Oda Nobunaga

About Oda Nobunaga

Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) was a pivotal military figure of the Sengoku period in Japan, often credited as the first 'Great Unifier' of the nation. As a powerful daimyō, his innovative tactics, which included pioneering the mass use of arquebuses, dramatically altered Japanese warfare and set the stage for his successors, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, to complete the unification of Japan under a single shogunate. This profound, nation-shaping impact is reflected in his Historical Popularity Index (HPI) rank of #709 among global historical figures.

Despite his critical role in the foundation of early modern Japan, Oda Nobunaga currently exhibits a clear case of online overattention relative to his historical standing. With 1.0 million Wikipedia views in 2025, his attention is disproportionately high, resulting in an Attention Gap of +3x, meaning he receives three times the expected attention based on the HPI ranking. For contrast, this level of attention surpasses contemporaries like Stanley Kubrick (#957 importance, 2.4M views) and Al Capone (#992 importance, 2.5M views), whose global historical influence is arguably less structural than Nobunaga's reshaping of an entire nation, though they are slightly more viewed. This suggests a strong modern interest, perhaps driven by media adaptations, that outpaces his rank among the world's most historically important individuals.

Further examination of the data indicates a recent cooling of this interest: his 2025 annualized views show a year-over-year decline of -24.9%, and his quarterly momentum (-34% from Q1 vs Q3) suggests this trend is continuing into the latter half of the year.