Hi folks, welcome to the show. For more than a century, Japan had been at war with itself.

Samurai trampled, paddy fields, towns burned, populations were put to the sword. It began with a power

struggle in the capital, an emperor without control, a shogunate torn apart by interneissine struggle.

Now armies criss-cross a land of smoking ruins to a soundtrack of weeping survivors.

This was the Sengoku Jedi, Japan's warring state period.

And out of that chaos rose three warlords, each driven by their

vision for United Japan. This is a story of how these three very different men ended a century of civil

war and the battles, the betrayals and their brutal decisions that built the foundations of modern Japan.

Joining us today, I'm very pleased to have got Chris Harding. He's a cultural historian of Japan,

India and East-West Connections. He's joined us many times before for the podcast, and he's going

to take us through the lives of these three pivotal figures in Japanese history. Enjoy.

T-minus 10. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. God save the king. No black white

unity till there is first than black unity. Never to go to war with one another again.

And lift off and the shuttle has cleared the power.

Good to see you, Chris. Thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you for having you.

Tell me about Japan in around 1400 before this great crisis.

What do we mean when we talk about Japan?

How united and powerful is it?

So I suppose at this point, around 1400, the most important part of Japan is Kyoto. You've got the emperor there, but his day-to-day job is really just saying prayers, performing these rituals for the good of the country. Person in charge is the Shogun, also based in Kyoto. So this is the Ashikagaoguner, it's called. They've been around for a while,

but across the 1400s, their power over Japan is starting to crumble. Okay, but in 1400 or so,

it's still one reasonably coherent kingdom. I think so, yes, it's divided into provinces,

...