em as well as their fellow
townsmen. In this strait the people of Sakai appealed to a celebrated
Buddhist priest named Kennyo, and through his intercession Hideyoshi
agreed to ransom the town for a payment of twenty thousand ryo. The
funds thus obtained were devoted to the repair of the palaces of the
Emperor and the shogun, a measure which won for Nobunaga the applause
of the whole of Kyoto.

NOBUNAGA'S SITUATION

Oda Nobunaga was now in fact shogun. So far as concerned legalized
power he had no equal in the empire, but his military strength was by
no means proportionate. In the north, in the east, in the west, and
in the south, there were great territorial nobles who could put into
the field armies much larger than all the Owari chief's troops.
Takeda Shingen, in the Kwanto, was the most formidable of these
opponents. In the year 1570, when the events now to be related
occurred, the Hojo sept was under the rule of Ujimasa, and with him
Shingen had concluded an alliance which rendered the latter secure
against attack on the rear in the event of movement against Kyoto.
The better to ensure himself against Hojo designs, Shingen joined
hands with the Satomi family in Awa, and the Satake family in
Hitachi; while to provide against irruptions by the Uesugi family he
enlisted the co-operation of the priests in Kaga, Echizen, and Noto.
Shingen further established relations of friendship with Matsunaga
Hisahide in the far west. It was this baron that had attacked the
palace of Nijo when Yoshiteru, the shogun, had to commit suicide, and
Shingen's object in approaching him was to sow seeds of discord
between the shogunate and Nobunaga. Most imminent of all perils,
however, was the menace of the Asai family in Omi, and the Asakura
family in Echizen. A glance at the map shows that the Asai were in a
position to sever Nobunaga's communications with his base in Mino,
and that the Asakura were in a position to cut off his communications
with Kyoto. In this perilous situation Nobunaga's sole resource lay
in Tokugawa Ieyasu and in the latter's alliance with the Uesugi,
which compact the Owari chief spared no pains to solidify. But from a
military point of view Ieyasu was incomparably weaker than Shingen.

THE STRUGGLE WITH THE ASAKURA AND THE ASAI

In 1570, Nobunaga determined to put his fortunes to a final test.
Having concentrated a large body of troops in Kyoto, he declared war
against Asakura Yoshikage, who had refused to reco