His general Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536–598) continued the pacification after Nobunaga was killed, using a somewhat more diplomatic but equally pitiless set of tactics. First, Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) conquered many other warlords, beginning the process of unification through military brilliance and sheer ruthlessness. Japan’s “Three Unifiers” brought the Sengoku Era to an end.

For the next century and a half, local daimyo or warlords vied for control over the different regions of Japan. The Onin War that initiated the Sengoku was fought over a disputed succession in the Ashikaga Shogunate in the end, nobody won. Although the political entities that were fighting were actually just domains, the Sengoku is sometimes referred to as Japan’s “Warring States” Period. It was a lawless era of civil war, in which the feudal lords of Japan fought one another in endless plays for land and power.

The Sengoku was a century-long period of political upheaval and warlordism in Japan, lasting from the Onin War of 1467–77 through the reunification of the country around 1598.

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