Who Is Oda Nobunaga (Demon King of the Sixth Heaven)?
The rising warlord once mocked as the Great Fool
Oda Nobunaga was a warlord of Japan's Warring States era, born in Owari Province (today western Aichi Prefecture), who came close to unifying the country. Born in 1534 as the son of Oda Nobuhide, he made his name at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560 and died in 1582 at the Honno-ji Incident, when his retainer Akechi Mitsuhide attacked him.
This manga follows his early years as told in the Shinchō Kōki. Nobunaga walks through town in flashy clothes and is laughed at as "the Great Fool," yet he throws himself into training in horsemanship, swimming, archery, and gunnery. He hurls powdered incense at the altar during his father's funeral, astonishes Saito Dosan at their meeting at Shotoku-ji temple, defeats his brother's army at the Battle of Ino, and rides out of his castle with six horsemen to kill Imagawa Yoshimoto at Okehazama.
His "Demon King" nickname is known from a letter by the missionary Luis Frois, which says Nobunaga called himself the "Demon King of the Sixth Heaven."
Episodes featuring this character5
NEWEpisode 1
He Hurled Incense at His Father's FuneralThe Great Fool of Owari
The whole town laughs at the young lord they call the Great Fool. But one young archer, Ota Gyuichi, sees what nobody else does: the young lord training alone at dawn. At his father's funeral, the young lord hurls incense at the altar. Then his guardian, Hirate Masahide, takes his own life. In Episode 1, what was the first thing the chronicler wrote down?
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
Spying on the 'Fool,' He Saw 500 SpearsThe Meeting at Shotoku-ji Temple
The old warlord Saito Dosan plans to peek through the cracks of a shack at the edge of town and laugh at his son-in-law, the rumored "fool" of Owari. But behind the young lord march five hundred crimson spears—and at the temple waits a young man in formal dress that no one has ever seen before.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 3
He Forgave His Brother Once. Only Once.The Battle of Ino
Saito Dosan, his wife's father and the one man who believed in him, is dead, and the young lord Oda Nobunaga is suddenly alone. His polite younger brother Kanjuro, his mother's favorite, is pushed by ambitious retainers into rising against him. Nobunaga forgives him once. He doesn't forgive him a second time.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 4
45,000 Enemies. He Rode Out With Six.The Battle of Okehazama
As forty-five thousand Imagawa troops swallow the border forts one by one, Oda Nobunaga gives his senior retainers no battle plan at all, only two words: "Go home." At dawn he dances Atsumori, wolfs down his breakfast standing up, and bursts out of the castle with just six riders.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 5
He Beat an Army. He Can't Beat a Hill.Siege of Inabayama Castle
Oda Nobunaga crushed an army of 45,000, yet for years one mountain castle has him saying "Going home." He strips away the enemy's allies one by one, then moves without waiting for the hostages, so fast that even his own side is stunned.
19 pages