Defeated but defiant Hisahide committed suicide, he ordered his head destroyed to prevent it becoming a trophy ( in which his son, Matsunaga Kojiro grabbed Hisahide's head and jumped off the castle wall with his sword through his throat ) and also destroyed a priceless tea kettle ( Hiragumo ) that Nobunaga coveted before he died.

Nobunaga took Odani Castle from Azai Nagamasa, who, left with no other option, committed suicide along with his son.

His forces were destroyed by the combined armies of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu at Temmokuzan in 1582, after which Katsuyori, his wife, his son Nobukatsu and several maids of their retinue committed suicide.

There is a conflicting record that Nagahide had not died of an illness, but on seeing Hideyoshi gather more power and eclipsing the Oda clan Nagahide had so long served, he felt that he had not lived up for the good of Nobunaga and the Oda clan as whole and committed suicide.

Knowing there was no way out for him, Nobunaga committed seppuku along with his attendant Mori Ranmaru.

Muneharu did not know about the death of Nobunaga, and committed seppuku after a few days.

* 1582 – Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga is forced to commit suicide in Honnō-ji, Kyoto.

Also in 1573, Nobunaga successfully destroyed the Asakura and Azai clans, leading Azai Nagamasa to send Oichi back to Nobunaga and commit suicide.

Oda Nobunaga was well on his way to the complete conquest and unification of Japan when Akechi Mitsuhide, one of his generals, forced Nobunaga into committing suicide in Honnō-ji in Kyoto.

** Oda Nobunaga, Daimyo of the Oda Clan ( b. 1534 ) ( forced suicide )

* February 25 – Hirate Masahide, Japanese diplomat and tutor of Oda Nobunaga ( suicide ) ( b. 1492 )

The refers to the forced suicide on June 21, 1582 of Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga at the hands of his samurai general Akechi Mitsuhide.

Several years later he was suspected of treachery by Oda Nobunaga and was confined to Ohama and then Futamata, before receiving an order to commit suicide from his father in 1579, who was acting on Oda Nobunaga's wishes, despite Nobunaga having married his daughter Tokuhime ( 1559-1636 ) to Nobuyasu.

Hiei ; he was defeated and forced to suicide by Nobunaga in 1573.

He attended to Nobunaga as he sought a moment of peace to carry out his last act, then Ranmaru likewise killed himself in the same way.

Built on the site of the temple Ishiyama Honganji destroyed by Nobunaga, the castle would become the last stronghold of the Toyotomi clan after Hideyoshi's death.

The period ended in 1573 when the 15th and last shogun of this line, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was driven out of the capital in Kyoto by Oda Nobunaga.

Historical sources say he lived the last several years of his life as a monk under the name " Sainen " and built the temple, Sainenji, which was named after him and mainly built to commemorate Tokugawa Ieyasu's elder son, Nobuyasu, who was accused of treason and conspiracy by Oda Nobunaga and was ordered to commit seppuku.

Following the destruction of Nagashima, Nobunaga ordered his men to search all of Echizen Province and kill every last man and woman of the so-called Ikko sect.

Thirty years prior to the start of the story, in Kagetora's last body, he engaged an intense war with Oda Nobunaga, that might have resulted in Kagetora's soul being purified and unable to possess.

Even though Nobuyuki and his supporters were still at large, Nobunaga decided to bring an army to Mino Province to aid Saitō Dōsan after Dōsan's son, Saitō Yoshitatsu, turned against him.

The three conspirators were defeated at the Battle of Inō, but they were pardoned after the intervention of Tsuchida Gozen, the birth mother of both Nobunaga and Nobuyuki.

The areas in purple show the areas controlled by the Oda in 1560, and the grey area were the territory Nobunaga controlled at the time of his death in 1582

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan in 1590, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603, were loyal followers of Nobunaga.

The authorized samurai families after the 17th century were those that chose to follow Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu.

Once the two important musket factories in Sakai City and Omi province were conquered, it gave Nobunaga superior firepower over his enemies.

These unifiers were ( in order ) Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ( also called Hashiba Hideyoshi above ) and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Ieyasu remained an ally of Oda Nobunaga and his Mikawa soldiers were part of Nobunaga's army which captured Kyoto in 1568.

In 1579, Ieyasu's wife, and his eldest son, Matsudaira Nobuyasu, were accused by Nobunaga of conspiring with Takeda Katsuyori to assassinate Nobunaga, whose daughter Tokuhime ( 1559 – 1636 ) was married to Nobuyasu.

The death of Nobunaga meant that some provinces, ruled by Nobunaga's vassals, were ripe for conquest.

These professional ninja were actively hired by daimyos between 1485 and 1581, until Oda Nobunaga invaded Iga province and wiped out the organized clans.

Even after Shingen's death, there remained several daimyo powerful enough to resist Nobunaga, but none were situated close enough to Kyoto to pose a threat politically, and it appeared that unification under the Oda banner was a matter of time.

Oda Nobunaga and Uesugi Kenshin were among the many daimyo and samurai who travelled to Kyoto to pay their respects to the shogun.

In 1573 Hisahide briefly allied with the Miyoshi, but when the hope for successes were not achieved he returned to Nobunaga to fight the Miyoshi.

This was shortly after Hidetada's stepmother ( Ieyasu's official wife ) and his half-brother Tokugawa Nobuyasu were executed on suspicion of plotting to assassinate Oda Nobunaga, who was Nobuyasu's father-in-law and Ieyasu's ally.

During the Sengoku period, the Miyoshi clan ruled Settsu and its neighbors, Izumi and Kawachi, until they were conquered by Oda Nobunaga.

The Tokugawa forces stood firm on the left flank despite many casualties, the allies provided by Nobunaga were overwhelmed, with Hiraide killed, and Takigawa and Sakuma fleeing the battle.

Uncertain of the remaining strength of the Tokugawa forces, and worried that reinforcements from Oda Nobunaga and / or Uesugi Kenshin were on their way, Takeda Shingen decided to withdraw his forces back to his own territories and to try again the following year.

Katsuie was injured, and many samurai were lost ; this first attempt was a definite failure for Nobunaga.

His wife and three daughters were entrusted to Nobunaga, considering they were his sister and nieces.

Nagamasa and his clan were utterly destroyed by Oda Nobunaga in August 1573.

However, within a few months the forces of Nobunaga were again on the march, but this time they marched on Azai lands.