Sengoku Japan: Ise's Ruler of the Realm

During Japan's Sengoku period, the province of Ise boasted a kokudaka of over 500,000 koku, yet it never achieved unification, nor did any single powerful daimyo house ever rise from within its borders. Oda Nobunaga: "What is going on? To the east there is the First Archer of the Tōkaidō, and now the west has produced a famed general of Ise as well? Am I being caught in a pincer from both sides?" Miyoshi Nagayoshi: "The greatest enemy standing between me and rule over the realm is not the Rokkaku clan—it is the Takamatsu clan of Ise." Rokkaku Sadayori: "I am truly not Takamatsu Muneharu's lord. Have you ever seen a retainer who rides on top of his own lord?" And at Honnōji in Kyoto, Takamatsu Muneharu, lying back on the tatami, has only this to say: "My apologies, but no one knows how to become ruler of the realm better than I do..."