Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan (2021–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - The Demon King - full transcript
Fueled by a ruthless
and maniacal ambition
to conquer Central Japan,
Nobunaga has destroyed many enemies
who have underestimated him.
His vicious military campaigns to weaken
the powerful Buddhist institutions
have turned large swathes
of the population against him.
Even some of his own generals
question their loyalty to Nobunaga.
Undeterred,
Nobunaga now targets a group
of mountain rebels
from the province of Iga,
who refuse to accept his feudal rule.
For 150 years,
the so-called "rebels of Iga"
had governed themselves,
keeping out any and all intruders
into their domain.
These people were a mixture
of lumberers and farmers, fishermen
and other rugged individuals
who had chosen to eke out an existence
on the mountainous coasts of Iga.
They carved their lives
out of the very living rock
and were built from the bones
of the land on which they lived.
They knew the landscape
better than anyone there
and could wage
what we now call guerrilla warfare
against anyone who dared
step foot in their domain.
They were so good
at these techniques of irregular warfare,
which, after all,
were the only things at their disposal,
that this is what gave rise
to the legends of the ninja of Iga.
The word "ninja,"
which is so familiar to us nowadays,
is essentially a modern reading
of a Japanese expression
that implies secrecy.
And it's pronounced shinobi.
A good shinobi
can turn their hand to most anything.
Espionage…
any form of intelligence gathering…
…and assassins.
Training would have begun
from a very early age.
But in addition
to the normal martial arts,
this would also have included
the techniques of preparing explosives
and even, in some cases, poison.
Many women also trained as shinobi.
In other words,
they were trained to be spies,
assassins, gatherers of information.
They could infiltrate
the target's household.
They could hide in plain sight.
They were trained
to be able to fit into society,
but to do so as shinobi operatives.
There was a female shinobi
named Mochizuki Chiyome,
and she was trained in the mountainside.
She approached men
and then gathered information…
and, if necessary, they sleep with them.
Sometimes, they even kill the people
after getting the information.
So, they were trained
to be an assassin as well.
Whatever you like to call them,
shinobi or ninja or rebels,
these people had developed their arts
in their mountainous home of Iga
for centuries.
Hard times and hard stones
breed hard men and women.
These assassins, spies and agents
were not to be trifled with,
because they could, for a few coins,
do more than an entire army could.
And to add insult to injury,
the Iga warriors continued to carry out
their raids into Oda territory.
They proved to be a thorn
in Oda Nobunaga's side,
and one he was determined to eradicate.
Kill each and every one of them!
Those little maggots!
How dare they.
Bring me sake!
Not only were they raiding
his lines of communication,
their little province
was immediately adjacent
to the territory of Nobunaga's son,
Oda Nobukatsu.
Sake! Bring me sake!
Oda Nobukatsu decided
to destroy them on his father's behalf.
Nobukatsu, of course,
was in many ways overshadowed
by his older brothers.
Nobukatsu may have seen this
as an opportunity
to prove his value to his father,
Nobunaga.
Oda Nobukatsu's plan
was quite simple.
He was going to enter Iga
by three separate mountain passes,
combine his forces
and destroy these peasants.
The more conventional Nobukatsu
marched into Iga,
thinking of these people
as nothing more than backwoodsmen.
The men of Iga knew exactly
where they would be
and where the best places were
for them to be attacked.
As masters of guerrilla warfare,
they were determined
to turn the mountains of Iga
into a weapon.
When the fighting started,
Nobukatsu's forces tried to form
into their blocks to return fire…
Attack!
…but they didn't know
who they were shooting.
All the while, the Iga continually flowing
backwards and forwards like a tide.
The scene was one of utter confusion.
This battle wasn't a battle.
It was a rout.
Without order, without a goal.
During the attack…
…one of Nobukatsu's
senior generals was killed.
It was utter humiliation
for Oda Nobukatsu,
so he ordered an immediate retreat.
And on their way back into Ise,
they were harassed
for every inch of the way
by the local people,
who seized sticks and stones
if they had no weapons
and inflicted them
upon the desperate retreating soldiers.
The survivors' army
retreating headlong
with no idea as to who or what
was fighting them.
How were you beaten by peasants?
You are a disgrace to the Oda name.
The campaign
had been an unprecedented disaster.
That's enough. Get out.
If this defeat
had gone unpunished,
it may very well have led
to greater rebellions against him.
And we know, certainly,
that Nobunaga was angry enough
to even considering executing Nobukatsu.
I want you to kill them all.
Instead, however,
his plan was to simply wipe Iga
off the face of the map.
In 1581, Nobunaga chose five
of his most experienced generals
for a massive invasion of Iga
from five different directions.
Inhabitants of Iga
were as defiant as they could be.
However, the men of Iga were unable to do
what they had done
when Nobukatsu attacked.
They hadn't the resources
to ambush five separate armies.
Nobunaga's army advanced,
burning every village,
every house that they came across.
And killing anyone who took refuge.
This was, indeed,
a David-and-Goliath situation,
but this time, Goliath was going to win.
Man, woman and child
was put to the sword or the torch.
It is even said that,
rather than allow loved ones
to fall into enemy hands,
Iga soldiers would cull their own
before killing themselves.
Not just to protect the honor
of their family,
but to keep their secrets.
This was genocide,
the deliberate and systematic destruction
of all life in Iga.
Nobunaga had been humiliated
beyond his ability to bear,
and the entirety of the province
would pay for it with their lives.
Having successfully pacified Iga…
Oda Nobunaga had reached, I think,
the zenith of his power and authority.
He was within an ace of unifying
the entire country of Japan.
Not only had he defeated some of
the greatest names in Japanese history,
he had also asserted his power
by building the greatest fortress
that Japan had ever seen.
This was the castle of Azuchi.
The seven-story keep of the castle was
decorated in a way that was radically new.
Each floor of the keep
had a different set of allusions
to gods or animals or powerful men.
So, as you went up in the keep,
you had higher and higher level beings,
so to speak.
But at the very top,
which was Nobunaga's own private room,
there was nothing…
except a mirror,
where he could look
at his own countenance.
Much like Alexander the Great
had himself deified
in the deserts of Egypt,
there was belief that because Nobunaga
had installed just this mirror,
which was the traditional sign
of the gods in Japan,
that he thought of himself as a god.
He had become a bloody judge,
scything through all classes
and regions in Japan,
carving out his own power…
and following all his bloody slaughters,
a number of individuals in Kyoto
gave to him
the name of the Demon King
of the Six Heavens.
You reach a point
where you have to either step away
from the power
or keep on killing.
Nobunaga chose the latter.
The so-called Demon King
continues his ruthless plan of expansion
and sets his sights on a new target,
the powerful Mori family,
who rule large territories in the west.
He orders his long serving
and trusted general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
to attack their main castle stronghold.
It is a move
that will have a profound effect
on the future of both men.
Hideyoshi is one
of Nobunaga's top field generals,
and he is entrusted with a campaign
to fight the Mori family of Western Japan,
one of the most powerful daimyo families.
Hideyoshi besieged
one of the Mori castles,
Takamatsu Castle.
The castle was garrisoned
by approximately 5,000 troops,
which Hideyoshi surrounded
with his 30,000 soldiers.
However, he received reports
that the Mori were coming
with an army of over 40,000.
This put Hideyoshi
in a dangerous position.
If this Mori relief army arrived,
he would be caught
between the castle's defenders
and their walls,
and the relieving Mori force.
Hideyoshi sent a message
back to Oda Nobunaga,
detailing the situation and requesting
that Nobunaga come
with the bulk of his forces
to meet the oncoming Mori relief.
Mitsuhide…
send troops to Hideyoshi.
I will follow soon.
Realizing the urgency
of the situation,
Nobunaga gave orders to Mitsuhide
to move west as soon as possible.
Nobunaga made ready
to follow with his own army.
Akechi Mitsuhide
had an unusual background.
He'd entered Nobunaga's service
as a ronin.
In other words, a samurai whose
previous master had been killed in battle.
Most lords would pick from families
who had been close allies for centuries
for their senior commanders.
Nobunaga is willing to take this wanderer,
who has no connection to the Oda family,
and make him a senior leader.
Mitsuhide was a fervent Buddhist
and had been deeply disturbed
by the Buddhist massacre on Mount Hiei.
Please, stop!
And we do know
that, on occasions,
Nobunaga insulted him in public,
and even humiliated him.
Please, stop!
Among Nobunaga's
many offenses against Mitsuhide,
it is said that during
a military campaign,
Nobunaga's viciousness
was even responsible
for Mitsuhide's mother's death.
These resentments… These, uh…
These ill treatments, these ill usage,
piles up in his heart.
That seems to be what pushed him
over the edge.
It's time.
We go to war.
Yes, sir!
Instead of marching
to assist Hideyoshi,
Mitsuhide ordered his men
to march on Kyoto.
And it was only at the very last minute
that he shared with his generals his plan,
which was to murder Nobunaga
and take over Japan for himself.
Nobunaga rested that night
in a small temple in Kyoto
called Honnō-ji.
Nobunaga will keep
a small group of pages and bodyguards
to serve as his own private force.
This is a moment where he is vulnerable.
This is a chance
that might not ever come again,
and it seems Mitsuhide saw it that way.
Mitsuhide marched his army
right into the heart of Kyoto
and launched a furious attack
on the temple of Honnō-ji.
Nobunaga was taken
completely by surprise.
When he realized what was happening…
…he fought bravely to the last.
Oda Nobunaga had soon appreciated
that all was lost.
However, he was unable to escape…
and he retired
into one of the back rooms of the temple.
It really looks,
for all the world,
like Nobunaga's ascent is unstoppable.
He has gone, in about 20 years,
from ruling one part of a minor province
to ruling a third of the country.
And now, in the course of a single day,
the world's been turned upside down.
This was an utterly shocking
episode for which nobody was prepared.
Certainly not Nobunaga's heir,
his eldest son Nobutada,
who was currently in the castle of Azuchi,
about 20 miles to the east.
The next thing that Mitsuhide did
was to march his army to Azuchi
and murder Nobutada.
By killing Nobunaga and his heir,
Akechi Mitsuhide had created
a power vacuum in Japan,
and it was a vacuum
that he himself was determined to fill.
Nobunaga's death at the hands
of Akechi Mitsuhide is shocking.
The great warlord has now been laid low,
and the political pattern
that everyone thought
was going to be installed
is now completely up for grabs.
It's now a race to see who can
seize power in Kyoto the quickest.
There are three contenders.
There's Akechi Mitsuhide,
there's Tokugawa Ieyasu,
who is out in the east,
and then there's Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
While this is happening,
Hideyoshi is off in Western Japan
fighting the Mori.
He's waiting for news of reinforcements
from the Oda heartlands
with great anxiety.
When a messenger finally does arrive,
what he says to Hideyoshi
is going to change the course
of Japanese history.
Nobunaga is dead.
Hideyoshi is going to do
what a loyal warrior should do
and seek out revenge,
showing his loyalty to Nobunaga
from beyond the grave.
For 11 days,
Mitsuhide remains unchallenged.
Hideyoshi must seek revenge
for his fallen master,
for fear that other warlords
will rally to Mitsuhide's side.
Hideyoshi rushes towards Kyoto
to confront Mitsuhide in battle
to decide who will seize power
over Central Japan.
Mitsuhide, at this point,
was shocked
that Hideyoshi was able to move
so quickly to confront him.
He believed he had time to consolidate
his position in Central Japan
before he had to confront
any possible threat.
We'll move in this direction.
He understands
that he has the inferior force,
so he chooses a position
at a place called Yamazaki.
The reason the battle
took place at Yamazaki
is because Akechi Mitsuhide's castle
lay on this very narrow approach road
covered by mountains on one side,
and a river on the other.
It was an excellent place to make a stand.
If you don't control the terrain
and pick it so as to prevent forces
from getting around you
when you're outnumbered,
you're in an unwinnable position.
The classic example of this
is the Battle of Thermopylae
in Western history,
the 300 Spartans
who hold the pass against the Persians.
That's Mitsuhide's theory,
that he can use that
defensive advantage to his own benefit.
However,
he's made a big mistake.
He doesn't station troops on the mountain,
which is called Tennōzan.
Hideyoshi's forces get there first
and seize the high ground.
Hideyoshi launches his right wing
at the Akechi lines.
Once they're engaged,
he then launches his left wing.
And, so, he is crashing into
the Akechi forces from both sides.
When the fighting then breaks out
between the two sides,
early on it looks like
it might go Mitsuhide's way.
Yamazaki was a particularly fierce battle.
The sounds of screaming men,
blood pouring from wounds.
And particularly the concentrated fire
from the arquebuses,
which had now become
the norm in samurai warfare.
So that the battle would begin
to be obscured by clouds of smoke,
and inside this dense fire you could see
flashes of light from the guns,
the sound of horses screaming,
the sounds of swords cutting.
Akechi!
The onslaught is just too much.
Mitsuhide is forced to run.
This, Mitsuhide managed to do.
He galloped away with
only a handful of loyal followers
and tried to hide in a nearby village.
He was spotted by some peasants.
Mitsuhide was surrounded…
…and stabbed to death.
Akechi Mitsuhide now lies dead,
thirteen days after assassinating
his master, Oda Nobunaga.
As such, he was known
to later generations,
somewhat mockingly,
as "the 13-Day Shogun."
By taking revenge for his master
on the traitor, Akechi Mitsuhide,
Hideyoshi is basically stepping
into this political void that was created.
He had reacted the quickest
of all the daimyo,
he had utterly defeated
Mitsuhide in battle
just two weeks
after the death of Nobunaga,
and now he was putting
Akechi Mitsuhide's head on a stake…
which was essentially an announcement
that Hideyoshi was planning to become
the most powerful daimyo in the land.
It served as a warning to others,
stating that, if you rebel,
you would end up like this.
At the same time,
it also meant Hideyoshi
was the one who killed the rebel.
It was his press release.
Hideyoshi was born
without a surname, a commoner.
Some have even suggested
he was born an outcast.
He rose by virtue of his extraordinary
skill, intelligence, cunning.
Hideyoshi…
His rise, I think,
can best be described as meteoric.
Many members of the peasantry
get involved in war during this period
as foot soldiers,
but making it beyond that,
into what we could somewhat
anachronistically call the officer class?
That's very rare.
And as a result, Hideyoshi
is now in a position that I think,
would really be unfathomable, usually,
for a man of his social status.
He has tremendous power.
Though Hideyoshi has become
the most powerful daimyo in Japan
and has gained legitimacy
from avenging the death of his lord,
he is still in great danger.
There are great daimyos in other parts
of Japan, in the west and the east,
and other daimyo
that were vassals of Nobunaga,
who would want
to take power for themselves.
So, he's by no means out of the woods,
but he is in, by far,
the most advantageous position.
Hideyoshi's wife
was called Lady Nene,
and she was absolutely crucial
in his bid to take over from Nobunaga.
She was the most important person
in Hideyoshi's life.
She was an incredible support to him.
She was his rock.
She was in charge, completely,
of affairs at Osaka Castle.
So, she was in charge
of maintaining order.
Basically, she was the daimyo
whenever he was away.
When Hideyoshi was away
for a military campaign,
they exchanged letters.
Nene also has been advising Hideyoshi
on what to do with his hostages,
his alliance making,
and also what kind of conditions that
Hideyoshi has to give to other people.
Nene and Hideyoshi together
started to see Japan as their own land.
They started to see this land
as a divine realm that they could rule.
For Hideyoshi,
this was his moment of destiny.
He now had the chance to take over
Nobunaga's territories for himself,
but, first, he had to neutralize
the remaining opposition
from the rest of the Oda family.
After Mitsuhide's coup,
two of Nobunaga's sons were left alive.
The older was Nobutaka,
the younger, Nobukatsu.
Oda Nobukatsu's claim was quite simply
that he was the true heir of Nobunaga,
and Hideyoshi
had performed an illegal coup.
Oda Nobutaka's immediate reaction
was to seek allies
to prevent the upstart Hideyoshi
from usurping his position.
Oda Nobutaka found
former generals of Oda Nobunaga.
One was a very important general
called Shibata Katsuie.
Katsuie had fought alongside Nobunaga
since the time of Okehazama
and had also added to his battle honors
the battles of Anegawa, Nagashino
and the long campaign
against the Ikkō-ikki.
And he was still loyal
to Nobunaga's memory,
and so he was the natural ally
for Oda Nobutaka to take.
He was a formidable foe.
And Shibata Katsuie thinks,
"This is my moment.
This is my chance to take out Hideyoshi
and really seal my own position
as the first equal in the Oda clan."
And that split sets up a conflict,
a clash between Hideyoshi and Shibata.
The great disadvantage
that Shibata Katsuie faced
was that he could not take immediate
military action against Hideyoshi,
and that was simply
because of the weather.
It was now winter,
and the mountains between his province
and Kyoto were covered in snow.
He would have to wait till the spring
in order to move,
and that gave Hideyoshi
a tremendous advantage.
During the winter months,
Hideyoshi reinforces his three forts
that guard the mountain pass
in a bid to stall Katsuie's advance.
Hideyoshi then besieges
nearby Gifu Castle,
which is held by Katsuie's allies.
As the spring thaw arrives,
Katsuie moves to seize the mountain forts.
If he succeeds,
Hideyoshi's dream of ruling Japan
will end as swiftly as it began.
When the spring thaw came,
Shibata Katsuie sent on
a considerable force
to secure the three border fortresses
that Hideyoshi had established
on the mountaintops.
That was the only way that the passage
of his army could be safely guaranteed.
At first, the plot succeeded.
Katsuie's men totally overwhelmed
the first two forts.
The surviving defenders fled
to the security of the third.
Its name was Shizugatake
and it was the biggest of the three.
Shibata Katsuie regrouped his force
to capture this final prize
that would guarantee
the advance against Hideyoshi.
If Shizugatake fell,
Hideyoshi's reign would be at an end.
The stakes could not
have been higher for Hideyoshi.
The wheels were now set in motion
for the most decisive struggle for power
in the whole of Japanese history.
and maniacal ambition
to conquer Central Japan,
Nobunaga has destroyed many enemies
who have underestimated him.
His vicious military campaigns to weaken
the powerful Buddhist institutions
have turned large swathes
of the population against him.
Even some of his own generals
question their loyalty to Nobunaga.
Undeterred,
Nobunaga now targets a group
of mountain rebels
from the province of Iga,
who refuse to accept his feudal rule.
For 150 years,
the so-called "rebels of Iga"
had governed themselves,
keeping out any and all intruders
into their domain.
These people were a mixture
of lumberers and farmers, fishermen
and other rugged individuals
who had chosen to eke out an existence
on the mountainous coasts of Iga.
They carved their lives
out of the very living rock
and were built from the bones
of the land on which they lived.
They knew the landscape
better than anyone there
and could wage
what we now call guerrilla warfare
against anyone who dared
step foot in their domain.
They were so good
at these techniques of irregular warfare,
which, after all,
were the only things at their disposal,
that this is what gave rise
to the legends of the ninja of Iga.
The word "ninja,"
which is so familiar to us nowadays,
is essentially a modern reading
of a Japanese expression
that implies secrecy.
And it's pronounced shinobi.
A good shinobi
can turn their hand to most anything.
Espionage…
any form of intelligence gathering…
…and assassins.
Training would have begun
from a very early age.
But in addition
to the normal martial arts,
this would also have included
the techniques of preparing explosives
and even, in some cases, poison.
Many women also trained as shinobi.
In other words,
they were trained to be spies,
assassins, gatherers of information.
They could infiltrate
the target's household.
They could hide in plain sight.
They were trained
to be able to fit into society,
but to do so as shinobi operatives.
There was a female shinobi
named Mochizuki Chiyome,
and she was trained in the mountainside.
She approached men
and then gathered information…
and, if necessary, they sleep with them.
Sometimes, they even kill the people
after getting the information.
So, they were trained
to be an assassin as well.
Whatever you like to call them,
shinobi or ninja or rebels,
these people had developed their arts
in their mountainous home of Iga
for centuries.
Hard times and hard stones
breed hard men and women.
These assassins, spies and agents
were not to be trifled with,
because they could, for a few coins,
do more than an entire army could.
And to add insult to injury,
the Iga warriors continued to carry out
their raids into Oda territory.
They proved to be a thorn
in Oda Nobunaga's side,
and one he was determined to eradicate.
Kill each and every one of them!
Those little maggots!
How dare they.
Bring me sake!
Not only were they raiding
his lines of communication,
their little province
was immediately adjacent
to the territory of Nobunaga's son,
Oda Nobukatsu.
Sake! Bring me sake!
Oda Nobukatsu decided
to destroy them on his father's behalf.
Nobukatsu, of course,
was in many ways overshadowed
by his older brothers.
Nobukatsu may have seen this
as an opportunity
to prove his value to his father,
Nobunaga.
Oda Nobukatsu's plan
was quite simple.
He was going to enter Iga
by three separate mountain passes,
combine his forces
and destroy these peasants.
The more conventional Nobukatsu
marched into Iga,
thinking of these people
as nothing more than backwoodsmen.
The men of Iga knew exactly
where they would be
and where the best places were
for them to be attacked.
As masters of guerrilla warfare,
they were determined
to turn the mountains of Iga
into a weapon.
When the fighting started,
Nobukatsu's forces tried to form
into their blocks to return fire…
Attack!
…but they didn't know
who they were shooting.
All the while, the Iga continually flowing
backwards and forwards like a tide.
The scene was one of utter confusion.
This battle wasn't a battle.
It was a rout.
Without order, without a goal.
During the attack…
…one of Nobukatsu's
senior generals was killed.
It was utter humiliation
for Oda Nobukatsu,
so he ordered an immediate retreat.
And on their way back into Ise,
they were harassed
for every inch of the way
by the local people,
who seized sticks and stones
if they had no weapons
and inflicted them
upon the desperate retreating soldiers.
The survivors' army
retreating headlong
with no idea as to who or what
was fighting them.
How were you beaten by peasants?
You are a disgrace to the Oda name.
The campaign
had been an unprecedented disaster.
That's enough. Get out.
If this defeat
had gone unpunished,
it may very well have led
to greater rebellions against him.
And we know, certainly,
that Nobunaga was angry enough
to even considering executing Nobukatsu.
I want you to kill them all.
Instead, however,
his plan was to simply wipe Iga
off the face of the map.
In 1581, Nobunaga chose five
of his most experienced generals
for a massive invasion of Iga
from five different directions.
Inhabitants of Iga
were as defiant as they could be.
However, the men of Iga were unable to do
what they had done
when Nobukatsu attacked.
They hadn't the resources
to ambush five separate armies.
Nobunaga's army advanced,
burning every village,
every house that they came across.
And killing anyone who took refuge.
This was, indeed,
a David-and-Goliath situation,
but this time, Goliath was going to win.
Man, woman and child
was put to the sword or the torch.
It is even said that,
rather than allow loved ones
to fall into enemy hands,
Iga soldiers would cull their own
before killing themselves.
Not just to protect the honor
of their family,
but to keep their secrets.
This was genocide,
the deliberate and systematic destruction
of all life in Iga.
Nobunaga had been humiliated
beyond his ability to bear,
and the entirety of the province
would pay for it with their lives.
Having successfully pacified Iga…
Oda Nobunaga had reached, I think,
the zenith of his power and authority.
He was within an ace of unifying
the entire country of Japan.
Not only had he defeated some of
the greatest names in Japanese history,
he had also asserted his power
by building the greatest fortress
that Japan had ever seen.
This was the castle of Azuchi.
The seven-story keep of the castle was
decorated in a way that was radically new.
Each floor of the keep
had a different set of allusions
to gods or animals or powerful men.
So, as you went up in the keep,
you had higher and higher level beings,
so to speak.
But at the very top,
which was Nobunaga's own private room,
there was nothing…
except a mirror,
where he could look
at his own countenance.
Much like Alexander the Great
had himself deified
in the deserts of Egypt,
there was belief that because Nobunaga
had installed just this mirror,
which was the traditional sign
of the gods in Japan,
that he thought of himself as a god.
He had become a bloody judge,
scything through all classes
and regions in Japan,
carving out his own power…
and following all his bloody slaughters,
a number of individuals in Kyoto
gave to him
the name of the Demon King
of the Six Heavens.
You reach a point
where you have to either step away
from the power
or keep on killing.
Nobunaga chose the latter.
The so-called Demon King
continues his ruthless plan of expansion
and sets his sights on a new target,
the powerful Mori family,
who rule large territories in the west.
He orders his long serving
and trusted general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi,
to attack their main castle stronghold.
It is a move
that will have a profound effect
on the future of both men.
Hideyoshi is one
of Nobunaga's top field generals,
and he is entrusted with a campaign
to fight the Mori family of Western Japan,
one of the most powerful daimyo families.
Hideyoshi besieged
one of the Mori castles,
Takamatsu Castle.
The castle was garrisoned
by approximately 5,000 troops,
which Hideyoshi surrounded
with his 30,000 soldiers.
However, he received reports
that the Mori were coming
with an army of over 40,000.
This put Hideyoshi
in a dangerous position.
If this Mori relief army arrived,
he would be caught
between the castle's defenders
and their walls,
and the relieving Mori force.
Hideyoshi sent a message
back to Oda Nobunaga,
detailing the situation and requesting
that Nobunaga come
with the bulk of his forces
to meet the oncoming Mori relief.
Mitsuhide…
send troops to Hideyoshi.
I will follow soon.
Realizing the urgency
of the situation,
Nobunaga gave orders to Mitsuhide
to move west as soon as possible.
Nobunaga made ready
to follow with his own army.
Akechi Mitsuhide
had an unusual background.
He'd entered Nobunaga's service
as a ronin.
In other words, a samurai whose
previous master had been killed in battle.
Most lords would pick from families
who had been close allies for centuries
for their senior commanders.
Nobunaga is willing to take this wanderer,
who has no connection to the Oda family,
and make him a senior leader.
Mitsuhide was a fervent Buddhist
and had been deeply disturbed
by the Buddhist massacre on Mount Hiei.
Please, stop!
And we do know
that, on occasions,
Nobunaga insulted him in public,
and even humiliated him.
Please, stop!
Among Nobunaga's
many offenses against Mitsuhide,
it is said that during
a military campaign,
Nobunaga's viciousness
was even responsible
for Mitsuhide's mother's death.
These resentments… These, uh…
These ill treatments, these ill usage,
piles up in his heart.
That seems to be what pushed him
over the edge.
It's time.
We go to war.
Yes, sir!
Instead of marching
to assist Hideyoshi,
Mitsuhide ordered his men
to march on Kyoto.
And it was only at the very last minute
that he shared with his generals his plan,
which was to murder Nobunaga
and take over Japan for himself.
Nobunaga rested that night
in a small temple in Kyoto
called Honnō-ji.
Nobunaga will keep
a small group of pages and bodyguards
to serve as his own private force.
This is a moment where he is vulnerable.
This is a chance
that might not ever come again,
and it seems Mitsuhide saw it that way.
Mitsuhide marched his army
right into the heart of Kyoto
and launched a furious attack
on the temple of Honnō-ji.
Nobunaga was taken
completely by surprise.
When he realized what was happening…
…he fought bravely to the last.
Oda Nobunaga had soon appreciated
that all was lost.
However, he was unable to escape…
and he retired
into one of the back rooms of the temple.
It really looks,
for all the world,
like Nobunaga's ascent is unstoppable.
He has gone, in about 20 years,
from ruling one part of a minor province
to ruling a third of the country.
And now, in the course of a single day,
the world's been turned upside down.
This was an utterly shocking
episode for which nobody was prepared.
Certainly not Nobunaga's heir,
his eldest son Nobutada,
who was currently in the castle of Azuchi,
about 20 miles to the east.
The next thing that Mitsuhide did
was to march his army to Azuchi
and murder Nobutada.
By killing Nobunaga and his heir,
Akechi Mitsuhide had created
a power vacuum in Japan,
and it was a vacuum
that he himself was determined to fill.
Nobunaga's death at the hands
of Akechi Mitsuhide is shocking.
The great warlord has now been laid low,
and the political pattern
that everyone thought
was going to be installed
is now completely up for grabs.
It's now a race to see who can
seize power in Kyoto the quickest.
There are three contenders.
There's Akechi Mitsuhide,
there's Tokugawa Ieyasu,
who is out in the east,
and then there's Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
While this is happening,
Hideyoshi is off in Western Japan
fighting the Mori.
He's waiting for news of reinforcements
from the Oda heartlands
with great anxiety.
When a messenger finally does arrive,
what he says to Hideyoshi
is going to change the course
of Japanese history.
Nobunaga is dead.
Hideyoshi is going to do
what a loyal warrior should do
and seek out revenge,
showing his loyalty to Nobunaga
from beyond the grave.
For 11 days,
Mitsuhide remains unchallenged.
Hideyoshi must seek revenge
for his fallen master,
for fear that other warlords
will rally to Mitsuhide's side.
Hideyoshi rushes towards Kyoto
to confront Mitsuhide in battle
to decide who will seize power
over Central Japan.
Mitsuhide, at this point,
was shocked
that Hideyoshi was able to move
so quickly to confront him.
He believed he had time to consolidate
his position in Central Japan
before he had to confront
any possible threat.
We'll move in this direction.
He understands
that he has the inferior force,
so he chooses a position
at a place called Yamazaki.
The reason the battle
took place at Yamazaki
is because Akechi Mitsuhide's castle
lay on this very narrow approach road
covered by mountains on one side,
and a river on the other.
It was an excellent place to make a stand.
If you don't control the terrain
and pick it so as to prevent forces
from getting around you
when you're outnumbered,
you're in an unwinnable position.
The classic example of this
is the Battle of Thermopylae
in Western history,
the 300 Spartans
who hold the pass against the Persians.
That's Mitsuhide's theory,
that he can use that
defensive advantage to his own benefit.
However,
he's made a big mistake.
He doesn't station troops on the mountain,
which is called Tennōzan.
Hideyoshi's forces get there first
and seize the high ground.
Hideyoshi launches his right wing
at the Akechi lines.
Once they're engaged,
he then launches his left wing.
And, so, he is crashing into
the Akechi forces from both sides.
When the fighting then breaks out
between the two sides,
early on it looks like
it might go Mitsuhide's way.
Yamazaki was a particularly fierce battle.
The sounds of screaming men,
blood pouring from wounds.
And particularly the concentrated fire
from the arquebuses,
which had now become
the norm in samurai warfare.
So that the battle would begin
to be obscured by clouds of smoke,
and inside this dense fire you could see
flashes of light from the guns,
the sound of horses screaming,
the sounds of swords cutting.
Akechi!
The onslaught is just too much.
Mitsuhide is forced to run.
This, Mitsuhide managed to do.
He galloped away with
only a handful of loyal followers
and tried to hide in a nearby village.
He was spotted by some peasants.
Mitsuhide was surrounded…
…and stabbed to death.
Akechi Mitsuhide now lies dead,
thirteen days after assassinating
his master, Oda Nobunaga.
As such, he was known
to later generations,
somewhat mockingly,
as "the 13-Day Shogun."
By taking revenge for his master
on the traitor, Akechi Mitsuhide,
Hideyoshi is basically stepping
into this political void that was created.
He had reacted the quickest
of all the daimyo,
he had utterly defeated
Mitsuhide in battle
just two weeks
after the death of Nobunaga,
and now he was putting
Akechi Mitsuhide's head on a stake…
which was essentially an announcement
that Hideyoshi was planning to become
the most powerful daimyo in the land.
It served as a warning to others,
stating that, if you rebel,
you would end up like this.
At the same time,
it also meant Hideyoshi
was the one who killed the rebel.
It was his press release.
Hideyoshi was born
without a surname, a commoner.
Some have even suggested
he was born an outcast.
He rose by virtue of his extraordinary
skill, intelligence, cunning.
Hideyoshi…
His rise, I think,
can best be described as meteoric.
Many members of the peasantry
get involved in war during this period
as foot soldiers,
but making it beyond that,
into what we could somewhat
anachronistically call the officer class?
That's very rare.
And as a result, Hideyoshi
is now in a position that I think,
would really be unfathomable, usually,
for a man of his social status.
He has tremendous power.
Though Hideyoshi has become
the most powerful daimyo in Japan
and has gained legitimacy
from avenging the death of his lord,
he is still in great danger.
There are great daimyos in other parts
of Japan, in the west and the east,
and other daimyo
that were vassals of Nobunaga,
who would want
to take power for themselves.
So, he's by no means out of the woods,
but he is in, by far,
the most advantageous position.
Hideyoshi's wife
was called Lady Nene,
and she was absolutely crucial
in his bid to take over from Nobunaga.
She was the most important person
in Hideyoshi's life.
She was an incredible support to him.
She was his rock.
She was in charge, completely,
of affairs at Osaka Castle.
So, she was in charge
of maintaining order.
Basically, she was the daimyo
whenever he was away.
When Hideyoshi was away
for a military campaign,
they exchanged letters.
Nene also has been advising Hideyoshi
on what to do with his hostages,
his alliance making,
and also what kind of conditions that
Hideyoshi has to give to other people.
Nene and Hideyoshi together
started to see Japan as their own land.
They started to see this land
as a divine realm that they could rule.
For Hideyoshi,
this was his moment of destiny.
He now had the chance to take over
Nobunaga's territories for himself,
but, first, he had to neutralize
the remaining opposition
from the rest of the Oda family.
After Mitsuhide's coup,
two of Nobunaga's sons were left alive.
The older was Nobutaka,
the younger, Nobukatsu.
Oda Nobukatsu's claim was quite simply
that he was the true heir of Nobunaga,
and Hideyoshi
had performed an illegal coup.
Oda Nobutaka's immediate reaction
was to seek allies
to prevent the upstart Hideyoshi
from usurping his position.
Oda Nobutaka found
former generals of Oda Nobunaga.
One was a very important general
called Shibata Katsuie.
Katsuie had fought alongside Nobunaga
since the time of Okehazama
and had also added to his battle honors
the battles of Anegawa, Nagashino
and the long campaign
against the Ikkō-ikki.
And he was still loyal
to Nobunaga's memory,
and so he was the natural ally
for Oda Nobutaka to take.
He was a formidable foe.
And Shibata Katsuie thinks,
"This is my moment.
This is my chance to take out Hideyoshi
and really seal my own position
as the first equal in the Oda clan."
And that split sets up a conflict,
a clash between Hideyoshi and Shibata.
The great disadvantage
that Shibata Katsuie faced
was that he could not take immediate
military action against Hideyoshi,
and that was simply
because of the weather.
It was now winter,
and the mountains between his province
and Kyoto were covered in snow.
He would have to wait till the spring
in order to move,
and that gave Hideyoshi
a tremendous advantage.
During the winter months,
Hideyoshi reinforces his three forts
that guard the mountain pass
in a bid to stall Katsuie's advance.
Hideyoshi then besieges
nearby Gifu Castle,
which is held by Katsuie's allies.
As the spring thaw arrives,
Katsuie moves to seize the mountain forts.
If he succeeds,
Hideyoshi's dream of ruling Japan
will end as swiftly as it began.
When the spring thaw came,
Shibata Katsuie sent on
a considerable force
to secure the three border fortresses
that Hideyoshi had established
on the mountaintops.
That was the only way that the passage
of his army could be safely guaranteed.
At first, the plot succeeded.
Katsuie's men totally overwhelmed
the first two forts.
The surviving defenders fled
to the security of the third.
Its name was Shizugatake
and it was the biggest of the three.
Shibata Katsuie regrouped his force
to capture this final prize
that would guarantee
the advance against Hideyoshi.
If Shizugatake fell,
Hideyoshi's reign would be at an end.
The stakes could not
have been higher for Hideyoshi.
The wheels were now set in motion
for the most decisive struggle for power
in the whole of Japanese history.