Nobunaga, now master of Kyoto, crushes all …
Years: 1571 - 1571
Nobunaga, now master of Kyoto, crushes all opposition, including the powerful Tendai Buddhist establishment in the Hiyesian hills above Kyoto, whose Enryakuji monastery on Mt.
Hiei, with its warrior monks, is a particular thorn in his side, residing as it does so close to his residence at Kyoto.
The sect has been a traditional power in politics and religion since the beginning of the Heian period in the eighth century.
Nobunaga, in retaliation for their aid to his enemies, attacks Enryakuji, admired by contemporaries as a significant cultural symbol, and in 1571 burns it to the ground, killing between twenty thousand and thirty thousand men, women, and children in the process.
He then shatters, albeit with less severity, the Buddhist monasteries in the province under his control.
Nobunaga also encourages the Jesuit missionaries in Japan as a means of weakening his traditionalist opposition.
Locations
People
Groups
- Buddhism
- Christians, Roman Catholic
- Japan, Muromachi Period
- Jesuits, or Order of the Society of Jesus
