I'm teetering on the edge of my first realm divide at the moment and wondering when to take the plunge. What conditions do people wait for before provoking the confrontation?

I've pretty much developed my lands as I would like, but don't have much of an army or bank balance. I suspect the smart thing might be to enjoy the fat years, building up a large war chest (a few hundred thousand?) and at the end, have a modernised army ready to march on Kyoto with defensive forces elsewhere. Is that what others do?

But I am not sure I can be that patient. And I fear that waiting my allow rivals to consolidate and lead to the natural death of my first daimyo (with a fall in honour negatively impacting on the already dire post-RD diplomacy).