The Incident at Honnō-ji
- When
- 1582
- Where
- Honnō-ji temple
- Episodes
- 2
On 21 June 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide ambushed Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji in Kyoto. Nobunaga, the de facto leader of Japan, died by seppuku during the attack. Mitsuhide briefly asserted authority before being defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi two weeks later.
Episodes
- Ambush at Honnō-ji
Akechi Mitsuhide's forces surrounded Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto before dawn on 21 June 1582, trapping Oda Nobunaga.
- Death of Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga committed seppuku during the Honnō-ji Incident, ending his campaign to unify Japan.
Background and detail
The Incident. Before dawn on 21 June 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide’s army surrounded Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto, where Nobunaga was present with few guards. Nobunaga committed seppuku during the ambush. Mitsuhide subsequently used Nobunaga's death to persuade vassals in Kyoto to respect his authority, though his motives remain historically unresolved.
People involved
- Oda Nobunaga · Japanese daimyo and de facto leader of Japan
- Akechi Mitsuhide · Retainer who ambushed Nobunaga
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi · Retainer who defeated Mitsuhide
Sources
- Honnō-ji Incident Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-10
- Oda Nobunaga Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-16
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.