"Mm, mm, worse than pigs and dogs. All right, tell me about the Oda Family." Echizen is just next to Owari, so it's necessary to know the situation, but there's no rush. Harano doesn't care for now whether the Asakura Family is better than pigs and dogs, still wanting to first hear about the current state of the Oda Family.
"Back then I was just like you, found my grandfather's stories long-winded. But if I don't explain all this, you'll be lost later—honestly, you don't look very bright to me!" Ah Man shot back, then obediently continued, "After Shiba Yoshikiyo and Shiba Yoshimoto were betrayed and sent bound to Kyoto by the Asakura Family, because of their status they weren't executed. They both escaped one after another to Owari. But this caused Owari to split into two factions.
The descendants of Oda Naomatsu—Oda Toshimasa (formal name Ise no Kami)—supported Shiba Yoshikiyo.
And the descendants of Oda Chotake—Oda Minshin (formal name Yamato no Kami)—supported Shiba Yoshimoto and his son Shiba Yoshikata.
These two factions fought fiercely in Owari, but later, the descendants of Chotake, Oda Minshin, defeated the descendants of Naomatsu, Oda Toshimasa, driving Shiba Yoshikiyo out of Owari, and conveniently snatching the title of 'Guardian of Owari Province' for the Chotake line.
For the next several years, the Naomatsu line and Chotake line of the Oda Family kept fighting across Owari together with the influential local clans until finally, after years of east-west warfare, both sides negotiated peace and decided to split the Eight Provinces of Owari evenly.
The Oda Ise no Kami house of the Naomatsu line occupied the Upper Four Provinces of Owari—namely Yakuri County, Nakajima County, Kasugai County, and Niwa County—making Iwakura Castle their base.
The Oda Yamato no Kami house of the Chotake line took the Lower Four Prefectures: Haisi County, Haidong County, Aichi County, and Chita County, with Qingzhou City as their seat.
That's the general structure of Owari these days. Are you keeping up?"
When Ah Man heard her grandpa ramble about these musty old stories, she was totally confused, her mind a mess of Oda this and Oda that. It was only after studying family crests that she finally managed to untangle this web. Now she rather doubts Harano can get the gist in one go.
If not, for that chicken at dinner's sake, she could always explain it again.
Of course Harano could follow; high school wasn't for nothing. His teachers tried to cram three years of courses into one, then used the next two years to prep for the college entrance exam—what Ah Man just said was nothing.
Besides, he'd taken notes. A glance was enough to piece it together. In short: the Onin War, east-west armies clash, the Asakura Family betrays the Hoshina family and takes their stronghold, the two Shiba heirs flee to Owari, causing the Oda Family to split into upper and lower lines, each ruling four provinces.
He said directly, "Got it. Go on. Is this where the Tiger of Owari comes in?"
Ah Man shot him a doubtful glance, not quite believing a good-for-nothing could be this sharp, but continued, "Yes. During the Chotake line's rule over the Lower Four Prefectures from Qingzhou City, the three branch heads acted as magistrates—originally, those who carried out orders—here meaning assistants or deputies whose status wasn't yet recognized by the Court, jointly called the Three Magistrates of Qingzhou.
Yeah, that's nowadays' Oda Inaba no Kami, Oda Fushimom, and Oda Danjo Chonosuke houses.
Over the next decades, these three houses gradually grasped real power over the Lower Four Prefectures. Then, about twenty-three years ago, Oda Nobuhide took over as the family head of the Oda Danjo Chonosuke house, and became lord of Shoban Castle. Back then he was only sixteen or seventeen. That's the Tiger of Owari."
Harano nodded. Judging by the timeline and Maeda Toshie's age, this "Tiger of Owari" was about the father of that "Big Fool of Owari" Oda Nobunaga.
He kept up with his notes, signaling Ah Man to go on.
As she brought up "Tiger of Owari" Oda Nobuhide, Ah Man's little face became much more cautious. "As for Oda Nobuhide, to call him Tiger of Owari is… Well, he's the same type as Saito Dosan of Minoh—both really devious snakes. Those two ought to be called the Twin Vipers of the East Sea Road."
She joked, marking the location of Shoban Castle on her hand-drawn map, and then frowned, "How should I put this… Do you know how Nagano Castle ended up in Oda Nobuhide's hands?"
Harano stayed quiet, signaling with his eyes for her to quit teasing and get on with it.
After all, only he here was a real transmigrator; otherwise, if this were a Qidian historical novel, even though background exposition is a must and will be useful later, if you spend huge chunks of a five-thousand-word chapter on dusty old family history, every single reader will be cursing sooner or later.
Since he wasn't playing along, Ah Man was a bit annoyed, but for the sake of that chicken, she continued, "Nagano Castle was built by the Imagawa family. The Imagawa family started in Jumogawa Province, then swallowed neighboring Tone Province to the west, then kept pushing west, seizing Sankei Province, and even, taking advantage of internal strife in the Oda Yamato no Kami house, pushed all the way into Owari's Nagano and built a grand castle there—what we now call Nagano Castle.
At that time, the family head, Imagawa Shishin, stationed his youngest son, Imagawa Shitoyama, here, and even forced the nominal Guardian of Owari Province, the Hoshina family, to marry off a princess, intending to gobble up Owari just like they did Sankei.
By then, Oda Nobuhide had already knocked the main line of Qingzhou Oda and the other two branch magistrates into submission—the main line even married off a daughter to him and made peace. The Iwakura Oda house of the Upper Four Provinces also surrendered. Then Oda Nobuhide turned his greedy eyes on Nagano Castle and Atsuta Port next door. But he didn't dare assault this mighty fortress, so he played to their taste, and threw himself into studying renga—a traditional Japanese literary game where several or a dozen people take turns composing lines of poetry."