Sengoku period / ESSENTIAL EVENT
The Battle of Okehazama
Oda Nobunaga concentrated a smaller force against Imagawa Yoshimoto’s command position and transformed the balance of power along the Tokaido corridor.- Historical place
- 尾張国・桶狭間
- People connected
- 4
Why it happened
The Imagawa controlled Suruga, Totomi and Mikawa and were pressuring eastern Owari. Nobunaga had only recently consolidated much of Owari, while Matsudaira Motoyasu—the future Tokugawa Ieyasu—served in the Imagawa army.
What happened
As Imagawa units attacked border forts and dispersed, Nobunaga advanced from Kiyosu through Atsuta to the front. After heavy rain, his force struck Yoshimoto’s position. Yoshimoto was killed and the larger army withdrew.
What came next
Imagawa control weakened, Motoyasu returned to Okazaki and moved toward independence, and Nobunaga gained room to attack Mino. The battle created opportunities rather than instantly making Nobunaga ruler of Japan.
Why it still matters
Okehazama rewards a reading based on terrain, intelligence, divided forces and command decisions—not simply the legend of a tiny army defeating an enormous one by luck.
PLACE
Read the landscape
Sites in Toyoake and Nagoya preserve competing battlefield traditions. Visiting both reveals how historical memory and modern geography overlap.
Open the historical location on a map ↗PEOPLE
People in this story
Person profiles are currently available in Japanese.
SOURCES
Evidence and further reading
Source titles and descriptions are shown in Japanese so you can identify the original institutional page.