Oda Nobunaga Enters Kyoto

Also called: Nobunaga’s march on Kyoto

Oda Nobunaga marched into Kyoto as the patron of Ashikaga Yoshiaki and made him the fifteenth shogun. Borrowing the shogun’s name, Nobunaga took control of the Kinai and set out on the road to ruling the realm (tenka).

When the thirteenth shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, was killed by the Miyoshi faction in 1565, his brother Yoshiaki escaped from Nara and sought help from the daimyo. Nobunaga, who had taken Mino in 1567 and moved his base to Gifu, answered. In autumn 1568 he led a large army through Ōmi, crushed the Rokkaku, entered Kyoto and drove out the Miyoshi.

Yoshiaki became shogun that year. Nobunaga declined offices such as kanrei but took the commercial towns of Sakai, Kusatsu and Ōtsu under his direct control, and in 1569 made the shogun accept articles laying down how he was to govern. Yoshiaki grew increasingly resentful of rule exercised by Nobunaga in his name.