Okehazama Battlefield

Okehazama is known as the site of one of the most defining battles in Japanese history alongside Sekigahara and Dan-no-ura, where the bloody echoes of clashing steel may still be heard.

On June 12, 1560, samurai lord Imagawa Yoshimoto invaded the province of Owari, but the local daimyō Oda Nobunaga successfully defended his land, ambushing the Imagawa camp and decimating his army. As a result of his victory, Nobunaga grew increasingly powerful in the region, becoming one of the greatest overlords of the Japanese warring states.

Today, a heated battle continues over the location of the battle with two neighboring cities, Nagoya and Toyoake, claiming to be its home.

On one hand, the place name Okehazama survives in the Midori Ward of Nagoya, where a public park commemorates the historic battle with bronze statues of Nobunaga and Yoshimoto. In Toyoake, on the other hand, there are a number of stelae and funerary monuments associated with the battle, such as the purported gravesite of Yoshimoto and a Ksitigarbha statue dedicated to the souls of the fallen.

The two neighborhoods are less than a mile apart, and most likely the actual battlefield spanned the area covering them both. What the two cities are really fighting over is the location of the Imagawa camp, the center of the combat. Will they ever come to a settlement? We shall see.