11. Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese daimyō and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He is regarded as the first “Great Unifier” of Japan. Nobunaga was an influential figure in Japanese history and is regarded as one of the three great unifiers of Japan, along with his retainers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Nobunaga paved the way for the successful reigns of Hideyoshi and Ieyasu by consolidating power, as head of the very powerful Oda clan, through a series of wars against other daimyō beginning in the 1560s. The period when Nobunaga and Hideyoshi were in power is called the Azuchi-Momoyama period. The name “Azuchi-Momoyama” comes from the fact that Nobunaga’s castle, Azuchi Castle, was located in Azuchi, Shiga; while Fushimi Castle, where Hideyoshi lived after his retirement, was located in Momoyama.
