Last upgrade: 06-Feb'04

Knowing the history behind the manga is just as important as reading it! ^^

Fast Index:

• Oda Nobunaga updated
• Tokugawa Ieyasu updated
• Hamamatsu new

Oda Nobunaga

1534 - 1582 Japan had been divided into small provinces and small feudal lords until Nobunaga started to conquer neighbouring territories to his own province. He had the emperor's favor and became so powerful that he started controlling the emperor himself. He was known to be ruthless and also ran a pretty hard stance against rivaling religious sects. By 1582 he had control over half of Japan. Updated: One of the two branches of ninja arts practicioners, the Iga (to which Hattori Hanzou's family belonged) was in war with Oda for a while, but lost.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

1542 - 1616 After Nobunaga died, four regents were appointed. When this didn't work out, Hideyoshi Toyotomi took power. He continued Nobunaga's efforts in unifiying Japan and even attempted the conquest of Korea with his views put on China and other parts of East Asia. After his death, 5 regents were appointed and this failed pretty badly again, giving Ieyasu (who ruled the Kanto provinces and used to be a subordinate of Nobunaga) the opportunity of climbing into power. He made himself shogun and started the so-called "Tokugawa period" of Japanese history, wich eventually ended in the expuslion or killing of foreigners and the total isolation of Japan for more than 200 years. Updated: Ieyasu was a supporter of the ninja, and these were able to regain some power after the Oda debacle (for the Iga) and the later Hideyoshi problems (for the Kouga, the other branch of ninja (also known as Koga and Kouka)). Side Note: Just as told in "Tsuki no Toiki, Ai no Kizu" and reffered to in "Tsuki no Shippo," Ieyasu's son and heir was forced to commit suicide after it was discovered he had entered a plot against Nobunaga.

Hamamatsu

Hamamatsu is a coastal city in the western edge of Shizuoka prefecture, halfway between Tokyo and Osaka, near Nagoya, and pretty much in the middle of Honshu (the main, biggest island in Japan), Pacific Ocean side. In 1570, while still a lower noble, Ieyasu moved into the local castle and later in 1577 reformed and re-named it Hamamatsu-jo (which gave the city its current name). Ieyasu lived here until he was 45 and many of his most important battles were fought in the surronding area, as Hamamatsu had an important strategic value.