The Sengoku period, a chaotic and transformative era in Japanese history spanning roughly 100 or so years.
It began with the Onin War in 1467, a devastating succession dispute in Kyoto that shattered the already-weak Ashikaga shogunate (the central military government).
This plunged Japan into near-constant civil war, as the country fragmented into dozens of semi-independent domains ruled by powerful feudal lords called daimyo. Loyalty broke down—vassals betrayed lords, lower-ranking samurai rose through cunning or force, and peasant uprisings challenged the old order. It seemed that Japan was destined to carry on like this forever if not for the efforts of Oda Nobunaga and the two other great unifiers, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
We will introduce the chaos and glory of the Sengoku jidai: from the rise of ambitious warlords, to must-visit historical sites, battlefields, and the samurai world that defined an era of endless conflict and ambition.
