Oda Nobutaka

Oda Nobutaka (織田 信孝^?, 1558–1583) was a samurai and member of the Oda clan. He was adopted as the head of the Kanbe clan, which ruled the middle region of Ise Province and so he was also called Kanbe Nobutaka (神戸信孝).

Nobutaka was born as the third son of Oda Nobunaga and he was called San Shichi (三七), possibly because he was born on the seventh day of the third month, in the Japanese lunar calendar system. His mother was a concubine named Sakashi (坂氏). A theory has it that Nobutaka was actually born twenty days earlier than Nobunaga's second son Oda Nobukatsu but it was reported later than Nobukatsu's birth to Nobunaga and thus he was acknowledged as the third son. According to this theory, it is also believed that the low status of his mother's parents had played a factor as well.

In 1568, after Nobunaga controlled Ise Province, Nobutaka was installed as the head of the Kanbe clan, whose seat was Kanbe Castle, near present-day Suzuka, Mie. The next year, his elder brother, Nobukatsu, became an adopted member of the Kitabatake clan, and ruled a much larger area of southern Ise Province. Nobutaka was reported by missionaries to have a better character than the older Nobukatsu but was ranked lower and held less area than he did.

In 1582, Nobutaka was commanded to lead an army against Shikoku and had such retainers as Niwa Nagahide and Tsuda Nobusumi, who was the son of Nobunaga's younger brother Nobuyuki, under his command. But while readying his army to cross the sea at Sakai, Nobunaga died at Honnō-ji during an attack by Akechi Mitsuhide. Nobutaka turned back and at Osaka, killed Nobusumi, who was married to a daughter of Mitsuhide and had his father, Oda Nobuyuki killed. While Nobutaka's suspicion did make some sense, no evidence had turned up that would connect Nobusumi to Mitsuhide. At Tomida of Settsu Province, Nobutaka joined Hashiba Hideyoshi who had turned back from his own campaign, and they fought the Akechi forces at the Battle of Yamazaki.

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