echiyo thus begins his quest for supremacy. His first step after coming to power is allying himself with Oda Nobunaga, who was of middle class in the feudal hierarchy. Nobunaga didn't become a shogun because of the fact that he felt that he didn't need the authority of the emperor. He was an upstart who didn't follow any rules or laws. Nobunaga thought that he could unify Japan by himself. He eventually came to power when he overthrew th Ashikaga Shogunate. After Matsudaira Takechiyo allied himself with this group he changed his name to Tokugawa Ieyasu. In the year 1570, Ieyasu decided to move his headquarters to the Hikuma-jo Castle the former Imagawa territory. After moving into this castle, Ieyasu conducted an extensive remodeling of the castle. After this project had been completed, Ieyasu renamed the castle Hamamatsu-jo. Ieyasu spent most of his life in the castle carrying out various leadership duties. In 1579 Ieyasu's loyalty to the Nobunaga was questioned. Ieyasu was forced to kill his wife and order his son's suicide in order to prove to Oda Nobunaga and the rest of his clan that he was indeed loyal. Everything wsa running smooth for the Nobunaga clan until a dreadful incident occurred in 1582. Akechi Mitsuhide assassinated Oda Nobunaga at the Honjoji temple. After the death of Nobunaga, Ieyasu seized more land by becoming master of five provinces (Totman p. 143) In 1584, Ieyasu allied with Nobunaga's successor Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Ieyasu later married Hideyoshi's sister. Instead of fighting for regency with Hideyoshi, Ieyasu decided to keep himself as the runner-up or "vice president" of Japan. Hideyoshi went ahead and carried out Nobunaga's goal by striving for national unification. In the year 1590, Hideyoshi and the remaining members of Nobunaga's clan fought and seized control over Eastern Japan. This enabled Hideyoshi to move Ieyasu to new lands in the east to help undercut the independence. There, Ieyasu traveled around until he finally settled upon a smal

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1338
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)