He lived by fire and he died by fire. He was vile ¡ª coldblooded, amoral, ruthless. He was the man his time called for, and the man his time called forth ¡ª a vile time, by most standards. Its name is Sengoku Jidai, a period of prolonged civil war. Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) is its most representative character ¡ª a military genius and a moral monster.
He was a visionary, a shaper of the future, to which, if necessary ¡ª and it was ¡ª he would sacrifice the present.
Or was he simply power-mad?
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