Oda

The Oda were a Japanese samurai house originating in Oda-no-shō in Echizen, where their founder Taira no Chikazane is said to have been raised by a priest after the Taira defeat at Dannoura in 1185. The Oda served the Shiba and followed them to Owari, becoming hereditary deputy governors.

After the Ōnin War the clan split into rival branches at Iwakura and Kiyosu, while the Shiba became puppets. Oda Nobuhide seized Nagoya Castle in 1538, and his son Nobunaga reunited Owari, subdued rivals and entered Kyoto in 1568, becoming master of central Japan.

In 1582 Nobunaga and his heir Nobutada were killed in the Honnō-ji Incident, and his general Hashiba Hideyoshi, later Toyotomi Hideyoshi, inherited his hegemony. The main line under Oda Hidenobu joined the western army at Sekigahara in 1600 and was dispossessed by Tokugawa Ieyasu; four junior branches kept daimyō rank through the Edo period.