Nohime Palace II

This past weekend at Gifu Castle Park, the public and media was able to see the ruins of what might have been Nobunaga's wife, Nohime's room.  Over nine hundred people participated in the event.  I will be in Japan next month, so I am looking forward to see it firsthand.

https://t.co/TFJMJ8kApM

Nobunaga no tame!

Nohime Palace I

More news on Nohime's gold-leaf palace.  High possibility that her room was on the second floor, which went through a garden..
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20160220-00001556-gifuweb-l21
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/tokai-news/20160220/3012742.html

Tenka no tame!

Nohime Palace?

There is new evidence that Nobunaga built a palace with gold leaf tile for his lovely wife Nohime.  If true, the area around Gifu Castle must have been beautiful.

http://www.chunichi.co.jp/s/article/2016021901002204.html

Nobunaga no tame!

Nobunaga Pin

There will be a Gifu Nobunaga pin to celebrate Gifu's 450th anniversary in 2017.

https://t.co/UJLxsJWp3X

Tenka no tame!

Kitsuno News

                                                   Kitsuno's grave at Kyushoji Temple Konan City, Aichi Prefecture.

Nobunaga's concubine Kitsuno (1528?-66) is in the news.  There is an article about her, the Ikoma Family, and Nobunaga.  http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201508180003

Kitsuno was the daughter of Ikoma Iemune.  She was a kind and sweet lady who gave Nobunaga the support when he needed it.  Kitsuno gave birth to three children (Nobutada, Nobukatsu, and Tokuhime).  It is important to know once Kitsuno had a relationship with Nobunaga, his ties to the Ikoma family strengthen.  The Ikoma family were in the oil and ash business.  Also the Men of the Fields had ties with the Ikoma Family.  Nobunaga used the Men of the Fields as his middle man during the Battle of Okehazama.

For more information on Kitsuno, Ikoma Family, and the Men of the Fields see David D. Neilson's thesis Society at War: Eyewitness Accounts of Sixteenth Century Japan.

Nobunaga no tame!

Komaki Castle Discoveries

Komaki Castle is in the news again with an exciting discovery.  The castle that Nobunaga built might have had two entrances.  I have written posts before stating that Komaki Castle was a dry run for Azuchi.  I still stand on that theory.  There is more archaeological evidence that Komaki was starting to look as a modern castle.  After Komaki, Nobunaga moved his headquarters to Inoguchi/Gifu, and later to Azuchi.  With the success Nobunaga had constructing Komaki Castle, he was able to some of the building techniques on a wider scale at Azuchi.

https://t.co/CHdxjK14QF

Tenka no tame!

Teramoto Castle

Located near the Chita Peninsula, Teramoto Castle was built by Hanai Harima no Kami around 1441-43.  It was a yamashiro type castle.  Six years before the Battle of Okehazama, the Hanai family switched sides to the Imagawa.  It meant access to Ogawa was cut off for Nobunaga.  Nobunaga and his allied army won a key battle at the Battle of Muraki (1554).  After the Muraki victory, Nobunaga put Teramoto to the torch burning the castle down to ashes.  The Hanai family learned a lesson never to betray Nobunaga again.

Tenka no tame!