Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Seize Power/Retain Power - full transcript

1568.

Ten years after waging a bloody campaign
to gain control over his own province,

powerful samurai warlord Oda Nobunaga
has seized much of Central Japan,

including the nation’s capital, Kyoto.

Now, driven by a towering ambition,

he dreams of crushing the powerful clans
who still oppose his rule.

And for the first time in over a century,

uniting all of Japan under one banner.

But Nobunaga’s legendary brutality
has caused widespread anger.

Across the nation,
powerful enemies now plot his demise.

Nobunaga was a master
of the battlefield.



But in Kyoto, he was beginning to see
the potential he had for power.

This caused lasting resentment
among Nobunaga’s rivals.

They knew that Nobunaga
wanted the power for himself.

This meant Nobunaga's rule

in Central Japan was immediately
ringed by adversaries,

who whilst of very diverse origins,

were drawn together by their dislike
and worry about his expanding control.

If Nobunaga wished to truly consolidate
his power in Central Japan,

he had to either co-opt or eliminate
all other sources of authority.

And the Buddhist institutions,
the great temples…

and the populist Buddhist sects
were two of the greatest threats to this.

The blessing of the Buddha
to us…

The Buddhist establishment
was a huge hurdle in Nobunaga’s path.

These institutions were deeply embedded
in the political fabric of the country



and absolutely accustomed
to flex their political muscle.

Buddhism has a very long history
in Japan,

and it arrived in Japan
before there really was a Japan

in the sense
of a centralized bureaucratic state.

The concept is that the great temples
exist to perform ritual and ceremony,

which will protect Japan from invasion,
from disease, from hardship.

This is a divine defense against
any kind of external or internal threat.

The Buddhist institutions were
often as heavily armed as warlords.

They would fight to the death.
Nothing daunted them,

and they knew that victory in battle
would guarantee the path to heaven.

So, these were major institutions
that had the military power

to prevent the total domination
of Central Japan by Nobunaga.

You called?

Rid me of these parasites!

Mitsuhide!

Now, get moving!

Yes, sir.

The large Buddhist institutions

were not the only,
or even the major, threat

coming from, let’s call it,
the Buddhist quarter.

There was a new militant sect
of Buddhism that developed

called the Ikkō-ikki…

which were communities of believers
spread throughout the land.

The Ikkō-ikki appeal to the simple
farmers and workers,

because it was
a very simple formula for salvation,

just repeating one’s belief in the Buddha.

This was extremely powerful
in a land that's still beset

by poverty and famine and warfare.

The Ikko drew people together
across social lines

to defend their places of worship
and communities in a collective manner.

Merchants, villagers, monks, everyone
could be united by their common faith

to try and drive daimyo rule
out of their land.

By the end of the 1500s,
the Ikkō-ikki had a network across Japan.

They built large temple fortresses…

and they were rising up
in almost all of the provinces.

They had armies
of monks and peasants.

They answered to a higher authority.
They weren't willing to become subordinate

to any of the great daimyo leaders,
including Oda Nobunaga.

Oda Nobunaga is…

torturing our people.

His deeds are of the devil.

We must put from our minds any image
of these Buddhist monks being peaceful men

who spent their lives in prayer.

They were a formidable military enemy.

Ho!

If Nobunaga did not make
an example of them,

and he felt that
they threatened his authority

and would allow uprisings
throughout the country

in the strategic points
that he wanted to control,

he had to destroy them.

When Nobunaga moved
against the Ikkō-ikki,

he was aiming for its total eradication

and the massacre of anyone
who stood in his way.

August, 1570.

Nobunaga moves
to destroy the Ikkō-ikki forever.

After crushing a number
of their fortresses,

he decides to strike
at the heart of Buddhism in Japan.

The temple complex Enryaku-ji.

It is a decision that will threaten
everything he has worked to achieve.

We, as Buddhists,
must not allow this.

We shall not allow his actions.

Enryaku-ji was by far the most
politically influential Buddhist complex

in Japan,

and for centuries,
it had had political power that rivaled

the great chieftains throughout Japan,
and had very close ties with the court.

Even though it is
to disobey Buddha's teachings

to take a life…

And one thing that had enraged Nobunaga,

who was
very vehemently anti-Buddhist anyway,

was that these monks had given
refuge to his fleeing enemies.

Not only that, it was so close to Kyoto,

it literally overlooked the city,

that here was a potential strategic threat
to Nobunaga’s survival.

So he made the most fateful decision
of his career.

He would attack and destroy

the greatest monastery in Japan,
the Enryaku-ji.

In September 1571,

Nobunaga assembled an army of a size
that you would expect for a major battle

against a serious enemy.

Nobunaga's advance on Enryaku-ji
caused much of the civilian population

to retreat to the top of a mountain,

to the top of Mount Hiei where
the monastic complex of Enryaku-ji was.

Nobunaga ordered his troops
to advance in a line up the mountain,

murdering anyone they came across…

…and burning any buildings.

During this period of Sengoku
warfare, there was brutality on all sides,

but Enryaku-ji brought it
to a different level.

Sources characterized Nobunaga's
troops as wild animals.

All Nobunaga's men reached
the top of the mountain

and the central temple itself.

And when Nobunaga's troops approached,
they gave an ultimatum to Enryaku-ji.

They could display loyalty to him,

or they could resist him and be destroyed.

And they chose the latter.

The temple was burned,

and the citizens of Kyoto could look up
into the eastern sky

and see it lit up

with the flames of the most famous
Buddhist monastery in Japan.

Nobunaga’s men hunted down
anyone who had escaped

from the conflagration.

- Mother, are you all right?
- Run.

Mother! Run away.

Mother!

This was an unsparing attack
in which no one,

be they monk, woman, or child…

was exempted from assault.

Nobunaga ordered
that all of them,

every woman and every child,

should be beheaded,

which was a sight that even his own troops
could barely bear to watch.

It’s said that 20,000 people died

in this greatest act
of tyranny and cruelty.

It even disgusted
some of his most loyal generals.

Akechi Mitsuhide,
himself a devout Buddhist,

from that moment on

began to have grave doubts
about Nobunaga's ability to rule.

There’s clearly something
pathological in Nobunaga’s character.

None of the daimyo shied away from using
force, but Nobunaga seemed to revel in it.

This massacre was absolute.

It’s said that there was a river of blood
that ran down the mountainside.

This, of course, was a message.
It was a message to other Buddhist sects.

It was also a message to the other daimyos
that Nobunaga would observe no boundary.

This man, who, for the first time,

had a realistic chance of actually uniting
at least the central provinces of Japan

was going to do it one way,
through bloodshed and through the sword.

But his destruction of Enryaku-ji
would come back to haunt him later on.

The bloodshed continues
as Nobunaga strikes

against more of their strongholds,

and puts countless Buddhists to the sword.

These actions enrage other powerful
warlords, known as daimyo,

and set Nobunaga on a collision course

with his most powerful
and formidable adversary yet.

It wasn't just
the Buddhist establishment

who were shocked by Nobunaga's action
on Mount Hiei.

Many of the daimyo now became convinced

that Nobunaga was a cruel tyrant
who had to be overthrown.

However, only very few of them had
the resources whereby they could do it.

One of them did,

and his name was Takeda Shingen.

Takeda Shingen was a daimyo
of Kai Province, located in Central Japan.

He was known as a particularly fierce
military commander.

He became known widely
as the Tiger of Kai,

and he’s really one of the last people
who’s in a position

to check Nobunaga’s advance across Japan.

He has a complex reputation.

He's, on the one hand,
a man of incredible violence.

Certain crimes
are punished by being boiled alive.

On the other hand,
he is an ordained Buddhist monk.

A slogan associated with him refers
to one of the Buddha's sayings,

“Under heaven,
I alone am worthy of respect,"

and Shingen puts his own spin on it.
"I alone am worthy of being feared."

Other daimyo recognized

that Takeda Shingen
was a very significant threat,

um, and that he was the head
of a formidable army.

What it really comes down to is that

Shingen knows that Nobunaga
is a major threat and vice versa.

After the destruction
of the Enryaku-ji,

Takeda Shingen decided that he needed
to take the offensive against Nobunaga.

He did so by first trying to eliminate

Nobunaga’s ally, Tokugawa Ieyasu.

He'd served Nobunaga
since the Battle of Okehazama

and was one of his most trusted
generals and advisers.

But Ieyasu’s lands lie
to the east of Nobunaga

and the south of Shingen,
so he’s in between the two.

And now, Shingen is going to attack
Ieyasu first and then turn on Nobunaga.

This is the first step on an invasion
heading all the way to Kyoto

to displace Nobunaga from Kyoto itself,

so that Shingen could become
the new lord of the Imperial City.

This was a dangerous situation
for Ieyasu,

because at this point
he knows he is outnumbered,

he's facing a very formidable general.

But he does have one ace, and that is
his relationship with Oda Nobunaga.

He can reach out to his powerful ally
and ask for help.

But Nobunaga at this point
is embroiled in this war

in Central Japan against
Buddhist establishments.

Most of his forces are already engaged.

He sends a paltry force of 3,000 middling
commanders at best to assist Ieyasu.

This is a dangerous gamble for Nobunaga.

If Ieyasu falls, then Nobunaga's
own home province of Owari

is probably the next target.

But it's a gamble that, in many ways,
I think he had to make.

Too many other wars to fight.

Now, Takeda Shingen
had around 35,000 troops.

Ieyasu had around 8,000 troops.

We meet them in the field.

We will fight the Takeda and destroy them!
No weakness!

Yet he still decided
to meet Shingen in the field.

The main reason
he chooses to do this

is because he believes a show of strength
is necessary for his own vassals.

Loyalty for a samurai at this point
is a two-way street.

They're loyal to people who win,
who can protect them.

The lord who cannot
protect his own territory

from being robbed
by an army coming through…

Is that a lord worth following?

January 25th, 1573.

Ieyasu ignores
his commanders' calls to back down.

He moves his men to confront Shingen.

He is outnumbered three to one.
But despite the odds, Ieyasu attacks.

Within hours, Shingen’s superior tactics
and numbers annihilate Ieyasu’s forces.

Mad with grief,

Ieyasu fights on and must be dragged
to safety by his loyal retainers.

This was a humbling defeat
for Ieyasu.

He had tried to stand up
to a superior force,

like his ally Nobunaga
had done several times,

and was defeated decisively.

The loss is very demoralizing
for Ieyasu,

as is the fact that the very next year,

the armies of the Takeda do return

and take several castles from him,
and he feels utterly unable to stop it.

He doesn't even put an army out to try.

Takeda Shingen
completely has Ieyasu on the ropes, uh,

and if he wanted to deliver
that final knockout blow, he could have.

But in the early part of that decade,

in the midst of this great success
that Shingen has enjoyed, uh, he dies.

The consensus
is that he probably died of liver cancer.

A kind of unceremonious end
to this illustrious warlord.

Before his death, he gave
instructions to his senior retainers

that they were to keep it secret
for three years…

so that his heir, Takeda Katsuyori,
could consolidate his control of Kai

and the retainers underneath him,
before mounting any further operations.

Takeda Katsuyori was
an accomplished general.

He had performed bravely in battle.

His biggest problem was garnering the
support of his father’s senior generals.

These were Shingen’s old guard,
who had been with him his entire life.

And he’s in direct competition
with the memory of his father.

His father was this gigantic character.

Not all of his retainers
trust him.

You see, Katsuyori's mother

was one of the people who Shingen
had taken by force as a concubine.

So, many of the Takeda retainers
didn't trust Katsuyori.

They thought, "He's a bastard.

He comes from
this extramarital relationship,

and he might not really
be loyal to the cause."

As Kasuyori tries to make his
name as the leader of the Takeda clan…

he receives an unexpected
but very welcome letter.

The letter comes from the wife of one
of his greatest enemies, Tokugawa Ieyasu.

And it seems almost too good to be true.

Lady Tsukiyama was
secretly sending letters

to the leader of Ieyasu's archenemy,
Takeda Katsuyori.

Lady Tsukiyama
and Tokugawa Ieyasu married

when they were very young,

like 14 or 15 years old.

It was an arranged marriage
to make peace.

But because
this was an arranged marriage,

their relationship was never good.

They then, uh, lived together
for 13 years, and they had a son.

Lady Tsukiyama was extremely proud,
jealous, tempestuous,

bad-tempered,
very difficult to get along with.

Ieyasu started to take concubines,
and then he had a number of concubines.

Well, Ieyasu certainly came to prefer
the company of his concubines. Um…

All men of power in those days
had concubines,

but we do know that Lady Tsukiyama
had a jealous personality,

so she very probably, um, was jealous

of the fact that he had
some 19 or 20 concubines.

So, as far as she was concerned,
she got a pretty raw deal.

In these letters, she said that she would
betray Ieyasu and Oda Nobunaga,

and in exchange…

could he please give her son sanctuary
and give him lands

and could he also provide her with
a husband from among his generals?

So, Katsuyori may have thought,
"Here is my chance to eliminate Ieyasu."

This would really solidify his position
as the new Takeda family head.

And it would also do a lot to really gain
the firm support of his retainers.

Takeda Katsuyori answered
and said, "This is fine."

And yet she named the general
who he would marry to her.

Instead of waiting three years
as his father dictated,

Katsuyori decided to move earlier.

And this would lead to one of the most
iconic clashes of the Sengoku period.

In 1575, Katsuyori takes his forces
and follows essentially the same route

that his father had several years before.

For Ieyasu, once again,
this is an invasion into his territory.

Tokugawa Ieyasu is aware of the threat

because he has received messengers
detailing the size of the Takeda force,

about 15,000 men.

And if he cannot stop them,

they potentially
will eliminate him completely.

The situation, as Ieyasu sees it,
is grave.

And he dashes off a message to Nobunaga.

Ieyasu has been a steadfast ally

the entire time
of their relationship together.

He has fought battles
side by side with Nobunaga,

at times, come to rescue Nobunaga.

And he tells Nobunaga…

"I have done all these things for you.

If you don’t send reinforcements now,

I will change sides.

And with Katsuyori,
we will invade your lands,

I will take your castles,
and we will defeat you.”

This is a pretty drastic thing
to be telling Oda Nobunaga.

If Nobunaga lost,

this would arguably be
the most serious defeat

that he had suffered up to this point.

And what it would mean is a complete halt
to any kind of eastward expansion.

Nobunaga also relies on this aura
of fear, this aura of invincibility.

If he starts developing a reputation
as a man who can be beaten,

it could become a real rallying point
for opposition to his rule.

Ieyasu was right
and Nobunaga knew it.

He sends a letter promising support
along with a significant amount of gold,

gathers his forces,
and travels to meet with Ieyasu.

June, 1575.

Nobunaga and Ieyasu combine forces

and together they march
to confront Katsuyori.

Nobunaga and Ieyasu’s armies stop
at the Plains of Shitaragahara,

a few miles from where Katsuyori
and his army are now encamped.

Now, on the eve of the battle,

Nobunaga begins to execute a bold plan

that he hopes will help him beat the most
formidable army he has ever faced.

One of the fascinating things
about Oda Nobunaga

is that, for lack of a better term,
he does his homework.

He's well-prepared
for the people he fights.

The Takeda clan, militarily,
is known for the speed

with which they can
redeploy their troops.

If they’re left unchecked,

they can move their forces around
extremely rapidly, something that

can be damaging if you’re not
prepared for it on the battlefield.

To try and blunt the attack,
Nobunaga builds a series of palisades

that he hopes will slow down
the enemy forces.

These obstacles were placed
so that as the Takeda moved forward,

their advance would be disrupted.

The entire point was to lure the Takeda
into what essentially would be kill zones.

Once they were there, these obstacles
would disrupt their movement.

And that’s where the Oda and the Tokugawa
gunners would do their damage.

However, one of the big
weaknesses of muskets in this era

is that reloading times are very long,

and according to the traditional account,

Nobunaga invented
this great technique to mitigate that,

uh, in what is known
as the three-shot volley.

There would be units
of arquebuses

combined with two or three archers.

While the arquebuses were reloading,

the bowman could cover that dead time.

Because those would be staggered times,
you get the effect of a rotating fire.

And behind Nobunaga's gunners,

he has troops who are equipped with pikes
to get the rider off of the horse,

who could then be attacked
with swords or spears.

Oda’s troops are here.
If we attack from this direction,

we can win.

The Takedas' typical tactic

was to try to move around their opponent,

encircle them,
and then defeat them from all sides.

Katsuyori was convinced
that he could win this encounter,

as did his followers.

They had faced the Tokugawa before
and had won this spectacular victory.

On the eve of the battle,

it’s still fair to say
that it could have gone either way.

A defeat
could have been very damaging

for Nobunaga's image around Japan.

He's made a lot of enemies
by the mid-1570s.

If he loses, it could become a real
rallying point for opposition to his rule.

When the two sides
would clash in the morning,

this would be one of the most decisive
and landmark battles in Japanese history.

On the morning of the battle,
the Takeda advance

and take up an attack position on
the ridgeline facing the Oda positions.

Everything's silent,
except for the movement of horses.

Katsuyori can see
the Oda positions, but…

he's not real sure at this point
exactly what he's facing.

Troops ready? Charge!

Imagine you're a Takeda troop,

you see the enemy in front,

you charge.

Fire!

You start to get hit
with musket fire.

And then arrow fire.

Charge!

Leaders are encouraging you,
and you reach the first line of obstacles,

and there are barricades
that you have to maneuver around.

Now!

Meanwhile, the gunfire
is getting more intense.

The arrows are starting to hit home.

Your compatriots to your left
and your right are getting hit.

The only way to get through this
is to get through these obstacles

and engage with the enemy
and go hand-to-hand.

Attack!

Katsuyori keeps
sending troops forward.

As long as he keeps up
that frontal attack,

his enveloping maneuver
still has a chance of succeeding.

You have bullets and arrows
flying all over the place.

Smoke obscuring views,
getting in your eyes.

They get hit from the side
with an onslaught

of Oda foot soldiers coming at them.

With their spears, their pikes.

The Takeda are torn to shreds.

This speaks to the fact that
Nobunaga's plan was to suck them in

and basically hold them in this kill zone.

Katsuyori is unwilling
at this point to give up.

So he sends in the next wave.

This happens three, four, five times,
and it's tearing the Takeda up.

This is pure slaughter.

Keep going!

As the day goes on,
it becomes clearer and clearer

to the Takeda clan retainers,

they won't win.

And so,
many of them start to fall back,

to retreat,

and this really is the most dangerous
moment in any battle across human history,

because when one side turns
and starts to run from the other,

that's when the real killing starts.

Katsuyori doesn't
want to retreat.

He’s committed to fighting or dying.

But as his forces disintegrate…

Charge!

…his subordinate commanders
plead with him to escape,

until one of them puts him on his horse,

shoves him north,

and Katsuyori is able to get back to his
own lands with a handful of his forces.

Over the course of the battle,
10,000 soldiers

of Katsuyori's
are left dead on the battlefield.

Many of the Takeda leadership…

the generals
that had served Shingen for so long,

were lying dead with their troops.

Nagashino is often seen as
a watershed battle in global history

because of Nobunaga’s supposed
technique of rotating volley fire.

What’s really impressive
is Nobunaga’s organization

to develop this plan,

to effectively use obstacles in a way
that modern armies train today,

and put all this together into one plan

designed to completely
annihilate his enemy.

The Battle of Nagashino
was a resounding success

for Nobunaga and Ieyasu because
it dealt this very severe blow to…

one of the three major
remaining eastern daimyo,

and the one who was
closest to Nobunaga's domains.

Katsuyori has been
so psychologically traumatized

by this event…

Leave now.

…that this is really the last time

he ventures
out of his own territory in force.

It took a few years
to fully eliminate the Takeda,

but the writing was on the wall,
so to speak.

They're never able to pose a serious
threat to Nobunaga after Nagashino.

However, while this was
a resounding victory for Ieyasu,

his success is undermined when
he finds out that his own wife,

Tsukiyama, has been plotting
to betray him.

These letters were discovered.

The story is that Nobunaga had inserted
some spies into Ieyasu's household.

This is totally credible.

Everybody had spies in every household,
friend or foe.

And the maid of Lady Tsukiyama,
it is said,

found these letters
and passed them on to Oda Nobunaga.

There wasn’t much evidence,
and it was largely speculation,

but they could not ignore the issue.

Therefore, Nobunaga
ordered Ieyasu to find a solution.

Leave.

Tokugawa Ieyasu
had to get rid of Lady Tsukiyama.

Let me go!

Let me go!

So Ieyasu decided to expel her.

But if she still survives,
then she might have done something more.

Ieyasu takes it a step further.

Ieyasu suspects his son
might attempt to do

what a respectful, loyal son is supposed
to do and avenge his mother.

So he orders his son
to be placed under house arrest.

But nevertheless,
under pressure from Nobunaga,

Ieyasu was required to force
his own son to commit suicide.

Nobunaga at this point
was a very strong warlord,

and Ieyasu had to do what he said.

Also, Ieyasu needed
to maintain that alliance.

It was absolutely vital.

So, no matter what he thought, um,

if Nobunaga ordered him to execute
his own son, he had to do so.

It was the most dreadful thing
that could be asked of him,

and it affected his relationship
with Nobunaga

for the rest of their days together.

The victory at Nagashino
makes Nobunaga the most powerful warlord

in the nation.

Most of Central Japan
is now under his control.

His dream of uniting all of the nation
under his own banner is closer than ever.

But it has come at a price.

Increasingly paranoid,
Nobunaga now sees enemies everywhere.

The betrayal by Lady Tsukiyama

did nothing but add to the fears Nobunaga
had of enemies all around him,

which amounted almost to a paranoid
feeling that everyone wanted rid of him.

Put yourself into Nobunaga’s
position once he realizes this.

Anyone tilling a field,
anyone walking down the streets,

any one of the maids in his service
could be preparing poison for a drink.

It’s a very sobering thought
to realize that you are not safe.

In fact, there had been
several attempts on Nobunaga's life.

The attempted assassin
came from the province of Iga.

And Iga Province was one of
the smallest provinces in Sengoku Japan.

For 150 years,
these people had governed themselves,

keeping out any and all intruders
into their domain.

When they fought,

they joined together
in self-governing communes,

almost as a guerrilla army.

And as such, they had raided Nobunaga's
lines of communication for several years.

They were so good at these techniques
of irregular warfare,

that this is what gave rise
to the legends of the ninja of Iga.

They proved to be a thorn
in Oda Nobunaga's side.

They had to go, by any means necessary.

Nobunaga could not permit them to exist,

for the sake of his own reputation
and the sake of his own security.

And it should have been
a pushover,

but it turned out to be one
of the most vicious and bloody campaigns

of Nobunaga's career.