The was an attempt to assassinate Japanese daimyo
Oda Nobunaga at the
Honnō-ji temple in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
on 21 June 1582, resulting in the suicide by ''
seppuku'' of both Nobunaga and his son
Oda Nobutada. The unprotected Nobunaga was ambushed by his general
Akechi Mitsuhide, an act of betrayal that ended Nobunaga's
Sengoku period
The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615.
The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...
campaign to consolidate centralized power in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
under his authority.
Nobunaga's death was avenged two weeks later when his retainer
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
defeated Mitsuhide in the
Battle of Yamazaki
The was fought in 1582 in Yamazaki, Japan, located in current-day Kyoto Prefecture. This battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Mt. Tennō (天王山の戦い ''Tennō-zan no tatakai'').
In the Honnō-ji Incident, Akechi Mitsuhide, ...
, paving the way for Hideyoshi to continue Nobunaga's endeavor to unify power in Japan during the 1580s and 1590s.
Mitsuhide's motive for assassinating Nobunaga is unknown and there are multiple theories for his betrayal.
Context
By 1582,
Oda Nobunaga was the most powerful
daimyo in Japan and was continuing a sustained campaign of unification in the face of the ongoing political upheaval that characterized Japanese history during the Sengoku period. Nobunaga had destroyed the
Takeda clan earlier that year at the
Battle of Tenmokuzan
The 1582 in Japan, also known as the Battle of Toriibata, is regarded as the last stand of the Takeda clan. This was the final attempt by Takeda Katsuyori to resist the combined forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga, who had been campaignin ...
and had central Japan firmly under his control, with his only rivals, the
Mōri clan
The Mōri clan (毛利氏 ''Mōri-shi'') was a Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power ...
, the
Uesugi clan
The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries). Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its height, the clan had three main branc ...
, and the
Hōjō clan
The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this period ...
, each weakened by internal affairs. After the death of
Mōri Motonari
was a prominent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the western Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. The Mōri clan claimed descent from Ōe no Hiromoto (大江広元), an adviser to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Motonari ...
, his grandson
Terumoto strove only to maintain the ''
status quo'', aided by his two uncles, as per Motonari's will.
Hōjō Ujiyasu
was a ''daimyō'' (warlord) and third head of the Odawara Hōjō clan. Known as the "Lion of Sagami", he was revered as a fearsome warrior and a cunning man. He is famous for his strategies of breaking the siege from Takeda Shingen and Uesugi K ...
, a renowned strategist and domestic manager, had also died, leaving his less prominent son
Ujimasa in place. Finally, the death of
Uesugi Kenshin left the Uesugi clan, devastated also by an internal conflict between his two adopted sons, weaker than before.
It was at this point that Nobunaga began sending his generals aggressively in all directions to continue his military expansion. Nobunaga ordered
Hashiba Hideyoshi
, otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
to attack the Mōri clan;
Niwa Nagahide
, also known as Gorōzaemon (五郎左衛門), his other legal alias was Hashiba Echizen no Kami (羽柴越前守), was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku through Azuchi-Momoyama periods of the 16th century. He served as senior retainer to the ...
to prepare for an invasion of
Shikoku;
Takigawa Kazumasu to watch the Hōjō clan from
Kōzuke Province and
Shinano Province; and
Shibata Katsuie to invade
Echigo Province, the home domain of the Uesugi clan. At the same time, Nobunaga also invited his ally
Tokugawa Ieyasu
was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...
to tour the
Kansai region in celebration of the demise of the Takeda clan. Around this time, Nobunaga received a request for reinforcements from Hashiba Hideyoshi, whose forces were stuck
besieging the Mōri-controlled Takamatsu Castle. Nobunaga then parted ways with Ieyasu, who went on to tour the rest of Kansai while Nobunaga himself made preparations to aid Hashiba in the frontline. Nobunaga ordered
Akechi Mitsuhide also to go to Hideyoshi's aid and travelled to
Honnō-ji temple in
Kyoto
Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...
, his usual resting place when he stopped by in the capital. Nobunaga was unprotected at Honnō-ji, deep within his territory, with the only people he had around him being court officials, merchants, upper-class artists, and dozens of servants.
Akechi's treachery
Upon receiving the order, Mitsuhide returned to
Sakamoto Castle
was a lakeside castle in the Sengoku period, located in Ōtsu, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.
Akechi Mitsuhide was the commander of the castle.
History
After the Siege of Mount Hiei, Sakamoto was given to Akechi Mitsuhide who built Sakamoto Castle u ...
and moved to his base in
Tanba Province. Around this time, Mitsuhide had a session of ''
renga'' with several prominent poets, where he made clear his intentions of rising against Nobunaga. Mitsuhide saw an opportunity to act, when not only was Nobunaga resting in Honnō-ji and unprepared for an attack, but all the other major ''daimyō'' and the bulk of Nobunaga's army were occupied in other parts of the country.
Mitsuhide led his army toward Kyoto under the pretense of following the order of Nobunaga. It was not the first time that Nobunaga had demonstrated his modernized and well-equipped troops in Kyoto, so the march toward Kyoto did not raise any suspicion from Mitsuhide's men. As they were crossing the
Katsura River, Mitsuhide announced to his troops that . Before dawn, the Akechi army had the Honnō-ji temple surrounded in a
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
. Nobunaga and his servants and bodyguards resisted, but they realized it was futile against the overwhelming numbers of Akechi troops. Nobunaga then, with the help of his young
page,
Mori Ranmaru, committed ''
seppuku''. Reportedly, Nobunaga's last words were "Ran, don't let them come in ..." to Ranmaru, who then set the temple on fire as Nobunaga requested so that no one would be able to get his head. Ranmaru then followed suit, committing ''seppuku'' himself. His loyalty and devotion makes him a revered figure in Japanese history. Nobunaga's remains were never found, a fact often speculated about by writers and historians.
After capturing Honnō-ji, Mitsuhide attacked Nobunaga's eldest son and heir,
Oda Nobutada, who was staying at the nearby Nijō Palace. During the attack of Nijō palace, Nobutada orders
Maeda Geni
was a Buddhist priest from Mt. Hiei, retainer of Oda Nobunaga and later one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's '' Go-Bugyō'', along with Ishida Mitsunari, Asano Nagamasa, Mashita Nagamori and Natsuka Masaie. He entered the service of Oda Nobunaga somet ...
fled with his infant son, Sanpōshi (
Oda Hidenobu), going from
Gifu Castle in Mino to
Kiyosu Castle in Owari. Later, Nobutada also committed ''seppuku''.
[
Mitsuhide tried to persuade Oda vassals in the vicinity of Kyoto to recognize him as the new master of former Oda territories. Then, Mitsuhide entered Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle east of Kyoto and began sending messages to the Imperial Court to boost his position and force the court to recognize his authority as well.
]
Reasons for the coup
Akechi Mitsuhide's reasons for the coup are a mystery and have been a source of controversy and speculation. Although there have been several theories, the reason the historian Kuwata Tadachika put forth was that Mitsuhide bore a personal grudge.[ Other theories maintain that Mitsuhide acted out of fear, had the ambition to take over Japan, was simply acting to protect the Imperial Court (whose authority Nobunaga did not respect), or was trying to remove the iconoclastic revolutionary. Another theory is that Mitsuhide did not enjoy the cruelty of Nobunaga. Many think it was a combination of at least some of the above suggested reasons.
When Nobunaga invited Tokugawa Ieyasu to Azuchi Castle, Akechi was the official in charge of catering to the needs of Ieyasu's group. He was later removed from this post for unknown reasons. One story spoke of Nobunaga yelling at him in front of the guests for serving rotten fish.
Another story claims that when Nobunaga gave Akechi the order to assist Hashiba Hideyoshi, it was somehow hinted that Akechi would lose his current territories and would have to fight for land which was not even under Oda control yet. As Nobunaga had sent two senior retainers under him, ]Sakuma Nobumori
was a retainer for the Oda clan.
He was thus treated as Nobunaga's most important retainer and would come to fight in every important battle under Nobunaga's command such as the 1567 Siege of Inabayama Castle, the 1571 and 1573 Siege of Nagash ...
and Hayashi Hidesada
was a Japanese samurai and retainer of Oda clan, who lived during the Sengoku period. He was also known as . His court title was Governor of Sado Province (''Sado no Kami'')''.
The Hayashi family, a branch of the Inaba clan, originated fro ...
, into exile for poor performance, Akechi might have thought that he could suffer a similar fate. Akechi was already in his early fifties, and some believe he might have felt insecure about such a grim future.
Furthermore, when invading Tanba Province, Akechi Mitsuhide supposedly sent his mother as hostage to Hatano Hideharu
Hatano Hideharu (波多野 秀治 ''Hatano Hideharu'', 1541 – June 25, 1579) was the eldest son of Hatano Harumichi and the head of Hatano clan.
He was a son of Harumichi, but for an unknown reason, he was adopted as a son by Hatano Mot ...
, the castellan of Yakami Castle, to convince him to surrender. Nobunaga, however, had Hatano Hideharu executed, and this action caused former Hatano retainers to kill Akechi's mother.[ Akechi Mitsuhide felt humiliated and depressed by this and eventually decided to kill his master. This story, however, began to circulate only during the ]Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...
, and is of dubious historical origin.
Luís Fróis wrote that Mitsuhide liked to use treachery and diversion as his strategy. He also suggested daimyōs disliked Mitsuhide because he did not belong to the ''fudai'' clan, which had served his master's clan for a long time. Many books said Nobunaga insulted and kicked, or even forced Mitsuhide to drink sake
Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and in ...
at a party, even though he was not a heavy drinker.
Before Akechi began his march toward Chugoku, he held a '' renga'' session at the shrine
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon, or similar figure of respect, wherein they ...
on Mount Atago
''Mount Atago is a very common name for peaks all over Japan.''
is a 924m mountain in the northwestern part of Ukyo-ku, in the city of Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island ...
. The beginning line, ''Toki wa ima, ame ga shita shiru satsuki kana'' (), translates to "The time is now, the fifth month when the rain falls." However, there are several homonym
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones ( equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definitio ...
s in the line, such that it could be taken as a double entendre
A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
. An alternate meaning, without changing any of the pronunciations, would be: . Thus it has also been translated as "Now is the time to rule the world: It's the fifth month!" In this case, the word ''toki'', which means "time" in the first version, sounds identical to Akechi's ancestral family name, " Toki" ().
It is also believed Akechi may have been manipulated by Ieyasu or Hideyoshi, since the coup presented clear prospects of profit for both of them (Hideyoshi ruled the country, and Ieyasu became the number two, avenging his wife and child).
Oda Nobutaka, third son of Nobunaga, wrote a poem before his death cursing Toyotomi Hideyoshi under his court title of Hashiba Chikuzen(-no-kami), which he used before becoming Kampaku.
After the Honnō-ji Incident
Quickly making peace with the Mōri clan
The Mōri clan (毛利氏 ''Mōri-shi'') was a Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power ...
, Hideyoshi headed to Kyoto, joined by Niwa Nagahide
, also known as Gorōzaemon (五郎左衛門), his other legal alias was Hashiba Echizen no Kami (羽柴越前守), was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku through Azuchi-Momoyama periods of the 16th century. He served as senior retainer to the ...
and Oda Nobutaka in Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
. Marching toward Kyoto, he defeated Mitsuhide at the Battle of Yamazaki
The was fought in 1582 in Yamazaki, Japan, located in current-day Kyoto Prefecture. This battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Mt. Tennō (天王山の戦い ''Tennō-zan no tatakai'').
In the Honnō-ji Incident, Akechi Mitsuhide, ...
. Mitsuhide was killed by bandits as he tried to flee.
With the help of his retainer and ninja leader Hattori Hanzō
or ''Second Hanzō'', nicknamed , was a famous Ninja of the Sengoku era, who served the Tokugawa clan as a ninja, credited with saving the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu and then helping him to become the ruler of united Japan. He is often a subje ...
, Ieyasu first toured Sakai, then fled through several provinces and crossed the mountains of Iga Province, finally reaching the shore in Ise Province. He returned to his home Mikawa Province by sea, and it took him so long that by the time he consolidated his position, Hideyoshi had already had most of Nobunaga's territories under firm control.
Takigawa Kazumasu suddenly faced the assault of the Hōjō clan and lost most of his land there, a defeat that cost him his previous prestige in the Oda clan.
Shibata Katsuie and his forces in the north were bogged down by an Uesugi counterattack in Echizen Province and remained unable to act for quite a while. He would later fall in the Battle of Shizugatake against Hideyoshi a year later.
The fact that no one else had the chance, resources, or ability to act decisively ensured Hashiba Hideyoshi's supremacy and spiritual inheritance of Oda Nobunaga's legacy.
See also
* ''Honnōji Hotel
is a 2017 Japanese comedy mystery fantasy film directed by Masayuki Suzuki, written by Tomoko Aizawa and starring Haruka Ayase, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Gaku Hamada, Hiroyuki Hirayama, , Masahiro Takashima, Masaomi Kondō and Morio Kazama. It was re ...
'' is a 2017 comedy mystery drama that takes places around the Honnō-ji Incident
* Tainei-ji incident
The was a coup in September 1551 by Sue Takafusa (later known as Sue Harukata) against Ōuchi Yoshitaka, hegemon ''daimyō'' of western Japan, which ended in the latter's forced suicide in Tainei-ji, a temple in Nagato Province. The coup put an ...
– a similar coup in 1551 where a powerful daimyō of western Japan was forced to commit suicide
Citations
General references
* de Lange, William (2020). ''Samurai Battles: The Long Road to Unification''. Toyo Press. .
* Naramoto Tatsuya (1994). ''Nihon no Kassen''. Tokyo: Shufu to Seikatsusha.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honnō-ji incident
1582 in Japan
16th-century coups d'état and coup attempts
Honnoji
Conflicts in 1582
History of Kyoto
Military coups in Japan