Oda Nobukatsu

was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi–Momoyama period. He was the second son of Oda Nobunaga. He survived the decline of the Oda clan from political prominence, becoming a daimyō in the early Edo period. Though often described as an incompetent general, Nobukatsu was a skilled warrior. In the battle of Komaki and Nagakute, he used a 13th-century tachi of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, to slay a samurai known as Okada Sukesaburō, therefore the blade was known as "Okada-giri Yoshifusa", now a national treasure. Biography In 1570, Nobukatsu became an adopted heir of the Kitabatake clan and married a daughter of the former lord of Kitabatake, Tomonori. The true nature of this marriage was a condition of truce forced by the Oda clan to the Kitabatake clan. In 1575, Nobukatsu officially became the head of the family. The next year, he killed his father-in-law, imprisoned the previous lord, who was his father by adoption, and completely took over the Kitabatake clan. In 1579, eager to achieve fame, Nobukatsu directed a first invasion of Iga, Iga Province, which only ended in disastrous failure and severe rebuke from his father.