ambition

Most crucially, you forgot to mention Nobunaga promoted people on the basis of merit. He didn’t care about background. He was ruthless yes, but that was par for the course at the time. He promoted Hideyoshi and other who proved themselves capable.

Please do Tokugawa Ieyasu. That would be a great follow up after this one.

Bonus fact. Oda Nobunaga sought out the strongest players of the ancient game of Go, and gave them generous patronage. He became the pupil of Nikkai, the strongest Go player of the time, who was a Buddhist priest that lived in a pagoda named Honinbo. Nikkai played a famous game against his leading rival, Kashio Rigen in the presence of Nobunaga at the Honnoji temple in Koyto. A triple ko arose which led the game to be suspended without a result. The night after the game, Akechi Mitsuhide rose up in rebellion, surrounded the temple and killed Nobunaga. Because of this, a triple ko was thereafter regarded as inauspicious.

I remember in my modern Japanese history class in college, my professor literally called Oda Nobunaga a badass, with 100% sincerity lol.

Nobu's rock and roll summer outfit looked great

He has transformed into anime girl Like all well-known rulers and leaders in fate /grand order

1:30 - Chapter 0 - Life in japan 3:05 - Chapter 1 - Early years 5:30 - Chapter 2 - Succession crisis 8:35 - Mid roll ads 10:00 - Chapter 3 - Lord of Owari 12:30 - Chapter 4 - The fall of imagawa 15:50 - Chapter 5 - To kyoto 17:50 - Chapter 6 - The many wars of Nobunaga 21:15 - Chapter 7 - The honno ji incident

Awesome, always wanted to request more Japanese Biographies like Sarutobi Sasuke, Date Masamune, Takeda Shingen, Tokugawa Ieyasu and more. Japanese history is so rich and interesting.

"If my bird does not sing: I'll kill it."

Who else is here after watching age of samurai on netflix? What a great documentary series that was.

This reminded me of my last class at uni... Thanks for the memories, Simon. I enjoyed this video as I enjoy your channel.

Where's my obligatory GUDAGUDA Title Card?

Japan is just a great interesting country. Super Modern yet deeply connected to its far past, epic.

Literally just wondering when Simon was gonna drop another video, perfect timing!

A related and very interesting story is that of Yasuke, the african-born black samurai who became a retainer of Nobunaga.

I'm kind of surprised that you didn't mention guns used in the Nagashino battle (you can see it in the picture at 20:35). Guns came over to japan from portugal, and this was one of the first cases of guns used in battle in japan. It's a pretty significant point in our history. It's one of the reasons why Oda won against the huge Takeda army. He was quick to understand the worth of new technology and integrated it wisely into his strategies.

Simon You have no idea how happy i am for this. Obunaga is one of my all time favorite personalities. You have made me truly Happy. Waiting for a Cao Cao Documentary

One of my all time favorite historical figures locations and time periods. Seeing this pop up made my day

I guess Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu are next?

It's always interesting to hear about the different warring period every nation/state has gone through before some sort of unification to the entities we know today. Great video!

" _The Enemy is at Honno-Ji._ " - Samurai Warriors Battle of Okehazama is the best theme of that game.

Oda Nobunaga is my favourite historical figure! Can't wait to watch the video!

I've been looking forward to this for years!

I first learned about Nobunaga from the NES game in the 80s called, Nobunaga's Ambition by Koei

Excellent video. Japan's warring states period is one of my favorite times in history to nerd out on.

I remember when I used to comment Oda Nobunaga next on the early videos of the channel and here we are today

Started reading the book "Shogun" from James Clavell and i have become really hooked in Japanese history. Thanks for making this video

Great video. Please continue this series !! Toyotomi Hideyoshi

As a huge fan of Oda Nobunaga and the samurai, I just want to say, thank you for making this video.

Always very educational, very much enjoyed.

Yet another awesome presentation & your Japanese is excellent I throughly enjoyed the story

Woah, I've been waiting for this

Outstanding work as usual!

As someone who has been interested in history, since I was young, I found this video very interesting and educational indeed! And I thought I knew everything about Japan!

Been waiting for this.

Great video. Next you should do a video on Honda Tadakatsu, The Unscathed Warrior.

Nice I have been waiting for this one !

So excited for the biographies, my husband is a Descendant of him.

Thank you for sharing historial information.

Do a Biographics on one of the following: (Or all of them.) Yukimura Sanada: Japan's greatest warrior. Tadakatsu Honda: Japan's greatest retainer. Zhuge Liang: The greatest mind of the Three Kingdoms period. Guan Yu: The God of War with the magnificent beard. Benjamin Hornigold: Blackbeard's teacher. Michael Jordan: The greatest basketball player. Osman Ghazi: The founder of the Ottoman Empire. Claus von Stauffenberg: The man behind the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. Martin Luther King Jr.: The man with THE dream. Confucius: The father of philosophy. Hercules: Greece greatest hero. (If he really existed.) Sean Connery: THE James Bond. Michael Jackson: King of Pop. Jim Thorpe: The greatest athlete. Cao Cao: The man with an ambition. John Paul II: The linguistic Pope.

Another good video👍 And on a subject I've always found interesting, though tbh I have somewhat struggled with all the various names and clans, not helped by the name changes and whatnot. I hope they do a video on Tokugawa Ieyasu as well sometime soon.

"If the bird does not sing, kill it" Oda Nobunaga. "If the bird does not sing, I'll make it sing" Toyotomi Hideyoshi "If the bird does not sing....I'll wait" Tokugawa Ieyashu Guess who made it....

Keep the videos coming bro💯💯💯💯💯🎯

That was an interesting topic. I had only heard his name before. Keep up the good work!

Nobunaga was quite merciful for the time, forgiving many of his enemies rather than executing them.

thanks simon, i loved it

I hope that you'll make two more videos about the other two unifiers of Japan.

I just started reading Shogun by James Clavell, so this is perfect timing for me.

Love your work keep it up bro 😎👊

I always enjoy your videos about by graphics, with that being said I’ve always loved history to a certain degree because from what I understand when I was younger it was always skewed. Then I started playing this game called civilization five it was introduced to a bunch of “buy a graphics about people who I did not know about“ and I started getting back into history and I like it. Especially when you try to bring the facts to your channel. Keep up the good work.🧐🇨🇦

I’m glad you’re doing some Japanese biographies. You should keep it up.

wonderfull biographie very accurate, thanks :D

Outstanding vid. Hideyoshi next please..

Loved this video. Only thing I would request would be some maps to help explain and give context to the military movements, but that’s a very small criticism. Awesome work as always ❤️

Please do the other Two Unifiers of Japan. This was fun.

It’s a well known fact, to all those who played Onimusha that Nobunaga’s success was largely thanks to his alliance with the Demons.

Well done, do Tokugawa next!

Gotta love Koei for getting me into this guy. Been a fan for years. The Caesar of Japan.

“If the cuckoo does not sing, kill it.” Oda Nobunaga

Sengoku Jidai is one my favorite subjects when it comes to Japanese Studies. I've probably watched over 50 Nobunaga animes and dramas so far, and even more about the Warring Period in general.

Good video 👍

This is the first nobunaga video with no mention of hideyoshi. Amazing 🤩

Keep up with the great work and videos🙂 Would love to see a video about the life of Sean Connery who sadly passed away recently🙁

Seeing as we got biographic on Nobunaga, can we delve further into this and get biographic on Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the retainer of Nobunaga who rose to prominence and finished the job that Nobunaga was unable to.

I was introduced to this man and Samurai in general by Age of Empires.

Great video

I just realized you have so many videos you make playlists of them based on time periods.

Please do more Samurai Biographies of the sengoku and Edo Periods tho!!!

I need more videos along this line.

I would love to see more videos like this one. Perhaps of The Tokugawa regime, The Sanada Clan, or the Shinsengumi and Oniwaban.

I've always wondered what would happen if Nobu survived Honno-ji would japan have made an Asiatic empire mutch earlier on and industrialize much sooner or history remain the same just with the Oda as the ruling Shogun until the Meiji restoration happens.

Ashigaru, common spearman. Are the bedrock of Oda's might!!

He is the legendary "Fool of Owari"

I wonder if you will ever do a video on these two people of Japanese history. Uesugi Kenshin the tiger of Echigo and his battles with Takeda Shingen. Or Dogen a Buddhist monk who helped found the Soto school in Japan and his travels to China to learn.

Great video as always! Can you please make a Biographics on John Paul Jones at some point?

Hohhoo that beat at Kyoto transition 15:43

Love all your channels, I think we need a video of the 442nd Infantry Regiment. Its the most decorated unit of the second world war for the U.S .

Realized that the "main antagonist" of Sekiro is technically Oba Nobunaga since he was the leader of the central powers during the sengoku jidai. Made the game even better.

You need to do a video on Gustavus Adolphus: The Grandfather of Modern Warfare!

i have been binge watching blaze its strange to see simon normal and professionally

The transition music is even better than normal.

Please do more warring states bios.

Finally Oda Nobunaga thank you

Nice supplement to my finally watching of Man in The High Castle! Which I HIGHLY recommend!

He is the best daimyo. Hediyoshi and Iayasu just got the product of his triumphs.

I've been bamboozled, I thought Oda was a cute blonde anime girl! 😂

Finally u do one on the best proto full shogun

THANK YOU SIMON one of my favorites. Could i reccomend a different biography. Maybe one on the emperors of chinas civil war era as well. Many many hiatorically interesting characters.

Ambitious Nobunaga.

Please do Admiral yi next, he is probably the best naval leader in history and he appeared a couple of years after odas death

Thank you

Please make videos about toyotomi hideyoshi and tokugawa ieyasu

I will say, Okehazama happened pretty much exactly as you described. Been to the spot twice

I know Simon isn't memorizing the scripts so my man is one of the best at reading aloud I've ever heard. Just all of the Japanese names in this one would hang up most

Simon, you guys should do a video on the infamous, yet highly controversial and widely unknown Gilles de Rais of France. Loving the content as usual :3 You and the crew there so am astonishing job. Thank you :D