MEISTER JAPAN Samurai Figure Oda Nobunaga protective covering Japanese Shogun Series A8 Silver protective covering with Real Katana

Oda Nobunaga (3 July 1534 - 21 June 1582) was a Japanese daimyo and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first Great Unifier of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan and launched a war against other daimyos to unify Japan in the 1560s. Nobunaga emerged as the most powerful daimyo overtossing the nominally ruling shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki and dissolving the Ashikaga Shogunate in 1573. He conquered most of Honshu island by 1580 and defeated the Ikko-Ikki rebels by the 1580s. Nobunaga's rule was noted for innovative military tactics fostering free trade reform of Japan's civil government and encouraging the start of the Momoyama historical art period but also for the brutal suppression of opponents eliminating those who refused to cooperate or yield to his demands. Nobunaga was killed in the Honno-Ji Incident in 1582 when his retainer Akechi Mitsuhide ambushed him in Kyoto and forced him to commit seppuku. Nobunaga was succeeded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi who along with Tokugawa Ieyasu completed his war of unification shortly afterward.