This legendary clash occurred in the province of Owari, the home province of the late and great Nobunaga Oda. The two opposing warlords were Nobunaga and Yoshimoto Imagawa, leader of the ever powerful Imagawa Clan.
It happened right around May or June 1560. The battle was very much on Yoshimoto's side. The Oda were outnumbered 1 to 10. They were so outnumbered that Sado, his adviser, pleaded that Nobunaga surrender, to prevent the worst case scenario of being entirely slaughtered. Even some of his most fearsome generals like Katsuie Shibata show fear in his eyes, and instead ask Nobunaga to remain and hold on inside the castle.
Nobunaga, having the pride of the samurai, does not want to go down without a fight. So he makes a speech that would play a great role in the coming fight. In front of his men he stands gloriously, proud to be an Oda. And in a very inspiring voice he says "The Imagawa has 40,000 men marching towards the sacred place? I don't believe that. He 'only' has 35,000 pathetic soldiers. yes, that is still too many. So, Sado? you want me to surrender. What if we do surrender? Will you get content in losing your life that way? Or what if we hold on like Katsuie wants me to? What if we stay here, behind castle walls, lock the gates up until the Imagawa lose their appetite and go home? We will be able to prolong our lives for five to ten days, and what we cannot defend will still be undefendable. We are at the bottom of the pit, you know. And our very fates are interesting. The misery is also too great. I see it as a chance of a lifetime that I cannot afford to miss. Do you really want to spend your lives praying for longevity? We were born in order to die! Whoever is with me, come to the battlefield tomorrow morning. Whoever is not, just stay wherever you are and watch me win this!"
The Oda army was microscopic compared to the length and width of the Imagawa. Nobunaga made his way to a place called Okehazama where Yoshimoto camped his men. Nobunaga's men increased by the time he got there, from 250 to 3,000. Yoshimoto on the other hand was too over confident, that he allowed his men to drink wine and have celebrations about their recent victories. While celebrating, a storm passed through the land, making the Imagawa soldiers take shelter in their tents. The very moment the rains stopped, the very first move of this battle was made.
The first move was given to the hands of Nobunaga Oda. He ordered his men to raise many banners in the southeastern side of the camp of the Imagawa. Yoshimoto did not expect any attack from the minuscule army of Nobunaga. Little did he know that the banners being held up high and proud, are in the possession of mere straw dummies. Nobunaga is not fool enough to attempt a straight forward assault, for if he does, his entire army will be vanquished, devoured even, flat out destroyed.
So, Nobunaga assembled a number of cavalry units. He sent the cavalry to take out the scout patrols in order to secure the element of surprise. After waiting patiently, the cavalry units successfully took out the patrols. At that very moment, Nobunaga rallied up his men and quietly marched up, to the north of the camp. From the north, Yoshimoto's tent was closer, more so that only a handful of men guard it. He then quickly, assaulted the camp of the Imagawa, the soldiers were in confusion. For the Imagawa, a happy day in celebrating turned into a day of deadly capabilities. For the Oda, a day of unending despair into a day of everlasting happiness. Yoshimoto quickly reacted and thought that this ruckus was just a fight between his own men. So he shouted for them to stop and go back to their positions. Quickly after a soldier appeared right in front of him, he suddenly realized that this soldier was not his own, instead it was of the Oda. The soldier quickly slashed Yoshimoto with his sword, but Yoshimoto parried the attack with his very own weapon, only to be beheaded by another man. With the Imagawa without a leader, they fell into the might of Nobunaga Oda. This made Tokugawa Ieyasu, the leader of the Tokugawa clan ally to the Oda, thus making the Oda more powerful than ever.
The day was won by the Oda army. It was a decisive victory for them.This battle proved that brains is always better than brawns, and that the size of the fighter does not matter. This victory established that Nobunaga was no longer a mere Daimyo of a fallen clan, but that he might one day, one day, rule all of Japan.
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