[2][3][4] Nobunaga only had a few guards and retainers with him when he was attacked, ending his Sengoku period campaign to unify Japan under his power.

By 1582, Oda Nobunaga was the most powerful daimyo in Japan and was continuing a sustained campaign of unification in the face of the ongoing political upheaval that characterized Japanese history during the Sengoku period.

[6] The Mori clan was also in a situation where defeat was almost inevitable and had presented a peace proposal to Hashiba Hideyoshi, offering the cession of five provinces.

However, around this time, the Mōri clan launched a large-scale counteroffensive in the Chūgoku region, and Nobunaga received a request for reinforcements from Hashiba Hideyoshi, whose forces were stuck besieging the Mōri-controlled Takamatsu Castle.

[6] Nobunaga began his preparations and headed for Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto, his usual resting place when he stopped by in the capital.

[2] Nobunaga was unprotected at Honnō-ji, deep within his territory, with the only people he had around him being court officials, merchants, upper-class artists, and dozens of servants.

Having dispatched most of his soldiers to take part in various campaigns, only a small force was left to protect his person and there was little fear that anyone would dare strike Nobunaga; security measures were weak.

He engaged in a session of renga with several prominent poets, using the opportunity to make clear his intentions of rising against Nobunaga.

Before dawn, Mitsuhide, leading 13,000 soldiers, suddenly changed course in the middle of his march and attacked Honnō-ji Temple, where Nobunaga was staying.

However, this story appeared first in Oda Nobunaga-fu (織田信長譜) by Hayashi Razan (1583 – 1657)[8] then in Nihon Gaishi by Rai San'yō, a kangakusha of the late Edo period, and is most likely a creation, not a statement by Akechi himself.

[citation needed] The situation at the time was recorded by Gyū-ichi Ota, the author of "Shinchō Kōki", who interviewed the ladies-in-waiting who were at the scene soon after the incident.

[2][4] Honnō-ji was a fortified temple with stone walls and a moat, and it had a reasonable defense capability, but it was helpless when surrounded by a large army.

When Nobunaga was eventually unable to fight after being hit in the elbow by an enemy spear, he retreated and told the nyōbō-shū[a] there, "I don't care, you ladies hurry up and get out of here".

Murai said that Honnō-ji had already burned down and the enemy would soon attack us, and advised Nobutada to hunker down in the fortified Nijō Gosho.

[citation needed] Akechi Mitsuhide was eager to find Nobunaga's body in the burnt ruins of Honnō-ji, but he was unable to locate it.

After returning in about a week with an army of nearly 30,000 troops for a total distance of 200 km, Hideyoshi joined forces with Niwa Nagahide and Oda Nobutaka in Osaka and headed for Kyoto.

[18] Ieyasu and his party, therefore, chose the shortest route back to the Mikawa province by crossing the Iga Province, which was different in many versions according to primary sources such as the records of Tokugawa Nikki or Mikawa Todai-Hon: Regardless, whichever theory is true, historians agreed that the track ended at Kada (a mountain pass between Kameyama town and Iga), and that the Tokugawa group suffered a last attack by the Ochimusha-gari outlaws at the Kada pass where they reached the territory of the Kōka ikki clans of Jizamurai which are friendly to the Tokugawa clan.

[18] There are 34 recorded Tokugawa vassals who survived this journey, such as Sakai Tadatsugu, Ii Naomasa, and Honda Tadakatsu, Sakakibara Yasumasa and many others.

Anayama Nobutada, a former Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen member who was now an ally to the Tokugawa and Nobunaga clan, was ambushed by the Ochimusha-gari during the journey, and killed along with some of his retainers.

[22] During his rule, Yoshimune were known for establishing the Oniwaban secret police institution whose members hailed from the confederation clans of Koka and Iga.

[29][30][31] It has been argued that the circulation of the myth about Hattori Hanzō ninja army helping Ieyasu was created as propaganda to increase the prestige of the Iga and Koka clan confederations in Tokugawa Shogunate.

[22] On the other hand, Chaya Shirōjirō, a wealthy merchant in Kyoto, wrote that he went ahead and gave silver coins to local people and asked them to guide and escort the group, which is highly likely to be true since it also appears in Jesuit historical documents of the same period.

[32] The Honnō-ji Incident is a major historical event, but no definitive conclusion has been reached regarding Akechi Mitsuhide's motives, and the truth remains unknown.

It all started when the well-known medieval historian Akira Imatani published a book advocating a conflict between the Imperial Court and Nobunaga.