Animal symbolism

[Randall.Awo]

This is my first post so ... hello.

I need to make an illustration for my teacher at university. I want to draw battle of Nagashino , but I have a problem: is there any way to illustrate three clans (Oda, Tokugawa and Takeda) as animals? There are any symbols that will be good to this purpose?

 

[Toritoribe]

Tokugawa Ieyasu is often compared to raccoon dog (tanuki). The tiger represents Takeda Shingen when comparing with Uesugi Kenshin ("Kai no tora" the tiger of Kai Province vs "Echigo no Ryū" the dragon of Echigo Province), but I don't think there is a common animal for Oda Nobunaga .
(I know the head of Takeda clan was Takeda Katsuyori at that time, but he is less common than Shingen.)