Kanbe Kuroda was a favorite strategist of Nobunaga Oda, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and Ieyasu Tokugawa, the three most famous warlords in feudal Japan. Kanbe was born in 1546 as the eldest son of a castle Governor in western Japan. A meeting with Hideyoshi at the age of 30 resulted in his appearance on the front lines of history. The master strategist, who never suffered defeat in more than 50 battles, had the ideas of using people instead of killing them and of not killing with spears and swords but of using intelligence as a weapon. His victories on the battlefield helped Hideyoshi rule Japan.