Chris Perry, Author

Tag: Hojo clan

  • The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Six.

    The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Six.

    The mon of the Toyotomi Clan.

    By the late 1580s, Hideyoshi was at the very pinnacle of political and military power in Japan. Jesuit records from the time name him “tyrant” and suggest that he has achieved more power over the realm than any warlord before him.

    After the successful conclusion of the Kyushu Campaign, Hideyoshi ordered a new palace built in Kyoto. Called Jurakudai (or Jurakutei in some sources), Toyotomi moved his political base there from Osaka Castle in early 1588, inviting the Emperor Go-Yozei for a feast in April 1588 and obliging powerful Daimyo (such as Tokugawa Ieyasu) to travel there and pay homage to him.

    An image of the Emperor visiting Jurakudai.

    Having secured personal political power, Hideyoshi then turned his attention to pacifying the realm at large. Through his military campaigns, he had subdued most of the powerful Daimyo in the realm, but there remained the issue of establishing peace at the local level as well.

    The Sengoku Jidai exists in the popular imagination as more than a century of conflict, featuring epic clashes between armies of Samurai loyal unto death, and iconic lords like Takeda Shingen, Oda Nobunaga, and Uesugi Kenshin, who were locked in a titanic struggle for ultimate control of the realm.

    Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen engaged in a duel that probably never happened but remains an enduring, if inaccurate, image of the Sengoku-era battlefield.

    Whilst there is certainly truth to this image, much like any period of civil war, Japanese society at large had become incredibly violent during the 16th century. At the local level, the decentralised nature of Daimyo rule led to the emergence of Jizamurai, literally “Local Samurai”. These men often started out as armed peasants, usually levied into the armies of some local lord, and sent home again when the campaign ended.

    Throughout the 16th century, these Jizamurai gradually achieved military and political influence over their local communities, often being allowed to collect tax revenue on behalf of their lord in exchange for military service, similar to a Knightly Manor in medieval Europe.

    This situation worked fine whilst the realm was fractured into dozens of minor domains, but as consolidation followed conquest in the latter half of the 16th century, tensions between “Samurai” and “Jizamurai” became more of an issue. When a lord was defeated, he was usually killed or deprived of his land, meaning that the Jizamurai would often find themselves serving a new lord to whom they had no personal loyalty, leading to frequent conflicts.

    Ashigaru on campaign. By the late 16th century, the distinction between Warrior and Peasant was often unclear to the point of being non-existent.

    On a societal level, the distinction between Jizamurai and peasants was often academic. Though technically of a higher social status, a Jizamurai usually lived in the village, amongst the peasantry, who would themselves often have access to weaponry and a far greater loyalty to their local Jizamurai than to some powerful Daimyo whom they never saw.

    This led to frequent Peasant Uprisings throughout the Sengoku Period, most famously the Ikko-Ikki, who were motivated by religious fervour but were largely made up of peasants and Jizamurai. It wasn’t just political violence; feuds between villages were common and often escalated into violence, as rival communities would quickly resort to the sword to settle disputes over territory, waterways, and other local matters.

    In 1587, Hideyoshi passed a law forbidding the use of force to resolve such disputes. Though the exact wording of the law has been lost, by looking at the wording of laws from the later Edo Period, which often referred to ‘precedents’ (i.e., earlier laws), we can infer what Hideyoshi’s decrees may have looked like.

    If any villagers or other people in a village engage in a dispute over mountains or waters, using bows, spears, or guns to fight amongst themselves, that entire village shall be punished. – From a decree by Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada -1610

    Scholars debate exactly what Hideyoshi intended with this law, with some suggesting that he meant to disarm and pacify the peasants, whilst others say it was more to do with establishing who had weapons, and who had the right to weapons, part of an ongoing centralisation campaign in which a clearer line was to be drawn between Warrior and Peasant.

    In 1589, Hideyoshi celebrated the birth of a son, Tsurumatsu, whom he swiftly named as his heir, securing his dynasty for the foreseeable future. The following year, after a series of political slights, he launched a decisive campaign against the Hojo, lords of the Kanto, crushing them in the Odawara Campaign.

    A later, heavily stylised depiction of Hideyoshi’s son, Tsurumatsu.

    Also in 1590, he crushed the defiant clans of Northern Japan in a swift campaign, and it is at this point that the “Sengoku Jidai” is said to have come to an end. For the first time in more than a century, the country was under the control of one man, and the realm would never again fracture as it once had. Despite this, one decision made by Hideyoshi in the aftermath of the Odawara Campaign had already sown the seeds of his clan’s ultimate downfall.

    With the destruction of the Hojo, Hideyoshi offered the five provinces of the Kanto to Tokugawa Ieyasu, in exchange for the three he had originally ruled. At the time, this move was seen as political savvy. It positioned the potentially rebellious Ieyasu farther from Kyoto, and though the five Kanto provinces were nominally richer than the three Ieyasu had given up, they had recently been conquered and were potentially volatile, meaning the move weakened Ieyasu in the short term.

    Tokugawa Ieyasu.

    Hideyoshi, however, had not considered Ieyasu’s political and economic acumen. His base in the Kanto would eventually serve as a springboard for his own rise to power, demonstrated perhaps most clearly by the fact that Japan’s modern capital, Tokyo, is on the same site as Ieyasu’s was, more than 430 years after he moved there, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

    The threat from Ieyasu was not Hideyoshi’s only concern, however. In 1591, his brother, Hidenaga, who had proven to be an extremely competent commander and political ally, died in February, followed by his son and heir, the two-year-old Tsurumatsu, in September of the same year.

    Toyotomi Hidenaga

    Following these deep personal and political blows, Hideyoshi adopted his nephew, Hidetsugu, and then retired, handing control of the clan over to him. As was common at the time, Hideyoshi retained true political power; however, becoming known as the Taiko, a title of respect for former regents.

    Also in 1591, with Japan secured, Hideyoshi announced his intention to invade China, launching a brutal invasion of Korea to use it as a base for his main objective. We’ll give the Korean Wars their own post, but for now, we can say that the invasions both highlighted Hideyoshi’s power and brought about political divisions that would ultimately destroy his legacy.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E7%A7%80%E5%90%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%AA%E9%96%A4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E7%A7%80%E9%95%B7
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B7%80%E6%AE%BF
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E9%B6%B4%E6%9D%BE
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%8C%E9%99%BD%E6%88%90%E5%A4%A9%E7%9A%87
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%88%80%E7%8B%A9
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%B5%E8%BE%B2%E5%88%86%E9%9B%A2
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%96%A7%E5%98%A9%E5%81%9C%E6%AD%A2%E4%BB%A4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E8%B3%8A%E5%81%9C%E6%AD%A2%E4%BB%A4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%81%9A%E6%A5%BD%E7%AC%AC%E8%A1%8C%E5%B9%B8
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%81%9A%E6%A5%BD%E7%AC%AC
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%B0%E4%BE%8D

  • The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Five.

    The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Five.

    In 1586, the powerful Tensho Earthquake brought about a temporary halt to Hideyoshi’s campaign to subdue the entire realm. In the aftermath, he had made peace with, then accepted the formal submission of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and now turned his attention to Japan’s southern island, Kyushu.

    Kyushu.

    As we’ve looked at in previous posts, the most powerful clan in Kyushu at this time were the Shimazu, who were on the verge of conquering the entire island, and were putting enormous pressure on their long-term rivals, the Otomo, who reached out to Hideyoshi for help. Hideyoshi responded by issuing a ceasefire order, the sobujirei, though scholars disagree if this was an order issued on a case-by-case basis, or a formal law brought in my Hideyoshi.

    Regardless of the legal basis, the Otomo swiftly agreed, but the Shimazu remained defiant, with the head of the clan, Shimazu Yoshihisa, going as far as suggesting that the Shimazu, a clan with its long and proud lineage, would never submit to a peasant ‘upstart’ like Hideyoshi. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hideyoshi didn’t take kindly to this and so ordered the invasion of Kyushu, officially in support of the Otomo.

    A statue of Shimazu Yoshihisa. He was the head of a proud clan and believed he had no reason to fear the ‘upstart’ Hideyoshi. He would be proved wrong.
    Ginger1192 – 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=24854517による

    At first, Hideyoshi seems to have tried to avoid committing his own troops to the invasion, instead relying on forces provided by the Mori, Chosokabe and their vassals to do the bulk of the fighting. This strategy may have been wise from a manpower preservation point of view, but the Shimazu proved more than capable of living up to their lineage, defeating the initial landings and giving Hideyoshi the proverbial bloody nose in the process.

    Much like the independent clans of Kii Province and the Chosokabe of Shikoku, however, the Shimazu were about to learn that Hideyoshi was a different kind of ruler, able to marshal resources that even the might of Kyushu could not hope to match. Taking the field himself, Hideyoshi is said to have amassed an army of some 300,000, with all the requisite supplies and resources to support such a massive force.

    Ashigaru. Far from the popular image of massed ranks of ferocious samurai, armies in the late Sengoku Period were largely made up of semi-professional troops armed with firearms, spears, and mass-produced swords.

    This was possibly the largest army ever assembled in Japan before the modern era (though sources vary), and the Shimazu were swiftly overwhelmed. It is important to note that, despite the overwhelming advantage in numbers, Hideyoshi’s force was not a single, massive bludgeon. He had proven himself a skilled strategist, able to deploy significant force in key areas, using innovative tactics to wear down defenders and capture strategic castles and other territory, rarely relying on brute force to break enemy forces.

    The Shimazu, much like the Chosokabe before them, fought bravely, but they were outmatched from the start, and eventually, Yoshihisa, who had claimed his clan would never submit to an ‘upstart’, was forced to seek peace. The terms were harsh; the Shimazu were forced to give up almost all of Kyushu, and were confined to Satsuma Province in the southwest of the island (in the western half of modern Kagoshima Prefecture).

    Satsuma 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=1691755

    The rest of Kyushu was divided up amongst Hideyoshi’s supporters, with the Otomo (who the invasion had nominally been in support of) receiving some, but not all of their lands back.

    It is at this point that Hideyoshi turned his attention to a group that have only been briefly mentioned thus far, but who had a significant presence on Kyushu, the Jesuits. We’ll have a detailed look at Portuguese activities in Japan in their own post, but to summarise, after the first arrival of Portuguese merchants in Japan in 1543, they had slowly, but steadily expanded their influence through commerical interests, and the spread of Christianity, ultimately being based at the port of Nagasaki.

    A contemporary depiction of a Portuguese trading ship of a type commonly seen at Nagasaki.

    Outside of Kyushu, the attitude of powerful Daimyo towards these Christians seems to have been fairly ambivalent, with most tolerating their presence, but few converting to the foreign religion. Hideyoshi himself issued permits for Christian priests to preach their religion in Osaka, and, according to some sources, he asked Jesuit Priest Gaspar Coelho to assist him in building an armada to be used in the conquest of China once Japan had been unified.

    This changed after the subjugation of Kyushu. Sources differ on exactly what occurred, with some blaming the machinations of the native Japanese Buddhist clergy, but the short version is that Hideyoshi became aware of the fact that Nagasaki had effectively been handed over to complete Portuguese control. They had fortified it and were apparently using it as a port through which non-Christian Japanese were sold out of the country as slaves.

    A contemporary image of Portuguese at Nagasaki. Though the trade was primarily in silks, spices, and silver, rumours of Japanese slaves being transported out of the country were enough to earn Hideyoshi’s ire.

    The issue of Japanese being sold as slaves by Portuguese merchants remains controversial (surprise, surprise), with debates raging over the extent of the practice and how involved the Japanese themselves were. There are contemporary sources which indicate that Japanese slaves could be found across Asia, and the concept of ‘unfree labour’ was already well established in Japan at this time, ranging from effective serfdom to labourers convicted to a term of service as punishment for a crime.

    Another issue is that one of the primary sources describing Portuguese involvement in slavery also describes them as a people that skin cows and horses alive, and eat the meat raw with their bare hands, suggesting that the purpose of such ‘records’ was more about demonising the Portuguese than recording actual events.

    A contemporary depiction of Portuguese in Japan. Though not all sources paint them in a negative light, the foreign visitors were often looked on as strange and even barbarous by comparison.

    Regardless of how extensive the trade was, it provided a convenient enough excuse for Hideyoshi to act. Though highlighting the fortifications at Nagasaki, and the selling of Japanese as slaves, modern historians more generally agree that the move against the Christians was more about consolidating power, as Hideyoshi believed that Christian theology was a direct threat to the traditional Japanese belief in a divine Emperor, from whom Hideyoshi’s power ultimately derived.

    Another theory is that Hideyoshi wanted to control trade with the West, believing (erroneously) that the trade was controlled by the Jesuits, when in reality, religious and commercial interests were separate, and often in conflict (the Jesuits, for example, actively opposed enslaving Japanese) This theory suggests that Hideyoshi hoped that removing the priests would allow him to take direct control of the trade.

    A contemporary image of a Christian Mass in Japan. Hideyoshi believed that the priests controlled the merchants.

    Whether he was motivated by political, religious, or economic reasons (or all three), Hideyoshi issued what became known as the Bateren expulsion order (bateren being the Japanese word for Christian priests, derived from the Latin Patren) in 1587. What followed was a brief campaign of repression against Christianity; the Jesuit base in Kyoto was burned, and territory around Nagasaki was seized.

    Ultimately, however, Hideyoshi seems to have largely ignored his own order, keeping several Christian priests as interpreters and scribes, and allowing trade to continue practically unmolested. For now, at least, Hideyoshi had bigger problems than Christian priests.

    Hojo Ujinao

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E7%A7%80%E5%90%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%9D%E5%B7%9E%E5%B9%B3%E5%AE%9A
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%83%86%E3%83%AC%E3%83%B3%E8%BF%BD%E6%94%BE%E4%BB%A4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%9D%E5%B7%9E%E5%9B%BD%E5%88%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%83%A3%E7%84%A1%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%A4
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Japan

  • The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Four.

    The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Four.

    Despite an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against Tokugawa Ieyasu, by late 1584, Hideyoshi was the most powerful man in the realm. Having secured his position as Oda Nobunaga’s successor, he dominated central Japan and could call on economic and martial resources that dwarfed those of his rivals.

    The strategic situation in late 1584, Hideyoshi controlled the territory in red.
    By Alvin Lee – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39198357

    Despite this, he was not yet unchallenged. To the west, the Mori remained undefeated, to the east, was Tokugawa Ieyasu, and further away, the Hojo, who had remained untouched by Nobunaga’s conquests, and to the south, in Kii Province, the locals coalesced around fiercely independent religious and social movements that resisted any attempts to impose central rule.

    Meanwhile, Hideyoshi solidified his political power, being elevated to the Third Rank of the nobility in November 1584 and to the Second Rank in March 1585. Around this time, some sources suggest that the Imperial Court even went so far as to offer him the title of Shogun, only for Hideyoshi to refuse, though the exact nature of the offer, if it existed at all, is unclear.

    Kii 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=1683109

    With his position secured, Hideyoshi turned his attention to Kii Province. We’ve spoken about the power of certain religious institutions before, and nowhere was this more apparent than in Kii (sometimes called Kishu). Luis Frois, a well-known Portuguese writer at the time, referred to the area as under the control of five “Great Republics”, which weren’t democracies in the way we’d recognise today, but were strongly independent polities with extensive territories, economic might, and military strength.

    In 1570, Nobunaga began what would prove to be a long campaign against the power of the Ikko-Ikki, based at Honganji Temple. The warrior monks of Kii Province were a key ally of the Ikko-Ikki, and in 1576, Nobunaga dispatched an army against them, aiming to reduce their ability to support his enemies elsewhere.

    A semi-contemporary depiction of Nobunaga’s attempts to subdue Kii Province.

    Despite being defeated on the battlefield, the warriors of Kii engaged in guerrilla warfare, led most famously by the Saika-shu, an organisation made up of local samurai and mercenaries, which was well known for its heavy (and skilful) use of firearms. Nobunaga eventually signed a peace treaty and withdrew, allowing his enemies to claim that they had actually defeated him.

    Nobunaga’s death in 1582 put an end to any further campaigning, and for a time, at least, Kii Province was left alone, though no one believed the peace would last. In early spring 1586, Hideyoshi, at the head of an army of some 100,000 men, invaded with the intention of crushing the independent ‘Republics’ for good.

    A depiction of Hideyoshi’s attack on Kii Province.

    The campaign was a true demonstration of Hideyoshi’s new power. Though the Saika-shu and others fought bravely, they were swiftly overwhelmed. Some scholars speculate that the Saika and their allies underestimated Hideyoshi. In the earlier Sengoku Period, it had often been enough to inflict heavy casualties in an initial battle, which would force the attackers to either negotiate or back off.

    These tactics had worked against Nobunaga, who had ultimately been unable to secure decisive control over Kii, for fear of tying down too many men. Hideyoshi had no such hesitation, and even though his losses were heavy, he kept pushing on, and the Saika, who were often hugely outnumbered, were swept aside.

    Firearms of the type used effectively, but ultimately unsuccessfully by the Saika-shu.

    Hideyoshi was able to secure control of Kii in the short term, but his hold over it was always fragile, and there would be several more outbreaks of rebellion in the coming years. In fact, it wouldn’t be until 1614, long after Hideyoshi had passed away, that Kii could be truly said to have been pacified.

    After this, Hideyoshi turned his attention to Shikoku and the powerful Chosokabe Clan. Once allies of Nobunaga, the Chosokabe had fallen foul of his ambitions and had been under threat of invasion at the time of his death at Honnoji.

    Shikoku.
    By TUBS – This vector image includes elements that have been taken or adapted from this file:, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16385942

    An army under Nobunaga’s third son, Nobutaka, had been gathered at Sumiyoshi (in modern Osaka) with the purpose of attacking Shikoku; in fact, they had been meant to set out on the same day that Nobunaga was killed, and news of his death demoralised the army, some of which simply went home.

    In the aftermath of Nobunaga’s death, the Chosokabe had consolidated control of all of Shikoku and lent support to opponents of Hideyoshi, notably Shibata Katsuie, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the Saika-shu of Kii Province. None of these enemies had been able to overcome Hideyoshi, however, and it was probably no surprise when he turned his vengeful eye on the Chosokabe themselves.

    Chosokabe Motochika, Lord of the Chosokabe at the time of Hideyoshi’s invasion.

    There were some attempts at negotiation, but Hideyoshi’s demands that the Chosokabe give up three of the four provinces of Shikoku were unacceptable. The strategic situation for the Chosokabe was made worse when the Mori, one-time antagonists of Hideyoshi, instead made a permanent peace with him. Some sources suggest that it was at this point that the Mori submitted to Hideyoshi outright.

    With the support of the Mori and their powerful navy, Hideyoshi launched a three-pronged attack on Shikoku, which the Chosokabe were hard-pressed to oppose. Outnumbered some 3 to 1, the Chosokabe fought bravely, but the campaign was over quickly. From June to August 1585, there was a series of battles and sieges that invariably resulted in Chosokabe defeat.

    A 19th-century depiction of the Invasion of Shikoku.

    Eventually, despite claiming he would rather fight to the end, Chosokabe Motochika surrendered at the urging of his senior vassals. As punishment for his defiance (or reward for his surrender), Hideyoshi confiscated three of the four Shikoku Provinces, leaving the Chosokabe with their home province of Tosa and an obligation to provide Hideyoshi with up to 3,000 troops for any future campaign and hostages to ensure the peace.

    During the Shikoku Campaign, which was led by his brother, Hideyoshi was appointed Kampaku by the Imperial Court. This was a result of a political crisis that had been ongoing since before Nobunaga’s death in 1582. At the time, the Imperial Court had (allegedly) invited Nobunaga to become Shogun, or Kampaku (Regent). Both contemporary and modern scholars disagree on Nobunaga’s response to this offer, but his death in June of that year ultimately rendered it moot.

    Emperor Go-Yozei, who was the sovereign during this time.

    What followed was a drawn-out political squabble between rival factions at court over who would ultimately take the position of Regent. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at how the Imperial Court was a decorative but ultimately impotent organisation by this point, and any title the Emperor might bestow would be largely symbolic without any external political power to back it up.

    Into this silk-clad quagmire stepped Hideyoshi. Traditionally, the position of Regent had rotated amongst five prestigious warrior families, of which Hideyoshi was not a member. To overcome this issue (which was one of tradition, rather than law), he was formally adopted as the son of Konoe Sakahisa (who was less than a year older than him) in July 1585, being named Kampaku shortly afterwards.

    Konoe Sakahisa, who formally adopted Hideyoshi.
    Leehiroki258 – 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=162775880による

    There was supposedly an agreement in which the childless Hideyoshi would take the position as a temporary solution to the crisis, before handing it over to the Konoe family’s chosen heir at a later date. Hideyoshi had other ideas, however. In 1586, he petitioned the Emperor for a new family name, which the Emperor duly bestowed. From then on, Hideyoshi would be known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the name by which he is best remembered in English sources.

    Hideyoshi would then adopt the Emperor’s younger brother, Prince Hachijo, as his son and eventual successor. This was a clear breach of the agreement with the Konoe, but since Hideyoshi was the most powerful man in the realm, and the proposed heir was a member of the Imperial Family, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

    Prince Hachijo

    Hideyoshi went further, seeking to replace the powerless Imperial aristocracy with a new “Samurai Nobility”. For centuries, the ‘Nobles’ had held all the prestige, but practically none of the actual power, which was in the hands of the Samurai after long years of civil war.

    Hideyoshi sought to address this by bestowing titles on some of the other powerful Daimyo, including Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari, appointments that would have long-term political repercussions.

    Ishida Mitsunari, we haven’t talked about him much, but he’s going to become very important later.

    Another attempt was made to force obedience from Ieyasu when Hideyoshi demanded that he hand over hostages to ensure ongoing peace. Ieyasu refused, and Hideyoshi began planning a large-scale military campaign to finally bring Ieyasu to heel. The massive Tensho Earthquake in January 1586 caused severe damage to Hideyoshi’s capital at Osaka and several other castles and staging areas, bringing an end to the plans, and causing Hideyoshi to adopt a more conciliatory policy towards Ieyasu.

    A monument at the site of Kaerikumo Castle, which was destroyed in a landslide during the 1586 earthquake. The evidence of the landslide can be seen on the hill in the background.

    Later that year, Ieyasu would marry Hideyoshi’s younger sister, Princess Asahi, and he would later travel to Kyoto and swear allegiance to Hideyoshi as Regent. Despite this nominal submission, Hideyoshi had failed to subdue Ieyasu, whose military power remained intact.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E7%A7%80%E5%90%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%9D%E6%97%A5%E5%A7%AB
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%96%A2%E7%99%BD%E7%9B%B8%E8%AB%96
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%AB%E6%9D%A1%E5%AE%AE%E6%99%BA%E4%BB%81%E8%A6%AA%E7%8E%8B
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%91%E8%A1%9B%E5%89%8D%E4%B9%85
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%9B%E5%9B%BD%E6%94%BB%E3%82%81
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%B8%E5%B1%B1%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%9B%E5%9B%BD%E5%9B%BD%E5%88%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%9B%E5%9B%BD%E5%B9%B3%E5%AE%9A
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%80%E5%B7%9E%E5%BE%81%E4%BC%90
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9B%91%E8%B3%80%E8%A1%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A0%B9%E6%9D%A5%E8%A1%86
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kii_Province
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1586_Tensh%C5%8D_earthquake
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaerikumo_Castle

  • The Odawara Campaign

    The Odawara Campaign

    Just a quick note from me: Due to real-life changes with workload, I’ve decided to reduce the number of blog posts to one per week. Going forward, the blog will be posted on Fridays.

    In 1589, the Hojo openly defied Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s peace orders, prompting the new regent to declare them in rebellion against the throne. (Side note, Hideyoshi, as the son of a peasant, couldn’t be declared Shogun, so he took the title of Kampaku, officially the chief advisor of the Emperor, but in reality, the political master of Japan.)

    Toyotomi Hideyoshi

    There were some final (and quite half-hearted) attempts at negotiation, but Hideyoshi’s position was clear: either the Hojo would submit, or they would be destroyed. The Hojo, an old, proud, and powerful clan, refused to bow, and by 1590, Hideyoshi had mustered an army of some 200,000 men to force the issue.

    Tokugawa Ieyasu, whose lands lay between the Hojo and Hideyoshi, initially sought to mediate, as his daughter was married to Hojo Ujinao, the nominal lord of the clan. These attempts failed, however, and Ieyasu threw in his lot with Hideyoshi, making preparations in his lands for the movement of thousands of troops advancing on the Kanto.

    The Kanto is surrounded by mountains and, at least in theory, very easy to defend, as there are only a limited number of passes through which a large body of troops can pass. The Hojo knew this and fortified as many of these passes as they could. Unfortunately, they were now being attacked on practically all sides. As well as the Tokugawa-Toyotomi force coming from the east, they also face an army sent along the Nakasendo road to attack Usui Pass in the north, and a force dispatched from the North-East would advance into Musashi Province and attack the castles there. Even the ocean to the south wasn’t open to the Hojo, as a naval force attacked Nagahama Castle in Izu.

    The site of Nagahama Castle today.

    The main blow would come from the west, however, as Hideyoshi led his army in an attack on the apparently formidable fortress of Yamanaka. Before the outbreak of hostilities, the Hojo had dispatched a garrison of 4000 men to the castle and set about improving its fortifications. Unfortunately, this work was not completed by the time Hideyoshi’s army arrived, and, despite its reputation as the “gateway” to the Kanto, Yamanaka fell in a single morning, despite brave resistance from the overmatched garrison.

    Other castles in the area were taken or besieged, bottling up their garrisons and preventing them from supporting the main attack on Odawara, which itself came under siege in early May. Odawara itself was an enormous castle, and despite the size of Hideyoshi’s army, there was no serious attempt to take it by storm. Instead, the siege camp became something of a small town, with everything from prostitutes to theatrical troupes plying their trade amongst the besiegers, whilst the Hojo defenders were often obliged to sleep on the battlements in their armour, for fear of a sudden attack.

    With Odawara now firmly under siege, Hideyoshi was confident enough to dispatch forces to support the campaigns in other parts of Hojo territory, with many of the castles falling with surprising speed. This was largely due to the fact that the Hojo had mobilised the vast majority of their forces for the defence of Odawara itself, leaving most of the outlying castles only lightly defended. When faced with the overwhelming strength of the forces arrayed against them, most of these castles surrendered immediately, or else were taken after only brief resistance.

    The layout of Odawara Castle.

    There is some evidence that the speed at which many of these castles fell led Hideyoshi to criticise his generals in the region, suggesting that taking so many castles so easily could not be considered a military achievement.

    The ease of the advance wasn’t true everywhere, however. At Iwatsuki (in modern Saitama), a force of 20,000 was held up by the defenders for several days despite a numerical advantage of 10-1. When the castle fell, Hideyoshi ordered that all the fighting men be killed, and the women and children taken prisoner. Instead, the commanding general, Asano Nagamasa, had already agreed to spare the surviving warriors, the women and the children as part of the surrender agreement.

    Meanwhile, the Siege at Hachigata Castle (also in Saitama) concerned Hideyoshi enough that he sent a sternly worded letter to Nagamasa, ordering him to focus his efforts there. Nagamasa did so, and a combined army of some 35,000 men attacked Hachigata, forcing the garrison to surrender. Once again, arrangements were made to spare the garrison and non-combatants, though this time it doesn’t seem to have been in defiance of Hideyoshi’s orders.

    The site of Hachigata Castle as they appear today.
    Taketarou – 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=1273726による

    While most castles were taken by force, negotiation, or a combination of the two, some held out, either through the skill of their defenders or, as was the case at Tatebayashi Castle, by apparently divine intervention. The castle was apparently founded with the help of a grateful fox, who rewarded the lord of the castle for rescuing its baby by marking out the foundations of the fortress in an area of swampy ground.

    This soggy position made the castle very difficult to approach, and when it came under siege, the attackers laid down logs across the swamp to create a roadway to the castle walls. With their pathway secure, the besiegers got a good night’s rest and prepared for a dawn attack. When the sun rose, they found that the roadway had disappeared completely, something put down to the fox spirit protecting the castle rather than the possibility that the logs had just sunk.

    Another famous, watery siege was that of Oshi Castle. Surrounded on two sides by rivers, Oshi was besieged by forces led by Ishida Mitsunari (who will become very important). Much ike Tatebayashi, Oshi’s watery position made it difficult to overcome. Mitsunari (apparently on written instructions from Hideyoshi) set about building an enormous levee surrounding the fort, forcing the water from the two rivers to inundate the castle and flood out its defenders.

    The levee (Ishida Tsutsumi) as it appears today in modern Konosu, Saitama.
    京浜にけ – 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=100409931による

    To the besiegers’ surprise, the waters didn’t actually flood the castle; instead, they gave it the appearance of floating on the water, leading it to be referred to as the “Floating Castle” (this is the title of a manga and its later 2012 adaptation, both about the siege). Following several days of heavy rain, the levee broke (or was sabotaged in some sources), flooding the siege camp and killing up to 200 warriors.

    The failure of this approach would seriously damage Mitsunari’s military reputation (some sources point out that he was just following Hideyoshi’s instructions, but the damage was done), and the siege was eventually taken over by Asano Nagamasa. An all-out assault on the castle was impossible due to the effects of the flooding, which had turned the ground into an impassable quagmire, and Oshi has the distinction of being one of the few fortresses that held out until the end of the Odawara Campaign, before eventually surrendering nearly 2 weeks after the fall of Odawara.

    Odawara, as one of the most formidable castles in the realm, hadn’t come under direct attack, but the siege had been dragging on for weeks, and news from other parts of the Kanto was almost universally bad, sapping the already fragile morale of the defenders. Shortly after the siege began, the loyalty of the Date Clan was still in doubt, and the Hojo held out hope that they might receive aid from outside the Kanto. Date forces indeed entered the Kanto, but in support of Hideyoshi, ending any hope of relief.

    Date Masamune. His decision to support Hideyoshi ended any hope the Hojo had of outside support.

    Though no general assault was launched, there were a few small-scale skirmishes and sporadic gunfire, and by early summer, signs of a breakdown in morale were appearing on both sides, with an increase of desertion amongst the besiegers, and the ever-present possibility of defection from the Hojo, especially as news of the rapid fall of other castles arrived.

    Negotiations began early in the siege, largely facilitated by Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hojo Ujinao’s father-in-law. Rumours of a peace agreement spread almost immediately, and Ujinao’s grandmother and step-mother (Ujimasa’s second wife) both died mysteriously on the same day. Historians generally believe they committed suicide, either in protest of a peace deal or in prospect of one.

    News of the fall of other fortresses was followed by the public display of the heads of those killed, and then the wives and children of the survivors outside the castle walls, further depleting the defenders’ morale. Towards the end of the siege, the appearance of Ishigakiyama Castle, built in just a few months, on a mountain not far from Odawara, effectively ended what remained of the Hojo’s will to resist.

    Odawara Castle as seen from Ishigakiyama.

    A side note here, there is a popular legend that Ishigakiyama Castle was ‘built in one night’, which was clearly impossible, with later sources suggesting that rather than literally being built overnight, the castle was instead constructed behind a forest, which was itself cut down overnight, giving the impression that the castle had appeared from nowhere. Modern scholars doubt that either version is true, as Ishigakiyama is easily visible from Odawara, and though the castle was certainly built unusually quickly, it is now thought to have been constructed in full view of the Hojo, to highlight the impossibility of their situation.

    After this, the besiegers made a point of keeping up a light but continuous rain of gunfire on the castle, intending to grind down their morale, and when a final, furious night attack from the castle was repelled in August, the writing was on the wall, and a delegation from the Hojo was sent out to offer the seppuku of Hojo Ujinao and the surrender of the castle, in exchange for the lives of the remaining garrison.

    Hideyoshi accepted the surrender of the castle on the condition that all the remaining senior Hojo, Ujinao, his father Ujimasa, and uncle Ujiteru, commit seppuku, and that the provinces of Musashi, Sagami, and Izu (the Hojo heartlands) be given up. Further resistance was now impossible, and the Hojo agreed. Tokugawa Ieyasu successfully intervened for the life of his son-in-law, Ujinao, but he would fall sick (possibly with smallpox) and die by the end of the year.

    Hojo Ujinao.

    In the aftermath of the fall of Odawara, the Kanto would come under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had previously agreed to trade his three home provinces for the five of the Kanto, making his new base at Edo Castle, the site of the modern Imperial Palace in Tokyo. In the long-term, this would prove to be a genius move on Ieyasu’s part, but for now, the man who came out on top was Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

    With the Hojo defeated, there were no longer any serious rivals to his rule. For the first time in more than a century, the realm was united under a single, undisputed leader, who set about ensuring it would never again fall into chaos.

    The situation after the fall of Odawara. No more division, no more chaos, at least on paper.
    By Alvin Lee – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39214210

    Hideyoshi’s conquest of Odawara marked the end of the second phase of Japan’s reunification. Next week, we’ll take a step back to look at another name we’ve mentioned a lot, Oda Nobunaga, the first of the great unifiers.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%83%A3%E7%84%A1%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%A4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E4%B8%AD%E5%9F%8E
    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/%E7%9F%B3%E5%9E%A3%E5%B1%B1%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BF%8D%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BF%8D%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9F%B3%E7%94%B0%E5%A0%A4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A4%A8%E6%9E%97%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B2%A9%E6%A7%BB%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%85%E9%87%8E%E9%95%B7%E6%94%BF
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%89%A2%E5%BD%A2%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9F%AE%E5%B1%B1%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E6%B5%9C%E5%9F%8E_(%E4%BC%8A%E8%B1%86%E5%9B%BD)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%BE%E4%BA%95%E7%94%B0%E5%9F%8E
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyotomi_Hideyoshi
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Odawara_(1590)


  • 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 3

    Lords of the East, Part 3

    First post of 2026, so Happy New Year and thanks for sticking with me!

    The situation in 1560. The Hojo are in Green.
    By Alvin Lee – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39200926

    By 1560, the Hojo were masters of much of the Kanto. A series of successful military campaigns over the previous decades had given them control over much of the area that now comprises modern-day Tokyo, Yokohama, and Chiba. Unlike today, when these areas are among the world’s most densely populated megacities, in the 16th century they were largely agricultural, with a few castle towns surrounded by vast expanses of farmland.

    It is also true that economic productivity, such as it was, was measured in rice production, with land being valued according to predicted rice output, though not necessarily actual output. In short, despite being a period of incredible violence, Japanese society relied almost entirely on rice production to function. Famine was a constant problem, and in 1560, the Hojo, despite controlling vast tracts of land, were experiencing just how bad a failed harvest could be.

    The so-called Eiroku Famine (named after the era) left the Hojo with no food or money, and military operations largely ground to a halt. It was a real blow then, when Uesugi Kenshin, at the head of an army of 8000 men, crossed the mountains in the North of the Kanto and invaded Hojo territory. Though the Uesugi army was relatively small, the Kanto region had been ruled by them for decades prior to the Hojo conquests, and when Kenshin appeared, dozens of local clans switched sides and flocked to the Uesugi banner.

    Uesugi Kenshin.

    Kenshin swept all before him; the Hojo lost castles in Kozuke, Shimosa, and Musashi, and by early 1561, the Uesugi had taken Kamakura. Then, at the head of an army that was reported to be 100,000 strong, Kenshin laid siege to Odawara, the Hojo capital. At this point, the Hojo were in real trouble, but fate was on their side. Ironically, the same famine that had left them seriously weakened now proved to be their saviour. An army of that size needs supplies, and there were few enough to be had in the Kanto, so it wasn’t long before the Uesugi began to melt away.

    The fortress of Odawara was one of the strongest in the realm, and with his army already shrinking, Kenshin faced a difficult choice. A long siege might fatally weaken his army, and even a successful assault could prove hugely costly. Then news arrived that his old enemy, Takeda Shingen, had invaded his home province, at the same time as stirring up a rebellion amongst the Ikko-Ikki, forcing Kenshin to return home post-haste.

    The Hojo had been saved by a combination of good luck and excellent timing on the part of Takeda Shingen, and despite their weakened state, Ujiyasu wasted no time in taking advantage of the reprieve. No sooner had Kenshin returned north than Hojo forces began the process of reconquering their lost territory. Most of the smaller clans that had joined the Uesugi now switched their loyalties back to the Hojo. This was a fairly common practice at the time; there were dozens, if not hundreds, of minor clans all over Japan who could never muster the strength to assert themselves against the power of a Daimyo, so their loyalty often proved to be a fickle thing, prioritising flexibility and survival rather than unquestioned loyalty.

    Takeda Shingen

    Not all the clans welcome the return of the Hojo, however, and Ujiyasu was obliged to dispatch armies to retake several castles in northern Musashi, and he won a decisive victory at the Battle of Mt Ikuno in November 1561, reestablishing the line of control along the mountains in the northern Kanto. Over the next two years, two sides form: a Hojo-Takeda Alliance on one side and a Uesugi-Satomi alliance on the other.

    The Hojo would generally have the better of the fighting in the Kanto, but would prove to be unable to advance further north, whilst the Uesugi would be a constant problem, but would struggle to make advances into the Kanto proper. By 1564, the conflict had largely become a stalemate, so Ujiyasu turned his attention to the East and the Satomi, whom he believed to be a weak link in the alliance.

    Though it might have been true that the Satomi were weaker than the Uesugi, they were no soft touch. When the Hojo crossed the Edogawa River on the way to invading Satomi territory, they were ambushed at the second Battle of Konodai and driven back with heavy losses. You may remember in the last post that the lord of the Satomi, Yoshiaki, had avoided the first Battle of Konodai by correctly identifying the weak position of his allies, retreating with his army intact.

    A later depiction of the area around Konodai.

    At the second battle, however, the command fell to Yoshiaki’s son, Yoshihiro, and he decided to celebrate his victory by distributing wine to his men. A party is a common way to celebrate any success, and the Satomi had successfully driven the Hojo back. The problem was that ‘driven back’ does not mean ‘defeated’; the Hojo regrouped and advanced again in the early hours of the following day.

    The Satomi army, now thoroughly inebriated, was no match for them, and Hojo forces forced the Satomi into a chaotic retreat that didn’t end until the Hojo banner was once again flying over most of Kasuza Province. Shortly after this campaign, Ujiyasu, who had already technically retired as lord of the Hojo in 1559, announced that he had fought his last campaign.

    After this, Ujiyasu seems to have largely limited himself to administration, leaving the business of war to his sons, though he would continue to play an important role in his clan’s future. In 1560, the Imagawa, one part of the triple Takeda-Hojo-Imagawa alliance, had been seriously weakened by the defeat at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560. By 1568, they were on their last legs, and Takeda Shingen, despite being a nominal ally, invaded the Imagawa’s home province of Suruga, aiming to take it for himself.

    Suruga 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=1691794

    The Hojo, seeking to support the Imagawa and prevent encirclement by a now hostile Takeda, dispatched an army under Hojo Ujimasa to relieve Suruga. At the same time, Ujiyasu engaged in diplomacy with the Tokugawa Clan, who had lands on the other side of Imagawa territory, and had poor relations with the Takeda. A joint attack by the Hojo and Tokugawa convinced Shingen that holding Suruga was impossible in the short term, and he retreated, with the Hojo moving in and taking large parts of eastern Suruga for themselves.

    Despite this success, the Hojo once again found themselves surrounded on three sides by hostile powers: the Takeda to the West, the Uesugi to the North, and the Satomi to the East. Ujiyasu correctly recognised that if he moved to deal with one threat, the other two would take advantage, and the Hojo did not have the strength for a three-front war. Therefore, he decided to make a formal peace with the Uesugi.

    This was unpopular on both sides because the Uesugi had been enemies of the Hojo more or less from the start, and that kind of bad blood isn’t easily forgotten. However, both sides had bigger problems, namely, Takeda Shingen. Though a ceasefire was agreed upon and the border between the two sides set, the consequences for the Uesugi were that many former allies in the Kanto, like the Satomi, felt betrayed and switched to supporting Takeda Shingen.

    This might not have been such a serious problem for the Hojo, because they were going to have fight the Satomi anyway, but in early 1569, the strategic situation shifted again, when the Takeda and Uesugi made a peace between themselves, meaning that Shingen could now focus his entire strength on the Hojo, whilst also relying on support from the Satomi, and other Kanto clans.

    An image depicting the legendary rivalry between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. Despite this, a peace between the two allowed Shingen to focus on the Hojo.

    Later that year, Shingen invaded Musashi Province and advanced south towards Odawara, the capital of the Hojo. Though they were able to lay siege to the mighty fortress, the chances of taking it were slim. The castle was one of the strongest in the realm, and Ujiyasu had made sure it was as well-defended as possible. Shingen likely understood that taking the castle would have been enormously costly, and he had better uses for his army, so he contented himself with burning the town around Odawara and retreating.

    Ujiyasu ordered his son, Ujimasa, to pursue the retreating Takeda, hoping to trap them before they could return to Kai Province. The plan failed, however, as the Takeda moved faster than expected and the ambush was discovered. At the ensuing Battle of Mimasu Pass, the Takeda successfully fended off the Hojo and returned to Kai.

    Some scholars believe that the whole attempt at Odawara had been an elaborate show of force, meant to impress Shingen’s new allies in the Kanto, or that it was a strategic move to keep the Hojo off balance whilst Takeda forces reinvaded Suruga. Either way, there doesn’t seem to have been much enthusiasm amongst either the Hojo or Takeda to continue the war, and some sources suggest that, shortly before his death, Ujiyasu told his son, Ujimasa, that he should return to a state of peace with the Takeda and make war on their traditional enemy, the Uesugi.

    Hojo Ujimasa

    Ujiyasu himself is supposed to have suffered a stroke in the summer of 1570. Sources from the time speak of him slurring his words or being unable to speak at all, and although he rallied briefly around the New Year in 1571, he would begin to decline again shortly afterwards. There are no official documents bearing his seal after May, and he would eventually pass away in October that year.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F%E6%94%BF
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F%E5%BA%B7
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E5%BA%9C%E5%8F%B0%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6#%E7%AC%AC%E4%BA%8C%E6%AC%A1%E5%9B%BD%E5%BA%9C%E5%8F%B0%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6%EF%BC%88%E6%B0%B8%E7%A6%846%E5%B9%B4%E3%83%BB%E6%B0%B8%E7%A6%847%E5%B9%B4/1563%E5%B9%B4%E3%83%BB1564%E5%B9%B4%EF%BC%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%A6%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E7%8E%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%8A%E5%B7%9D%E7%BE%A9%E5%85%83
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%A2%97%E5%B3%A0%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%AE%AE%E5%9F%8E_(%E9%A7%BF%E6%B2%B3%E5%9B%BD)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E7%94%B0%E5%8E%9F%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E6%9D%89%E8%AC%99%E4%BF%A1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%8C%E8%A6%8B%E7%BE%A9%E5%A0%AF
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B1%9F%E6%88%B8%E5%B7%9D
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suruga_Province

  • Lords of the East, Part 2

    Lords of the East, Part 2

    In 1537, Hojo Ujitsuna launched a successful invasion of Suruga Province, establishing the frontier at the Fuji River and ending the threat from the Imagawa-Takeda alliance, at least for now. Shortly after this news broke that (Ogigayatsu) Uesugi Tomoaki had died. Tomoaki had been an implacable foe of the Hojo, and his death severely weakened his clan, which was now led by the 12-year-old Tomosada.

    The Fuji River as it appears today, in modern Shizuoka Prefecture.

    It wasn’t all good news, however. With the bulk of the Hojo forces focused in Suruga against the Imagawa, forces of the Satomi Clan moved to expel the Hojo from the Boso Peninsula (modern Chiba), quickly establishing control and forcing the remaining Hojo loyalists to flee. There was little Ujitsuna could do about that in the short term, but in the summer of 1537, he gathered 15,000 men at Edo Castle before dispatching his son, Ujiyasu, to take the Uesugi stronghold at Kawagoe.

    The castle was taken undamaged after a surprise attack, and when the Uesugi tried to recapture it on New Year’s Day 1538, they were defeated. With his northern flank secure, Ujitsuna launched a campaign to reestablish control over the Boso Peninsula. Though they were initially successful, the attack clashed with the plans of the Koga Kubo, Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

    You may remember from earlier posts that the position of Kubo was the Shogun’s deputy in a given area. In decades past, the centre of the Kubo‘s power had been Kamakura, but the catastrophic decline of Shogunate power meant that the Kubo was eventually obliged to leave Kamakura (which was now under Hojo control) and take up residence at Koga, in Shimosa Province (modern Ibaraki).

    Shimosa 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=1691764

    Yoshiaki had the long-term objective of reestablishing the Kubos’ preeminent position over the whole Kanto, and the Hojo stood in direct opposition to this. Both sides were about equal in strength, but while the Hojo were united behind Ujitsuna, Yoshiaki’s forces were united in opposition to the Hojo, but not necessarily in support of the Kubo.

    Though Yoshiaki’s forces agreed to challenge the Hojo at the Edogawa River, they couldn’t decide on a strategy. Yoshiaki’s allies suggested attacking the Hojo as they crossed the river, but sources say that Yoshiaki, proud of his illustrious Ashikaga name, refused such a strategy, deciding that he would march out in person and face the Hojo in the field, once the bulk of their forces were already across the river.

    Satomi Yoshitaka, once a supporter of the Hojo but now serving under Yoshiaki, recognised that the strategy robbed them of the advantage of the river and was reluctant to commit his forces to open battle with the Hojo, where victory was far from certain. Yoshitaka also recognised that if Yoshiaki were defeated, a large expanse of territory would become available; thus, he positioned his forces away from what he assumed would be the main battlefield, ready to retreat quickly if things looked to be going badly.

    Though heavily built up today, this hill was the site of some of the fiercest fighting at the Battle of Konodai.

    What became known as the Battle of Konodai began on the morning of November 8th, when the Hojo forces crossed the river. Initially, Yoshiaki’s forces had the advantage, but throughout the day, more Hojo forces arrived, and the tide of battle turned. When news came that Yoshiaki’s brother and son had been killed, he flew into a rage and charged the Hojo himself, only to be struck down by an arrow and killed. Seeing this, Satomi Yoshitaka withdrew his unengaged army, and shortly afterwards, the remaining forces began a retreat that swiftly turned into a rout.

    The Hojo used the momentum of victory to advance into Kazusa and Shimosa Provinces, whilst Yoshitaka, with his army still intact, would be able to take control of almost the entire Boso Peninsula, where he would continue to resist the Hojo, beginning a feud that would last decades.

    Although the exact date is unclear, after the victory at Konodai, Ujitsuna wouldn’t lead another campaign, and scholars agree that he retired as head of the clan sometime in 1539, when his son, Ujiyasu, completed the conquest of Shimosa and Kazusa Provinces. In late 1540, the reconstruction of Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine was completed, and Ujitsuna held a celebration there in which he was recognised as Kanto Kanrei, the Shogun’s official deputy in the Kanto, a title that reflected his preeminent position in the region.

    Hojo Ujiyasu.

    Ujitsuna would eventually pass away in August 1541, and his son, Ujiyasu, lord now in fact as well as name, inherited a strong but dangerous position. Successful campaigns in the east had extended Hojo control to Shimosa province. To the north, the Ogigayatsu-Uesugi plotted revenge and the return of Kawagoe Castle, whilst to the east, the conflict with the Imagawa dragged on, despite a strong frontier on the Fuji River.

    A famine in 1540-41 precluded an immediate campaign, and in 1542 Ujiyasu ordered a land survey, which enabled him to adjust and reform taxation in his territory (which was largely based on rice production) and to ensure a strong economic base for what was to come next. In 1545, the Imagawa sent out peace feelers, but no agreement could be reached, and the Imagawa joined forces with the Uesugi, with both agreeing to attack the Hojo from east and west.

    Ujiyasu rushed forces to the east, but a combined Imagawa-Takeda army proved too strong, and Ujiyasu was eventually obliged to conclude a disadvantageous peace, which saw him cede all the territory the Hojo had controlled in Suruga back to the Imagawa. Though the new border would remain tense, the peace held, and all three sides would eventually conclude an alliance in 1554, though we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

    A later image of Kawagoe Castle.

    Meanwhile, the Uesugi and their allies had massed a force of some 80,000 men around Kawagoe Castle, and with Ujiyasu busy in Surugu, the castle would endure a 6-month siege. Even after the Hojo had secured peace with the Imagawa, Ujiyasu could only muster 10,000 men, and what happened next is a matter of some debate.

    The most common telling is that Ujiyasu, in concert with the garrison inside the castle, organised a night attack on the Uesugi that caught them completely by surprise and routed them in a victory so complete that the Uesugi were destroyed as a serious force in the Kanto. The problem with this version of events is that the only sources describing the battle in that way come from the Edo Period, nearly 100 years after the events.

    Scholars debate the accuracy of those reports, and some suggest that the Battle of Kawagoe Castle happened in a very different way, or may never have happened at all, but what is certain is that the siege was lifted and either during the lifting, or shortly afterwards, the lord of the Uesugi, Tomosada, was killed, and the rest of the clan was forced north, leaving Musashi Province in Hojo hands.

    The remains of Hirai Castle.

    The war against the Uesugi would continue, however. In 1550, an attack on Hirai Castle was repulsed, only for a second attempt the next year to succeed, driving Uesugi Norimasa further north, where he sought refuge with Nagao Kagetora (better known to history as Uesugi Kenshin). In the east, too, the Hojo would advance, marching into Hitachi and Shimotsuke Province, and continuing the war against the Satomi of Kazusa Province to their southeast, conquering Kanaya Castle in 1555 and establishing Hojo control over almost the whole of the western Boso Peninsula.

    These conquests in the east were possible because of the peace established on the Hojo’s western borders. Though there was no actual fighting, the border remained very tense until the establishment of a triple alliance between the Imagawa, Takeda, and Hojo. This alliance was established over the period 1551-1554, as a series of marriages was arranged among all three parties, culminating in 1554, when Ujiyasu’s eldest daughter married Imagawa Yoshimoto’s eldest son, whilst Ujiyasu’s heir, Ujimasa, married the daughter of Takeda Shingen.

    This alliance secured the Hojo’s western border, and in 1559, Ujiyasu retired as head of the clan, handing formal power to his son Ujimasa while retaining actual control himself. That same year, he focused his full attention on pushing the last of the Uesugi clan out of Kozuke Province and established a strong presence at Numata to check any further Uesugi attempts to invade the Kanto.

    The situation in 1560. The Hojo are in Green.
    By Alvin Lee – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39200926

    In 1560, the Imagawa suffered a serious and surprising defeat at the hands of Oda Nobunaga at the Battle of Okehazama, leaving the clan weak and the Hojo’s western flank reliant on the goodwill of the Takeda. During the same year, another outbreak of famine ravaged Hojo territory, severely weakening their economic power and food supply.

    The timing couldn’t have been much worse, because soon, the Uesugi, now led by Kenshin, would return to the Kanto, and the Hojo would face another serious crisis.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F%E5%BA%B7
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagawa_Yoshimoto
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9B%BD%E5%BA%9C%E5%8F%B0%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B7%9D%E8%B6%8A%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%B3%E8%B6%8A%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E6%9D%89%E6%9C%9D%E5%AE%9A_(%E6%89%87%E8%B0%B7%E4%B8%8A%E6%9D%89%E5%AE%B6)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%8C%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%8C%E5%A3%AB%E5%B7%9D
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%A4%E6%B2%B3%E5%B8%82
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BA%95%E5%9F%8E

  • 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

  • The Dragon of Echigo

    The Dragon of Echigo

    Much like Takeda Shingen, Kenshin’s real name wasn’t Kenshin, but Kagetora, with Kenshin being a religious name given in later life. However, as this is the name he is best known by, we will be referring to him as it throughout.

    Uesugi Kenshin, the Dragon of Echigo and the topic of this post.

    If you live your life in such a way that you earn the nickname ‘Dragon of something’ and have followers who think of you as an avatar of the God of War, then I’d say you’ve done pretty well for yourself. By this standard, our subject for today, Uesugi Kenshin, is a historical figure worthy of a closer look.

    Confusingly enough, Uesugi Kenshin wasn’t actually a member of the Uesugi family to begin with. He was a scion of the Nagao family, a strong clan who were vassals of the Yamanouchi branch of the Uesugi Clan, based in Echigo Province, in what is now Niigata Prefecture.

    Echigo 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=1655309

    Born in 1530, it is quite likely that Kenshin’s mother was a concubine, and what’s more, the boy himself was the second son. He was never intended to inherit control of the Nagao Clan, and he entered the temple at Risenji at age 11, apparently set on a life as a monk.

    He doesn’t seem to have stayed at Risenji for long, however, as when his father died in 1542, just a year later, he was at the funeral with armour and sword at his side, and shortly after that, he was at Tochio Castle when a rebellion against Kenshin’s brother (the new Lord Nagao) broke out. Despite being just 14, Kenshin is supposed to have led the defence of the castle and won his first victory.

    At the time, though the Uesugi were nominally the lords of the region, the Nagao served as deputy (and de facto) governors in their place. After the death of Kenshin’s father, it was his elder brother, Harukage, who inherited this position. The brothers don’t seem to have gotten along very well, however, and in the late 1540s, a movement emerged within the Nagao clan that sought to replace Harukage with Kenshin as head of the clan.

    The remains of Tochio Castle, site of Kenshin’s first victory.
    nubobo – 栃尾城本丸跡, CC 表示 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59682349による

    Exactly why the clan was so against Harukage isn’t clear, but their efforts were ultimately successful. In 1548, under mediation from Uesugi Sadazane (their nominal overlord), Harukage agreed to adopt Kenshin, then retire as head of the clan, clearing the way for Kenshin to become head of the Nagao Clan aged just 18 or 19 (depending on the source).

    In 1550, Sadazane died without an heir, leaving Echigo Province without a lord. At this point, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru instructed Kenshin to take the position of shugo of the province, effectively making him the new lord. Shogunate recognition was not quite the prestigious thing it had once been, however, and not long after this, supporters of Kenshin’s brother rose up in rebellion against him.

    Kenshin quickly bottled up the rebels at Sakado Castle, when the castle fell, the leader of the rebels was spared because he was Kenshin’s brother-in-law, and following this, Kenshin, still aged just 22 had established effectively control over the whole of Echigo Province.

    Looking back for a moment, five years earlier, the Uesugi Clan (or more accurately, the Ogigayatsu branch of the clan) had been defeated at the Battle of Kawagoe by the new rising star of the Kanto, the Hojo Clan. The Ogigayatsu-Uesugi were wiped out after this battle, leaving only the Yamanouchi Branch of the clan. In 1552, Uesugi Norimasa, who was, on paper, the Kanto Kanrei (Shogun’s deputy) was finally driven out of the Kanto entirely and sought refuge with Kenshin.

    A later depiction of Kawagoe Castle.

    Unsurprisingly, harbouring their enemies didn’t do much for the relationship between Kenshin and the Hojo, and Kenshin would send an army to oppose the Hojo’s invasion of Kozuke Province (modern Gunma Prefecture), capturing Numata Castle, and forcing the Hojo to retreat.

    A year later, Kenshin would face a new enemy, as Takeda Shingen’s long-running invasion of Shinano eventually obliged some of the clans there to flee and seek refuge with Kenshin in Echigo. Much like the Hojo, the Takeda didn’t take kindly to someone giving refuge to their enemies, and one of Japanese history’s most famous rivalries was born.

    In August 1553, an army led by Kenshin himself advanced against the Takeda in Shinan, defeating Shingen himself at the Battle of Fuse on August 30th, then again at Yuwata on September 1st. After this, Shingen adopted a strategy of avoiding direct battle with Kenshin, and the conflict settled into a stalemate that was later called the First Battle of Kawanakajima.

    A modern view of Kawanakajima.
    日本語版ウィキペディアのBlogliderさん – 原版の投稿者自身による著作物 (Original text: Photo by Bloglider.), CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12400636による

    In 1554-55, Kenshin was obliged to face a rebellion launched by treacherous vassals in league with Shingen. Putting down the rebellion quickly, Kenshin again marched into Shinano in April 1555 to face the advancing Takeda forces, again led by Shingen.

    At the Second Battle of Kawanakajima, the two sides faced each other in another stalemate, which dragged on for five months, before mediation from the Imagawa Clan led to both sides withdrawing after little actual fighting.

    In the following year, Kenshin apparently announced he would retire and become a monk, however, another outbreak of Takeda-backed rebellion forced him to change his plans, and after a period of peace, in 1557, Shingen again advanced against Kenshin’s allies in Shinano, forcing him to intervene and leading to the Third Battle of Kawanakajima, which, much like the previous two, swiftly settled into stalemate.

    A year later, Kenshin dispatched an army in an ultimately unsuccessful invasion of Kozuke Province and then in 1559 he was ‘invited’ for a meeting with the Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru. Some sources say that Kenshin was granted the title of Kanto Kanrei at this time, the position traditionally held by the Uesugi Clan. He also apparently donated funds towards the maintenance and repair of the Imperial Palace.

    Swords supposedly gifted to Kenshin by the Emperor, photographed in 1928.

    It seems that Kenshin enjoyed good relations with the Shogunate, but the already well-established decline of the Shogun’s power is highlighted again when he asked Kenshin, Shingen, and the Hojo to make peace in order to combine their forces against the Shogun’s enemies. All three parties refused.

    In March 1560, the Imagawa Clan’s devastating defeat at Okehazama opened the way for Kenshin to intervene directly in the Kanto again, as the Imagawa had been allied to his enemies, the Hojo, and their defeat left the Hojo vulnerable. Later that year, Kenshin launched another large-scale invasion of Kozuke Province, driving the Hojo back and capturing several important castles before celebrating New Year at Maebashi Castle, the gateway to the Kanto Plain.

    In March 1561, Kenshin was formally adopted by the Yamanouchi-Uesugi Clan (the only remaining branch) and changed his surname to match. Though he would be known as Uesugi Kagetora from this point, we will continue to call him Kenshin to keep things simple.

    In August of that year, Kenshin led another large army into Shinano, and engaged the Takeda at the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima. Unlike the previous three, this battle was not an extended stalemate, but a bloody one. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, with sources ranging from around 20% losses, to as high as 60 or 70%, and when the battle was over, the Takeda held the field, but made no attempt to intervene as the Uesugi withdrew, leading some to suggest the battle was a bloody draw.

    A legendary depiction of the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, depicting the (possibly apocryphal) moment that Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen met on the field.

    The Takeda and Hojo clans, recognising the Uesugi as their common enemy, renewed their combined efforts and launched a joint counter-attack in Musashi Province in late 1561. At first, Uesugi forces were successful against the alliance, even getting as far as besieging Odawara Castle, the Hojo’s main stronghold, before being forced to withdraw after allied counter-attacks in other parts of the Kanto.

    The strategic situation in the Kanto would ebb and flow over the following years, as Uesugi, Takeda, and Hojo armies advanced and retreated, and the local lords would switch sides depending on whoever appeared to be in the ascendancy.

    All three factions would be occupied with fighting each other, but also engaged in other battles and proxy wars with allies and supporters of each other’s enemies. For Kenshin, this meant being obliged to dispatch forces into neighbouring Etchu Province in 1568, to deal with Ikko Ikki forces nominally allied with Shingen.

    Etchu Province.

    Seeking to take advantage of this distraction, Takeda forces attacked in Shinano and were ultimately defeated, but a rebellion in Echigo (Kenshin’s home province) meant he was unable to take advantage of this victory in the short term.

    Later that year, the strategic situation would shift in Kenshin’s favour, however, as the long-term decline in Takeda-Imagawa relations finally led to open conflict between two of his main rivals. The Imagawa would request aid from both the Uesugi and the Hojo, and while Kenshin would refuse, the Hojo dispatched forces to oppose the Takeda, bringing an end to the alliance that had done so much to oppose Kenshin.

    However, years of expensive (and bloody) campaigns in the Kanto had left the Uesugi exhausted, and in 1569, Kenshin reluctantly agreed to a peace deal with the Hojo, which saw the Uesugi withdraw from Musashi Province (modern day Tokyo and Saitama) and the Hojo withdrew from Kozuke.

    With his borders with the Hojo (relatively) secure, Kenshin was able to focus on campaigning against the Takeda again. In 1570 and 1571, he would engage the Takeda and their allies in Etchu and Shinano Provinces, generally having the better of the fighting, but the situation would shift again in 1572 when the lord of the Hojo, Ujiyasu, passed away, and was replaced by Ujimasa, who made peace with the Takeda, turning on the Uesugi. At the same time, the Etchu Ikko Ikki launched a fresh attack, instigated by Takeda Shingen.

    Hojo Ujimasa, who reversed his father’s diplomatic policy.

    The Ikko Ikki would initially be successful against Kenshin, but by mid-1573, the momentum had shifted back in his favour, and several key fortresses within Etchu were taken. Also in that year, Kenshin’s long-time rival, Takeda Shingen, passed away, an event that apparently caused Kenshin to weep openly, but also significantly weakened the Takeda.

    Over the following two years, Kenshin was forced to split his focus between his ongoing campaign in Etchu and the situation in the Kanto. By the end of 1574, the Hojo had effectively ended any Uesugi presence in the region, and although Kenshin would launch counterattacks, the writing was on the wall for Uesugi power in the Kanto.

    In 1576, Kenshin would receive a request for aid from the Shogun, seeking support against Oda Nobunaga, who now dominated central Japan and had forced the Shogun into exile. In order to get to Kyoto, Kenshin was obliged to focus all his resources on securing Etchu and Noto Provinces. This campaign would drag on throughout 1576 and 1577, delayed by intervention from the Hojo and internal rebellion, but by November 1577, Kenshin had secured control of the provinces and was poised to strike at Kyoto itself.

    Noto 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=1690738

    Mustering a large army, Kenshin would march out to meet a force led by Nobunaga’s generals, Shibata Katsuie and Hashiba Hideyoshi (better remembered to history as Toyotomi Hideyoshi), who were not fond of each other. A dispute led to Hideyoshi withdrawing his forces early, and when the two sides clashed at the Battle of the Tedori River on November 3rd, Kenshin would emerge victorious.

    The exact course of the battle, and even the size of the forces involved, is not clear from contemporary sources, but Kenshin would withdraw temporarily, issuing instructions for a renewed campaign to begin in the spring. The battle at the Tedori River had opened a strategic opportunity for Kenshin, and it has been speculated that he might have been able to complete his march on Kyoto.

    Much like his rival, Shingen, however, Kenshin would never make the march. In early March, Kenshin would collapse (allegedly whilst in the toilet) and fall into a coma from which he would never wake up; he died on March 13th, aged 49.

    The site of Kenshin’s grave at Risenji, where he studied as a boy.
    By shikabane taro, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54071606

    Much like the Takeda after the death of Shingen, the Uesugi would be seriously weakened by Kenshin’s death. Though they had been a threat to Nobunaga, Kenshin’s death, and the ongoing effects of years of more or less constant conflict, rendered them powerless to stop the rise of Nobunaga, and after his death in 1582, the Uesugi would make their peace with his successors.

    Decisions made at the end of the Sengoku Jidai would see the clan’s star fall even further, though that is a story for another time.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E6%9D%89%E8%AC%99%E4%BF%A1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%8B%E5%8F%96%E5%B7%9D%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tedorigawa
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B7%9D%E4%B8%AD%E5%B3%B6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%89%8D%E6%A9%8B%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%BC%E7%94%B0%E5%9F%8E
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Kawanakajima

  • Takeda-mned if you don’t…

    Takeda-mned if you don’t…

    (I had to make this a two-parter or the joke in the title wouldn’t have worked.)

    Note: Takeda Shingen’s real name was Harunobu, with Shingen being a name he took as part of his religious vocation. In keeping with my policy of using the names that figures are best known by, we’ll be referring to him as Shingen throughout this post, but in other sources, he is often called Harunobu, just so you know.

    Takeda Shingen, who has kind of become an unofficial mascot of this site.

    In June 1541, Takeda Shingen (then known as Harunobu) overthrew his father, Nobutora, and established himself as the leader of the Takeda Clan and master of Kai Province. As we mentioned last time, the exact reasons for this coup aren’t known; some sources say he was overthrowing his tyrannical father, others that it was a self-serving power grab, but whatever his motivation, Harunobu was in charge, and he had big plans.

    The strategic and diplomatic situation that Shingen inherited was full of risks and opportunities. His father had successfully subjugated all of Kai Province and even expanded the borders of Takeda control into neighbouring Shinano. He had been a fierce rival of the Hojo Clan, based in Izu and Sagami Provinces (modern day Kanagawa Prefecture), but had established peaceful relations or alliances with other powerful neighbours.

    Almost immediately, Shingen would chart a radically different course. His father had been allied with the Suwa Clan of Shinano, to the Takeda’s north, but in June 1542, Shingen invaded Shinano Province, defeating the Suwa at the Battle of Kuwabara Castle, and forcing their leader to commit suicide, absorbing their lands into his own.

    Takeda territory is in blue, and the clans that Shingen quickly made enemies of are shown approximately in red.

    Though the result of this campaign is relatively undisputed, the exact nature of how things got started is more controversial. Allegedly, in March 1542, before Shingen’s invasion of Shinano, the Suwa Clan and their allies attacked first, before being defeated at the Battle of Sezawa. The problems come from there being little evidence that this battle ever took place, with some historians suggesting that it might have been a later invention to justify Shingen’s invasion after the fact.

    Regardless of its origins, the campaign would be a long and ultimately successful one for Shingen. A series of battles through the late 1540s put the Takeda in a pre-eminent position in Shinano. By 1553, the clan occupied almost the entire province; only the far north, around the modern city of Nagano, remained outside their control.

    This would prove significant later, but during this period, Shingen would also prove himself to be a savvy political player as well. In 1544, Shingen made peace with the Hojo and then mediated between them and the Imagawa, bringing an end to their conflict, allowing both clans to focus on issues elsewhere, and securing peace on Kai’s southern borders.

    Hojo Ujiyasu, with whom Shingen made peace.

    Turning his attention back to Shinano, Shingen would launch semi-annual campaigns into Shinano, winning a series of victories against the clans based in the province, and slowly extending Takeda dominance. He didn’t have it all his own way, however; in March 1548, the Takeda marched against the Murakami Clan, one of their chief rivals for control of Shinano. The Battle of Uedahara was arguably a draw, as both sides suffered similar losses; however, the Takeda advance was stopped, and they lost several key commanders, with Shingen himself being wounded.

    In July of that year, another of Shingen’s enemies in Shinano, the Ogasawara Clan, sought to take advantage and push the Takeda back into Kai; however, at the Battle of Shiojiri Pass, the Ogasawara were decisively defeated by a resurgent Shingen, and the momentum would swing back in favour of the Takeda.

    In 1550, Shingen took control of what is today called the Matsumoto Basin (around the modern city of the same name), but a second serious defeat would follow in September of that year, as the Takeda tried and failed to take Toishi Castle. Sources differ, with some saying the Takeda lost a fifth of their forces, and others saying it was as many as two-thirds.

    Although losses were clearly heavy, as with Uedahara a few years earlier, Shingen wasn’t on the back foot for long. In April 1551, Toishi Castle was taken (supposedly through trickery), and over the next two years, he would drive the Murakami Clan out of Shinano, until they were forced to flee Shinano entirely.

    This left Shingen in control of almost all of Shinano, but it also presented a new problem. In fleeing Shinano, the Murakami Clan sought the support of another powerful player in the region, the lord of Echigo Province and lord of a clan that was every bit as powerful as the Takeda, Uesugi Kenshin. Though neither side knew it yet, the stage was now set for one of the great rivalries of the Sengoku Period.

    A later depiction of Uesugi Kenshin, Shingen’s legendary rival.

    Shingen and Kenshin would clash repeatedly in the years to come, mostly at and around the now-famous battlefield of Kawanakajima (which literally means “The Island in the River”). The first clash of these rivals would come in April 1553, and would be indecisive, but the frontier in northern Shinano would remain volatile.

    In 1554, Shingen strengthened his diplomatic position by marrying his son to a daughter of the Imagawa Clan, followed shortly afterwards by a marriage of his son to a daughter of the Hojo Clan, who were also conveniently an enemy of the Uesugi. Following the establishment of the so-called Koso Alliance, Shingen secured control of southern Shinano and advanced into neighbouring Mino Province, securing the submission of several border clans in the process.

    The second and third Battles of Kawanakajima would be fought in 1555 and 1557, respectively, and both would end in further stalemate, but following the third battle, the Shogun (very much a figurehead at this point) issued a command that both sides make peace. Kenshin accepted immediately, but Shingen responded that he would only make peace if the Shogun named him shugo (governor) of Shinano, which was duly granted.

    In 1559, the Eiroku Famine and a serious flood in Kai Province led to the cessation of hostilities (at least temporarily) and that year, Shingen became a monk, formally adopting the name Shingen. Exactly why he chose to become a monk isn’t recorded, but it is speculated that it was in response to the twin disasters of famine and flood, with Shingen perhaps seeking divine intervention.

    Whether or not the gods were listening isn’t known, but after 1560, Shingen and the Takeda clan would begin to move away from older alliances and local authority and towards a policy of seeking power on the national stage. In May 1560, the Imagawa, allies of the Takeda, were severely defeated by the rising star that was Oda Nobunaga, and although Shingen publicly declared his intention to continue the alliance, he made secret arrangements with Nobunaga, with his son, Katsuyori, marrying Nobunaga’s adopted daughter.

    Oda Nobunaga. He would go on to be one of the most significant figures in Japanese history, but in the 1560s he was just getting started.

    The relationship continued to break down until 1567, when the Imagawa ended the trade of salt (abundant in their coastal provinces) to Kai, effectively cutting the Takeda off from this vital resource. The next year, in cooperation with a former Imagawa vassal, Tokugawa Ieyasu (then known as Matsudaira Motoyasu), Shingen invaded Imagawa territory, taking Suruga Province, whilst Ieyasu invaded Totomi, to the west.

    The invasion was a military success, but had serious diplomatic repercussions more or less immediately. The relationship with the Imagawa was obviously already pretty bad, but when Shingen tried to enlist the help of the Hojo in attacking Suruga, he was rebuffed, and the Hojo would instead send troops to support their Imagawa allies.

    The relationship with Ieyasu, always a marriage of convenience, broke down swiftly as well. The erstwhile allies got into a dispute about actual control of Totomi Province, and Ieyasu took his proverbial ball and went home, making peace with the Imagawa, and ignoring his previous agreement with Shingen.

    Tokugawa Ieyasu. Much like Nobunaga, he came up in the shadow of men like Shingen, but the future was very bright indeed for him and his clan.

    Shingen, now surrounded by potential enemies, sought out allies amongst the pre-existing enemies of the Hojo, and launched a counter-attack in 1569, getting as far as the Hojo capital at Odawara, which he briefly laid siege to before withdrawing, contenting himself with burning the town around the fortress.

    Retreating to Kai, Shingen defeated a pursuing Hojo force at the Battle of Mimasu Pass, effectively ending the Hojo threat to Kai and preventing them from intervening further in the invasion of Suruga. By the end of 1569, Shingen was in complete control of the province.

    Shingen would consolidate his position, but in 1571, Oda Nobunaga, with whom Shingen had enjoyed good relations previously, attacked and burned Mt Hiei, one of the holiest sites in Japanese Buddhism, sparking religious outrage across the realm.

    Shingen, who was a monk, remember, was personally outraged, and allowed surviving monks from Mt Hiei to take refuge in Kai. In 1572, the Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, sent a letter, reaching out to Shingen and calling on him to march on Kyoto and destroy Nobunaga.

    By this point, the Shogun’s options were severely limited (Yoshiaki would prove to be the last Ashikaga Shogun), but it was probably a smart move. By the early 1570s, Nobunaga had risen to become one of the most powerful warlords in Japan, and there simply weren’t that many contemporaries who could match him for strength and strategic acumen.

    Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the last Ashikaga Shogun. Even by the standards of his troubled dynasty, Yoshiaki was a powerless leader.

    Shingen had the strength, he had the experience, and after Mt Hiei, he had plenty of reason to answer the Shogun’s request. Gathering somewhere in the region of 27,000 men, a gigantic army for the time, the Takeda Steamroller began its move west in October 1572, first striking at Tokugawa Ieyasu’s territory in Mikawa Province, taking several fortresses in a matter of days, and forcing Ieyasu to call for help from Nobunaga.

    Nobunaga, however, was busy elsewhere, and could only spare 3000 troops to help, not nearly enough, and whenever Tokugawa forces made a stand, they were defeated. Initially, Ieyasu sought to defend the castle at Hamamatsu, a strong position, but weak strategically, as Shingen was able to bypass it on his march to Kyoto.

    Forced to either give battle or see himself rendered effectively impotent, Ieyasu marched out and met Shingen at Mikatagahara in January 1573. The result was a catastrophic defeat for Ieyasu, who saw his army scattered in all directions, with thousands left for dead on the battlefield. It was only due to the heroic resistance of several of his retainers that Ieyasu himself was able to survive the battle.

    A 19th century depiction of the Battle of Mikatagahara.

    Flush with victory, the Takeda forces would continue their advance, defeating what remained of the Tokugawa Clan and securing many castles throughout Mikawa Province. At that point, it may well have seemed that Shingen was well placed to launch a final thrust at the capital, and it isn’t unreasonable to speculate that, had such an attack occurred, he may have been successful, and we might today be talking about a ‘Takeda Shogunate’.

    Alas, it wasn’t to be. Despite his military and political acumen, Shingen was still just a man. His health had been getting steadily worse for years. As early as 1571, he was forced to abandon military action due to symptoms as severe as coughing up blood, and after Mikatagahara, his condition took a turn for the worse.

    In early spring 1573, Shingen made the decision (or had it made for him) to return to Kai Province to recover his health. Somewhere along the road home, however, he died. Exactly when and where he passed isn’t clear, but most historians agree it was sometime in April. According to Shingen’s will, his death was kept a secret, and although this would later lead to speculation around the circumstances of his death (perhaps best seen in the film Kagemusha), Shingen’s remains were most likely returned to his capital in modern Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture.

    A later artistic rendition of Shingen’s final moments.

    Shingen’s sudden death raises some of the most interesting ‘what if?’ questions of this period. He was arguably one of the few men who could match Oda Nobunaga for strength and cunning, and it is possible that, if he had lived, he might have defeated Nobunaga and perhaps led the unification of Japan himself.

    This is ultimately not how things played out, but Shingen’s role in Japanese history didn’t end with his death. Although he had a well-earned reputation as a warrior, he was also a wise administrator and reformer, and many of the policies he introduced in his territories were adopted by those who came after him, with some even going on to influence Japanese law after the Sengoku Jidai, but we’ll talk about that another time.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%A6%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E7%8E%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E6%96%B9%E3%83%B6%E5%8E%9F%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%BE%E6%9C%AC%E7%9B%86%E5%9C%B0
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A0%A5%E7%9F%B3%E5%B4%A9%E3%82%8C
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A1%A9%E5%B0%BB%E5%B3%A0%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8A%E7%94%B0%E5%8E%9F%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%B2%E7%9B%B8%E9%A7%BF%E4%B8%89%E5%9B%BD%E5%90%8C%E7%9B%9F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%AE%E5%B7%9D%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%B3%E6%9D%B1%E3%81%AE%E4%B9%B1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E9%81%A0%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%94%B2%E5%B7%9E%E6%B3%95%E5%BA%A6%E6%AC%A1%E7%AC%AC
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A1%91%E5%8E%9F%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%80%AC%E6%B2%A2%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashikaga_Yoshiaki
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mikatagahara