English occasionally uses "Waterloo" idiomatically to refer to a situation
where someone meets their (ultimate) defeat. (historical allusion to
Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo)

> "That playboy fell hard for Susan. He finally met his Waterloo"
>
> "This is your Waterloo. Soon, you'll be Napoleon Blown-apart." (Sideshow
> Bob)

My question: would a nativized version work in Japanese? I've toyed with the
idea of using Honnoji, in reference to Oda Nobunaga's defeat.

> (1) ?「裁判で勝ちつつあってから、田中対鈴木事件は先生の本能寺だった」
>
> ("After a string of victories in court, the lawyer met his Waterloo in the
> case of Tanaka v. Suzuki.")
>
> (2) ?「俺は世界一の魔導師！この決闘はお前の本能寺だ！」
>
> ("I am the world's best wizard! This duel will be your Waterloo!")
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2017-09-16T14:27:46.333
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question
idioms
localizing historical allusions (Waterloo; Honnoji)
You cannot use 本能寺 like that. In addition, 本能寺 is associated with _surprise
attack_ rather than _ultimate defeat_ to me. Even if you used an explicit
analogy marker (eg 彼にとって本能寺のようなものだ, まるで本能寺みたいなことになった), people are unlikely to
understand what you want to mean. And 魔導師 usually refers to Western-style
wizards, who don't usually know 本能寺 in the first place :)

A similar word in Japanese is perhaps
[天王山【てんのうざん】](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/154246/meaning/m0u/), which
sometimes refers to "decisive stage/battle" without using ～のような.

> ここが天王山だ。 This is the make-or-break stage.

I'm not aware of any place name which can mean _ultimate defeat_ on its own in
ordinary conversations.
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