Oda Nobunori (織田信則)
Nobunori ODA was a hatamoto (direct retainers of the Edo bakufu) in the Edo period. He was a shizoku (family or person with samurai ancestors) of the Meiji period. He was a son of Nobuyoshi ODA, a Koke hatamoto (direct retainer of the bakufu, who was in a privileged family under Tokugawa Shogunate). His common name was Kazuma.
According to "Dai Bukan" (a book of heraldry), although he was a dependent in his family, he could be identified as a member of the family with omote-daka (face value of kokudaka assessed by the feudal government), thererfore, he is estimated to have had omemie (the privilege to have an audience with one's lord, a dignitary, etc.). At Meiji Restoration, together with his father, Nobuyoshi, having taken a hostile action to the new Meiji government, seemed to have been given an order of kinshin (house arrest). On June 6, 1869 both he and his father got free of the kinshin from the new Meiji government. On removing the kinshin the new Meiji government ordered Suemaru ODA in the head family to take father and son under his care and sustain them.
It is said that he was interested in natural science as well as his father, so that after Meiji Restoration he set his mind on zoology and learned western-style taxidermy. He is said to have taught Nobumaro TAKACHIHO how to make samples of insects. He wrote books such as "Dobutsu Seitai Shashin shu" (a photo book of animal ecology) and so on.
In June, 1877, he, together with Fusatane TANAKA, who learned herbalism in the Edo period, and others, made research of plants in Mie and Wakayama Prefectures. Around in 1894 he moved into Osaka with his family. In 1903 on the occasion of the fifth Domestic Industrial Promotion Exhibition, he, together with Sentaro YAMAOKA and others, planned to establish a zoo in Osaka and published "Yokyo Dobutsu-en Shuyo Dobutsu Mokuroku oyobi Kaisetsu" (a list and explanation of animals which could be kept in the zoo). Subsequently he died in Osaka and seems to have been buried in Baishoin Temple in Tennoji-ku.
His wife was Yasu, a daughter of OKUBO Higo no kami (governor of Higo Province), a former retainer of shogun. Akira ODA, his second son and Kazuma ODA, the fourth son were known as artists.