The Battle of Okehazama: Miracle or Calculated Strike?
On the nineteenth day of the fifth month of Eiroku 3 (1560), Oda Nobunaga killed Imagawa Yoshimoto at Okehazama in Owari Province. The battle has long been romanticized as a miraculous underdog victory, but modern military historians question several elements of the popular account.
On the question of troop numbers: the Shinchō Kōki records Yoshimoto’s force as “over 25,000,” but most contemporary researchers consider this inflated, estimating the actual number at several thousand to perhaps 10,000. Nobunaga’s force of 2,000-3,000 was certainly inferior, but the “25-to-1 odds” figure commonly repeated is likely an exaggeration.
On the nature of the attack: the account of Nobunaga directly charging Yoshimoto’s headquarters derives from the Shinchō Kōki by Ōta Gyūichi. Later military chronicles embellish this further, and the dramatic description of a surprise attack in a sudden downpour—while established in popular memory—shows variation across sources.
What is beyond doubt: Yoshimoto was killed, Imagawa control of the Tōkaidō region collapsed, and Nobunaga’s path to expansion was opened.