detatsu, the head of
that family, had fought against Nobunaga's father, Nobuhide, and one
of the conditions of peace had been that the daughter of Hidetatsu
should become the wife of Nobunaga.

Subsequently, the Saito household was disturbed by one of the family
feuds so common during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in
Japan. Hidetatsu, desiring to disinherit his eldest son, Yoshitatsu,
had been attacked and killed by the latter, and Nobunaga announced
his intention of avenging the death of his father-in-law. But before
this intention could be carried out, Yoshitatsu died (1561), 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. But he found that, even under the leadership of
Tatsuoki, the Mino men were too strong for him, and he was ultimately
compelled to adopt the device of erecting on the Mino side of the
river a fortress which should serve at once as a basis of military
operations and as a place for establishing relations with the minor
families in the province. The building of this fort proved a very
difficult task, but it was finally accomplished by a clever device on
the part of Hideyoshi, who, a master of intrigue as well as of
military strategy, subsequently won over to Nobunaga's cause many of
the principal vassals of the Saito family, among them being Takenaka
Shigeharu, who afterwards proved a most capable lieutenant to
Hideyoshi.

These preliminaries arranged, Nobunaga once more crossed the Kiso
(1564) at the head of a large army, and after many days of severe
fighting, captured the castle of Inaba-yama, which had been strongly
fortified by Yoshitatsu, and was deemed impregnable. Nobunaga
established his headquarters at this castle, changing its name to
Gifu, and thus extending his dominion over the province of Mino as
well as Owari. He had now to consider whether he would push on at
once into the province of Omi, which alone lay between him and Kyoto,
or whether he would first provide against the danger of a possible
attack on the western littoral of Owari from the direction of Ise. He
chose the latter course, and invaded Ise at the head of a
considerable force. But he here met with a repulse at the hands of
Kusunoki Masatomo, who to the courage and loyalty of his immortal
ancestor, Masashige, added no small measure of strategical ability.
He succeeded in defending his castle of Y