Chris Perry, Author

Tag: Awa Province

  • Lords of the East, Part 4

    Lords of the East, Part 4

    Hojo Ujiyasu died in 1571, having lived a life in which he had seen the fortunes of his clan rise, fall, and then rise again. His son, Ujimasa, inherited a strong but still dangerous position. Almost as soon as his father had passed, Ujimasa sought to end the war with Takeda Shingen and reestablish an alliance against their mutual enemy, Uesugi Kenshin.

    Hojo Ujimasa

    Shingen, by now in control of Suruga and stronger than ever, agreed, and it didn’t take long for the Hojo and Uesugi to be at each other’s throats again. In 1574, Kenshin invaded the Kanto, but his attention was focused mostly on his conflict with the Takeda, closer to home, and this round of Uesugi-Hojo fighting ended after an indecisive battle at the Tone River.

    With Kenshin busy elsewhere, Ujimasa turned his attention back to the Hojo’s old enemy, the Satomi, invading Shimotsuke in 1576, and advancing deep into Kazusa the next year. The Hojo clearly had the military advantage, with a vastly superior army and much larger territory. Despite this, the terrain of Kazusa and Awa Province (in the south of modern Chiba) is difficult for military operations, and Hojo supply lines relied either on ships crossing Tokyo Bay, which was difficult even in good weather, or on taking the long way around through Musashi Province (modern Tokyo).

    The terrain of Kazusa and Awa as it appears today. Though the Hojo were stronger, the logistical reality made a long term campaign impossible.
    By certified, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55415779

    Neither of these options was particularly appealing, and what was more, the number of troops that the Hojo would have needed to commit to ending the war decisively would have left their other frontiers unacceptably vulnerable. So, in late 1577, a peace agreement (the Boso Ichiwa) was reached, establishing the border between the two factions and arranging a marriage to seal the deal.

    Although the marriage would end within a few years, with the death of Ujimasa’s daughter, the peace held (more or less). This is demonstrated by the fact that when civil war broke out among the Satomi following Yoshihiro’s death in 1578, the Hojo did not intervene, even though it would have been to their advantage to do so. The peace would eventually come to an end in 1590, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

    Uesugi Kenshin, one of the Hojo’s most dangerous foes, also died in 1578, and Uesugi, much like the Satomi, quickly fell into infighting over who would succeed him. This time, the Hojo made some attempts to intervene, as Uesugi Kagetora, one of the candidates, was Ujimasa’s younger brother, who had been adopted by Kenshin as part of the earlier peace deal. Ujimasa’s support for his one-time brother seems to have been quite limited, however, as Hojo forces contented themselves with securing control over Kozuke Province before withdrawing.

    Takeda Shingen had died in 1573, and with the Uesugi and Satomi tearing themselves apart over succession, by 1578, Ujimasa might have been forgiven for thinking that he’d ‘won’ in the Kanto. Unfortunately for him, Shingen’s death led to the disastrous Battle of Nagashino in 1575, in which the Takeda clan’s power was broken, leaving the western approaches to the Kanto open to a new, and far more dangerous, player.

    Oda Nobunaga.

    Oda Nobunaga had risen from obscure origins in Owari Province (around modern Nagoya) to become the preeminent lord in the realm. Though his power was not yet completely unchallenged, by 1578, he was best placed to be the man who would unite the realm and end the Sengoku Jidai. With that in mind, Ujimasa reached out diplomatically, seeking to gain Nobunaga’s favour and perhaps arrange a marriage between the Oda and Hojo. Around this time, he also seems to have ‘retired’ and given control of the clan to his son, Ujinao, whilst in reality retaining actual power for himself.

    For his part, Nobunaga seems to have had little interest in a rapprochement with the Hojo, though his exact plans aren’t clear; it’s reasonable to assume that, much like the Takeda, Nobunaga viewed the Hojo as a rival to eventually be crushed. However, in the short term, he had more pressing concerns in the West, dealing with the powerful Mori Clan, and for now, the Hojo were left alone.

    With Nobunaga’s death in June 1582, everything changed. Taking advantage of the chaos, Ujimasa launched an attack against former Oda loyalists in the Kanto, securing control of the whole of Kozuke Province, and advancing into Kai, where he was met by another power seeking to take advantage of Nobunaga’s death, Tokugawa Ieyasu.

    Tokugawa Ieyasu

    The fighting didn’t go well for the Hojo, but neither side was committed to all-out war, so a peace was agreed upon, which saw Ujimasa’s son, Ujinao, marry Ieyasu’s daughter, Tokuhime. In 1583, following the death of the last Ashikaga Kanto kubo, Ujimasa took the title for himself, positioning the Hojo at the very top of the hierarchy in the Kanto.

    Not long after that, a successful campaign in support of allies in Shimotsuke Province brought the southern half of that province under his control, and Hojo territory reached its greatest extent. By some later estimates, the territory was valued at 2.4 Million Koku, and with control of several key rivers and coastal areas, the Hojo now dominated the political, military, and economic spheres within the Kanto.

    In 1587, the chaos that had followed Nobunaga’s death had come to an end, with Toyotomi Hideyoshi emerging as the ultimate winner. That year, he issued the Soubujirei or “General Peace Order” commanding that all Daimyo cease private wars, essentially bringing an end to the Sengoku Jidai, at least on paper.

    Toyotomi Hideyoshi

    The Hojo agreed to abide by this order, but there was one outstanding issue. During the fighting in Kai Province in 1582, the Numata Domain, territory of the Sanada Clan, had defied Hojo attempts to conquer it. Though the fighting had largely come to an end, the border remained undefined, and so Hideyoshi dispatched vassals to settle the issue.

    Hideyoshi’s decision was that two-thirds of the territory would go to the Hojo, and the remaining third would remain in Sanada hands. To confirm the arrangement, the powerful Numata Castle was handed over to the Hojo and peace was apparently agreed. However, shortly after this, the new lord of Numata arranged for the defection of nearby Nagurumi Castle, on the Sanada side of the border.

    The site of Nagurumi Castle today.
    photo: Qurren (トーク) Taken with Canon PowerShot G9 X – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63097035による

    The plot succeeded, and Nagurumi was handed over to Hojo forces without a fight. The problem was that this was a clear violation of the peace deal, and things only got worse when Ujinao denied any knowledge of the plot in a letter to Hideyoshi, attempting to present the capture of the castle as a fait accompli.
    Hideyoshi wasn’t about to accept that, and demanded that Ujimasa (retired, but still effective head of the clan) come to Kyoto to explain his clan’s actions.

    Ujimasa refused, and Hideyoshi took this as an act of open rebellion. In 1589, he ordered all lords to attack the Hojo as punishment for their defiance. Initial attacks from the Sanada clan were repelled by Hojo forces, but Hideyoshi was able to muster a force in excess of 200,000 men, and when the main attack began, it would be a fight to the death.

    The Odawara Campaign is deserving of a post of its own, I think, so we’ll leave it there for now.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F%E6%94%BF
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E7%A7%80%E5%90%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E7%94%B0%E5%8E%9F%E5%BE%81%E4%BC%90
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%90%8D%E8%83%A1%E6%A1%83%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%83%A3%E7%84%A1%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%A4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F%E5%BA%B7

  • Lords of the East, Part 1

    Lords of the East, Part 1

    This post is coming out on Christmas Day, so Merry Christmas (if that’s your thing).

    We’ve taken a look at the Hojo before, their origins, and their founder, Hojo Soun, featured in a post I wrote a while back, which can be found here:

    The mon of the Hojo Clan.
    Mukai – コンピュータが読み取れる情報は提供されていませんが、自分の作品だと推定されます（著作権の主張に基づく）, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9416708による
    Soun – Rise of the Hojo

    In brief, the Hojo, as they became known, were originally called the Ise, and their founder, Soun, invaded Izu Province in 1493 before conquering Odawara in neighbouring Sagami Province in 1495. It was Soun’s son, Ujitsuna, who adopted the name and mon of the Hojo Clan, who had been the de facto rulers of Japan during the late Kamakura Shogunate.

    Exactly why he chose to change the clan’s identity is a matter of some debate, with the most obvious reason being the prestige the name brought, which would help to convince the clans that were ‘native’ to the area that the Ise (now the Hojo), who had originated elsewhere, belonged.

    The Hojo based themselves permanently at Odawara from around 1516, and it is from there that Ujitsuna, the second lord (or first, if you’re feeling pedantic about names), would rule. After Soun passed the rule to him in 1518, Ujitsuna set about quite literally making his mark on Sagami Province. He was something of a prolific builder and established or rebuilt several famous shrines that still stand today.

    Sagami Province
    By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image: Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1691750

    After 1521, Ujitsuna also began to call himself the shugo (governor) of Sagami Province. Officially, he was never bestowed with this title by the Shogun, but by this point, it hardly mattered; no one in Kyoto was in a position to stop him, and Ujitsuna ruled as governor, in fact if not technically by law.

    It’s also around this time that the Ise Clan became the Hojo Clan. Traditionally, this was seen as just an arbitrary name change, seeking to attach the somewhat lowborn Ise to an illustrious name. More recent evidence suggests that it might not have been so cynical a move, with some sources suggesting that Ujitsuna’s wife, Yojuin, was a descendant of the Yokoi Clan, who were in turn descendants of the original Hojo.

    This would still be a pretty tenuous link on its own. Still, shortly after the name change, the Imperial Court rewarded the Hojo with the title of “Saikyo no Daibu“, the same title the original Hojo were bestowed with. We’ve discussed previously how, by this point, Imperial titles were worthless on their own but still carried considerable prestige. This title put the Hojo on the same rank (in the eyes of the court, anyway) as the nearby Imagawa, Takeda, and Uesugi Clans, families with undisputed lineage.

    Hojo Ujitsuna. It was his decision to rename his clan that led to the adoption of their famous name.

    All this suggests that the claim to the Hojo name might not have been all that spurious, but acceptance by the Imperial Court did not translate to being a member of the ‘club’, and certainly, in the case of the Uesugi (the Ogigayatsu Branch, at least), the Hojo were little more than upstarts.

    The Sengoku Period was a time when lineage no longer held the same meaning it once did. A clan with an impressive family tree could (and often did) find itself crushed by clans that, by comparison, had no real ancestry and might have once been subordinates. This phenomenon, called Gekokujo in Japanese (which means low overthrows high), was common across the realm in this period, and a clan like the newly dubbed Hojo would set about establishing its rule at the point of a sword.

    Ujitsuna was very much a man of his time, and by the mid 1520s, he had subdued all of Sagami Province (modern Kanagawa) and advanced into southern Musashi, the neighbouring province, close to the area of modern Tokyo. Faced with further advances by the Hojo and defection of lords in Western Musashi, the Ogigayatsu were forced to respond.

    Musashi Province.
    By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image: Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1690716

    In February 1524, a Hojo force of some 10,000 clashed with the Ogigayatsu at the Battle of Takanawahara. The battle was a decisive victory for the Hojo, with the Ogigayatsu forces retreating to Edo Castle (on the site of the modern Imperial Palace), only for it to fall shortly afterwards, forcing the Ogigayatsu to withdraw further north to another stronghold at Kawagoe.

    Ujitsuna, flush with victory, ordered a rapid advance and made rapid progress before a counterattack led by Ogigayatsu ally, Takeda Shingen (remember him?), defeated the Hojo at Iwatsuki in mid 1524, obliging Ujitsuna to seek peace. He would break the peace in early 1525, and despite some early success, the Ogigayatsu, allied with the Takeda, and united with their cousins on the Yamauchi Uesugi, proved to be too much for the Hojo. In September 1525, the Hojo were defeated at the Battle of Shirakobara. Although Edo Castle would hold out, by mid-1526 the Hojo had been driven out of Musashi Province altogether, with Tamanawa Castle on the border of Sagami Province coming under attack in November that year.

    The Hojo had their back to the wall, but the forces arrayed against them were a mishmash of different clans, with different goals. A lack of coordination meant that when the time came to attack Sagami in force, the attack was beaten back, with troops of the Satomi (allies of the Ogigayatsu) making it as far as Kamakura before being defeated. During their retreat, they burned the famous Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. This carried significant political consequences, and Ujitsuna was able to convince the Imperial Court and the Shogunate to censure his enemies.

    Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine as it appears today.
    ulysses_powers から Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Yukinoshita, Kamakura, Kanagawa – Flickr, CC 表示-継承 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3123909による

    This official reprimand created enormous political pressure, and by the end of 1527, Ujitsuna had been able to make peace. Though it is difficult to predict what the outcome might have been otherwise, it is important to remember that Hojo territory faced enemies in three directions, and it is not improbable that, had peace not been agreed, then they may have been overwhelmed.

    This reprieve was not wasted by Ujitsuna, either. In 1530, when Takeda forces once again marched against Sagami, the Hojo dispatched a force to meet them. Though the Hojo would prove victorious in this campaign, the Ogigayatsu sought to take advantage of Ujitsuna’s distraction and sent an army of their own, hoping to trap the Hojo army between them and the Takeda.

    Standing in their way was Ozawa Castle, controlled by Ujitsuna’s son and heir, Ujiyasu. Sources say that the Hojo were outnumbered as much as 5 to 1, but on the night of July 6th, 1530, Ujiyasu launched a surprise attack on their camp, winning a decisive victory and returning momentum in the war to the Hojo.

    The site of Ozawa Castle, in modern Kawasaki.
    多摩に暇人 – 投稿者が撮影, CC 表示 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93672574による

    With this momentum, the Hojo were able to take advantage of the same division that had plagued their enemies a few years earlier. Ujitsuna identified the Satomi Clan (from modern Chiba) as a weak link and focused his attention on them, bribing several family members who were unhappy with the current leadership and seeking to incite a rebellion that the Hojo could exploit.

    The plot was discovered, however, and so the Hojo instead relied on good, old-fashioned, brute force, dispatching an army across what is now Tokyo Bay to Awa Province on the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula. Despite the plot’s failure and the execution of several conspirators, some members of the Satomi still rose up in support of the Hojo invasion. What followed was a series of victories as the Hojo-Satomi alliance took castle after castle, culminating in the Battle of Inukake in 1534, which saw the Hojo-Satomi defeat their rivals and replace the head of the Satomi Clan with a Hojo ally.

    Whilst the Hojo were victorious on their eastern flank, the western flank was secured by a long-term alliance with the Imagawa. You may remember that Hojo Soun had actually started out as a vassal of the Imagawa, and though the Hojo had since risen to a position of equality with their former masters, the relationship remained close.

    With the bulk of his forces busy against the Satomi, Ujitsuna requested his Imagawa ally, Ujiteru, invade Takeda territory to ensure they wouldn’t intervene. The Imagawa obliged and invaded Kai Province in July 1534; they were initially successful but soon became overextended and had to retreat to their home in Suruga. A Takeda counterattack was considered so dangerous that Ujitsuna withdrew forces from the West to face it. The Takeda, remembering their defeat at the hands of the Hojo a few years earlier, tried to lure Ujitsuna into an ambush in the narrow mountain passes of Kai, seeking revenge.

    Lake Yamanaka, site of the eponymous battle.
    Alpsdake – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45336367による

    Ujitsuna was apparently aware of the strategy, however, and dispatched a force to outflank the Takeda, turning the ambushers into the ambushed at the Battle of Yamanaka on September 19th, 1535. The defeat was so severe for the Takeda that the road into Kai province now lay open, and Ujitsuna apparently intended to crush the Takeda once and for all and take the whole of Kai Province for himself.

    This invasion was eventually called off as the Ogigayatsu proved to be a more pressing concern, and over the next few years, the geopolitical situation would shift considerably. In 1536, Imagawa Ujiteru died suddenly, aged just 21 or 22. He left no heirs, and so the clan quickly descended into civil war. At about the same time, famine and an epidemic broke out in Kai Province, severely weakening the Takeda.

    The Imagawa civil war was won by Yoshitomo, Ujiteru’s younger brother, but the devastation in Suruga left the clan severely weakened, and they sought peace with the Takeda, who, suffering their own calamities, quickly agreed, with Yoshitomo marrying Takeda Shingen’s daughter to establish a new alliance. Ujitsuna recognised that his alliance presented an intolerable risk to his western frontier and resolved to do something about it.

    A later depiction of Imagawa Yoshitomo.

    In early 1537, Ujitsuna led 10,000 men into Suruga Province, winning a series of crushing victories over the Imagawa and decisively bringing an end to decades of close relations. Fearing overextension, however, Ujitsuna limited his conquests to the territory east of the Fuji River, and a truce was declared shortly afterwards, which was convenient, as the death of the Ogigayatsu lord left the clan in disarray and presented a golden opportunity for further Hojo expansion, but we’ll talk about that next time.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%B1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E4%B8%AD%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%8C%E5%A3%AB%E5%B7%9D
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagawa_Yoshimoto
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8A%AC%E6%8E%9B%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E6%B2%A2%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E6%B2%A2%E5%8E%9F%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%B6%B4%E5%B2%A1%E5%85%AB%E5%B9%A1%E5%AE%AE
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%99%BD%E5%AD%90%E5%8E%9F%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84

  • (No longer) Lords of the Four Provinces

    (No longer) Lords of the Four Provinces

    Last time, we looked at how the Chosokabe rose from barely holding a single castle to becoming effective masters of the whole of Shikoku. In 1582, it had looked like they were about to be invaded and (probably) conquered by Oda Nobunaga, but his sudden death at the Honnoji Incident in June 1582 granted the Chosokabe a brief reprieve.

    The mon of the Chosokabe Clan.
    百楽兎 – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9987939による

    Between 1582 and 1585, they completed their conquest of Shikoku, although exactly how much control they really exerted is still debated by historians, with some suggesting that Shikoku was conquered and pacified, but others making the case that Chosokabe control outside of Tosa Province was tenuous.

    Regardless of the nature of Chosokabe’s control of Shikoku, it would prove to be brief. In the spring of 1585, Hashiba Hideyoshi, fresh from defeating the last of his rivals to the mantle of Nobunaga’s successor, turned his attention to Shikoku. Hideyoshi ordered the Chosokabe to hand over Iyo and Sanuki Provinces, effectively ceding the northern half of Shikoku to him.

    Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who would eventually become master of Japan.

    The Lord of the Chosokabe, Motochika, tried to negotiate, offering just Iyo Province. Hideyoshi was not a man to be bargained with, however, and in response to what he saw as Chosokabe’s defiance, he dispatched an army of some 100,000 men under the overall command of his brother, Hidenaga.

    Shikoku was attacked from three sides: Sanuki and Awa by Hidenaga’s army, and Iyo by the Mori who had recently submitted to Hideyoshi and were keen for a chance to prove their loyalty. Attacked on multiple fronts and facing overwhelming numbers, the Chosokabe did not resist for long. At the end of July, after already having lost Awa Province, Motochika surrendered.

    The terms were harsh, but not as bad as they might have been. Hideyoshi allowed the Chosokabe to keep control of Tosa Province, but the other three were divided amongst Hideyoshi’s vassals. In 1586, the Chosokabe would join Hideyoshi’s invasion of Kyushu, and though the campaign itself would be successful, Motochika’s heir, Nobuchika, was killed in battle.

    Overcome with grief, Motochika is supposed to have tried to kill himself, only being dissuaded at the last minute by his vassals. Not long after this, he relocated the base of the clan to what is now Kochi Castle, and in 1588, he named his fourth son, Morichika, as the new heir.

    Kochi Castle as it appears today.
    By Taisyo – photo taken by Taisyo, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2157936

    In 1590, the Chosokabe again went to war in the service of Hideyoshi, this time dispatching naval forces to attack the Hojo Castle at Shimoda with 10,000 men. The garrison of 500 held out for nearly two months, but it was eventually taken, and with it, the Chosokabe contribution to the wider Odawara Campaign came to an end.

    In 1591, Motochika moved his base from Kochi Castle to a position at Urado (still within the modern city of Kochi). Some sources say this was because of the unfavourable location of the first castle (it was prone to flooding), whilst others suggest it was a strategic move, with Urado serving as the main base of the Chosokabe Navy, which took part in Hideyoshi’s long and ultimately unsuccessful invasions of Korea from 1592-1598.

    In 1596, the San Felipe Incident occurred when a Spanish Galleon (the San Felipe, hence the name) was shipwrecked off the coast of Tosa and brought into the harbour at Urado. We’ll focus on this incident specifically in a later post, but the short version is that Motochika confiscated the remaining cargo of the Galleon, and when officials from Hideyoshi arrived in Kochi to take possession of the goods, the captain of the Galleon heavily implied that the presence of Christians in Japan was the precursor to a Spanish Invasion, explaining that that was how the Spanish had managed to conquer such a large part of the globe.

    Hideyoshi had initially issued orders expelling Christian priests from Japan in 1586, but it had been unenforced before now. When news of the supposed Spanish invasion reached him, Hideyoshi was horrified, and in 1597, he had 26 Christians (including one passenger from the San Felipe) marched from Kyoto to Nagasaki (the centre of Christianity in Japan) and had all 26 crucified on a hill overlooking the city.

    A 19th Century depiction of the executions. The Japanese are wrongly portrayed with Chinese clothing and weapons.

    Motochika’s role in the persecution that followed is not clear, though Christianity had never been particularly strong on Shikoku, as the Chosokabe were largely opposed to foreigners in Japan, so it’s not hard to imagine he would have had no qualms about expelling them from his territory, even if he was not actively involved in the wider campaign.

    Hideyoshi’s death in 1598 would threaten the fragile peace he had forged, as his son and heir was just a boy, and a council of five regents was appointed to rule in his stead. Though Motochika was not a member of the council, he was still a man of influence, and in 1599, he was in Kyoto for an audience with Toyotomi Hideyori (Hideyoshi’s son) when he fell seriously ill.

    When it became clear that he wasn’t going to get better, he made his will, leaving control of the Chosokabe to his son Morichika, before he passed away in May that year. Morichika’s accession was far from smooth; he was unpopular amongst some of the Chosokabe’s retainers (apparently due to his arrogance and short temper), and the Toyotomi, de facto masters of Japan, didn’t recognise him as the new head of the clan.

    An early 20th century depiction of Chosokabe Morichika.

    Morichika would try to make good on his appointment by joining the Western Army (the pro-Toyotomi side) at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. This would prove to be an unwise choice in the end, as the Western Army was defeated by the Eastern Army under Tokugawa Ieyasu. Although the Chosokabe had not actually been involved in the final battle, they had chosen a side and would not escape the consequences.

    Morichika was punished by having Tosa taken from him. Though there would be some protest, the decision proved to be final, and the Chosokabe’s time as feudal lords was over. Motochika would campaign to have his territory restored until around 1605. In 1610, he supposedly became a monk, and although his movements around this time are unclear, by 1612, he was under direct surveillance from the new Tokugawa Shogunate.

    The new Shogun was right to suspect him, as, during the Osaka Campaign in 1615, he sided with the Toyotomi, hoping to secure the restoration of Chosokabe lands in Tosa. In the event, the Tokugawa would be victorious in that campaign, snuffing out the last of the Toyotomi Clan, and securing their rule.

    A contemporary kawaraban, a kind of early newspaper, depicting the fall of Osaka Castle.

    Morichika is reported to have fought bravely, leading an attack on the Tokugawa’s main camp that was ultimately unsuccessful, but which managed to inflict serious casualties on the Tokugawa army before being forced to withdraw. With Osaka Castle eventually falling to the Tokugawa, Morichika initially fled, but he was discovered and then humiliated by being paraded around Kyoto before being beheaded.

    Morichika’s death brought an end to the Chosokabe. Some sources state he had as many as five sons, all of whom died premature and violent deaths. Some other sources, however, suggest that he had just two children, a girl and a boy, one who married a local retainer, and the other who was whisked away after the Siege of Osaka and raised elsewhere. Unfortunately, in both cases, reliable sources are hard to come by, and the truth appears to be that the Chosokabe died with Morichika.

    The Chosokabe name would be revived in later years by descendants of Motochika’s brother, Chikafusa, who had been adopted into the Shima Clan years earlier and thus survived the end of the Chosokabe. The family survived in this form until March 2025, when the last head of the family, Chosokabe Tomochika, passed away childless, aged 82.

    「今は個人の時代。家を背負う時代ではありません。逆にこれからの世代が、自分の思いで新しい歴史を作っていくのも立派なことじゃないかと思いますね」

    “We are now in the age of the individual. It is no longer the age to shoulder the burden of a family. On the contrary, I think it is admirable for future generations to create a new history based on their own ideas.” – Chosokabe Tomochika

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E5%AE%97%E6%88%91%E9%83%A8%E7%9B%9B%E8%A6%AA
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AD%E6%9D%A1%E6%B2%B3%E5%8E%9F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E5%AE%97%E6%88%91%E9%83%A8%E5%85%83%E8%A6%AA
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Dsokabe_Morichika
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%B3%EF%BC%9D%E3%83%95%E3%82%A7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%9A%E5%8F%B7%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8B%E7%94%B0%E5%9F%8E_(%E4%BC%8A%E8%B1%86%E5%9B%BD)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Felipe_incident_(1596)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E5%AE%97%E6%88%91%E9%83%A8%E6%B0%8F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E5%AE%97%E6%88%91%E9%83%A8%E5%8F%8B%E8%A6%AA
    https://croissant-online.jp/life/54209/

  • On and on it goes…

    On and on it goes…

    As we mentioned previously, the word Nanbokucho literally means Southern and Northern Court, and it was this division that was the defining factor during the early years of the Ashikaga Shogunate (hence the name, I suppose).

    There had been an abortive attempt at reconciliation during the so-called Shohei Reunification, when Ashikaga Takauji (the Shogun) had made a deal with the Southern Court in order to gain their support against his rebellious brother, Tadayoshi.

    As we discussed last week, the Reunification fell apart almost as soon as Tadayoshi had been dealt with, as neither side could tolerate the other gaining power. No sooner was Tadayoshi dead than the Northern and Southern Courts went at it all over again.

    In the immediate aftermath, Southern forces attacked Kyoto, taking the city, only to be driven out a month later by a Shogunate counterattack, and this didn’t just happen once either. In the period of 1352 to 1361, there were actually four Battles of Kyoto (though they also have other names in Japanese).

    A modern view of Kyoto. A beautiful city today, a battleground in the 1360s
    Sorasak boontohhgraphy – https://unsplash.com/photos/_UIN-pFfJ7cアーカイブされたコピー at the Wayback MachineImage at the Wayback Machine, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61767016による

    Each time, Southern forces would attack, usually taking the city, only to be driven out again shortly afterwards by armies loyal to the Shogun. During this period, with Takauji’s health apparently failing, his son Yoshiakira began to take on more responsibility.

    When Takauji died in 1358, Yoshiakira became the second Ashikaga Shogun, and almost immediately set about launching a major military campaign against the Southern Court, seeking to crush it once and for all. Yoshiakira’s forces were able to take Akasaka Castle, home of the powerful Kusunoki Clan (whom we’ve mentioned previously).

    Despite this success, the Southern Court, led by the Kusunoki, resorted to guerrilla warfare in the mountainous terrain, and the conflict dragged on to the point that several Shogunate generals defected, or else just went home.

    In 1361, buoyed by another defection, the Southern Court once again attacked Kyoto, but once again, they couldn’t hold it, and within a month, the Shogun was back in control of the capital.

    This back-and-forth warfare did little but exhaust the resources of all involved, but generally, the Shogun had the advantage. This was further emphasised in 1363, when the powerful Yamana and Ouchi clans (previously supporters of Tadayoshi, and then the Southern Court) submitted to the Shogun.

    Meanwhile, everywhere else…

    Whilst the Nanbokucho period was violent and chaotic, the direct confrontations between the Northern and Southern courts actually only happened in a relatively small area of central Japan. So what was going on elsewhere in the country?

    Well, it wasn’t good. During the Kamakura Shogunate, most of the warrior clans had paid at least lip service to the idea of loyalty to the Shogun, and things had been relatively peaceful. The Ashikaga Shogunate, in contrast, had practically no control outside of the areas of central Japan.

    This meant that powerful local warlords in places like the Kanto or Kyushu (Eastern and Southern Japan, respectively) were more or less left to their own devices, though some would side openly with either the Shogunate or the Southern Court.

    In Kyushu, for example, local forces, supplemented by warriors sent by both courts, fought a series of increasingly bloody battles, culminating in the Battle of Chikugo River in the summer of 1359. It is said that this battle had over 100,000 combatants, with more men killed (46,000) than during the entire Mongol Invasion. Victory for the Southern Court secured control of Kyushu for more than a decade.

    The Battle of Chikugo River in 1359 was one of the largest ever fought in Japan, and gave control of Kyushu to the Southern Court for more than a decade.
    Musuketeer.3 – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27263125による

    Elsewhere in Japan, strong central government was replaced by strongman local government, as Shugo, military governors that had once been appointed by the Shogun, now took on the role of hereditary lords, passing their titles on to their heirs and creating a powerful military aristocracy that was capable of enforcing local law and order themselves and saw no need to seek support from a Shogun that might be too distracted to help anyway.

    This didn’t happen overnight, of course, the transition towards warrior rule was often gradual, and highly inconsistent across different provinces. The Samurai, who were often little better than thugs in their treatment of peasants, were not popular, and the Shugo quickly learned to lean on the (increasingly obsolete) legitimacy that came from being a “governor” instead of a “lord.”

    Technically, each Shugo derived his authority from the Shogun, and by extension, the Emperor. Yes, it was the Shugo’s men who collected the taxes and enforced the law, but he did so in the name of the Shogun. Whether or not anyone actually believed this legal fiction is besides the point; by the 1360s, centralised control of the provinces was breaking down, and it would be centuries before it would be recovered.

    Back at home

    In 1361, Doyo (remember him?) pops up again, orchestrating the downfall of his rival Hosokawa Kyouji. Kyouji, however, wasn’t the type to go quietly, and as a member of the powerful Hosokawa Clan, based in Awa Province (where he fled), he was able to raise a significant army against the Shogun.

    Awa Province, on Shikoku, the home province of the powerful Hosokawa Clan.
    By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image:Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1652119

    Like many of those who opposed the Shogun, Kyouji and the Hosokawa sought support from the Southern Court, and together they took Kyoto in December, but within a few weeks, they were driven out. Not long after, Kyouji was forced back to Shikoku, where he would be killed battling forces led by his own cousin.

    Despite another victory for the Shogun and the Northern Court, this latest Battle of Kyoto had reinforced the belief that military power alone was not going to be able to settle the issue. Both Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiakira and Emperor Go-Murakami appointed officials who were in favour of peace, and tentative negotiations began shortly afterwards.

    This wasn’t a smooth process, mind you. In 1366, the Shiba Clan, former loyalists of the Shogun and strong proponents of peace, were accused of plotting against the Northern Court and exiled. Instead of joining the Southern Court as others had done, the Shiba retreated to their stronghold in Echizen Province (in modern Fukui Prefecture), where they were pursued by Shogunate forces and eventually defeated in July 1367.

    As a side note, the Shogun actually ordered several clans to send forces to deal with the Shiba, which they did. While this showed that the Shogun was able to call on considerable support when needed, it also laid the groundwork for later trouble, as it became increasingly clear that the Shogun, and by extension, the Ashikaga Clan, did not have the military strength to enforce policy on its own.

    Echizen Province, stronghold of the Shiba Clan.
    By Ash_Crow – Own work, based on Image:Provinces of Japan.svg, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1655318

    The path to peace was also complicated in 1367 by the Southern Court’s insistence that the Northern Court abide by the terms of the (failed) Shohei Unification, which the Shogunate unsurprisingly refused to do. This breakdown in negotiations almost led to a resumption of war, but cooler heads prevailed, and it seemed like things might work out.

    Fate has a way of being uncooperative, however. Ashikaga Yoshiakira died suddenly in December 1367, followed in March 1368 by Emperor Go-Murakami. The third Shogun was Yoshiakira’s son, Yoshimitsu, who was still a minor and was thus aided by Hosokawa Yoriyuki (the cousin who had defeated Kyouji back in 1361).

    At the Southern Court, Emperor Chokei took the throne. A hardliner, Chokei refused to continue negotiations with the Shogunate that weren’t predicated on the Northern Court submitting completely. This inflexible approach actually worked against the Southern Court’s interests, as several powerful figures who had been in support of peace (including some members of the influential Kusunoki Clan) defected to the Shogun’s side.

    And so the war would go on. Hosokawa Yoriyuki would actually prove to be an effective administrator and did much to improve the position of the Shogunate before eventually falling foul of internal politics, but more on that next time.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%97%E5%8C%97%E6%9C%9D%E6%99%82%E4%BB%A3_(%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B2%9E%E6%B2%BB%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%B0%E5%B7%9D%E6%B8%85%E6%B0%8F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E5%90%8D%E6%99%82%E6%B0%8F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%B3%E5%88%A9%E7%BE%A9%E8%A9%AE#%E5%B0%86%E8%BB%8D%E5%B0%B1%E4%BB%BB%E5%BE%8C
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Yoshiakira
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanboku-ch%C5%8D_period