Battle of Arita-Nakaide

Fought in the tenth month of Eishō 14 (1517) in Aki Province (present-day Hiroshima), the Battle of Arita-Nakaide—also called the Battle of Arita—is widely known as the first battle of Mōri Motonari, later master of the Chūgoku region.

In August 1516 the Mōri head Mōri Okimoto died suddenly, and his two-year-old son Kōmatsumaru succeeded to the headship. Guardianship fell to Okimoto's younger brother, the twenty-year-old Motonari—himself almost without battle experience—and the Mōri house was visibly shaken. Aki at this time lay between the two great powers of the Ōuchi of Suō and the Amago of Izumo, and its local lords were constantly pressed to choose sides. Exploiting the Mōri crisis, Takeda Motoshige—the former shugo house of Aki, backed by the Amago—attacked Arita Castle held by the Kikkawa, allies of the Mōri. The Mōri-Kikkawa allies marched to relieve it.

On the 22nd, the allied vanguard of about 1,000 faced roughly 1,500 troops under the Takeda's noted general Kumagai Motonao at Nakaide. After exchanging arrows, the fight closed to hand-to-hand combat. Kumagai, scorning the smaller force, charged forward but was struck in the forehead by an arrow, thrown from his horse, and beheaded. Though shaken, the Takeda commander Motoshige pressed on with the main body—only to be felled by a stray arrow while crossing the Matauchi River. Having lost both generals in succession, the Takeda army collapsed and fled. This upset victory by the outnumbered allies earned the battle the name "the Okehazama of the West," and it marked the first step in the brilliant career of Mōri Motonari, who would later crush Sue Harukata at Itsukushima and rise to rule ten provinces.