Honnō-ji Incident

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 and had central Japan firmly under his control, with his only rivals, the Mōri clan and the Uesugi clan, both weakened by internal affairs. The death of Uesugi Kenshin left the Uesugi clan devastated by an internal conflict between his two adopted sons. The Mōri clan was also in a situation where defeat was almost inevitable and had presented a peace proposal to Hashiba Hideyoshi, offering the cession of five provinces. The nearly decade-long Ishiyama Hongan-ji War had already ended with the defeat of the Ikkō-ikki. It was at this point that Nobunaga began sending his generals aggressively in all directions to continue his military expansion. Nobunaga ordered Hashiba Hideyoshi to attack the Mōri clan in the Chūgoku region; Niwa Nagahide 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. Nobunaga, confident of unifying the country after destroying the Takeda clan, returned to Azuchi in high spirits. Tokugawa Ieyasu also came to Azuchi Castle to thank Nobunaga for giving him the Suruga province. However, around this time, the Mōri clan launched a large-scale counteroffensive in the Chūgoku region, and Nobunaga received a request for reinforcements from Hashiba Hideyoshi, whose forces were stuck besieging the Mōri-controlled Takamatsu Castle. Nobunaga immediately ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to go to the Chugoku region to support Hideyoshi, and he himself was to follow soon after. Nobunaga began his preparations and headed for Honnō-ji in Kyoto, 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. Having dispatched most of his soldiers to take part in various campaigns, only a small force was left to protect his person, and there was little fear that anyone would dare strike Nobunaga; security measures were weak. Taking advantage of this opening, Mitsuhide suddenly turned against his master. == Mitsuhide's betrayal ==

Upon receiving the order, Mitsuhide returned to Sakamoto Castle and moved to his base in Tanba Province. He engaged in a session of renga with several prominent poets, using the opportunity to make clear his intentions of rising against Nobunaga. Mitsuhide saw an opportunity to act, when Nobunaga was not only 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 Mitsuhide's men marching toward Kyoto did not raise any suspicion. Before dawn, Mitsuhide, leading 13,000 soldiers, suddenly changed course in the middle of his march and attacked Honnō-ji, where Nobunaga was staying. then in Nihon Gaishi by Rai San'yō, a kangakusha of the late Edo period, and is most likely a creation, not a statement by Mitsuhide himself. According to Luís Fróis's "History of Japan" and testimonies from surviving soldiers, Mitsuhide was only the commander of the Oda army's area forces, and since it was the Oda clan to whom the soldiers owed allegiance, Mitsuhide did not reveal his purpose to anyone except his officers, fearing that informants might appear. Even when the attack actually began, the soldiers did not know whom they were attacking, and some thought it was Ieyasu. Chronology of the incident The situation at the time was recorded by Gyū-ichi Ota, the author of "Shinchō Kōki", who interviewed the ladies-in-waiting who were at the scene soon after the incident. Nobunaga had come to Kyoto to support Hashiba Hideyoshi and stayed at Honnō-ji on this day. This was because Nobunaga had not dared to build a castle in Kyoto in order to maintain a distance from the Imperial Court. It was said that Nobunaga then entered the back room of the palace, closed the door of the storage room, and committed seppuku in the burning temple. The Akechi forces lifted the siege around 8:00 a.m. Meanwhile, Oda Nobutada, who was at Myōkaku-ji Temple, received news of Mitsuhide's rebellion and attempted to go to Honnō-ji to rescue his father. However, just as he was leaving the temple, Murai Sadakatsu and his sons rushed in and stopped him. Murai said that Honnō-ji had already burned down and the enemy would soon attack us, and advised Nobutada to hunker down in the fortified Nijō Gosho. Upon entering the Nijō Gosho, Nobutada ordered Maeda Geni to flee with his infant son, Sanpōshi (Oda Hidenobu), going from Gifu Castle in Mino to Kiyosu Castle in Owari. Nobutada had all the people escape, including the kugyō and the nyōbō-shū, and then he began his war council. Some advised Nobutada to escape and head for Azuchi, but he said, "An enemy who has committed such a rebellion will not let us escape so easily. It would be a disgrace for me to be killed by common soldiers while fleeing", and decided to stay in Kyoto and fight. In the meantime, Akechi forces completed the siege of Nijō Gosho, making it impossible to escape. Later, Nobutada also committed seppuku. Kamata Shinsuke, who assisted Nobutada in his suicide, hid his head and body according to his instructions. == Aftermath ==

Akechi Mitsuhide was eager to find Nobunaga's body in the burnt ruins of Honnō-ji, but he was unable to locate it. Nobunaga's body not being found meant that no one knew if he was alive or dead and created a problem for Mitsuhide. If, by any chance, Nobunaga was alive, the probability of Mitsuhide's defeat increased, and even if it remained unclear whether he was alive or dead, Mitsuhide would find it very difficult to gain support from those who feared Nobunaga's retaliation. In fact, Hideyoshi sent a letter to Nobunaga's vassals that falsely claimed that Nobunaga was still alive to request their cooperation in defeating Mitsuhide. If Mitsuhide had obtained Nobunaga's head, he could have made his death known to the public, and some forces might have followed him. If that had happened, he might have been able to defeat Hideyoshi. The Kiyosu Conference was then held to determine the successor to the Oda clan, and four vassals of the Oda clan, Shibata Katsuie, Niwa Nagahide, Ikeda Tsuneoki, and Hashiba Hideyoshi, attended the conference. Three names were mentioned as possible successors: Nobukatsu, the second son; Nobutaka, the third son; and Hidenobu (Sanhōshi), Nobutada's eldest son, or Nobunaga's grandson, who was only three years old. Nobunaga's corpse After defeating Mitsuhide, Hideyoshi also searched for Nobunaga's body, but it still could not be found. In October 1582, Hideyoshi held Nobunaga's funeral at Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto. In place of his missing body, Hideyoshi had a life-size wooden statue of Nobunaga cremated and put it in an urn in place of his ashes. There is no doubt that what Nobunaga feared most when he prepared to die was not dying but what would happen after death: in other words, how his body would be treated. Nobunaga must have understood that if his body had fallen into Mitsuhide's hands, his severed head would surely have been gibbeted, and he would have been disgraced as a criminal, and that Mitsuhide would use Nobunaga's death to justify his rebellion by making it public. In such a situation, Nobunaga had a few possible options. He would have the body burned so that it could not be identified as Nobunaga's, or he would have it buried so that Mitsuhide could not find it inside Honnō-ji, or he would have someone he trusted carry it out of Honnō-ji, even at the risk of being stolen by Mitsuhide on the way. There are several theories regarding the fact that no bodies were found in the burnt ruins of Honnō-ji. One theory is that Nobunaga could not be identified because the bodies were too badly damaged, another that there were too many burned bodies to identify, and a third that the fire was so intense that his body was completely consumed. There are also several stories that Nobunaga's body and head were carried out from Honnō-ji. There are a number of tombs in various parts of Japan that are said to be Nobunaga's, but there is no evidence that his body or ashes are buried in any of them. == Tokugawa escape to Mikawa ==

Tokugawa Ieyasu heard the news in Hirakata, Osaka, but at the time, he only had a few companions with him. The Iga province track was also in danger of the Ochimusha-gari, or "Samurai hunters" gang. During the Sengoku period, particularly dangerous groups called "Ochimusha-gari" or "fallen warrior hunter" emerged. These groups consisted of peasants or Rōnin who were dispossessed by war and formed self-defense forces. However, in reality, they often resorted to hunting and robbing defeated Samurai or soldiers during conflicts. These outlaw groups were particularly rampant on the route that Ieyasu took to return to Mikawa. However, the Tokugawa Nikki theory was doubted by modern historians, since it was not the shortest route for Ieyasu to reach Mikawa from his starting position at Sakai, while on the other hand, it was also considered by history researchers as a very risky path due to the existence of Iga ikki groups which were hostile to the Oda and Tokugawa clans. Regardless of which theory is true, historians agreed that the track ended at Kada (a mountain pass between Kameyama town and Iga), and that the Tokugawa group suffered a last attack by the Ochimusha-gari outlaws at the Kada pass, where they reached the territory of the Kōka ikki clans of Jizamurai, which were friendly to the Tokugawa clan. The Koka ikki Jizamurai assisted Ieyasu in eliminating the threats of the Ochimusha-gari outlaws and escorted them until they reached Iga Province, where they were further protected by other friendly groups of Iga ikki , which accompanied the Ieyasu group until they safely reached Mikawa. Ietada Nikki also recorded that the escorts of Ieyasu suffered around 200 casualties during their journey. However, not all of the escaping parties managed to escape alive. Anayama Nobutada, a former Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen member who was now an ally to the Tokugawa and Nobunaga clan, was ambushed by the Ochimusha-gari during the journey, and killed along with some of his retainers. However, a modern scholar such as Tatsuo Fujita doubted the credibility of Hattori Hanzō's ninja army theory, since it first appeared in the Iga-sha yuishogaki record, which circulated in the Edo period during the rule of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune. It has been argued that the circulation of the myth about Hattori Hanzō's ninja army helping Ieyasu was created as propaganda to increase the prestige of the Iga and Koka clan confederations in the Tokugawa Shogunate. == Mitsuhide's betrayal theories ==

The Honnō-ji Incident is a major historical event, but no definitive conclusion has been reached regarding Akechi Mitsuhide's motives, and the truth remains unknown. More than 50 theories have been proposed over the years, and new theories emerge with each discovery of a new historical document or announcement of the results of an excavation. However, historian Tetsuo Owada considered such history, including Mitsuhide's alleged letter to Kobayakawa Takakage expressing his feelings about Nobunaga, as unreliable. Furthermore, some theorize that Nobunaga forcibly transferred Mitsuhide from his territorial control of Sakamoto and Tanba into the yet-to-be-conquered regions of Izumo and Iwami. However, this theory was also dismissed by Owada as it was a usual custom for Nobunaga to bestow non-pacified territories to his vassals as promise. Modern historian Watanabe Daimon explained that this theory was traced from Toyama Nobuharu's work "Sōkenki" written around 1658; "Kashiwazaki Monogatari"; and also "Nobunaga-ki" (Shinchō Kōki); which Daimon also doubted their credibilities due to many embellishments and additions which was not found in primary sources found. Thus, these stories were largely deemed by historians as unreliable, including the story of Mitsuhide's betrayal from "Akechi-gunki" and "Kōyō Gunkan". • Ashikaga Shogunate restoration, Tatsuo Fujita points out that Mitsuhide's handwritten letter addressed to the Kishu daimyo named Shigeharu Dobashi shows that Mitsuhide had a clear plan to welcome Yoshiaki to Kyoto after the Honnoji Incident and restore the Muromachi Shogunate. Alleged collaborators The mastermind theory that someone behind the incident manipulated Mitsuhide to carry out Nobunaga's assassination is surprisingly new and has emerged since the 1990s. It all started when the well-known historian who specialized in Japanese medieval history, Akira Imatani, published a book advocating a conflict between the Imperial Court and Nobunaga. The theory is that the existence of an emperor with high authority was becoming a hindrance to Nobunaga, who wanted to be an absolute monarch. At the time, when the new emperor was about to ascend to the throne, the emperor system was the subject of much debate in the historical academia. Although Imatani himself did not claim that the Imperial Court was involved in the Honnō-ji Incident, various conspiracy theories were developed, mainly by influential historical researchers who were inspired by Imatani's theory. • The reason is that Hideyoshi's Chugoku Ogaeshi was too fast. However, only the cavalry warriors were able to turn back at breakneck speed, and the infantry arrived late. Many of the soldiers did not make it in time for the "Battle of Yamazaki" with Mitsuhide. • Tokugawa Ieyasu theory In 2020, NHK aired a program called "Honnoji Incident Summit 2020". Seven historians debated various theories, with the "Shikoku theory" garnering the most support. == In popular culture ==

• Honnōji Hotel is a 2017 comedy mystery drama that takes places around the Honnō-ji Incident. • The incident is closely portrayed in the first act of the 2025 computer game ''Assassin's Creed Shadows''. == See also ==

Footnotes References Bibliography • de Lange, William (2020). Samurai Battles: The Long Road to Unification. Toyo Press. . • Naramoto Tatsuya (1994). Nihon no Kassen. Tokyo: Shufu to Seikatsusha.