In 1467 the Onin War ushered in a period of unrivalled conflict and rivalry in Japan that came to be called the Age of Warring States. In this text Turnbull offers an exposition of the wars. He explains what led to Japan's disintegration into warring states after more than a century of peace; the years of fighting that followed; and the period of gradual fusion when the daimyo (great names) strove to reunite Japan under a new shogun. Peace returned to Japan with the end of the Osaka War in 1615, but only at the end of the most violent, turbulent, cruel and exciting time in Japanese history.