Battle of Okehazama

Battle of Okehazama: Nobunaga defeats and kills Imagawa Yoshimoto

Yoshimoto was not helpless: the early narrative says he cut Hattori Koheita across the knee before Mōri Shinsuke took his head.

Eiroku 3, fifth month, nineteenth day

On the nineteenth day of the fifth month of Eiroku 3 — conventionally converted to 12 June 1560 — Imagawa Yoshimoto's forces attacked the Oda positions in Owari. Matsudaira Motoyasu's contingent captured Marune, and Washizu also fell.

Yoshimoto had invaded Owari amid fighting over the Imagawa-held Narumi and Ōdaka positions. Recent analysis treats relief of those positions — not a securely documented march to conquer Kyoto — as the campaign's immediate military purpose.

Japanese chronological tables generally apply Julian-calendar dates for the period before the 1582 Gregorian reform.

The attack on the resting headquarters

Oda Nobunaga advanced rapidly from Kiyosu and attacked Yoshimoto's resting headquarters around Okehazama and Dengaku-hazama after a violent downpour.

Hattori Koheita engaged Yoshimoto first and wounded him; Yoshimoto injured Hattori, after which Mōri Shinsuke killed Yoshimoto and took his head.

With Yoshimoto dead, the Imagawa field force was defeated and withdrew from Owari.

What did not happen that afternoon

The once-popular hidden flanking march through a narrow valley is no longer the dominant reconstruction; a more direct attack based on the Shinchō Kōki is widely favoured. The storm appears in the early narrative, but its role as cover for a secret march is an interpretation.

The Imagawa did not disappear. Yoshimoto's son Ujizane succeeded him, and Motoyasu initially remained aligned with the Imagawa.

Motoyasu learned of Yoshimoto's death that evening at Ōdaka, verified the report, withdrew toward Mikawa, and entered his ancestral Okazaki Castle on the twenty-third day, after its Imagawa garrison departed.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date corrected

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date corrected. The research places this at 1560-06-12.

What the sources leave uncertain

The Japanese date is Eiroku 3, fifth month, nineteenth day. June 12 is the conventional Western conversion; Japanese chronological tables generally apply Julian-calendar dates before the 1582 Gregorian reform.
Troop figures vary dramatically among chronicles and are estimates rather than audited rolls.
The precise headquarters site and tactical route remain debated. The once-popular hidden flanking march through a narrow valley is no longer the dominant reconstruction; a more direct attack based on the Shinchō Kōki is widely favored.
Yoshimoto’s larger strategic intentions, including whether he planned eventually to proceed toward Kyoto, cannot be stated as firmly as his immediate operations against Oda positions.