[1][2] In the spring of 1552, the seventeen-year-old Oda Nobunaga inherited family estates in the southwestern part of Owari Province (around Nagoya Castle).

[1][2] Oda Nobunaga enlisted the help of his father in law Saito Dosan, lord of the province of Mino.

Dosan immediately sent him 1,000 samurai, which Nobunaga left to protect Nagoya from the Oda of Kiyosu, and Nobunaga embarked his army 800 ashigaru armed with long spears and 500 ashigaru with arquebuses [3] (which at that time were still new weapons in Japan only imported in 1543) on the ships in Atsuta port south of Nagoya and sailed 13 miles along Ise Bay, landing southwest of Ogawa Castle.

The next day Nobunaga took Terumoto Castle in the same way, burnt it to the ground and executed its owners, in order to show his vassals the consequence of betrayal.

[1][2] Defeating the threat of the powerful Imagawa clan, Nobunaga gained a great reputation in Owari and got a free hand for the final showdown with Oda Nobutomo of Kiyosu.