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Updated: June 24, 2025
In 1579, he took a step which showed plainly that policy as a statesman ranked much higher in his estimation than duty towards religion. For, in order to ensure the armed assistance of a certain feudatory, a professing Christian, Nobunaga seized the Jesuits in Kyoto, and threatened to ban their religion altogether unless they persuaded the feudatory to adopt Nobunaga's side.
The destruction of these powerful sectaries was, therefore, one of the great purposes of his life. Nobunaga had other reasons than these for destroying the power of the bonzes. During the long period of the Ashikagas these cunning ecclesiastics had risen to great power. Their monasteries had become fortresses, with moats and strong stone walls.
We have seen that he distributed the estates of the feudatories so as to create a system automatically unfavourable to disturbance, in which contrivance he borrowed and extended the ideas of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi.
The leaders who had returned from the Corean war, flushed with victory, were ambitious for power, and the thousands of soldiers under their command were eager for war and spoils. Hidenobu, a nephew of Nobunaga, claimed the succession to his uncle's position.
First, because it witnessed the apparition of those mighty captains, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasu, types of men that a race seems to evolve for supreme emergencies only, types requiring for their production not merely the highest aptitudes of numberless generations, but likewise an extraordinary combination of circumstances.
Delegates were then sent from Sakai at Hideyoshi's suggestion to explain the facts to Nobunaga, who acted his part in the drama by ordering the deputies to be thrown into prison and promising to execute them as well as their fellow townsmen.
But before this intention could be carried out, Yoshitatsu died , and his son, Tatsuoki, a man of little resource or ability, had to bear the onset from Owari. Nobunaga, at the head of a large force, crossed the Kiso River into Mino.
The whole of Nagamasa's estates, yielding an annual return of 180,000 koku, was given to Hideyoshi, and he was ordered to assume the command of Otani Castle, whence, however, he moved shortly afterwards to Nagahama. It was now possible for Nobunaga to devote his entire attention to the soldier-priests who had allied themselves with his enemies.
Nobunaga defended himself valiantly. But being at last severely wounded and recognizing the hopelessness of resistance, he set fire to the temple and committed suicide, his fourteen-year-old son, Katsunaga, perishing with him.
The Shin sect of the Hongwanji, with headquarters at Osaka, was scarcely less powerful; and its monastery, occupying the site of the present Osaka castle, was one of the strongest fortresses in the country. Nobunaga waited several years, merely to prepare for the attack.
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