Origins Oda Nobunaga first claimed that the Oda clan was descended from the
Fujiwara clan, and later claimed descent from
Taira no Sukemori of the
Taira clan. According to the official genealogy of the Oda clan, after Taira no Sukemori was killed in the
Battle of Dannoura in 1185,
Taira no Chikazane, the son of Sukemori and a concubine, was entrusted to a
Shinto priest at a
Shinto Shrine in Otanosho in the
Echizen province. This Chikazane became the founder of the Oda clan. According to modern theories, there is no evidence that the Oda clan was descended from the Taira clan, and there is a theory that they were actually descended from the
Inbe clan, who were
Shinto priests in Otanosho. Fujiwara no Nobumasa, an ancestor of Nobunaga, is believed to have been adopted from the Inbe clan by the Fujiwara. One theory as to why Nobunaga came to claim descent from the Taira clan is that he justified his own seizure of power by exploiting . In other words, the idea was that the Minamoto clan, the
shogun of the
Kamakura shogunate, the
Hōjō clan, descended from the Taira clan (
Shikken of the Kamakura shogunate), the
Ashikaga clan, descended from the Minamoto clan (shogun of the
Ashikaga shogunate), and the Oda clan, descended from the Taira clan, were destined to seize power in that order.
Independence In the middle of the
Muromachi period, the Oda clan served the
Shiba clan, of
Echizen province, and when Shiba Yoshishige was appointed
Shugo of
Owari province and moved to Owari, the Oda clan followed suit, and Oda Jōshō became a serving the Shiba clan.
Nobunaga's reign Oda Nobuhide took Nagoya Castle in 1538 (it was given to Nobunaga in 1542), and built
Furuwatari Castle.
Oda Nobutomo held Kiyosu Castle, but he was besieged and killed in 1555 by his nephew
Oda Nobunaga who operated from Nagoya Castle. This led to the family being divided into several branches, until the branch led by
Oda Nobunaga eclipsed the others and unified its control over Owari. Then turning to neighboring rivals, it, one by one achieved dominance over the
Imagawa,
Saitō,
Azai,
Asakura,
Takeda and other clans, until Nobunaga held control over central Japan. However, Nobunaga's plans for national domination were thwarted when he fell victim to the treachery of his vassal
Akechi Mitsuhide who forced Nobunaga into suicide during the
Incident at Honnō-ji in the summer of 1582. The Oda remained titular overlords of central Japan for a short time, before being surpassed by the family of one of Nobunaga's chief generals,
Hashiba Hideyoshi.
Edo period Though the Oda were effectively eclipsed by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi following Nobunaga's death, it is not often known that the Oda continued to be a presence in Japanese politics. One branch of the family became
hatamoto retainers to the Tokugawa shōgun, while other branches became minor
daimyō lords. As of the end of the Edo period, these included
Tendō Domain (also known as Takahata Domain,
Dewa Province, 20,000
koku),
Yanagimoto han (
Yamato Province, 10,000
koku), Kaiju han (also known as Shibamura han; Yamato Province, 10,000
koku), and Kaibara han (
Tanba Province, 20,000
koku). During the reign of the
daimyō Nobutoshi, the Oda of Tendō Domain were signatories to the pact that created the
Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei.
After Meiji Restoration After the
Meiji Restoration in 1871, the
feudal domains were abolished, and all the four houses of the Oda clan were appointed
viscounts in the new hereditary peerage (
kazoku). ==Descendants==