The East of India Company
1/32nd Scale Painted Metal Figures
The Army of Oda Nobunaga.
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was the first of the three great unifiers of Japan. Coming to power at the age of only 17, he soon proved his ability by defeating a rival, Yoshimoto Imagawa, whose force of 25,000 warriors vastly outnumbered his force of only 2,000. Had Oda Nobunaga not later died when betrayed and attacked by one of his own generals, it is thought that he would likely have been the one to unite Japan and become shogun.
Nobunaga achieved control over the province of Owari (around the modern city of Nagoya) in 1559. As many other daimyo, he was keen on uniting Japan. Strategically and favorably located; he succeeded in capturing the capital in 1568. After establishing himself in Kyoto, Nobunaga continued to eliminate his enemies in turn. Among them were some militant Buddhist sects, especially the Ikko sect (Pure Land Sect) which had become very powerful in several provinces. Nobunaga destroyed the Enryakuji monastery near Kyoto completely in 1571 and his fight against the Ikko sect continued until 1580.
Nobunaga was rather fortunate concerning his two most dangerous rivals in the East: Takeda Shingen and Uyesugi Kenshin. Both of them died before they were able to confront Nobunaga! After Shingen's death, Nobunaga defeated the Takeda clan in the battle of Nagashino (1575), making use of the arquebus and modern warfare strategies.
In 1582, general Akechi murdered Nobunaga and captured his Azuchi castle. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a general fighting for Nobunaga, reacted very quickly, defeated Akechi, and took over control. Hideyoshi continued to eliminate remaining rivals. He subdued the Northern provinces and Shikoku in 1583 and Kyushu in 1587. After defeating the Hojo family in Odawara in 1590, Japan was finally reunited.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi died of natural causes in 1598 leaving Japan open to the ambitions of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
The Oda Daimyo.
The daimyo were the highest class of aristocracy and were defined as a samurai having an income of over 10,000 koku (one koku was supposed to be the amount of rice needed to keep one man for one year). Each was required to provide a number of horsemen and footsoldiers according to their income.
Our new range for Spring 2005 includes the great man himself, Oda Nobunaga, along with his most notorious generals; Ikeda Nobutera, Sakuma Nobumoi and of course the flamboyant Akechi Mitsuhide! Naturally to prevent loneliness amongst these guys we have produced a banner set with all their relevant banners, a maku (camp screen) for the Oda encampment with the famous melon flower mon, and an entire army to keep them well protected.
The East of India Company is proud to announce that this famous daimyo, his generals and his army will be added to our ever increasing "Shogun Collection" range throughout 2005 and 2006.
Please note that we also intend to produce samurai figures from the Oda clan to compliment this range.