Chris Perry, Author

Tag: Sengoku Jidai

  • The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Three.

    The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Three.

    Hideyoshi’s victory over Nobunaga’s killer, Akechi Mitsuhide, left him in a strong, but far from unchallenged position. Though Hideyoshi was arguably the strongest of Nobunaga’s remaining supporters, his power was not so great that he could overcome the others on the battlefield.

    Instead, a conference was called at Kiyosu Castle on July 16th, 1582. Historians still debate exactly what Nobunaga’s plans had been for his succession, given that his second son, and most obvious heir, Nobutada, had been amongst the dead at the Honnoji Incident. Two camps quickly emerged: Hideyoshi, supporting Nobutada’s son, Hidenobu, and Shibata Katsuie, who supported Nobunaga’s third surviving son, Nobutaka.

    The reconstructed Kiyosu Castle as it appears today.
    Oliver Mayer, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=230610による

    The exact course of the meeting isn’t clear, but by the end of it, Hideyoshi’s faction was in the ascendancy, and Hidenobu, at just two years old, was declared Nobunaga’s heir, with Nobutaka officially acting as his guardian. There was an attempt to mollify Katsuie by having him marry Nobunaga’s sister, Oichi, a woman of impeccable rank, but the seeds of conflict had already been sown.

    In October 1582, Hideyoshi held Nobunaga’s formal funeral, and played a central, highly visible role in the ceremony, cementing his position as chief amongst Nobunaga’s retainers. Not long after this, Katsuie, supported by Nobutaka, issued letters of impeachment against Hideyoshi, who responded by demanding that Nobutaka, who had custody of the ‘heir’, Hidenobu, return him to Azuchi, as per the Kiyosu Agreement.

    Oda Nobutaka

    When Nobutaka refused, Hideyoshi used this as justification to renounce the agreement and raise an army against him. Katsuie, trapped in the north by snows and the ongoing war with the Uesugi, was unable to send help, and in a short, sharp campaign, Hideyoshi raised an army of some 50,000, forced Nobutaka to retreat, and eventually surrender, handing over Hidenobu and sending his mother and daughter as hostages to secure the peace.

    This victory did not end the war, however, and shortly after the New Year, Takigawa Kazumasu (also known as Sakon) launched successful attacks in Ise Province. Hideyoshi responded with counterattacks against Kuwana and Nagashima Castles, but the attacks failed, and he was forced to withdraw, despite an overall advantage in numbers, leaving northern Ise Province (temporarily) in the hands of his enemies.

    Ise 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=1682471

    The situation got worse for Hideyoshi when Katsuie himself led an army of 30,000 into Omi Province, whilst Nobutaka raised another army at Gifu Castle. Katsuie also made contact with Mori Terumoto, hoping to secure his support in the battle to come. The Mori never outright refused, but instead adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach, as it was not immediately clear which side would win.

    Throughout spring and early summer, the two sides clashed in skirmishes in Ise, Mino, and Omi Provinces, and the momentum would swing back and forth for some time until a decisive engagement near the fortress at Shizugatake. Hideyoshi’s forces were aided by the timely arrival of reinforcements from across Lake Biwa, and the betrayal of Maeda Toshiie, one of Katsuie’s most important generals, who switched to Hideyoshi’s side, for reasons that are still debated.

    A 19th-century depiction of Hideyoshi on the night before the Battle of Shizugatake.

    By all accounts, Katsuie and his army forced tenaciously, but with Toshiie’s betrayal, they were outflanked and outnumbered, and Katsuie was forced to retreat. He got as far as Kitanosho Castle, in modern Fukui, where Hideyoshi’s forces laid siege.

    The night before the final assault, Katsuie held a final banquet with his close family and retainers, whilst his wife, Oichi, made arrangements for her three daughters to be protected by Hideyoshi and avoid what was to come. Despite pleas to save herself, Oichi refused to leave her husband’s side.

    A later depiction of Shibata Katsuie preparing for battle, with Oichi beside him.

    The attack started at dawn, and despite stiff resistance, by midday, the battle was clearly lost, and Katsuie retreated to the main castle, where he and 80 members of his family, including Oichi, killed themselves. Calling it ‘suicide’ is perhaps a bit generous, as the records suggest that a large number of the dead were children. When it was over, Katsuie’s forces ignited a store of gunpowder, blowing the tower apart and bringing a spectacular end to the Shibata Line.

    “Katsuie, a martial artist, fought seven times but was unable to defend himself. He climbed to the ninth floor, the highest level of the main tower, and addressed the entire group, loudly proclaiming, “Watch Shuri’s hara-kiri and learn from it.” The samurai, with their hearts in tears, wet their armor sleeves. As everyone fell silent, Katsuie stabbed his wife, children, and others to death, then committed seppuku with 80 others. It was the hour of the tiger (5:00 PM).”

    Hideyoshi’s letter to Kobayakawa Takakage dated May 15, 1583,

    Just a side note, the actual record of Katsuie’s suicide is pretty harrowing stuff, and it’s always difficult to read about the death of women and children who weren’t guilty of anything other than being related to the losers. This kind of thing was expected, though; even children weren’t generally shown mercy, and though there are notable examples (Oichi’s daughters, for instance), if a child was caught in a siege, they generally died in the same manner as their parents.

    With Katsuie crushed, Hideyoshi was able to extend his direct control over the northern provinces of Koto, Noto, and Echizen, and when Nobutaka committed seppuku, and Kazumasu surrendered, Hideyoshi had established himself as the most powerful man in the realm and while Hidenobu (still just an infant) remained as the nominal ‘heir’ there was no no doubt that Hideyoshi was in charge.

    An image of Hideyoshi carrying Hidenobu at the time of the Kiyosu Conference.

    In 1583, construction began on Osaka Castle, built on the former site of the Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple complex. It would eventually become Hideyoshi’s base and was widely considered one of Japan’s finest castles. Meanwhile, in the Kanto, a marriage alliance between the Tokugawa and Hojo presented a clear threat to Hideyoshi’s power.

    In early 1584, Oda Nobukatsu, another son of Nobunaga, rebelled against Hideyoshi, quickly gaining the support of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Chosokabe Motochika, who raised armies of their own in opposition to Hideyoshi. Despite a huge advantage in manpower (some sources say 3-to-1), Hideyoshi struggled to achieve a decisive victory.

    Tokugawa Ieyasu

    Some initial success in Ise Province was followed by a defeat at the Battle of Haguro Castle, after which Hideyoshi, who had been waiting at Osaka Castle, took the field himself, meeting Ieyasu near Komaki (near the modern city of the same name). Again, despite a significant manpower imbalance, Ieyasu’s strong position meant that Hideyoshi was unable to force a decisive engagement, and both sides focused on reinforcing castles and constructing new earthworks in anticipation of the fight to come.

    The campaign that followed is often called the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute, after its two most decisive engagements, but there were actually a series of sieges, counterattacks, and skirmishes over the summer and early autumn of 1584. The fighting would result in a tactical victory for the Tokugawa, as they would arguably have the best of the fighting. On the other hand, the strategic situation favoured Hideyoshi, and he would ultimately be able to secure control over his new territory and the power that went along with it.

    An 18th-Century depiction of the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute.

    In the end, both sides had bigger problems. Ieyasu’s domains were under severe economic strain from the war, and a series of floods, combined with the burden of having a large number of peasants away at war, drained his treasury and threatened famine (this was before a serious earthquake in 1586 compounded his problems).

    For his part, Hideyoshi’s position was not as strong as it appeared. Though he had the advantage in men, he also had powerful enemies elsewhere, enemies that were arguably more pressing problems than Ieyasu, who had proven he could hold Hideyoshi off, but not that he could mount a serious attack of his own.

    Osaka as it appeared around 1650. The city would become Hideyoshi’s base, centred at the castle, which appears in the second screen from the left.

    Despite his inability to defeat Ieyasu, by the dawn of 1585, Hideyoshi was effectively the ruler of Japan, already on the verge of surpassing his nominal masters (the Oda), and about to launch the campaigns that would finally bring an end to the centuries of bloodshed.

    Sources
    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%89%A7%E3%83%BB%E9%95%B7%E4%B9%85%E6%89%8B%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B2%A9%E5%B4%8E%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E7%89%A7%E5%B1%B1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%9D%82%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B3%A4%E3%83%B6%E5%B2%B3%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E3%83%8E%E5%BA%84%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%85%E4%BA%95%E4%B8%89%E5%A7%89%E5%A6%B9
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitanosho_Castle
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%89%8D%E7%94%B0%E5%88%A9%E5%AE%B6#%E4%BA%BA%E7%89%A9%E3%83%BB%E9%80%B8%E8%A9%B1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A1%91%E5%90%8D%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B8%85%E6%B4%B2%E4%BC%9A%E8%AD%B0
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%BE%B3%E5%AF%BA
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B9%94%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E5%AD%9D
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B9%94%E7%94%B0%E7%A7%80%E4%BF%A1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B9%94%E7%94%B0%E7%A7%80%E4%BF%A1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9F%B4%E7%94%B0%E5%8B%9D%E5%AE%B6

  • The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Two.

    The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part Two.

    In 1577, a dispute between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie led to Hideyoshi taking his army home, and leaving Katsuie to battle the mighty Uesugi Kenshin alone, a battle he lost. In the aftermath, Hideyoshi had every reason to fear the wrath of his master, Oda Nobunaga, and he was arguably lucky to keep his head, let alone his position.

    A 19th-century depiction of Hideyoshi in Nobunaga’s service.

    Nobunaga was well known for his ferocity, but he recognised capable subordinates. Hideyoshi had been reckless, but he had also earned a reputation as a good administrator and leader of men, and it wasn’t long before he was back in the Great Lord’s good books. In late 1577, he was dispatched west to contend with the powerful Mori Clan and by the end of the year, he was in control of Harima Province and advancing into neighbouring Tajima.

    During this period, Hideyoshi made the famous Himeji Castle his base and used it as a springboard for a series of successful campaigns against the Mori over the next few years. By late 1578, he had subjugated (either through conquest or submission) Bizen and Mimasaka Provinces, in addition to his earlier conquests, and he was poised to advance further when the Araki Clan, based at Arioka Castle, rebelled, obliging him to redeploy his forces to put them down.

    Himeji Castle as it appears today (after renovations in 2015)
    Niko Kitsakis – 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=40135622による

    Able to resume his advance in 1580, Hideyoshi secured Tajima Province, bringing the once-mighty Yamana Clan under his control and incorporating many of their former vassals and members of the clan itself into the new administration, a policy widely praised as the reason that Tajima was swiftly pacified.

    By 1581, he had advanced into Bitchu Province and secured Awaji Island for his master, utilising slow but effective siege tactics, starving his enemies into submission, a time-consuming but strength-preserving strategy. One disadvantage, though, was that it meant you were easy to find should your enemy have sufficient strength elsewhere.

    The area that Hideyoshi either conquered or was fighting in during this period.

    In Spring 1582, Hideyoshi led an army of some 30,000 to besiege the mighty fortress at Takamatsu. Strategically vital for control of Bitchu Province, the castle was defended by 3,000 Mori warriors, who quickly called for aid. Mori Terumoto responded and began mustering an army that would eventually number over 50,000. Hideyoshi now faced a problem: already outnumbered, if he tried to take the formidable fortress by storm, he’d deplete his forces further. On the other hand, trying to starve the garrison, who knew help was on the way, would take too long and risk trapping his army between the walls of the fortress and the vengeful spears of the Mori.

    Hideyoshi responded in a typically inventive fashion. Unable to take the castle by storm, he ordered a levee built and the nearby river dammed, diverting water into Takamatsu itself, flooding the castle to such an extent that the garrison’s food supplies were almost completely ruined and they were reduced to communicating by boat.

    A later depiction of the Siege of Takamatsu Castle. The tower to the left is Hideyoshi’s observation post, and you can see the castle itself flooded in the background.

    Despite this, the castle still held out, and when news arrived that Terumoto was on the march, Hideyoshi sent a message to Azuchi, requesting immediate reinforcement from Nobunaga. Sensing an opportunity to catch the powerful Mori clan in open battle, where they could be destroyed, Nobunaga quickly dispatched Akechi Mitsuhide to reinforce Hideyoshi, while he went to Kyoto to make arrangements for a larger force that would be sent to finish the job.

    As we already know, Mitsuhide never arrived; instead, he turned his forces around and attacked Nobunaga at his base at Honnoji, killing him and his heir. Hideyoshi was well placed to respond to this betrayal, and he swiftly concluded a peace treaty with the Mori (who were apparently initially unaware of Nobunaga’s death). Some have speculated that his rapid reaction is evidence of his involvement, or at least foreknowledge of the plot, though there’s nothing concrete to suggest that he was anything other than in the right place at the right time.

    Funasaka Pass as it appears today. This was one of the narrow routes that Hideyoshi’s army had to contend with during their remarkable march back towards Kyoto.
    Bakkai – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92337495による

    More to the point, Hideyoshi was far from the only player on the board. Hideyoshi’s former rival, Shibata Katsuie, was to the north, with an army facing the Uesugi, while in the Kanto, Takigawa Kazumasu (sometimes called Sakon) had a large army intended to monitor the Hojo. Nobunaga’s son and heir had been killed during the Honno-ji Incident, but his third son, Nobukatsu, had gathered a force at Sakai (modern Osaka) to conquer Shikoku.

    Any one of these forces could have been the one to avenge Nobunaga’s death and put an abrupt end to Akechi Mitsuhide’s ambitions. Even Tokugawa Ieyasu was a potential avenger, making his famed escape from mortal danger with the (supposed) help of the famous Ninja of Iga. Ieyasu would return to his home in Mikawa and gather his forces, but events would move quickly, and though all parties moved against Mitsuhide, it was Hideyoshi who struck first.

    Tokugawa Ieyasu as he appeared in later life. He was close to Kyoto during the Honnoji Incident and was forced to make a dramatic escape back to Mikawa. Hideyoshi would prove to be faster, but Ieyasu’s time would come.

    In the days following the Honnoji Incident, Mitsuhide moved to consolidate his position. Unfortunately for him, he faced harsh military and political opposition. On the one hand, Nobunaga’s body had not been recovered from the flames, and rumours abounded that he was still alive. Even among those who may have believed Nobunaga was dead, Mitsuhide commanded little respect. He was a traitor, after all, and surrounded by enemies who wished to avenge Nobunaga and take power for themselves.

    Militarily, Mitsuhide was too weak to assert effective control over much territory. He had between 13,000 and 15,000 men, but was obliged to capture and garrison several important castles, whittling his already limited forces down still further. Then there was the speed at which Hideyoshi moved. Mitushide arguably did what he could, and with the limited communications and transportation available at the time, it’s hard to see how he could have moved faster, but Hideyoshi was faster still, and on July 2nd, 1582, just 12 days after Honnoji, the two sides clashed at the Battle of Yamazaki, to the south-east of Kyoto.

    Akechi Mitsuhide. Historians debate why he decided to betray Nobunaga, but within two weeks of the incident, he’d be dead.

    The numbers vary by source, but Hideyoshi is said to have had between 20 and 40,000 men, while Mitsuihides had 10 to 16,000. Despite the long odds, Mitsuhide’s army was well-positioned, and the ground around Yamazaki was boggy, limiting movement and reducing Hideyoshi’s advantage in numbers.

    Mitsuhide probably understood that a defensive victory against difficult odds would have greatly enhanced his prestige, and for most of the day, Hideyoshi’s army took heavy losses in vicious frontal assaults. Around 4pm, however, reinforcements arrived for Hideyoshi, outflanking Mitsuhide’s position, and causing his army to fall back. As the battle moved to higher and drier ground, Mitsuhide’s force was gradually surrounded and forced back.

    The battlefield of Yamazaki as it appears today. Historians believe the heaviest fighting took place around the bypass that can be seen in the centre.

    Later sources suggest that the casualties were about the same (around 3,000 each), but under attack from three sides, the morale of Mitushide’s army broke first, and by sunset, their retreat became a rout. When the battle was over, it is said that Mitsuhide had just 700 men remaining. His exact fate isn’t clear; some say he was wounded and committed seppuku, while others suggest he was killed by vengeful peasants or bandits. Either way, his head was brought to Hideyoshi the day after the battle, and then displayed at Honnoji, a powerful statement confirming Hideyoshi as Nobunaga’s ‘avenger’ and giving an enormous boost to his credibility.

    Hideyoshi would spend a few weeks stamping out the last embers of Mitushide’s rebellion, but despite his military successes, he was not unchallenged as Nobunaga’s successor. The other players, who had all been poised to strike, still remained in the field, and each had their own ambition to rule, either directly or through one of Nobunaga’s other sons.

    This would result in the Kiyosu Conference, but we’ll cover that and its consequences next time.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E7%A7%80%E5%90%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E5%B4%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%AC%E8%83%BD%E5%AF%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%A4%A7%E8%BF%94%E3%81%97
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E5%90%8D%E5%A0%AF%E7%86%99
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E6%9C%A8%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%89%E5%B2%A1%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A7%AB%E8%B7%AF%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%82%99%E4%B8%AD%E9%AB%98%E6%9D%BE%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E6%9D%BE%E5%9F%8E_(%E5%82%99%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD)

  • The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part One.

    The Second Unifier – Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Part One.

    If the bird will not sing, make it sing.

    Oda Nobunaga’s death in June 1582 left a power vacuum that was ultimately filled by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (then using the family name Hashiba). Hideyoshi’s tale is remarkable even by the standards of the time: from peasant footsoldier to master of the realm, he epitomised the danger and opportunity of the Sengoku Jidai and would be the man most responsible for bringing it to an end.

    Hideyoshi’s origins are suitably mysterious and have been subject to a fair bit of speculation and mythologising, mostly by the man himself. After his rise to power, he is supposed to have spread the rumour that he was a secret bastard of the Emperor, stating that his mother had been a maid in the Imperial Palace and had “grown close to the Emperor’s Body”, which is quite the thing to say about your own mother.

    Hideyoshi’s mother. She is often called Omandokoro, though this is the name she took after becoming a nun, and most sources think her birth name was Naka.

    Less mum-shaming sources suggest that Hideyoshi was born in 1536 or 37 in Owari Province, now part of the modern city of Nagoya. His father, usually recorded as Kinoshita Yaemon, is a similarly mysterious figure, but historians generally agree he was probably of the lower classes, most likely a peasant soldier (Ashigaru). Hideyoshi’s childhood is also poorly recorded, with some sources suggesting his father died when he was 7, after which Hideyoshi entered a monastery, though he left shortly afterwards.

    At the age of 15, he received part of his inheritance and left home to become a wanderer. Sometime later (the dates are unclear), he is recorded as Kinoshita Hideyoshi in the service of the Iio Clan, which, in turn, was a vassal of the Imagawa Clan. It’s not certain exactly when he came into the service of the Oda Clan, but it appears to have been before 1554, when he was serving at Kiyosu Castle (under Oda control) in charge of the kitchens, and in some kind of role in construction or maintenance.

    Kiyosu Castle as it appears today.

    Even this is a matter of some debate, though, as other sources state he didn’t join the Oda until 1558 (though they agree he served at Kiyosu Castle), and a common origin story in English language sources is that he was Nobunaga’s sandal bearer, a story which possibly reflects his role as a kind of ‘military servant’ which might explain how he was able to gain recognition from Nobunaga.

    Even the matter of Hideyoshi’s marriage is subject to debate; it is certain that he married Nene, but her origins and even the year of the marriage aren’t totally clear. Some sources say the marriage took place in 1561, when Nene was 12 or 13, and Hideyoshi was in his 20s. This earlier date is controversial because even though 13 was the age at which girls became adults (legally speaking), it was still considered unusual for a girl to marry as soon as she came of age.

    Hideyoshi’s wife, Nene, who also became a Nun, is often recorded as Kodai-in as a result.

    Another theory is that the marriage took place in 1565, when Nene was 16 or 17, still young by modern standards, but a far more acceptable age at the time. Nene’s adoptive father was Asano Nagakatsu, who would later receive a stipend of 300 Koku from Nobunaga and served as one of his bodyguards. This status suggests that Nagakatsu was of sufficient rank, and the marriage to Nene is often cited as evidence that Hideyoshi was already moving up in the world by the mid-1560s.

    As well as his marriage, further evidence of his rise in Nobunaga’s service appears in 1565 when his name appears as the co-signer on documents assigning fiefs, suggesting he was already one of Nobunaga’s most important vassals. Throughout the back half of the decade, he is recorded as having taken part in several of Nobunaga’s campaigns, notably taking Mitsukuri Castle during the Omi Campaign in 1568.

    Omi 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=1690755

    In 1569, in support of the Mori Clan (who were his temporary allies), Nobunaga dispatched a force of some 20,000 to support them against a rebellion, whilst the bulk of the Mori forces were in Kyushu fighting the Otomo clan. This army, led by Hideyoshi, was, by all accounts, a phenomenal success, capturing no fewer than 18 castles in just 12 days and ending the rebellion swiftly.

    A year later, he was part of Nobunaga’s campaign against the Asakura Clan of Echizen Province, which ended when Nobunaga’s brother-in-law, Azai Nagamasa, switched sides, threatening to cut off Nobunaga’s retreat. Though the exact scale of the threat is debated (as I mentioned in my posts on Nobunaga himself), what is certain is that Hideyoshi led the rearguard and was instrumental in ensuring that his master was able to escape.

    Azai Nagamasa, Nobunaga’s brother-in-law, whose betrayal nearly spelt disaster for his campaign.

    After the Battle of Anegawa, in which Nobunaga avenged himself on the Azai-Asakura forces, Hideyoshi was appointed castellan of the strategically important Yokoyama Fortress, from which he would be tasked with keeping up the pressure on the remnants of the Azai-Asakura until their final destruction in 1573.

    I’ve previously mentioned the tradition of changing names among Samurai and how it often leads to confusion when you’re trying to source information about specific figures who may have had several names. While Hideyoshi is generally remembered as “Toyotomi Hideyoshi” in English-language sources, this wasn’t his name until much later. His peasant origins mean that he likely didn’t have a surname at all, and the names he was known by later were either taken from places or bestowed by others.

    Shibata Katsuie
    Niwa Nagahide

    In 1573, Hideyoshi adopted the name Hashiba. The origins of this name are somewhat unclear; a common theory is that he took one character each from Shibata Katsuie and Niwa Nagahide (the Japanese character ‘wa’ can also be pronounced ‘ha’), though this is disputed.

    Along with a name change, the fall of the Azai Clan in 1573 resulted in Hideyoshi receiving their former lands around the shores of Lake Biwa. He based himself at Imahama, which is promptly renamed Nagahama, after Nobunaga. This was not some unique quirk of his, by the way, the ‘giving’ of character from prestigious names was a common occurrence, and was generally treated as a respectful and honoured thing to do.

    Nagahama Castle as it appears today.
    By 663highland, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73322120

    He continued to play a significant role in Nobunaga’s military expansion, serving at the decisive Battle of Nagashino in 1575, and capturing Kiriyama Castle from the powerful Kitabatake Clan of Ise Province the next year. In 1577, Hideyoshi’s star seemed to be on an inexorable rise, but personal rivalries would get in the way.

    Nobunaga dispatched an army under Shibata Katsuie to face Uesugi Kenshin in the north. Now, you may remember from my post about him, but Kenshin was a formidable opponent, a rival to both Hojo Ujiyasu and Takeda Shingen; he was certainly not a man to take lightly. Nobunaga obviously understood this and dispatched reinforcements commanded by Hideyoshi.

    Uesugi Kenshin

    At this point, a simmering feud between Hideyoshi and Katsuie exploded. The exact nature of the argument isn’t recorded in contemporary sources, and later writers could only speculate; however, it is known that Hideyoshi literally took his army and went home. This open defiance of Nobunaga’s orders would have been bad enough, but when Katsuie was defeated shortly afterwards at the Battle of Tedorigawa, Nobunaga was furious.

    Hideyoshi was arguably lucky to keep his head after that, and he would spend some time in the political wilderness. His time would come again, however, and we’ll talk about that next week.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%8A%E8%87%A3%E7%A7%80%E5%90%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%89%8B%E5%8F%96%E5%B7%9D%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E6%B5%9C%E5%9F%8E_(%E8%BF%91%E6%B1%9F%E5%9B%BD)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9C%A7%E5%B1%B1%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%91%E3%83%B6%E5%B4%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A7%89%E5%B7%9D%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A8%AA%E5%B1%B1%E5%9F%8E_(%E8%BF%91%E6%B1%9F%E5%9B%BD)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%B9%E7%BE%BD%E9%95%B7%E7%A7%80
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A6%B3%E9%9F%B3%E5%AF%BA%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E5%8F%B0%E9%99%A2
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B5%85%E9%87%8E%E9%95%B7%E5%8B%9D
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A3%AF%E5%B0%BE%E6%B0%8F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E6%94%BF%E6%89%80

  • The Honnoji Incident – Oda Nobunaga. Part Four.

    The Honnoji Incident – Oda Nobunaga. Part Four.

    “The enemy is at Honnoji” – Akechi Mitsuhide

    By 1582, Oda Nobunaga was the most powerful man in the realm; in fact, it could be argued that he was the most powerful man Japan had seen in centuries. A combination of ruthless political manoeuvring and brutal military campaigns had left him on the verge of finally reuniting the nation and ending the Sengoku Jidai.

    Only the Mori Clan still had the strength to stifle Nobunaga’s ambitions, and in May 1582, he announced his intention to march against them with all his might. The catalyst for this next campaign was a message from Hashiba Hideyoshi, who was besieging Takamatsu Castle (in modern-day Okayama). The message read that Mori Terumoto was marching to relieve the siege, presenting Nobunaga with an opportunity to meet the Mori in open battle and crush them.

    A scene from the Battle of Takamatsu Castle. Hideyoshi attempted to end the siege by flooding the castle, a tactic that was ultimately unsuccessful.

    It is generally accepted by historians that Nobunaga intended not only to defeat the Mori but also subjugate Shikoku and, eventually, Kyushu as well, viewing the campaign against the Mori as part of a wider strategy to bring the entire nation under his command. In preparation for this, he dispatched several generals to support Hideyoshi, most notably Akechi Mitsuhide.

    In the days that followed, Nobunaga was seen to be in good spirits and laid on lavish entertainment for those who came to visit him, including Tokugawa Ieyasu, who departed Azuchi on June 21st, embarking on a tour of Kyoto, Osaka, and the surrounding region. On the same day, Nobunaga’s son and heir, Nobutada, arrived in Kyoto for reasons that aren’t entirely clear (some speculate he meant to accompany Ieyasu). Whatever his purpose, his arrival in the capital meant that when Nobunaga himself departed Azuchi for Kyoto on June 29th, father and son would be in the same place, at the same time.

    Azuchi Castle, Nobunaga’s base, as it appeared around 1582.

    Exactly why Nobunaga went to Kyoto first is debated, with some suggesting he planned to attack Shikoku first, going via Kyoto and the port at Sakai (modern Osaka). Other sources say he went to deal with negotiations at the Imperial Court, and others still suggest he wanted to show off a new tea set he had recently acquired. (This may sound a touch comical to a modern audience, but the tea ceremony was a serious matter in Japan at the time.)

    On June 30th, Nobunaga held said tea ceremony, which was followed by a drinking party, during which Nobunaga’s son, Nobutada, arrived, and father and son drank and talked together, little knowing that it would be their last meeting. Sources tell us that the party ended late, and Nobutada returned to his accommodation at nearby Myokakuji Temple, and Nobunaga retired for the night shortly afterwards.

    Oda Nobutada, Nobunaga’s son and heir.

    Though Honnoji was a temple, as the primary residence of Nobunaga in Kyoto, it wasn’t undefended. Excavations in 2007 found evidence of a moat and some earthworks, suggesting that the site had been partially fortified, though it was far from a fortress, and Nobunaga was protected by only a few dozen servants and his personal entourage.

    Nobunaga clearly didn’t expect to be attacked, and why should he have? He was the most powerful man in the realm, in the heart of the capital city, with hundreds of thousands of warriors at his command. His enemies were far away, and even in the unlikely event that the army under Hideyoshi was defeated, he could call on other, just as formidable forces.

    Honnoji as it appears today. The current temple is located at a different site from that in 1582; after being rebuilt by Hideyoshi in 1592, it was destroyed by fire in 1788 and 1864, and then underwent further renovation in 1928.
    ＋－ – 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=107655314による

    One of these was a force of around 13,000 men under Akechi Mitsuhide. In the afternoon of June 30th, Mitsuhide claimed to have received a message from Nobunaga, instructing him to bring his force to Kyoto for review. The letter, if it existed at all, was certainly a forgery, but by that evening, Mitsuhide had arrived at Kameyama (modern Kameoka), north of Kyoto. By the next morning, they had reached the Katsura River, and at this point, it is unclear if Mitsuhide’s army understood their objective.

    Sources from men serving in this force suggest they believed that they were going to attack Tokugawa Ieyasu, nominally on the orders of Nobunaga himself. This is supported by the semi-contemporary “History of Japan”, written by the Jesuit, Luis Frois, which suggests that Mitsuhide’s army believed they were acting under Nobunaga’s secret order, at least initially.

    Akechi Mitsuhide, the man behind the Honnoji Incident.

    At this point, Mitsuhide is supposed to have uttered the famous phrase “The Enemy is a Honnoji” announcing his rebellious intention (as everyone knew that was Nobunaga’s base.) Unfortunately, as dramatic as that scene might have been, the first source for it doesn’t appear until 1641, nearly 60 years after the event, and there are no contemporary sources that tell us what Mitsuhide might or might not have said.

    What we know is that by dawn, Mitsuhides forces had surrounded Honnoji. What followed was a bloody, but ultimately one-sided fight. All sides agree that Nobunaga and his pages fought bravely, but they were hopelessly outnumbered, and the fighting was over by around 8am. We don’t know exactly how Nobunaga died, but the sources agree that he fought with a bow, and then a spear, before suffering some kind of injury (the sources differ) and retreating into the already burning Honnoji, where he presumably committed seppuku.

    A 19th-century depiction of Nobunaga’s last stand. Though we don’t know exactly how he died, sources agree he fought bravely until an injury forced him to retreat.

    Nobunaga’s son, Nobutada, had, upon hearing that Honnoji was under attack, rushed to help, only to be overwhelmed and forced back to his own accommodations at Myokakuji Temple, where he too was forced to commit seppuku as the temple burned around him, his body consumed by the flames.

    Rumours of their survival sprang up almost immediately. Since neither body was ever identified (this being before DNA or dental records), Mitsuhide could not prove the deed was done, and any hope he had of securing support went up in the same smoke that Nobunaga and his son had.

    Another 19th-century depiction of Nobunaga’s end. Though heavily stylised, it displays the flames that would ultimately consume Nobunaga’s body.

    Whatever his actual motivation (which we’ll look at in a moment), Mitsuhide’s triumph would be short-lived. Though his forces had successfully killed Nobunaga, his son, Nobutada, and most of his inner circle, and secured Kyoto, the same forces that Nobunaga might have called on to defend him were now focused on avenging him.

    Mitsuhide swiftly withdrew to Azuchi Castle, from where he tried to rally support, and wrote to the Imperial Court, seeking to legitimise his position. There are no records of any response, and he soon ran out of time. Hashiba Hideyoshi had made peace with the Mori (who were apparently initially unaware of Nobunaga’s death) and was now marching against him.

    The site of the Battle of Yamazaki as it appears today, seen from Mt Tenno, from which the battle is sometimes called The Battle of Tennozan.

    Mitsuhide was outnumbered two or three to one, and at the Battle of Yamazaki on July 12th, he was decisively defeated. Although losses were similar on both sides (about 3000), Mitsuhide’s army suffered from serious morale problems and disintegrated as the battle went against them, leaving Mitsuhide with just 700 warriors at day’s end.

    Mitsuhide himself survived the battle, but he was either killed in the aftermath (possibly by bandits or opportunistic peasants) or else committed suicide due to injuries sustained on the battlefield. Whatever his end, he was definitely dead by the time his head was displayed outside the burned remains of Honnoji Temple, on or around July 17th.

    Akechi Mitsuhide’s grave at Saikyoji Temple in Kyoto.

    No sooner was Mitsuhide dead than questions were raised about why he had betrayed his lord. Though Samurai overthrowing their overlords was nothing new, Nobunaga was uncommonly powerful, and his death threatened to unravel the fragile peace he had secured, especially in light of Mitushide’s failure to secure support or legitimacy in its aftermath.

    Contemporary scholars and modern historians continue to debate exactly why Mitsuhide betrayed Nobunaga. He was certainly mistreated and often humiliated, sometimes even being publicly beaten by Nobunaga himself, so simple revenge is a possible motive. Other sources suggest it was to avenge his mother, who had served as a hostage to secure a truce years earlier, only for Nobunaga to break it, resulting in the poor woman being executed.

    Mitsuhide’s mother hangs from a tree in consequence of Nobunaga breaking the truce that her life was the guarantee of.

    If public humiliation and the death of his mother weren’t reason enough, some suggest it was pure ambition; Mitsuhide may simply have wanted the power for himself, and he certainly wouldn’t have been the first to try it. Indeed, some historians speculate that if he had been able to prove that Nobunaga was actually dead, he might have gained some support, and the outcome could have been different.

    Others suggest that Mitsuhide was a partisan of the Shogun, or possibly the Imperial Court, and overthrew Nobunaga in order to restore one or the other to power, though these ideas only emerged in the 20th century, and there’s little contemporary information to go on.

    Nobunaga publicly beats Mitsuhide. Quite why Nobunaga treated him so poorly isn’t clear, but the humiliation almost certainly contributed to his decision to rebel.

    There’s also the speculation that Mitsuhide was working with one of Nobunaga’s other vassals. Some historians argue that Hashiba Hideyoshi was able to turn his army against Mitsuhide very quickly, leading to speculation that he knew the attack was coming. Historians have never conclusively dismissed this, though it has been pointed out that only the fastest of Hideyoshi’s troops actually made it to the Battle of Yamazaki, meaning that the quick turnaround might not have been that quick after all.

    Other theories blame the Imperial Court, or the Mori Clan, for conspiring against a man who had proven to be an existential threat, as well as the Buddhist Clergy, who had plenty of reason to want vengeance on Nobunaga.

    A contemporary depiction of Mass. Though largely dismissed by historians, the possibility that the Jesuits feared Nobunaga would turn on them contributed to the theory that they were involved in his death.

    Another possibility is the Jesuits, who are suggested to have feared that Nobunaga might move against them, though there’s little evidence that he intended to (as he valued foreign trade), and Hideyoshi, his ultimate successor, would prove to be a far greater threat to Christianity in Japan.

    Ultimately, most of this speculation comes from later sources, and there’s no way to know what Mitsuhide intended, only that his plans fell apart before being decisively ended on the battlefield at Yamazaki.

    Hashiba (later Toyotomi) Hideyoshi. His victory at Yamazaki did not make him Nobunaga’s successor, but it did wonders for his prestige.

    Hashiba Hideyoshi’s victory did not mean he inherited Nobunaga’s power, however, and the power struggle that followed threatened to undo the Great Lord’s work, but that’s a story for another time.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B9%94%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E9%95%B7
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%AC%E8%83%BD%E5%AF%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%A4%89
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%95%B5%E3%81%AF%E6%9C%AC%E8%83%BD%E5%AF%BA%E3%81%AB%E3%81%82%E3%82%8A
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A1%82%E5%B7%9D_(%E6%B7%80%E5%B7%9D%E6%B0%B4%E7%B3%BB)
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%80%E5%B2%A1%E5%B8%82
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%82%99%E4%B8%AD%E9%AB%98%E6%9D%BE%E5%9F%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honn%C5%8D-ji_Incident
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akechi_Mitsuhide
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E5%B4%8E%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B9%94%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E5%BF%A0

    If you are interested, the main source for this and the other posts on Oda Nobunaga is the 2011 translation of the Chronicle of Nobunaga, the Kindle version of which can be found here.

  • 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


  • Soun – Rise of the Hojo

    Soun – Rise of the Hojo

    The mon of the Hojo, and Later Hojo clans.

    Late 15th-century Japan was a chaotic place, but as we all know by now, chaos also presents opportunity. As central authority declined, local clans would move to fill the void. Some of these clans would fall almost as quickly as they had risen, others would continue to survive in one form or another throughout the Sengoku Period, and a select few would go on to be truly great.

    The focus of this post is one of them, the Hojo (hence the title). Right away, I want to be clear that this Hojo and the Hojo we looked at previously (the ones who were regents during the Mongol Invasions) were not related, despite the same name and mon. Sometimes, this second Hojo Clan is called the “Later” Hojo (Go-Hojo) in Japanese, but for our purposes, we’ll just call them the Hojo and hope you remember the distinction.

    Adding to our confusion, the founder of the clan, Hojo Soun, wasn’t actually called that. He was a member of the Ise Clan, and it was his son, the second “Lord” Hojo, who adopted the name and mon. Again, while it is technically more accurate to refer to this founder as Ise Souzui, we’ll call him Hojo Soun, because a) that’s the name he’s best remembered by, and b) it’ll get confusing if we keep changing his name.

    Hojo Soun, who wasn’t called Hojo Soun, during his lifetime.

    Side Note: Name changes were common in Japanese culture, with someone’s birth name rarely being the name they are recorded by historically. When you factor in nicknames, titles, honorifics, etc, you have individuals who may have gone by any number of names. Up until now (and continuing after this), I have always called historical characters by their most commonly used name, just in case you were wondering.

    The man who would become Hojo Soun is the subject of considerable mythologising. In the pre-modern period, it was widely assumed that he had been a poor samurai who had risen to a position of power by sheer force of will, pulling himself up by the proverbial bootstraps.

    20th-century scholarship has shed more light on his origins, however. He was a member of the Ise Clan, as we mentioned previously, and was born either in Kyoto or Ibara, in modern Okayama Prefecture. His family were not at the highest ranks, but they were administrators for the Shogun, meaning that they were often close to the centre of power and were certainly not the impoverished provincial family of later myth and legend.

    Modern Okayama Prefecture, a possible birthplace of Soun.
    By Lincun – 国土交通省 国土数値情報(行政区域), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3916728

    Soun’s exact origins are still a little unclear (we’re not even 100% sure what year he was born, though 1456 is considered most likely), but his rise to power came during the chaotic violence of the Onin War. As we looked at previously, one of the ancillary conflicts was in the Kanto, where Ashikaga Shigeuji and the Uesugi Clan clashed violently. Officially, Shigeuji was a rebel against the Shogunate, and the Uesugi were loyal servants, although in reality, neither side paid much attention to the capital.

    One of the other clans in the Kanto at this time was the Imagawa, who remained loyal to the interests of the Shogun. In 1476, the head of the Imagawa was killed in battle, and his heir was just a boy (Ujichika). Factions quickly formed within the clan seeking to assert rival claims to leadership.

    With the clan fracturing and external rivals seeking to take advantage, Soun, who was the brother of Lady Kitagawa, Ujichika’s mother, is said to have arrived at the Imagawa home in Suruga Province (in modern Shizuoka) to negotiate a peaceful settlement at the request of his sister. An agreement was reached in which the cousin of the previous leader (Norimitsu) would stand in as acting leader until the young boy came of age, whilst the rival factions were convinced (or compelled) to withdraw.

    It is debated exactly what role Soun played in this negotiation. It is noted that he was very young (perhaps 20 or 21) to be a negotiator, and his name doesn’t appear in any official government records. The withdrawal of rival forces is also suggested to have been a reaction to problems elsewhere (the Uesugi faced rebellion at home, for example) and not a result of Soun’s negotiating prowess. While peace was certainly achieved within the Imagawa Clan, it is entirely possible that Soun’s role in achieving it was minimal, or perhaps even a later fabrication.

    The first ‘official’ records of Soun come from the period of 1481-87, when he is recorded as a subordinate to the Shogun, presumably taking some role in the administrative affairs of the government. It is also speculated that Soun’s later departure for Suruga Province was motivated by legal troubles surrounding unpaid debts. Again, the exact nature of this problem isn’t clear, but there was certainly a legal case involving Soun and one of his creditors dated to this period, although the outcome is apparently lost.

    In 1487, the previous agreement that had led to peace within the Imagawa Clan broke down. Norimitsu, who had been chosen to stand as ‘regent’ during the minority of Imagawa Ujichika, refused to step down. Although Soun’s role in the initial negotiation is debated, he certainly returned to Suruga Province around this time to force a settlement, apparently with the approval (or possibly at the direct order) of the Shogun and at the request, once again, of his sister, Lady Kitagawa.

    Norimitsu had once been able to call on the support of external clans, but the political situation in the Kanto had changed in the decade since the original settlement, and that support no longer existed. Soun based himself at Ishiwaki Castle (in modern Yaizu, Shizuoka) and gathered supporters of Ujichika to his banner.

    A view of Mt Fuji from a spot near modern Yaizu.
    alonfloc, CC 表示 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52973978による

    In late 1487, Soun led an attack on Norimitsu and his supporters, defeating them in a short, sharp campaign that ended with Norimitsu’s suicide and Ujichika’s confirmation as leader of the Imagawa Clan. Soun was rewarded for his actions, but the exact location of his new lands is disputed, with several possible locations including the aforementioned Ishiwaki Castle.

    Though the exact location of his base isn’t known for sure, Soun certainly remained in Suruga Province in the immediate aftermath of his success, acting as a protector for the young Ujichika. It is also suggested that during this period he acquired or was rewarded with estates in Izu Province, though again, that isn’t recorded with certainty.

    Soun’s actions following this are murky; he appears to have returned to the direct service of the Shogun in around 1491, though he seems to have remained physically in Suruga Province. In 1493, the Meio Coup changed Soun’s situation considerably, although again the exact circumstances are open to speculation.

    Suruga Province, where Soun made a name for himself. Izu Province is the peninsula to the bottom right of Suruga, and Sagami is just above that.
    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

    What is certain is that Soun would lead an attack into neighbouring Izu Province that would eventually see him take control of the entire province. Some sources suggest that Soun was acting on the orders of Hosokawa Masatomo, the instigator of the Meio Coup; others indicate that Soun was acting on his own initiative. The situation in the Kanto was already volatile, and the coup in Kyoto had only made things worse, giving Soun a chance to improve his fortunes.

    Soun’s actual conquest of Izu is subject to considerable mythologising, with some stories telling us that he spied on the province in person, posing as a pilgrim to the area’s many hot springs, whilst others say that he was welcomed as a liberator and kept his army under tight control, preventing any pillaging. Soun is also supposed to have secured the province in under 30 days, launching a surprise attack on the residence of the previous lord of Izu, and either killing him or forcing him to commit suicide.

    The reality seems to have been a protracted campaign, with Soun trying to capture the leader of the province in a rapid advance, but failing to do so, leading to a drawn-out war that would not be finally resolved until 1498, though the historical record does seem to suggest that Soun’s victory was more or less guaranteed after around 1495.

    Despite his conquest of Izu, Soun remained a nominal vassal of the Imagawa Clan and took an active part in their campaigns in the Kanto. He would campaign on their behalf in Kai Province, and in Sagami (modern-day Yamanashi and Kanagawa Prefectures), famously capturing Odawara Castle in late 1495. The legends tell us that Soun captured the mighty fortress through trickery, convincing the lord to go hunting and then taking the castle while he was away. Modern scholars suggest that a large earthquake that year undermined the fortifications of Odawara and made holding it untenable.

    The remains of the moat at Odawara. The castle that stands on the modern site is a 20th century reconstruction of the fortress as it appeared in 1590. The castle that Soun took in 1495 would have been an formidable, but considerably smaller structure.
    By 柴錬アワー – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81578474

    In the short term, Soun would continue to support the Imagawa Clan, but as time went on, he began to take on an increasingly independent appearance, as his power grew, and the Imagawa found themselves distracted by events elsewhere. In 1507, the Eisho Disturbance (which led to the Hosokawa Rebellion we talked about previously) ended what little remained of Shogunate influence in the Kanto, and with the Imagawa distracted (or by some accounts, overstretched), Soun was able to extend his direct control of Sagami and Izu Provinces.

    Soun would clash with the Miura Clan of Sagami, who were in turn supported by the Ogigayatsu branch of the Uesugi Clan. Soun would advance on Edo Castle (on the site of the modern Imperial Palace in Tokyo) in early 1510, but a counterattack by the Miura and Ogigayatsu would drive him back as far as his base at Odawara.

    Soun would survive this crisis, and the destruction of the Miura Clan is said to have become the singular focus of his later life. Starting in the summer of 1512, Soun would make steady advances against the Miura, driving them out of Sagami Province, and defeating supporting attacks from the Ogigayatsu, until, by July 1516, the Miura had been bottled up in the eponymous Miura Peninsula (in modern Kanagawa Prefecture) before being destroyed with the capture of their final fortress at Misaki Castle.

    Soun would engage in several further campaigns, even crossing into modern Chiba, but in 1518, he handed control of the clan over to his son, Ujitsuna, before passing away in August the following year.

    Hojo Ujitsuna, who would adopt the name and symbol of the Hojo after his father’s death.

    Though Soun himself would never take the name Hojo, his actions secured the dominance of his clan in the Kanto region for most of the 16th Century. Though they would never be completely unchallenged, the clan would eventually rise to become masters of the area around modern Tokyo, until they eventually fell foul of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s campaigns to unite the realm, with their mighty fortress at Odawara being taken, and the clan destroyed in 1590.

    In many ways, Soun is the archetype of what would become known as a “Sengoku Daimyo”, a kind of warlord who was not content with simply fighting with his neighbours, but worked to improve the lands he ruled. In 1506, Soun ordered a land survey in Sagami Province, the first of its kind in this new era, and he would introduce sweeping reforms to law and justice in his territories that would serve as inspiration for generations of Samurai that followed him, and in some cases, formed the basis for the legal system in place during the Edo Period, and even into more modern times.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%97%A9%E9%9B%B2
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%8C%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A1%E6%B0%8F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E6%B5%A6%E5%8D%8A%E5%B3%B6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AB%8B%E6%B2%B3%E5%8E%9F%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84

  • The Ikko-ikki

    The Ikko-ikki

    History often focuses on the rich and powerful doing rich and powerful things. Kings, Emperors, Shoguns, and Daimyo ride around on magnificent horses, hacking each other to bits with their swords, while hundreds of thousands of anonymous lower-class types charge into certain death for the honour and glory of whoever paid for the records to be written.

    Just look at all that honour and glory.

    While this particular version of history is suitably exciting and dramatic, it does tend to overlook those anonymous lower-class types. Sometimes, however, those same lower-class types take matters into their own hands, pick up whatever weapons are to hand, and do some hacking of their own.

    As Japan collapsed into the chaotic violence of the Sengoku Jidai, peasants, priests, and clergymen found themselves at the mercy of local Samurai lords who sought to exploit their labour, or burn their homes, and sometimes both. Many peasants found themselves (willingly or otherwise) in the service of one such lord or another, forming the Ashigaru who would eventually go on to form the backbone of most armies in the later Sengoku Period.

    Some, however, weren’t keen on dying for some rapacious shugo or in the service of a Shogun who was so far removed he might as well have been on the moon. These peasants formed what would become known as Ikko-shu, which is often translated as “Single Minded Schools”. Often inspired by religious teachings and based at fortified temples, the ikko-shu were quite diverse in their objectives, but were often motivated by local defence and what we might now think of as social justice.

    The religious component of the ikko-shu is debated even today. The progenitor of the movement was a monk called Rennyo, who became the abbot of the Honganji Temple, espousing the Jodo Shinshu sect. Rennyo was a charismatic guy, perhaps best highlighted by the fact he ended up with five wives and 27 children, three of whom were born when he was already in his 80s, which suggests he was more than a little compelling.

    Profound reproduction aside, Rennyo preached a doctrine that was incredibly radical for its time. It would take far too long to explore the complete details of his preaching, but for the purposes of this post, the key idea is that faith, not social class, defines a person’s worth.

    A contemporary portrait of Rennyo, which doesn’t do much to capture his apparent charisma.

    This was an explosive idea in a society that was as rigidly stratified as medieval Japan. Rennyo would go on to preach the ideas of spiritual equality, communal support, and collective morality, a powerful combination of ideas that found many willing followers amongst the peasantry, who were often victimised by a warrior and noble class who justified their oppression in spiritual and religious terms (the Emperor was a literal son of heaven, after all.)

    Rennyo himself was no revolutionary, even by the standards of the time. Though his ideas were radical, he preached order and obedience in accordance with the beliefs of Jodo Shinshu, emphasising the importance of peace and harmony, even at a time when the country was already tearing itself apart. His followers initially followed these teachings quite closely. The growing communities of ikko-shu were self-reliant, but largely peaceful.

    Unfortunately, peaceful intentions don’t necessarily result in peaceful outcomes. The autonomy of the ikko-shu inevitably attracted the ire of the powerful Daimyo, who would not tolerate any group of peasants defying their will. Peasant uprisings in and of themselves were nothing new; Japan, much like most medieval states, had a long history of often violent tension between ruler and ruled.

    What made the ikko-shu different was their belief that everyone, regardless of education or social class, had the potential for divine salvation. This upset just about everybody in the upper classes, and opposition to the ikko-shu became one of the few things that rival factions could agree on.

    One aspect of the early Sengoku Period, especially around Kyoto, was the presence of rival temples, which would often have cadres of warrior monks at their disposal. Honganji would become the target of the Enryakuji Temple in 1465, when the monks there declared that Rennyo and his followers were enemies of Buddhism.

    A later recreation of how warrior monks might have dressed.

    It might seem slightly strange to think of Buddhist monks being so militant, but it is important to remember that the temples of this period were political players in their own right; some would even go on to have power rivalling later Daimyo. In this context, then, it isn’t so unusual for one of them to have decided to destroy Honganji and remove the threat of the ikko-shu.

    The attack was largely successful, and Rennyo and his followers were forced to flee. This actually turned out to be good for them in the long term, as Rennyo was able to find supporters amongst the enemies of Enryakuji, leading to the establishment of several new temples loyal to Rennyo and his teachings.

    The profile of the ikko-shu would continue to rise, and they were often viewed as a potent counterweight to other Buddhist sects, which had already proved themselves willing and able to meddle in the ongoing political chaos. In 1474, the guardian of Kaga Province, Togashi Masachika, called on Rennyo to support him in a conflict within the wider Togashi clan. Rennyo agreed when he learned that a rival sect had taken the side of Masachika’s opponents.

    The intervention of the ikko-shu was decisive, and Masachika was able to overcome his foes. However, he began to sour on the support of Rennyo and his followers as he began to worry that their egalitarian message would spread amongst the peasants of Kaga Province.

    He was right to worry, although Rennyo himself departed the area shortly after the fighting, and would go on to establish several other temples, his followers remained in Kaga, and their teachings indeed proved popular with the locals, swelling their numbers and establishing several fortified temples in the province.

    The wider ikko-shu movement would continue to grow under Rennyo’s leadership, but we’re going to focus on Kaga Province in particular. As we’ve mentioned, although previously happy to make use of the military strength of the ikko-shu, Togashi Masachika grew increasingly alarmed about the spread of the movement.

    In 1475, he drove the ikko-shu out of Kaga, forcing them to seek refuge in neighbouring Etchu Province. Just like Masachika before him, the shugo (governor) of Etchu, Ishiguro Mitsuyoshi, was alarmed by the presence of the ikko-shu and sought to suppress them. However, when he launched an attack in 1481, he was defeated, and the ikko-shu, basing themselves at the Zuisenji Temple, took control of large parts of the province.

    Back in Kaga, events elsewhere in Japan led Masachika to impose increasingly burdensome taxes on the population, and in 1488, a similar revolt broke out amongst the peasantry, willingly aided by the ikko-shu crossing back from Etchu. Although the events in Etchu resulted in the first widely recognised independent action of the ikko-shu, the revolt in Kaga is typically considered to be the first example of Ikko-Ikki, that is, “Single Minded Uprising”, and a catch-all name that would eventually refer to the movement as a whole.

    Rennyo himself actually spoke out against the rebellion and attempted to persuade his followers not to support it, but the die had been cast, and although the initial uprising would not lead to complete Ikko control of Kaga by 1506, Kaga Province was being referred to as “ruled by peasants” in contemporary sources.

    Rennyo died in 1499, and with his passing, the Ikko-Ikki movement transitioned from simple self-defence to full participation in the Sengoku Period’s many wars. As early as 1494, there had been attempts to provoke similar uprisings in neighbouring provinces, with limited success; even when the uprisings had been triggered, they were often badly organised and swiftly put down.

    In 1506, the Kaga Ikko-Ikki decided on a more direct approach and invaded neighbouring Echizen Province, home of the Asakura Clan. Some sources estimate the Ikko Army had as many as 300,000 peasant warriors, and although this is certainly an exaggeration, it goes some way towards highlighting the anxiety shown towards the popularity and relative success of the movement.

    The invasion was stopped by the Asakura Clan, and the defeat of the Ikko-Ikki is supposed to have cost them 100,000 casualties (perhaps interpretable as a third of their army). Regardless of the actual numbers, the victory gave the Asakura the momentum to issue an edict banning the Ikko-shu ideology in their lands.

    Edicts alone didn’t do much to stop the popularity of the movement, though there was another serious uprising near Kyoto in 1531 (the Tenbun Disturbance) and a supporting uprising in Nara the next year.

    Other parts of Japan would also suffer serious outbreaks of Ikko-Ikki, most significantly in 1563-4, when a major uprising in Mikawa Province would sorely test Tokugawa Ieyasu (then using the clan name Matsudaira), who was able to achieve a military victory but would be forced to deal with the political fallout of the uprising for nearly 30 years after the event.

    A later illustration of the Mikawa Uprising.

    Probably the most famous of the Ikko-Ikki conflicts would be the one against Oda Nobunaga. Actually several conflicts the ongoing feud between Nobunaga and the Ikko-Ikki, would lead to some of the bloodiest episodes in an already bloody period.

    In 1568, Nobunaga arrived in Kyoto, nominally to support the last of the Ashikaga Shoguns but in reality to rule himself. In response, the Ikko-shu leaders at Ishiyama (in modern Osaka) issued a 1570 decree stating that Nobunaga was an enemy of the movement and should be opposed.

    Nobunaga was naturally taken aback by that and responded by laying siege to Ishiyama. He simultaneously launched attacks against other Ikko establishments, notably at Nagashima (near modern Nagoya) in a siege that lasted until 1574, and cost the lives of 20,000 or more Ikko-shu adherents.

    Another later illustration, this time of the Battle at Nagashima

    He would continue his attacks on the movement throughout 1574 and beyond, advancing against them in Echizen as part of his conquest of that province, before finally reducing the great fortress temple at Ishiyama in 1580, after a ten-year siege (the longest in Japanese history), but a fire broke out shortly before peace could be finalised. Sources disagree on the origin of the blaze, but it destroyed Ishiyama and tore the spiritual heart out of the Ikko movement.

    Later, in one of his last campaigns, Nobunaga sent his subordinates to put down the Ikko-Ikki in Kaga, where it was finally crushed in March 1582, and the “Province ruled by peasants” was brought to an end after almost a century of independence.

    Though the political independence of the Ikko movement would not survive the end of the Sengoku Period, the religion itself endured, though not without difficulty. After Nobunaga’s suppression, the movement made a comeback under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, gaining lands and privileges in Kyoto.

    There would be a doctrinal and later physical split in the 17th Century, and an East Honganji and West Honganji (named after their relative locations in Kyoto) would emerge. In the modern period, changes in laws, customs, and further factional splits mean there are now dozens of sects of various sizes, all claiming to be descended from the original Jodo Shinshu, which is now the most widespread Buddhist Sect in Japan, with more than 22,000 temples associated with it in one form or another

    The Nishi-Honganji as it appears today.
    By 663highland, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56357164

    Sources
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikk%C5%8D-ikki
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikk%C5%8D-sh%C5%AB
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%80%E5%90%91%E4%B8%80%E6%8F%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E5%B3%B6%E4%B8%80%E5%90%91%E4%B8%80%E6%8F%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%8A%E5%89%8D%E4%B8%80%E5%90%91%E4%B8%80%E6%8F%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9F%B3%E5%B1%B1%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E6%B2%B3%E4%B8%80%E5%90%91%E4%B8%80%E6%8F%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%9D%E9%A0%AD%E7%AB%9C%E5%B7%9D%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A0%E8%B3%80%E4%B8%80%E5%90%91%E4%B8%80%E6%8F%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%8A%E4%B8%AD%E4%B8%80%E5%90%91%E4%B8%80%E6%8F%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9C%9F%E5%AE%97%E5%A4%A7%E8%B0%B7%E6%B4%BE%E4%BA%95%E6%B3%A2%E5%88%A5%E9%99%A2%E7%91%9E%E6%B3%89%E5%AF%BA
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AF%8C%E6%A8%AB%E6%94%BF%E8%A6%AA
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9C%AC%E9%A1%98%E5%AF%BA%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%80%E5%90%91%E5%AE%97
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%80%E6%8F%86
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%93%AE%E5%A6%82
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongan-ji

  • The Hosokawa Rebellion

    The Hosokawa Rebellion

    As we’ve looked at previously, internal clan conflict wasn’t uncommon during the 15th century; in fact, it had gotten to the point that violent succession struggles were almost a fact of life. One exception to this rule had been the Hosokawa Clan.

    In the mid-15th Century, the Hosokawa were just one of several powerful clans that dominated the area around Kyoto, the centre of political power in the realm. While other clans had risen and fallen throughout the Century, the Hosokawa went from strength to strength, in large part because they managed to maintain a stable succession, leading to one of their number, Hosokawa Masatomo, being strong enough to launch the Meio Coup in 1493, giving him effectively complete control of the government and what was left of its prestige.

    Hosokawa Masatomo, who arguably led his clan to the height of its power, and laid the groundwork for its downfall.

    The relative stability of the Hosokawa Clan came to an end with Masatomo, however. He had succeeded his father largely because he had been the only viable candidate and had earned the support of his clan’s vassals after his father’s death. Masatomo apparently didn’t learn from this, however. Firstly, his spiritual beliefs meant that he swore off contact with women, which rather limited his opportunities to father an heir.

    This was no problem, though; adoption was(and continues to be) a widely accepted custom amongst the rich and powerful in Japan, and all Masatomo had to do was select a candidate who could earn the support of the wider Hosokawa Clan, and their position would be (relatively) secure.

    It must have come as quite a shock then, when Masatomo adopted not one, but three sons. To be fair, he didn’t adopt them all at once, and most contemporary sources speculate that his intentions were to split the Hosokawa lands between his new heirs, but you won’t be surprised to learn that it didn’t work out that way.

    No sooner was the ink dry on the adoption documents than rival factions began to form around the three potential heirs. Masatomo didn’t help matters by clearly favouring one son, Sumitomo, over the other two, but the whole situation would have been precarious even under the best of circumstances, and the Hosokawa certainly didn’t enjoy those.

    Hosokawa Sumitomo, Masatomo’s apparently preferred heir.

    We’ve looked at the wide-ranging political problems the Shogunate faced during the latter half of the 15th century, and when Masatomo seized control of the government, he also inherited those problems. It’s hard to see how even the most focused, capable, and diplomatic leader might have reversed the situation the Shogunate found itself in, and unfortunately for the Hosokawa, Masatomo was an eccentric iconoclast, prone to doing things like attempting to fly, deriding long-standing ceremonies, and generally making political enemies wherever he went.

    It is a strange quirk of human history, though, that factions who seem to have hostile (and often violent) intentions towards each other will exist in a kind of tense equilibrium as long as there is someone, or something, that they can focus their ire on. In the early 16th century, that someone was Masatomo.

    None of the three factions was strong enough to openly oppose him, because if they had, they’d have been attacked and wiped out by the other two, who would need little encouragement to remove a rival, even if that meant supporting Masatomo in the short term.

    It is also true that, eventually, the dam always breaks, and when it comes to court politics, that usually means blood. In June 1507, supporters of one of Masatomo’s adopted sons (Sumiyuki) assassinated him in his bathhouse. The next day, they attempted to do the same thing to another son, Sumitomo, but he managed to escape with the help of his allies in the Miyoshi Clan.

    Just a moment ago, I mentioned that one faction couldn’t make a move without antagonising the other three, and that’s exactly what happened. Sumiyuki’s supporters had tried to remove Sumitomo and failed. Now, Sumitomo fled Kyoto and sought the aid of the third brother, Takakuni, who was only too happy to oblige.

    The stylised end of Hosokawa Sumiyuki.
    Musuketeer.3 – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24893374による

    The combined forces of Takakuni and Sumitomo were indeed too much for Sumiyuki, and by August, he had been defeated and forced to commit suicide. The question then was who would actually succeed Masatomo. Both Takakuni and Sumitomo could arguably claim to have avenged their adopted father’s death, and both had significant support from the remaining Hosokawa retainers.

    As we mentioned last time, it is at this point that the previously deposed Shogun, Yoshitane, returned to the scene. Given that Masatomo had overthrown him in a coup and installed a puppet, it wasn’t difficult to convince Shogunate loyalists to side with Yoshitane. Suddenly, becoming heir to the Hosokawa Clan wasn’t quite the prize it had been. Though Sumitomo was in the stronger position, he now faced a resurgent Yoshitane, and his brother, Takakuni, saw the way the wind was blowing and threw in his lot with the returning Shogun as well.

    Just as Sumiyuki had been unable to oppose the combined forces of his brothers, Sumitomo did not have the strength to challenge the Shogun and Takakuni. Sumitomo also lost considerable support due to the actions of his supporters in the Miyoshi Clan, who had become overbearing in the short period after their victory.

    So, in April 1508, when Yoshitane and Takakuni marched on Kyoto, Sumitomo and the Miyoshi had little choice but to flee with their puppet Shogun, Yoshizumi. Shortly after this, Yoshitane was reinstated as Shogun, and Takakuni was named the new head of the Hosokawa Clan.

    The once and future Shogun, Yoshitane, picked the right moment to return to the political scene.

    In June the following year, Sumitomo and the Miyoshi attempted to retake the city but were defeated and driven back; however, a counterattack led by Yoshitane was similarly defeated. The back-and-forth nature of the conflict continued until the Battle of Ashiyagawara (sometimes called the Siege of Takao Castle), in the summer of 1511, after which Sumitomo’s victorious forces were able to briefly reoccupy Kyoto.

    ‘Briefly’ is the operative word here, because in September of the same year, Takakuni and Yoshitane’s forces counterattacked, retook Kyoto, and drove Sumitomo and the Miyoshi back to their strongholds in Awa Province, across the Inland Sea on Shikoku.

    Awa 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=1652119

    Around this time, Yoshizumi died of illness, and Sumitomo suffered a serious loss of support. Many of his allies had supported Yoshizumi as Shogun, and Sumitomo as his champion, but now Yoshizumi was gone, Yoshitane, who was now firmly entrenched in Kyoto, was the only remaining claimant to the title, and many Shogunate loyalists deserted to him, weakening Sumitomo and strengthening Takakuni.

    Ashikaga Yoshizumi, whose death proved that a puppet shogun is better than no Shogun at all.

    This stalemate did not mean peace, however, and constant, low-level fighting would continue throughout the region and the wider realm; what would later be called the Sengoku Jidai was already well underway, even if the area immediately around Kyoto was relatively quiet.

    In 1517, the stalemate was broken when Miyoshi forces in support of Sumitomo invaded Awaji and used it as a springboard to threaten the mainland. Around this time, the Ouchi Clan, who had supported Takakuni and Yoshitane for the better part of 10 years, left the capital to deal with unrest in their home provinces, caused by the apparent resurgence of Sumitomo and the Miyoshi’s faction.

    The departure of the Ouchi was a major blow to Takakuni, and over the next two years, he saw his position gradually chipped away, as forces defected to Sumitomo or simply abandoned the fight to deal with their own affairs. Finally, in early 1520, Shogun Yoshitane himself switched sides, throwing his support behind Sumitomo and forcing Takakuni to flee Kyoto.

    Ouchi Yoshioki, the head of the Ouchi Clan, whose decision to leave Kyoto seriously weakened Takakuni.

    Takakuni fled to Omi Province, but he wasn’t ready to roll over just yet. Gathering a force of his allies, he counter-attacked in May 1520 and retook the capital. This time, his victory was decisive; he forced the leader of the Miyoshi Clan to commit suicide and even managed to drive Sumitomo back into exile on Shikoku, where he died of illness shortly afterwards.

    The following year, Takakuni exiled the fickle Yoshitane and installed Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the son of Yoshizumi, as Shogun, though he was just as much a puppet ruler as his father had been. Takakuni was appointed kanrei (deputy) for the new Shogun’s enthronement ceremony, but would resign the position immediately afterwards, proving to be the last man to hold the position, according to historical records.

    It wouldn’t be until October 1524 that the last embers of Miyoshi resistance were stamped out on Shikoku, but even then, Takakuni was far from secure in his position. In 1526, he faced serious opposition from within his own clan and was defeated when he tried to march against them. In 1527, this combined force actually managed to drive Takakuni out of Kyoto, and an attempted counterattack was defeated at the Battle of Katsuragawa in March that year.

    Takakuni, ever tenacious, refused to give up, despite being defeated in 1528 and again in 1530. Things finally came to a head for him in 1531, at the Battle of Tennoji, which is often called the Daimotsu Kuzure, which can be translated as “The Fall of the Big Shots” (lit. big names fall, or collapse).

    The Battlefield Memorial of the Fall of the Big Shots.

    Takakuni was defeated. He survived the battle but was captured shortly afterwards, supposedly whilst hiding in an indigo storage barrel at a dye shop, after which he was obliged to commit suicide. Several of his main supporters (the eponymous “Big Names”) suffered similar fates, and Takakuni’s faction disintegrated.

    Takakuni’s body was likely still warm (and probably blue, given his hiding place) when the forces that had opposed him turned on each other. Members of the Hosokawa, Hatakeyama, and Miyoshi Clans all began fighting, and any hope of retaining a stable government in Kyoto was lost.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B8%E6%AD%A3%E3%81%AE%E9%8C%AF%E4%B9%B1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E7%89%A9%E5%B4%A9%E3%82%8C
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A1%82%E5%B7%9D%E5%8E%9F%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%B3%E5%88%A9%E7%BE%A9%E6%99%B4
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%AD%89%E6%8C%81%E9%99%A2%E3%81%AE%E6%88%A6%E3%81%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8A%A6%E5%B1%8B%E6%B2%B3%E5%8E%9F%E3%81%AE%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%88%B9%E5%B2%A1%E5%B1%B1%E5%90%88%E6%88%A6
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8B%E7%94%B0%E4%B8%AD%E5%9F%8E
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B6%B3%E5%88%A9%E7%BE%A9%E6%BE%84
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%86%85%E7%BE%A9%E8%88%88

  • The Eisho Disturbance

    The Eisho Disturbance

    Last time, we looked at the Meio Coup that saw the Shogun’s kanrei (deputy), Hosokawa Masatomo, take over the government and install a puppet Shogun with himself in effective control. At the end of that post, we also looked at how, despite the coup’s success, Masatomo’s grip on power was far from secure.

    Hosokawa Masatomo, the most powerful man in the realm following the Meio Coup.

    As soon as the dust settled, Masatomo found himself surrounded by problems. Some had been long-standing, violence between powerful clans in the provinces had been a problem for decades, and Shogunate authority outside of Kyoto was tenuous at best.

    Within Kyoto, too, there were enduring rivalries between different factions, sometimes within the same family, all revolving, as it always had, over who would control the throne, or the man (it was always a man) sitting on it. In many ways, Masatomo’s coup can be seen as a continuation of political instability that went back centuries. As long as there had been an Imperial Throne (nearly a thousand years at this point), there had been powerful families vying to control it. That situation hadn’t really changed when the centre of power became the Shogun instead of the Emperor.

    Some of the problems were of Masatomo’s own making, though. He was, but most contemporary accounts describe him as an authoritarian and quite eccentric character. It is easy for us to imagine the Shogun as some all-powerful ruler, but the reality was that there was a considerable amount of power sharing in the capital. This was no democracy, but it was also expected that the powerful clans surrounding the throne would be consulted about government matters and have their seat at the table when it came to running things.

    There had been several examples of powerful families coming to dominate the government, and again, Masatomo was just continuing that trend, but like the families who came before him, centralising all power in one man attracted a lot of hostility from the other clans who now found themselves frozen out.

    The other problem with Masatomo was that he was something of an eccentric iconoclast. A follower of the ascetic Shugendo sect of Buddhism, he lived an austere life, swearing off certain foods, all alcohol and the company of women, though some contemporary sources suggest his aversion to sex wasn’t limited to his male companions, and he was apparently a practitioner of shudo, a kind of ritualised homosexuality that was common amongst Samurai.

    Modern day practitioners of Shugendo, of which Masatomo was a keen adherent.
    By 唐山健志郎 (Kenshiro Karayama) – 唐山健志郎 (Kenshiro Karayama), CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2259089

    Masatomo is supposed to have believed that his religious fervour would allow him to engage in magical feats, such as being able to fly or speak mystical languages. He had more practical eccentricities as well; he would go on long journeys, sometimes alone, and without telling his retainers, meaning that government would effectively come to a halt until he could be found.

    Religious and sexual habits aside, Masatomo also opposed much of the pomp and ceremony surrounding the institutions of government. It is said that he disliked the formal clothing required at certain ceremonies, and the official enthronement of the new Shogun was delayed simply because Masatomo refused to wear the eboshi hat required by tradition.

    A 17th Century depiction of an official wearing the eboshi hat that Masatomo despised.

    Masatomo also had a shockingly (for the time) rational approach to the Imperial Court as well. He is supposed to have opposed the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Go-Kashiwabara on the grounds that, since the Emperor no longer had any real power, there was no point in a grand ceremony. This was technically true, but flew in the face of long-established tradition.

    So a combination of Shogunate weakness, Political problems, and personality issues meant that Masatomo’s position was never strong, and he wouldn’t help matters with some of the decisions he made. Given Masatomo’s apparent aversion to women, he wasn’t able to produce an heir (obviously). This problem wasn’t an uncommon one at the time, and adoption was usually the preferred solution.

    Masatomo, never one to do anything the easy way, adopted three sons, Sumimoto, Sumiyuki, and Takakuni. You may remember, in the period leading up to and including the Onin War, one of the key factors in the instability that gripped the realm was the frequency of internal conflict over clan succession. One of the reasons the Hosokawa Clan had been able to take such a strong position was that they had largely been able to avoid these struggles, with Masatomo succeeding his father relatively smoothly.

    Some contemporary sources suggest that Masatomo’s ultimate plan was to divide the Hosokawa lands between two of these sons, while the third would inherit the position of kanrei and thus real political power. Initially, it seems that Masatomo favoured Sumimoto to succeed him as kanrei, but the fact that all three ‘sons’ came from three different families meant that the succession was now the subject of growing factional rivalries.

    Hosokawa Sumitomo, Masatomo’s choice as heir.

    This situation was precarious, but held together by the sheer force of Masatomo’s will. With power centralised in his hands, he could exert enormous control over what remained of the Shogunate government and its nominal loyalists. This way of doing things required him to be alive, however, which he no longer was after June 23rd, 1507, when he was assassinated.

    The assassins were apparently partisans of Sumiyuki, favouring him as kanrei over Sumitomo, who they also attacked at the same time as his father, though Sumitomo was able to escape with the help of his supporters, led by members of the Miyoshi Clan (a name that will become important later).

    The fact that Sumitomo survived was a problem for Sumiyuki, especially after he fled to Takakuni, the third brother, who agreed to support him and march against Sumiyuki. There was a series of blood battles between the rival factions until Sumitomo’s supporters, led by Miyoshi Yukinaga, took his final refuge at Yushoken, forcing Sumiyuki to commit suicide.

    An image depicting Sumiyaki at the moment of his death.
    Musuketeer.3 – 投稿者自身による著作物, CC 表示-継承 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24893374による

    It turns out that your enemy’s enemy isn’t always your friend, though, and it wasn’t long before Takakuni and Sumitomo were at each other’s throats. The problem stemmed from Sumitomo’s supporters amongst the Miyoshi Clan, whose strength and growing overbearingness earned them many jealous rivals. Then, in late 1507, former Shogun Yoshitane (who had fled after the Meio Coup) returned to the scene.

    Yoshitane, after fleeing into exile, had been supported by the Ouchi Clan based in modern-day Yamaguchi Prefecture, and now they raised their banners in support of his march on Kyoto. Although not strong enough to take the city at first, shortly after the new year, Takakuni became the focal point for anti-Miyoshi feeling and chose to throw in his lot with the old Shogun.

    This combined force attacked Kyoto and took the city in early April, forcing Sumitomo and Shogun Yoshizumi to flee. Takakuni was recognised as the new head of the Hosokawa Clan, and Yoshitane was reinstated as Shogun, beginning his second reign.

    Sumitomo and Yoshizumi were down but not out, however, and what followed was more than 20 years of strife that is collectively called the Hosokawa Civil War, or Hosokawa Rebellion. This conflict had all the hallmarks of the internal violence that had wracked multiple clans throughout this period, but wrought on a massive scale, involving not just the Hosokawa but their vassals, retainers, and the Shogunate itself.

    Sources
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B0%B8%E6%AD%A3%E3%81%AE%E9%8C%AF%E4%B9%B1
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%B0%E5%B7%9D%E9%AB%98%E5%9B%BD
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%89%E5%A5%BD%E4%B9%8B%E9%95%B7
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%B0%E5%B7%9D%E6%BE%84%E4%B9%8B
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B4%B0%E5%B7%9D%E6%94%BF%E5%85%83

  • The Power in the Provinces – Honourable Mentions

    The Power in the Provinces – Honourable Mentions

    I have a confession, this ended up being quite the rabbit hole. When researching the early stages of the Sengoku Jidai, it’s almost impossible to narrow down who the “major” clans were, without also having read up on the clans who would go on to play the biggest role in the century to come.

    I originally thought this’d be a one or two post sideshow, but it quickly became apparent that the sheer volume of information and my inability to focus meant that it risked spiralling out of control.

    With that in mind, and with a desire to actually get back on track with the history, the last six clans are not going to get quite the same level of detail, but I can assure you, we will definitely be revisiting clan deep dives in the future.

    Kyushu

    Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s big four islands, and often a law unto itself.

    The Shimazu

    The mon of the Shimazu Clan

    The Shimazu would prove to be one of the most enduring and influential clans in Japanese history. Originating in Satsuma Province in modern Kagoshima Prefecture, they would eventually rise to become masters of the whole of Kyushu, before running into the rise of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

    The Shimazu would also find themselves on the wrong side during the closing stages of the Sengoku Jidai, but their position in Satsuma was so far removed from the capital at Edo (modern Tokyo) that the new government had little influence.

    Satsuma Domain would be one of the few that were allowed to continue international trade (through their dominance of Okinawa), and this relatively outward-looking approach meant that they would first fight, and then ally with the British during the mid-19th Century.

    A 19th Century photograph of Samurai of the Satsuma Domain

    Interesting side note: The Shimazu Clan’s mon, which appears to show a cross, led some scholars to speculate that they were a clan with Christian origins, and one wild theory suggesting that the Shimazu’s real origins lay with one of the Lost Tribes of Israel (this is the Japanese-Jewish origin theory, and it’s pretty racist, in a clumsy, Victorian kind of way.)

    The Otomo

    The mon of the Otomo Clan.
    By Mukai – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6752905

    The Otomo Clan ruled lands in North-Eastern Kyushu (modern Oita and Fukuoka Prefectures) and would become one of the major beneficiaries of Portuguese Trade in Japan during the 16th Century, with many of the clan’s more powerful members even converting to Christianity, some say our of genuine faith, whilst others suggest it was more to do with keeping the Catholic Portuguese on side.

    These lucrative trade links didn’t do much to protect them from their powerful neighbours. With the Shimazu to the south, and the Mori across the sea to the East, the Otomo were hemmed in by powerful rivals, and they were ultimately obliged to seek alliance with the Mori.

    This proved to be the wrong course, as the Mori would be punished for picking the wrong side at the end of the Sengoku Period, and they and their allies saw their lands reduced. The Otomo wouldn’t have to suffer for long, however, as the main line of the clan would die out in 1619.

    Otomo Yoshimune, the last head of the Otomo to rule any serious territory. He would die in internal exile after 1600.

    The Otomo name would endure, however, as a cousin was allowed to adopt the name shortly afterwards, and during the Meiji Restoration, this branch of the Otomo was raised to the peerage, and would go on to play a role in the new Meiji government.

    Northern Japan

    Northern Japan during the 15th Century didn’t include Hokkaido, and was often viewed as the furthest fringes of civilisation.

    The Nanbu

    The mon of the Nanbu Clan
    By Mukai – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8313849

    Much like the Shimazu in the south, the Nanbu would prove to be one of the most enduring Clans during this period. They would rule most of what is the modern Tohoku region for close to 700 years, and by the dawn of the Sengoku Period, they were firmly entrenched in their home region, which became one of the most famous areas for the breeding of war horses, in face, the “Nanbu” Breed was one of the best regarded breeds during that era, although they would become extinct around 1940.

    Unlike the Shimazu, however, the Nanbu would choose the winning side at the end of the Sengoku era, and would serve as one of the leading clans in the North during the following Edo Period.

    Their illustrious position would come to an end in the 1860s, however, as their loyalty to the Shogun led them to oppose the forces of the Meiji Restoration. The Imperial forces would win the Boshin War, and the Nanbu Clan suffered a sharp decrease in property.

    During the period of reconciliation after the restoration, the Nanbu would be ennobled, and the family would go on to play a significant role in the Meiji Period and beyond, remaining prominent in the Tohoku Region into the modern day.

    The Date

    The mon of the Date Clan

    The Date (pronounced Da-Tay) were the other long-lasting clan in the north. They benefited from a position that was far enough away to make attacking them a relatively unattractive prospect. The Date were not idle, however; they were the dominant clan in the region for a reason, with strength and resources comparable to many of the clans further south.

    The Date’s lands were reduced by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but their support for Tokugawa Ieyasu meant that the clan would eventually become one of Japan’s wealthiest, controlling the Sendai Domain.

    The clan would not survive the Edo Period unscathed, however. In the 1660s, the lord of the clan was arrested in the capital for drunkenness, and his rivals within the wider Date Clan took advantage, seeking his removal. This led to nearly 10 years of conflict within the Date Clan, eventually leading to a bloody showdown in 1671, which has been the subject of considerable mythologising in Japanese popular culture ever since (they love a bloody story).

    The clan would endure, however, and although, like the Nanbu, they were much reduced due to their opposition to the Meiji Restoration, the head of the clan would join the ranks of the new Imperial aristocracy.

    Sources
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimazu_clan
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-Jewish_common_ancestry_theory
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma_Province
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B3%B6%E6%B4%A5%E6%B0%8F
    https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%8F%8B%E6%B0%8F
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ctomo_clan
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanbu_clan
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_clan
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_S%C5%8Dd%C5%8D