The past month or so I have been thinking about Nobunaga and Mikawa. Could he have had Mikawa all to himself after the Battle of Okehazama? The answer is highly possible if he wanted to. The Matsudaira family was not in good shape before they allied themselves with the Imagawa and after Okehazama. Nobunaga's father Nobuhide had some success against the Matsudaira in 1540s and taking a chunk of Mikawa. All this while Owari was not fully unified. The Matsudaira finally pushed back until they had help from the Imagawa. The situation changed for the worse when Ieyasu's father was murdered in 1549. The Matsudaira house was at its weakest.
An earlier post on Oda Nobuhide and Mikawa. http://otsuke.blogspot.com/2014/07/nobuhide-and-mikawa.html
After the Battle of Okehazama, Nobunaga had success against the Matsudaira. He attacked Umegatsubo and Yakusa Castles with a victory. Young Ieyasu had to be horrified about the situation. The Matsudaira house and Mikawa Province was not even close to being unified. To make matters even worse, if Nobunaga launched a full scale attack on Mikawa, Ieyasu knew full well he would not receive outside support. In fact, I believe Nobunaga would have easily taken Mikawa. However, it did not happen because Nobunaga and Ieyasu made peace and created one of the more successful alliances in Sengoku history. Besides Nobunaga giving away his daughter to the Tokugawa made him the senior partner between the two houses, I believe his military and economic strength made a huge difference as well.
Nobunaga no tame!
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