Everything about Sakuma Nobumori totally explained
was a retainer of the
Oda clan. He has also been called
Dewa no Suke (出羽介) and
Uemon no Jo (右衛門尉).
He was born in
Owari Province and served under
Oda Nobuhide. Entrusted with the care of the still very young
Oda Nobunaga, he, unlike other retainers who wavered over whether they should support Nobunaga or
Oda Nobuyuki as the clan leader, Nobumori never changed his position as a loyal retainer of Nobunaga. He always fought for him. For this loyalty he was treated as Nobunaga's most important retainer, and he'd fight in every important battle under Nobunaga. He was called
Noki Sakuma(退き佐久間), which literally means "Retreating Sakuma," because of his cautious tactics. He was successful in the campaign against the
Rokkaku clan and he contributed to suppressing rebellions caused by Buddhist sects in
Echizen Province and at
Nagashima in Osaka. In
1572, his 3000 men army unit was part of the reinforcement troops dispatched by Nobunaga to aid
Tokugawa Ieyasu's approximately 8000 soldiers against the 27000 soldiers led by
Takeda Shingen. In the
Battle of Mikatagahara he retreated after a preliminary engagement. His fellow commander
Hirate Hirohide, however, was fighting alongside the Tokugawa troops and lost his life in this battle, which ended with a crushing defeat of the Tokugawa/Oda alliance.
In
1576, after
Harada Naomasa had died during the campaign against the heavily fortified and well-supplied
Honganji temple in Osaka, Nobumori was chosen as Naomasa's replacement as commander. He was supplied with troops from seven provinces. At that time, among all Oda retainers, he was in command of the largest Oda-clan army. And yet, unlike his colleagues
Akechi Mitsuhide,
Shibata Katsuie and
Hashiba Hideyoshi who all won battles on the fronts they were assigned to, Nobumori, who was faced with fearless Buddhist zealots, made no progress at all. After ten years of battles, Nobunaga had the
emperor mediate a truce to end the war in
1580.
In the same year, Nobunaga drafted a document containing fifteen accusations of Nobumori's failures, including past failures and the failure against the Honganji, and he banished Nobumori and his son
Sakuma Nobuhide to the temple on Mount
Koyasan, where they'd to spend their days in the lifestyle of Buddhist monks. Nobumori died in
1581 at Totsugawa in
Yamato Province. His posthumous names were
Doumu Keigan(洞無桂巌) and
Souyu(宗佑).
Nobumori's banishment has widely been regarded as symbolizing Nobunaga's cold-bloodedness against even long-serving retainers. It also puts the spotlight on Nobumori's inability and shortcomings as a military commander. However, it was also reported that Nobunaga had been more interested in holding his frequent tea parties rather than focusing on military affairs. He himself never devised any military measures against the Honganji, even though the war had remained in a stalemate. It has been recorded that since his childhood, Nobumori had been openly critical of Nobunaga.
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