Uh, I forgot to mention, Imagawa Shitoyama was a total wastrel too, loved renga drinking parties, always getting drunk, and lived an outrageously lavish life.
Anyway, Oda Nobuhide played to his tastes, often attending Imagawa Shitoyama's renga drinking parties, and the two became close friends.
Then, about eighteen or nineteen years ago, Oda Nobuhide had a stroke while at a renga party, looked like he was going to die any moment, and before dying, begged Imagawa Shitoyama to summon his household retainers so he could entrust his last affairs.
That idiot Imagawa Shitoyama soft-heartedly agreed, and as a result, Oda Nobuhide was only faking illness. That night, he led his retainers in suddenly setting fires and killing inside the castle, had people attack the gates, let the Lang Faction and Ashigaru outside in, and with barely any effort, broke into Imagawa Shitoyama's mansion. In the end, Imagawa Shitoyama was captured alive and thrown outside the city.
Word is he was too ashamed to return to Jumogawa, seems he went to Kyoto, and now is probably already dead."
"And then what?" Harano was listening, totally hooked. "Didn't the Imagawa family try to retake Nagano Castle?"
"Nope, Imagawa Shishin died, and his sons started fighting over the inheritance, so the Imagawa family couldn't spare any attention for Owari, couldn't even be bothered with Sankei. At that point, Matsudaira Qingkang from Sankei Province seized the chance to grab power—guy was actually pretty tough—and started expanding westward, ended up fighting Oda Nobuhide.
Originally, it seemed like Oda Nobuhide wasn't holding much of an advantage, but for some reason, the Matsudaira family suddenly broke out in civil war. Matsudaira Qingkang got stabbed from behind and killed in the chaos, and Oda Nobuhide used the chance to invade Sankei and took Anxiang City in western Sankei."
Ah Man kept chattering on and on, then added more about Oda Nobuhide running rampant in western Sankei, taking advantage of his enemies' weakness, attacking every year, and beating the Matsudaira family down to nothing but a bunch of turtles hiding in their shells, before continuing: "Once Oda Nobuhide had all the local big shots in western Sankei cowed, he set his sights even higher, planning to take the Matsudaira family's main fortress, Okazaki Castle, to fully take over Sankei. But just then, the Imagawa family finally wrapped up their succession mess, and the Matsudaira family, backed into a corner and staring at extinction, went crawling to their old enemies in the Imagawa family for support, even handing over their heirs as hostages.
Okay, they didn't actually hand them over—the kids got snatched away midway—but they still managed to suck up enough. After getting Imagawa's support, the Matsudaira family and Oda Nobuhide fought back and forth in eastern Sankei for five or six years. In the end, Oda Nobuhide never managed to conquer Okazaki Castle, and the two sides ended up making concessions and reaching a stalemate.
Meanwhile, the Saito family in Minoh was having its own civil war, so Oda Nobuhide took the opportunity to expand north. He invaded Minoh several times, even took over Ogaki Castle, grabbed a huge chunk of land, and looked like he'd march right up to the Saito family's seat at Inaba Castle, with a pretty good chance of snagging all of Minoh.
Ah, let me think, I was there at the time, just really young, probably…
It must have been the sixteenth year of Tenmon, yeah, the sixteenth year, ninth month, the month I had my first drink. Oda Nobuhide rallied all his family members, local samurai, and powerful landowners under his command—all told some eight thousand people, plus some big shots from Minoh itself—over ten thousand men, all the way to the outskirts of Inaba Castle. But Saito Dosan wasn't easy pickings: first, he played turtle and hunkered down in defense, then while the Oda army was looting and burning in the castle town, he sallied out for a surprise attack. The Oda troops didn't have any warning, got slammed head-on, started wailing for their mothers, and the whole army collapsed.
Oda Nobuhide's younger brother Oda Nobukane, some family head from the Oda Inbo-no-kami line—can't remember his name—Oda Nobuhide's family elder Aoyama Uemon, top minister Chiaki Kii no Kami, Owari big shots Maeda Heibachiro and Sasaki Yoneemon, just a ton of Oda household retainers and local elites—all dead, too many to keep track of, not a single family in all of Owari that didn't lose someone.
They say over a thousand died on the spot, another thousand drowned fleeing in the Kisogawa River, more than two thousand captured or surrendered, and in the end, not even three thousand managed to make it back to Owari. There's even a head mound (tower of skulls) still at Kanazawa Pass—all Oda heads lopped off—so you'll see it if you pass by."
When Ah Man finished, he even helpfully marked the location of Kanazawa Pass on the map, just a few miles south of Inaba Castle, seemingly suggesting Harano should go check out that spectacle someday. Finally, he summed it up: "That's the kind of guy Oda Nobuhide was—pretty sly and crafty, ambitious, loved fighting wars everywhere, had his heyday and ate dirt too, stirred up all kinds of trouble in his life."
Harano wasn't interested in seeing a bunch of severed heads, but remembering what Ah Man had said earlier about Oda Nobuhide dying soon, pressed further, "So that defeat really crushed Oda Nobuhide? Is he already washed up now?"
"Of course it did. He was forced to make peace, had to marry off his eldest son Oda Saburo Nobunaga to Saito's daughter, and even had to swear never to set foot in Minoh again in front of everyone. The lands he'd grabbed before—he had to give them all back." Ah Man said, a little gloatingly. "And that's not all: his whole family branch and household retainers suffered terrible losses, and even the Lower Four Prefectures' Qingzhou main house and the Upper Four Provinces' Iwakura family—that had already knuckled under before—started acting all fake and rebellious again. He basically couldn't control the Eight Provinces of Owari anymore. All the families and samurai took huge casualties, blame him for everything, and curse him behind his back, wondering why he's not dead already.
I think it was the seventeenth year of Tenmon, should be— the Matsudaira-Imagawa allied army was gathering forces at Okazaki to retake western Sankei. Oda Nobuhide called for his family members, samurai, and retainers to fight, but barely anyone responded, and when all was said and done, he could only scrape together less than four thousand men. The other side beat them bloody in another disastrous defeat. Not only did he lose western Sankei, but the Imagawa family even invaded Owari, taking chunks of Niwa County and Kasugai County. Right now, the Matsudaira-Imagawa crowd are raiding and pressing into central Aichi County all the time, almost reaching Atsuta port, and that's Oda Nobuhide's lifeblood—if he loses that, the Oda Danjo Chonosuke line is finished."
At this, Ah Man wrapped up confidently, "So, the Tiger of Owari is basically done for now. I hear he just sits around in Mosen Castle (one of Oda Nobuhide's seats) getting drunk all day, totally washed-up, the defeated dog of Owari. You seriously don't need to care about him anymore!"