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[looknohands]

I would rank as the least likely scenario, as Mitsuhide was routinely promoted and held a high rank in Nobunaga's army.

[Judgment]

Yeah I didnt believe in it either. Does not sound like something MItsuhide would do.

[shangxiangluvr23]

weel mitsuhide had hie eyes on nobunagas wife kicho and they started talking in secret and mitsuhide told her that he was going to kill nobunaga for her and she said no so he didnt until his mom got killed because of nobunaga so he thought that he could kill two birds with one stone,he can get revenge and get kicho

[looknohands]

Source, please?  Haven't heard that one before...

[Blue Faced Beast]

Sounds a bit SWish to me....or perhaps that horrible piece of crud that Capcom published...what was it? Devil Kings....ugh....

[Drakken]

The simplest answer (and thus the most likely) is that Mitsuhide saw the opening for a power grab and took it. That Nobunaga wanted total control over the Emperor and get rid of the Imperial Court altogether (at least in Mitsuhide's mind) surely didn't help either.

No bs Edo whitewashing, Mitsuhide just did and succeeded where many barely dared to dream to attempt.

Afterwards, we don't know why he became so amateurish. My take is that he had a brain fart because he succeeded much too easily than expected, hesitated, and was taken by surprise by Hideyoshi's fast arrival from Bitchu.

[Sima Yi1000]

    Anyone find it funny that Nobunaga was a decendant of a Taira, and Mitsuhide a Minamoto? And Mitsuhide killed Nobunaga EXACTLY how Yoritomo killed (Name eludes me... Something Taira.)

   I do not know... Just found that one kinda funny... =] Mitsuhide surrounded and burned Honno-Ji to the ground, same as Yoritomo. xD Except Yoritomo lasted a heck of alot longer. >.>

[Sima Yan]

    Anyone find it funny that Nobunaga was a decendant of a Taira, and Mitsuhide a Minamoto? And Mitsuhide killed Nobunaga EXACTLY how Yoritomo killed (Name eludes me... Something Taira.)

   I do not know... Just found that one kinda funny... =] Mitsuhide surrounded and burned Honno-Ji to the ground, same as Yoritomo. xD Except Yoritomo lasted a heck of alot longer. >.>

That is pretty ironic.

[yellow turban]

i think that nobunaga killed one of akechi's relatives so akechi wanted revenge .when nobunaga did not hold the peace with a clan he found the oportunity

[looknohands]

That is the popular motive accepted by the general public these days.  It was Mitsuhide's mother that was sent to the Hatano as a hostage.

[Sima Yan]

Despite what others think...

I think Mitsuhide had slain Nobunaga out of anger. Not much thought, just got built up to the point where he goes, Ya' know what, screw this! His mother's hostage situation was probably one of the things that angered him, as are other reasons.

To be fair though, I don't think anyone will truely know the motive(s). It doesn't matter to me, Mitsuhide is still my favorite SW series character.

[Drakken]

The "Hostage Mother" theory is totally unproven, as contemporary sources mention no such event. And by contemporary, I mean that Edo sources don't count. So my take is that it is a apocryphal fabrication made up during the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Yes, it is possible that Mitsuhide totally went postal, but I doubt it. First, people who go postal usually do not have the discipline and patience of actually planning a coup and exploiting the moment; usually they usually close and murder the target person on the spot. There is a huge difference between "hmmm, I'll go to the palace tomorrow and kill the tyrant" and scream "The enemy is at Honnoji" to thousands of troops who could all refuse, mutiny and turn on him by loyalty toward Nobunaga. Second, despite Nobunaga's affect of disdain toward Mitsuhide, the latter was constantly promoted by Nobunaga and was one of the few commanders Nobunaga, who was notorious for his lack of trust toward his retainers, delegated important commands to.

So despite his ill treatments, Nobunaga actually valued Mitsuhide at least until 1582, but Nobunaga's political posture needed to place him as a figure of total, unique object of obedience and deference, which Mitsuhide couldn't do because he was a man who supported the maintenance of the Imperial Court. Also, Nobunaga had started to fire retainers who had displeased him in the past or had showed uneven levels of performance, and Mitsuhide surely had reasons to fear the same because of the aformented incompatibilities and disagreements between them. That he was ordered to march westward toward the Chugoku region as reinforcement to Hideyoshi probably didn't reassure him that he wouldn't be ditched, as he, the noble courtier, was now in position of inferiority to a mere peasant and a base character who struck lucky wit Nobunaga. Finally, there are a lot of things between Mitsuhide and Nobunaga that we do not know which, in hindsight, could be decisive.

Even in Edo period, Mitsuhide was seen as a tragic, rather sympathetic figure rebelling against a genial, yet cruel conqueror and stopping him in his tracks, and thus needed a noble justification for what has done to be framed into such a character. As a power grab was not one of them, a much more convenient (if false) explanation is that "Nobunaga had his mother killed" and that even the loyalest of samurai would rebel again a cruel master who callously sent a mother to her death. Remember that in that time, the Bakufu did everything that it could to make sure that NO ONE would ever do what Mitsuhide had done to Nobunaga. That is why the bushido code was created and imposed as an ideal to a class of increasingly useless and impoverished samurai with no real prospect of social mobility and increased standing in the future, who all could become dissatisfied and decide to copy Mitsuhide and overthrow their overlords for their own gain.

[Moogle Buddy]

I found a new board I like!
My thoughts on the incident are simple, it was a simple attempt at power. Mitsuhide wasn't too happy with the Oda at the time, and was called as reinforcement. He finally had the troops and Nobunaga had no guard in the capital so he took that opportunity. It was an opportune moment, but Mitsuhide didn't have time to plan it out. That's why even though he was a brilliant general  he didn't have any wise plan afterwards. He also mistakenly thought he would be hailed as a hero for killing the demon king, but was branded a traitor. After the incident he tried looking for shelter under several people, they all said no. He thought his father-in-law Tadaoki Hosokawa would take care of him, he showd up at the gate, and Tadaoki all but cussed him out, and basically slammed the door on his face.
When Hideyoshi showed up, Mitsuhide was simply put, screwed. He had 500 men who stayed with him, Hideyoshi had a whole military battalion. There was no "Battle of Yamazaki", it was "I found Mitsuhide, wipe him out!". What happened after that is largely unknown, but it was fairly likely Mitsuhide was just killed in battle, however 2 stories have a different spin. They both have him fleeing, the first has a peasant/future gang leader named Nakamaru stabbing him with a bamboo spear, and the second has him escaping and becoming a priest named "Tenkai".

But back on full topic, I think it was just Mitsuhide being an ambitious general, who made a power grab that failed Mitsuhide terribly. Hideyoshi and Ieyasu 2 of Nobunaga's retainer's were the only benefactors from the ordeal. One thing that does bug me is how Hideyoshi found out so fast, Ieyasu was closer to Mitsuhide, and was also chasing him when he found out, but Hideyoshi found out about Honnoji from the Oda borders, organized a retreat from fighting the Mori, and found Mitsuhide all in 13 days. That's unheard of speed in those days.

[Cybaster]

weel mitsuhide had hie eyes on nobunagas wife kicho and they started talking in secret and mitsuhide told her that he was going to kill nobunaga for her and she said no so he didnt until his mom got killed because of nobunaga so he thought that he could kill two birds with one stone,he can get revenge and get kicho

This is actually from Kessen 3, where Nobunaga is not only portrayed in a heroic light, he's actually the main protagonist in the game. XP

And while Mitsuhide was probably mainly fearful of his future when he decided to attack Nobunaga --- Nobunaga had supposedly chewed him out in front of not only the other Oda retainers, but also right in front of Tokugawa Ieyasu himself, and then Nobunaga sent him to reinforce Hideyoshi under the belief that Mitsuhide would have to not only surrender his current holdings, but also would have to seize his own castle from scratch from the Mori lands, meaning that he was pretty much at Hideyoshi's mercy --- Nobunaga's own reputation wasn't helping any, either. Since Nobunaga came to power, he wasn't particularly known to be merciful or even kind; Nobunaga burnt Mt. Hiei and slaughtered the monks there, did the same thing at Nagashima, and lacquered the skulls of three of his enemies (Asakura Yoshikage, Asai Hisamasa, and Asai Nagamasa) for wine cups, among other things.

That probably made Mitsuhide think in addition that if he betrayed Nobunaga, popular support would swing his way --- of course, that turned out the exact opposite of what happened since most were not willing to support a traitor and a backstabber, while others were just racing to see who can avenge their lord first. Nonetheless, Mitsuhide probably also thought that he was doing Japan a favor by ridding it of such a tyrant at the same time.

[Shulin]

Even in Edo period, Mitsuhide was seen as a tragic, rather sympathetic figure rebelling against a genial, yet cruel conqueror and stopping him in his tracks, and thus needed a noble justification for what has done to be framed into such a character. As a power grab was not one of them, a much more convenient (if false) explanation is that "Nobunaga had his mother killed" and that even the loyalest of samurai would rebel again a cruel master who callously sent a mother to her death. Remember that in that time, the Bakufu did everything that it could to make sure that NO ONE would ever do what Mitsuhide had done to Nobunaga. That is why the bushido code was created and imposed as an ideal to a class of increasingly useless and impoverished samurai with no real prospect of social mobility and increased standing in the future, who all could become dissatisfied and decide to copy Mitsuhide and overthrow their overlords for their own gain.

I disagree, there was less reason for the Shogunate to give Mitsuhide an excuse for killing Nobunaga, it would have been more in their interest to portray Mitsuhide in a bad light with no reason to rebel which would have been completely against the Bushido code.

The easy answer to why Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunaga is that we'll never know. But I would guess that Mitsuhide was encouraged to do it from people within Kyoto court as from 1577 Nobunaga's actions had become somewhat "erratic" and detrimental to the emperor's position, where previously it was believed Nobunaga had been working for the emperor in driving out the shogun etc. There's lots of reasons Kyoto and the emperor's circle would want to dispose of Nobunaga, one of the main reasons is that Nobunaga was starting to claim he was working for the sake of the "Tenka" - which roughly translates to Nation in 16th Century Japanese. As everyone knows Nobunaga was working to unify Japan but by claiming to be doing it for the nation he was putting himself in a separate sphere from the emperor, and as some claim fashioning himself to become emperor and supreme ruler without an emperor.

As Mitsuhide had connections within Kyoto he could easily have become embroiled in a plot to oust Nobunaga, and when the opportune moment came he acted. He probably did have personal reasons to do it as well, as everyone here has highlighted. Its interesting that when Hideyoshi defeated Mitsuhide he did the exact opposite of Nobunaga. He accepted every title offered to him and based his power influence inside the court of Kyoto (Ieyasu acted a little more like Nobunaga and used a military base - the Shogun), this indicates to me Hideyoshi had learned that without the emperor's approval he risked enemies within the court, which makes a court led attack on Nobunaga using Mitsuhide more likely.