The Miki Campaign (Miki no Hoshi-goroshi)

From Tensh​ō 6 (1578) through Tensh​ō 8 (1580), the Miki Campaign unfolded at Miki Castle (present-day Miki City, Hyōgo Prefecture) in Harima Province, representing a preeminent siege battle of the Sengoku period where Hashiba Hideyoshi's strategic genius and Bessho Nagatoki's tragic final stand intersect. Over more than two years, the hoshi-goroshi—a supply blockade that starved the enemy into submission—became Hideyoshi's signature strategy and was passed down through later generations.

Bessho Nagatoki's Rebellion—Ripples of the Anti-Nobunaga Alliance in Harima

Bessho Nagatoki was a powerful regional daimyo of Harima who initially acknowledged his service to Oda Nobunaga and cooperated with Hashiba Hideyoshi in the pacification of Harima. However, in the third month of Tensh​ō 6 (March 1578), Nagatoki suddenly turned against Nobunaga.

There are various theories regarding his motives. The most compelling theory suggests that Nagatoki prioritized alliance with the Mōri clan. At that time, the Mōri, in coalition with Ishiyama Honganji, were engaged in fierce conflict with Nobunaga, and Nagatoki apparently judged that "the Mōri and Honganji had greater future prospects than Nobunaga." It is also said that Nagatoki's uncle, Bessho Kasou, and other hardliners influenced Nagatoki toward this decision.

Miki Castle, located at a strategic point in Harima Province, was a formidable fortress. Nagatoki's decision threatened to overturn Harima's allegiance to the Oda faction as a whole. Hideyoshi regarded this as a matter requiring the highest priority suppression and committed all his strength to the conquest of Miki Castle.

Hashiba Hideyoshi's Hoshi-goroshi Tactic—A Long Siege Born of Strategy

Hideyoshi's strategy in the Miki Campaign was a supply blockade (hyōrō-zeme) that avoided direct assault on the castle as much as possible. Hideyoshi completely surrounded Miki Castle and cut off all supply and material transport routes into the city.

Kuroda Kanbe, the military strategist who served under Hideyoshi, devised specific strategies for cutting off supply routes in this siege and is said to have recommended the establishment of supply forts (hyōrō-jiro), constructing numerous fortifications (toriide) around the castle to complete the encirclement and cutting off maritime supply routes from the Mōri as well, placing Miki Castle in a state of complete isolation.

Over the siege lasting more than two years, food stores within Miki Castle were exhausted, and the castle garrison and civilian population suffered the extremes of hunger. The phrase "Miki no Hoshi-goroshi" remained in the Harima region, and the severity of this supply blockade was passed down to later generations.

Bessho Nagatoki's Self-Immolation—The Resolve of a Daimyo and the Blade

On the seventeenth day of the first month of Tensh​ō 8 (January 17, 1580), Miki Castle finally faced the moment of surrender.

Bessho Nagatoki offered his own life to Hideyoshi on the condition that the surviving castle garrison's lives be spared. Hideyoshi accepted this, and Nagatoki composed his death poem and took his own life by the blade.

Nagatoki's death poem—"Now I harbor no resentment, thinking of myself as ransom for the lives of all my men"—demonstrates a daimyo's resolve to exchange his own death for the lives of his castle garrison and is highly valued in later ages as a crystallization of bushidō aesthetics. His younger brother Bessho Tomoyuki and uncle Bessho Kasou also took their own lives, and the house steward Miyake Haroutada, who served as his second, also followed his lord in death, and Miki Castle fell quietly.

Self-immolation by the blade—seppuku—was regarded as the most honorable final moment for a samurai. Bessho Nagatoki's seppuku was an act in which love for his castle garrison and pride as a warrior became one, and it transmitted the Miki Campaign to later generations as a human drama transcending a mere siege battle. While historical records concerning the swords Nagatoki carried are sparse, as a warrior of Harima Province, it is highly likely that he favored Bizen blades, and that final blade was inscribed in history as the "sword" that saved the lives of his castle garrison.

The Miki Campaign as Seen Through Japanese Swords—The Sword Culture of Harima and Bizen

The stage of the Miki Campaign, Harima Province (present-day southwestern Hyōgo Prefecture), was adjacent to Bizen Province (present-day eastern Okayama Prefecture), a region famous for sword-smithing. Bizen blades, including those from Bizen Osafune, were the most readily accessible high-quality swords for Harima warriors, and Bizen swords are thought to have been widely used in the forces of both Bessho Nagatoki and Hashiba Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi himself maintained a keen interest in the collection and appreciation of swords and later collected celebrated masterpieces such as the Taiko Samonji and Sousa Samonji, which have been transmitted as "swords of Toyotomi Hideyoshi." During the period of the Miki Campaign, Hideyoshi was still serving as a retainer of Nobunaga under the name Hashiba Hideyoshi, but it is said that his interest in celebrated blades was already vigorous from this stage.

Kuroda Kanbe also possessed deep knowledge of swords and had extensive connections with sword smiths throughout Kyushu and Harima. The strategic genius that Kanbe employed in the Miki Campaign shows a glimpse of the intellectual prowess displayed by Kanbe as he later grew from "the hegemon of Harima" to "the military strategist of the realm's unifier."

The Miki Campaign was an important step in Hideyoshi's "path to nationwide unification," and this victory led to the complete subjugation of Harima Province and further to the establishment of Hideyoshi-style siege tactics that "neither water nor food shall be given"—the "starvation" of Tottori Castle (1581) and the water attack on Takamatsu Castle (1582). While the blade held the principal role on the battlefield, it was through strategic "hoshi-goroshi" that victory was decided—the Miki Campaign is an excellent example of how the battles of the Sengoku period simultaneously lived through both "the age of the blade" and "the age of strategy."

Bessho Nagatoki's Death Poem and Bushidō—The Blade Linking Lord and Retainer

Bessho Nagatoki's death poem—"Now I harbor no resentment, thinking of myself as ransom for the lives of all my men"—is a celebrated verse that condenses deep affection for his castle garrison and pride as a warrior and is particularly highly valued among the utterances of Sengoku daimyo. The scene of Nagatoki's self-immolation following this death poem demonstrates one of the purest roles that the blade played as the "soul of a samurai."

The spiritual pillar that sustained the Miki Castle warriors through more than two years of siege was this "loyalty to one's lord" and "bond with one's companions." For the samurai, the blade was not merely a weapon but a symbol of his pride and loyalty. The final blade that Bessho Nagatoki grasped was inscribed in history as "payment in blood by the sword" for the comrades who survived the two-year siege.

The Miki Campaign's Legacy to Later Generations—The Strategic Lessons of Supply Blockade

The hoshi-goroshi tactics of the Miki Campaign became an important lesson in the later military history of Japan. This strategy of compelling enemy surrender without the massive sacrifices of direct assault was inherited by Hideyoshi's successor Tokugawa Ieyasu and influenced siege doctrine of the Edo period. While courageous single combat and close-quarters warfare wielding the blade are spoken of as heroic acts, the Miki Campaign demonstrated the victory of strategy—"winning without drawing the blade." This coexistence of two aspects—the direct power of the blade and the power of stratagem that does not employ the blade—is the true nature of battles in the Sengoku period.

Miki Castle Ruins and the Present Day—The Inheritance of Harima's Bushidō Culture

At present, Miki Castle ruins have been preserved at Kami-no-Maru in Miki City, Hyōgo Prefecture, and a stone monument engraved with Bessho Nagatoki's death poem has also been erected. Each year, Miki City holds the "Miki Campaign Festival," in which citizens dressed as Bessho Nagatoki and Hideyoshi's forces reenact the battles of old.

The name Miki has come to be known nationwide as "Miki no Hoshi-goroshi" and has become an important part of Harima region's historical identity. Bessho Nagatoki is still cherished locally as "a kind daimyo who cared for his people," and his death poem is passed down as the symbol of Harima's bushidō spirit. For sword enthusiasts, Miki Castle ruins have also become a sacred historical site where they visit while imagining "the blade that Bessho Nagatoki grasped in his final moments" and a base for exploring Harima's sword culture. The path Nagatoki chose—to prioritize the lives of his castle garrison and end his own life by blade—is the ultimate embodiment of the spirit of "self-sacrifice for others" at the heart of bushidō, and for that reason, Miki Castle continues to move the hearts of many people today. The Miki Campaign, transcending a mere siege battle, is inscribed in the history of the Japanese sword as one of the battles that most clearly demonstrated the profound meaning that the blade holds as the "symbol of a samurai's soul."