Okehazama: The Day the Tōkai Overlord Fell in the Fields of Owari, 1560

On the nineteenth day of the fifth month of 1560 (Eiroku 3), at Okehazama in Owari Province (the area of present-day Toyoake City and Midori Ward, Nagoya City).

Imagawa Yoshimoto, who had invaded Owari at the head of a great army, was struck by the surprise attack of Oda Nobunaga (this site's id 1), who thrust through a torrential rain.

His headquarters was suddenly assaulted, and Yoshimoto was cut down in the melee.

He was forty-two. It was the all-too-sudden end of the 'finest bowman of the coastal road,' who had built a great domain in the Tōkai.

There are various theories as to why Yoshimoto invaded Owari with a great army. It was once held that he aimed to march on Kyoto, but the dominant view in postwar historiography is that it was first a war of territory to annex the Oda's Owari holdings.

Nobunaga at the time was a new power that had only just completed the unification of Owari, and Yoshimoto's domain and mobilization greatly exceeded Nobunaga's.

For Yoshimoto, the conquest of Owari was a natural move to extend his Tōkai hegemony westward.

According to the 'Shinchō Kōki,' Nobunaga is said to have suddenly assaulted with a small force just as Yoshimoto's main body was resting in a hollow at Okehazama.

A torrential rain that happened to fall is said to have robbed the Imagawa side of its field of view and its vigilance.

Though the Imagawa army was overwhelmingly superior in total strength, it fell into confusion when its headquarters was directly attacked.

Yoshimoto cast off his palanquin and fought back, but was cut down in the melee.

A battle of only a few hours decided the fate of the greatest daimyō of the Tōkai.

Yoshimoto's death transformed the power map of the Sengoku period. The unknown Nobunaga began at a stroke to walk the road to conquest of the realm.

The hostage Matsudaira Motoyasu (Tokugawa Ieyasu, this site's id 3) broke free of Imagawa control and became independent at Okazaki, later allying with Nobunaga and rising to become ruler of the realm.

The Imagawa house declined in the generation of Yoshimoto's son Ujizane and eventually perished.

Yoshimoto himself was caricatured as a foolish lord in Edo-period war tales, but postwar historiography has re-evaluated him as an excellent ruler who ordered house law and conducted land surveys.