Oda Nobunaga
Death and succession

The goal of national unification and a return to the comparative political stability of the earlier Muromachi period was widely shared by the multitude of autonomous daimyō during the Sengoku period. Oda Nobunaga was the first for whom this goal seemed attainable. He controlled most of Honshu shortly before his death in the Honnō-ji Incident of 1582.

The motive for the rebellion of Akechi Mitsuhide, the vassal who betrayed Nobunaga, remains unclear, partly because Mitsuhide himself did not say anything, and various theories are still being discussed. After the incident, Mitsuhide declared to the world that he would rule over Nobunaga's territory, but was soon defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The loss of his position and power so quickly gave rise to the idiom Mikka Tenka (三日天下, lit. ' a three-day reign ').

Later, Hideyoshi succeeded in regaining Oda's territory and wrested control of it from the Oda clan, further expanding his dominion greatly. And when he was appointed to the highest rank of kuge, Kanpaku, despite being a common-born samurai, and in 1590, eight years after the incident, he achieved the unification of Japan.

After the death of Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu completed the goal of national unification by subjugating local daimyō under a hereditary shogunate, which was ultimately accomplished in 1603 when Ieyasu was granted the title of Shogun by Emperor Go-Yōzei following the successful Sekigahara Campaign of 1600.

The nature of the succession of power through the three daimyō is reflected in a well-known Japanese idiom:

Nobunaga pounds the national rice cake, Hideyoshi kneads it, and in the end, Ieyasu sits down and eats it.

The changing character of power through Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu is reflected in another well-known idiom:

Nobunaga said: "Little bird, sing. If you don't sing, I will kill you". Hideyoshi said: "Little bird, sing. If you don't sing, I will make you sing". Ieyasu said: "Little bird, sing. If you don't sing, I will wait for you to sing".

All three were born within eight years of each other (1534 to 1542), started their careers as samurai, and finished them as statesmen. Nobunaga inherited his father's domain at the age of 17, and quickly gained control of Owari Province through gekokujo. Hideyoshi started his career in Nobunaga's army as an ashigaru but quickly rose up through the ranks as a samurai. Ieyasu initially fought against Nobunaga as the heir of a rival daimyō, but later expanded his own inheritance through a profitable alliance with Nobunaga.
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