Southeast of modern day Nagoya City, nearby the Nagashima Castle site stands the Ganshoji Temple. The temple was moved to this spot after the devastating typhoons of the 1959, when the entire region was flooded meters deep. The temple once stood a kilometer away on the banks of the Nagara river, and was one of the primary fortified temples involved in the three large battles that took place first in 1569 and again a year later. The warrior monks of the Ikko-ikki sect had seized Nagashima Castle and the entire Nagashima island had been made into a series of forts.
The warlord Oda Nobunaga had attempted on 2 occasions to quell the growing powers of the warrior clergy and the civil uprisings resulting in civil disobedience. His brother had been killed in the first attempt, and so an angered Nobunaga made a third and final attack in 1574....
Nowdays, the temple serves as one of the very few reminders of the incident in which over 20,000 priests, men, women and children were burned alive when Nobunaga laid siege to the fortifications, encased the complex in a wooden barrier, and then set it all alight. No-one escaped alive.
Southeast of modern day Nagoya City, nearby the Nagashima Castle site stands the Ganshoji Temple. The temple was moved to this spot after the devastating typhoons of the 1959, when the entire region was flooded meters deep. The temple once stood a kilometer away on the banks of the Nagara river, and was one of the primary fortified temples involved in the three large battles that took place first in 1569 and again a year later. The warrior monks of the Ikko-ikki sect had seized Nagashima Castle and the entire Nagashima island had been made into a series of forts.
The warlord Oda Nobunaga had attempted on 2 occasions to quell the growing powers of the warrior clergy and the civil uprisings resulting in civil disobedience. His brother had been killed in the first attempt, and so an angered Nobunaga made a third and final attack in 1574....
Nowdays, the temple serves as one of the very few reminders of the incident in which over 20,000 priests, men, women and children were burned alive when Nobunaga laid siege to the fortifications, encased the complex in a wooden barrier, and then set it all alight. No-one escaped alive.
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