Nihonmachi
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is a term used to refer to historical Japanese communities in
Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
and
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea and ...
. The term has come to also be applied to several modern-day communities, though most of these are called simply "
Japantown is a common name for Japanese communities in cities and towns outside Japan. Alternatively, a Japantown may be called J-town, Little Tokyo or , the first two being common names for Japantown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Jose and Little To ...
", in imitation of the common term "
Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
".


History

For a brief period in the 16th-17th centuries, Japanese overseas activity and presence in Southeast Asia and elsewhere in the region boomed. Sizeable Japanese communities, known as Nihonmachi, could be found in many of the major ports and political centers of the region, where they exerted significant political and economic influence. The Japanese had been active on the seas and across the region for centuries, traveling for commercial, political, religious and other reasons. The 16th century, however, saw a dramatic increase in such travel and activity. The internal strife of the
Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...
caused a great many people, primarily
samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
, commoner merchants, and Christian refugees to seek their fortunes across the seas. Many of the samurai who fled Japan around this time were those who stood on the losing sides of various major conflicts; some were
rōnin A ''rōnin'' ( ; ja, 浪人, , meaning 'drifter' or 'wanderer') was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan (1185–1868). A samurai became masterless upon the death of his master or after the loss of his master's ...
, some veterans of the
Japanese invasions of Korea Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
or of various other major conflicts. As
Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...
and later the Tokugawa shōguns issued repeated bans on Christianity, many fled the country; a significant portion of those settled in Catholic Manila. As a result of the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
's ban on direct Sino-Japanese trade or travel, the various lands of Southeast Asia became the primary destinations. Beginning in 1567, the ban was lifted for trade and contact in Southeast Asia, and many traders who would otherwise have been deemed
pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...
for their violation of the ban were thus able to engage in legal activity, though trade and travel directly between China and Japan remained illegal. These factors combined with a number of others to create a vibrant trading scene across East and Southeast Asia, a period which Southeast Asian historian Anthony Reid has dubbed "the Age of Commerce." Japanese abroad worked in a myriad of roles, though most were merchants, mercenaries, sailors, soldiers, servants, or manual laborers of various sorts. The establishment of the
red seal ships were Japanese armed merchant sailing ships bound for Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian ports with red-sealed letters patent issued by the early Tokugawa shogunate in the first half of the 17th century. Between 1600 and 1635, more than 350 Japa ...
system by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1590s, and its continuation under
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...
in the early decades of the 17th century caused this trade and overseas activity to reach a climax and enter a golden age. Through these maritime adventurers and overseas communities, Japanese
entrepôt An ''entrepôt'' (; ) or transshipment port is a port, city, or trading post where merchandise may be imported, stored, or traded, usually to be exported again. Such cities often sprang up and such ports and trading posts often developed into co ...
trade in Southeast Asia thrived. Many of the more active ports came to have a port master, or head of the Japanese community; this port master, called ''syahbandar'' in Malay and Indonesia, oversaw the activities of the residents of the ''Nihonmachi'', served as a liaison between the community and the local authorities, and played an important role in coordinating the port's trade with non-resident Japanese traders who came to the port. For roughly three decades, Japanese communities across Southeast Asia thrived. This came to an end, however, in the 1630s, as the
Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia ...
began to impose maritime restrictions; in 1635, Japanese were banned from travelling abroad, and from returning to Japan from overseas. Some of these Southeast Asian ''Nihonmachi'' survived through the end of the 17th century. Japan's foreign trade was now handled exclusively by Chinese, Dutch, and Southeast Asian ships, but Japanese living abroad continued to play important commercial roles, and in some cases to exert considerable influence upon the economies of a number of ports. Still, by the end of the 17th century, the lack of influx of new Japanese immigrants led these communities to either disappear through assimilation into the peoples of their new homes, or to die out entirely.


Communities

During this brief but vibrant period, Japanese communities (''Nihonmachi'') existed in many of the major ports and political centers of the region, including
Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
in the
Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
,
Hội An Hội An (), formerly known as Fai-Fo or Faifoo, is a city with a population of approximately 120,000 in Vietnam's Quảng Nam Province and is noted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999. Along with the Cu Lao Cham archipelago, it is part o ...
in
Nguyễn Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese name, Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. wiktionary:nguyên, Nguyên (元)is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 perc ...
southern
Viet Nam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
,
Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
in the
Captaincy General of the Philippines The Captaincy General of the Philippines ( es, Capitanía General de Filipinas ; tl, Kapitaniya Heneral ng Pilipinas) was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire in Southeast Asia governed by a Governor-General of the Philippines, gove ...
of
Spanish East Indies The Spanish East Indies ( es , Indias orientales españolas ; fil, Silangang Indiyas ng Espanya) were the overseas territories of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1898, governed for the Spanish Crown from Mexico C ...
, and
Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...
in
Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...
. An important and significant ''Nihonmachi'' is that of
Paco Paco is a Spanish nickname for Francisco. According to folk etymology, the nickname has its origins in Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the father of the Franciscan order; his name was written in Latin by the order as ''Pater Communitatis'' (fath ...
in Manila, where the famous
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
Takayama and his wife, children, and descendants lived. The exiled
daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally ...
was known for his military prowess and served with
Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...
and
Ieyasu Tokugawa was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...
. The largest,Ishii. p1. and perhaps most famous, ''Nihonmachi'' of the period was that in the Siamese port city and royal capital of
Ayutthaya Ayutthaya, Ayudhya, or Ayuthia may refer to: * Ayutthaya Kingdom, a Thai kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767 ** Ayutthaya Historical Park, the ruins of the old capital city of the Ayutthaya Kingdom * Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province (locally ...
, whose head,
Yamada Nagamasa was a Japanese adventurer who gained considerable influence in the Ayutthaya Kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century and became the governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat province, which is on the Malay Peninsula in present-day Southern Thailand. ...
, bore prominent posts and titles in the royal court. Yamada led an army of 700 Japanese, and took part in suppressing rebellions, civil wars, and succession disputes; he was also allowed to control monopolies over particular goods, such as deerskin, and was given at least nominal governorship of a few provinces at various points. On the other end of the spectrum, though the port of
Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain ''Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includi ...
in northern Vietnam played an important role in the region's silk trade, the local Trinh authorities actively discouraged the formation of a ''Nihonmachi'' there. This is believed to have largely been the result of concerns over the martial nature of the Japanese in the region (many were samurai serving as pirates and mercenaries), and over the shipments of weapons and munitions from Japan to Siam and southern Vietnam. In order to avoid potential violence within their chief port, the Trịnh Lords sought to avoid any significant permanent Japanese presence, though many notable and prominent Japanese merchants did frequently make port there.


Paco, Manila

The Japanese established quite early a nihonmachi at Dilao, a suburb of
Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
in the
Spanish Philippines Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, where they numbered between 300 and 400 in 1593. The statue of its famous resident
Dom Justo Takayama , born and also known as Dom Justo Takayama (c. 1552 – 3 or 5 February 1615) was a Japanese Catholic Kirishitan daimyō and samurai who lived during the Sengoku period that witnessed anti-Catholic sentiment. Takayama had been baptized int ...
or ''Takayama'', a Japanese Catholic
kirishitan The Japanese term , from Portuguese ''cristão'' (cf. Kristang), meaning "Christian", referred to Catholic Christians in Japanese and is used in Japanese texts as a historiographic term for Catholics in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries. M ...
daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...
and
samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
can be found there. In 1603, during the
Sangley rebellion The Sangley Rebellion was a series of armed confrontations between Overseas Chinese, known as the Sangley, and the Spanish and their allied forces in Manila, Captaincy General of the Philippines, in October 1603. The Chinese had dominated trading ...
, they numbered 1,500, and 3,000 in 1606. Paco was known as ''Dilao'' because of the
Amaryllis ''Amaryllis'' () is the only genus in the subtribe Amaryllidinae (tribe Amaryllideae). It is a small genus of flowering bulbs, with two species. The better known of the two, ''Amaryllis belladonna'', is a native of the Western Cape region of S ...
plants that were once plentiful on this district. Dilao or ''dilaw'' is a Tagalog word for the color
yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...
. Although, some sources say, it was named Dilao or "Yellow Plaza" by the
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
settlers because of the Japanese migrants who lived there, describing their
physiognomy Physiognomy (from the Greek , , meaning "nature", and , meaning "judge" or "interpreter") is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the general ...
. Spanish
Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
missionaries founded the town of Paco as early as 1580. The name Dilao was used until 1791. The name San Fernando was added, making it San Fernando de Dilao. In the 19th century, the town of San Fernando de Dilao was given the nickname of Paco (which means Francisco). Paco, along with Sampaloc, Santa Ana, San Juan del Monte, and San Pedro de Macati became the second largest districts that became part of Manila. It became to known as Paco de Dilao and eventually as Paco as it known today.


Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya (not far from present-day Bangkok Thailand) is said to have had a Japanese settlement of about 1500, known in Thai as
Ban Yipun The Japanese Village, known in Thai as Ban Yipun or Muban Yipun (; ja, アユタヤ日本人町, translit=Ayutaya Nihonjin-machi, translit-std=Hepburn), was a historic Japanese ethnic enclave (nihonmachi) just outside the capital city of the Ayut ...
, in the 1620s. The kingdom only began trading with Japan around 1570, though it had been actively engaged in commerce with the kingdom of Ryūkyū a short distance to Japan's south, for over one hundred years. This time also marked the beginning of the Japanese community in Ayutthaya, among the most distant ports from Japan with which the Japanese traded in the early modern period. Japanese "adventurers", mostly ronin fleeing Japan and seeking their fortunes overseas, were welcomed by the kings of Ayutthaya, and more than a few were employed by the royal government as bodyguards, soldiers, and in other capacities. The kingdom engaged frequently in conflict with
Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
, and many of these samurai soldiers served the court in battle. The kings also engaged in formal relations with the Tokugawa shōguns, receiving shipments of arms and munitions among many other trade items. By the 1620s, Japan was Ayutthaya's most major trading partner, as over twenty Japanese merchant houses, along with many independent adventurers and traders, engaged in commercial shipping between Ayutthaya and
Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...
every year. Trade and relations between Japan and Ayutthaya were quite friendly and strong for roughly sixty years, until a series of political scandals in 1630 led to the shogunate formally severing ties with the kingdom. Following the death of King
Songtham Songtham ( th, ทรงธรรม, ) or Intharacha III was the King of Ayutthaya from 1610/11 to 1628 of the House of Sukhothai. His reign marked the prosperity of the Ayutthaya kingdom after it regained independence from Toungoo Dynasty, and ...
, the throne was seized by
Prasat Thong Prasat ThongThe Royal Institute. List of monarchs Ayutthaya''. ( th, ปราสาททอง, ; c. 1600–1656; 1629–1656) was the first king of the Prasat Thong dynasty, the fourth dynasty of the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom. Accounts vary ...
in a violent coup. As part of this scheme, Prasat Thong arranged for the head of the ''Nihonmachi'', Yamada Nagamasa, who also served in prominent roles in court and as head of a contingent of royal Japanese bodyguards, to be killed. Fearing retribution from the Japanese community, the new king burnt down the ''Nihonmachi'', expelling or killing most of the residents. Many Japanese fled to Cambodia, and a number returned several years later having been granted amnesty by the king. The shogunate, regarding Prasat Thong as an usurper and a pretender to the throne, severed ties with the kingdom. Trade continued aboard Chinese and Dutch ships, and, though formal relations were not resumed following the ascension of King
Narai King Narai the Great ( th, สมเด็จพระนารายณ์มหาราช, , ) or Ramathibodi III ( th, รามาธิบดีที่ ๓ ) was the 27th monarch of Ayutthaya Kingdom, the 4th and last monarch of the Pr ...
to the throne in 1657, an event in which the Japanese community played a not insignificant part, the royal court's involvement in trade with Japan did resume. The ''Nihonmachi'' recovered for a time, playing an important role in managing aspects of the Japanese trade at the port, and lasting through the end of the 17th century before becoming assimilated into the Siamese population and disappearing. Much of the city was destroyed when it was taken by the Burmese in 1767, and very little by way of intact buildings or other large, noticeable remnants remains today of the ''Nihonmachi''. A formal marker, placed in modern times, denotes the site, which has been the subject of some archaeological research, and which has been visited by
Japanese Emperors This list of emperors of Japan presents the traditional order of succession. Records of the reigns are compiled according to the traditional Japanese calendar. In the ''nengō'' system which has been in use since the late-seventh century, years are ...
HIM
Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. He presided over the Heisei era, ''Heisei'' being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. Bo ...
and his predecessor HIM
Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
.


Hội An

Hội An, located a short distance from
Da Nang Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...
, was the largest port in early modern Vietnam. The Japanese community there was quite small, consisting of only a few tens of households, in contrast both to the Japanese community of other cities such as Ayutthaya, and to the Chinese population of Hội An, which numbered in the thousands. Even so, the Japanese in the ''Nihonmachi'' of Hội An exerted a powerful influence upon the affairs of the trading port, the Japanese demand for silk being so great that the comings and goings of Japanese merchant ships every year caused dramatic cyclical shifts in market prices.Li. ''Nguyễn Cochinchina''. p63. On average, more than ten Japanese ships visited the port every year during the period of the "red seal ships", that is, between roughly 1590 and 1635; this represented fully a quarter of all Japanese maritime economic activity, more than that of any other individual port. For several months every year, when the trade winds allowed Chinese and Japanese ships to arrive, a vibrant marketplace would appear in the port, and Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese merchants engaged in trading a wide variety of goods. Among other factors which contributed to its prosperity, Hội An was well-placed to serve as a neutral port where Chinese and Japanese could trade without violating the Ming ''hai jin'' ban. During the rest of the year, members of the Japanese community in the port city prepared for the market by gathering goods from Chinese and Vietnamese merchants according to the particular demands of the Japan-based merchants who would be arriving with the ships. The first
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
merchants arrived in the port in 1633, and were greeted by the head of the ''Nihonmachi''. Though the shogunate would impose maritime restrictions in 1635, banning direct Japanese involvement in overseas trade, Dutch records indicate that for the few years which the Dutch and Japanese coexisted in Hội An, the Japanese completely dominated the port's economy. Even after 1635, Japanese were hesitant to deal with the Dutch, buying silks from the Chinese in such volume that the Dutch merchants were rarely able to purchase the amounts they desired, and had to face significantly higher prices resulting from the drastically reduced supply. Over the course of the 17th century, the Japanese community in Hội An gradually shrank and disappeared, assimilated into the Vietnamese community. Intermarriage not only within the ''Nihonmachi'', but between notable Japanese merchant families and the Nguyễn noble family, is indicated by contemporary records, grave markers, and various forms of anecdotal evidence. The descendants of several of these merchant families still hold today as heirlooms objects relating the families' connections to Vietnam. Hội An today is a small and relatively unassuming city, its port having long since silted up, leading to a sharp decline in its economic prosperity and significance. The precise location of the ''Nihonmachi'' within the city remains unknown, though scholars continue to explore the subject, using both contemporary records and archaeological findings. The so-called "Japanese bridge", also known as ''Lai Vien Kieu'' ("Bridge of Friends from Afar"), remains one of the city's most famous sites and serves as a reminder of the Japanese community that once thrived there. Conventional wisdom seems to indicate that this bridge marks the entrance to the ''Nihonmachi's'' main street; however, the observation that the bridge is not constructed in a Japanese style has led a number of scholars to discount this idea.Chuong, Thau. "Bridge of Friendship." in ''Ancient Town of Hoi An''.


See also

*
Dom Justo Takayama , born and also known as Dom Justo Takayama (c. 1552 – 3 or 5 February 1615) was a Japanese Catholic Kirishitan daimyō and samurai who lived during the Sengoku period that witnessed anti-Catholic sentiment. Takayama had been baptized int ...
*
Ieyasu Tokugawa was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...
*
Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Ethnic enclaves in Asia