The Miki Campaign (Miki no Hoshi-goroshi)

From Tenshō 6 (1578) to Tenshō 8 (1580), the Miki Campaign was fought at Miki Castle in Harima Province (present-day Miki, Hyōgo Prefecture). It is one of the most famous siege campaigns of the Sengoku period, where the strategic genius of Hashiba Hideyoshi met the tragic last stand of Bessho Nagaharu. The nearly two-year "hoshigoroshi" (starving out), which cuts off food supplies to starve the enemy to death, a form of hyōrōzeme (siege by starvation), has been passed down through the ages as Hideyoshi's signature tactic.

Bessho Nagaharu's Rebellion: Ripples of the Nobunaga Encirclement Network in Harima

Bessho Nagaharu was a powerful local lord (kokujin) of Harima Province. Initially he accepted submission to Oda Nobunaga and cooperated with Hashiba Hideyoshi's pacification of Harima. However, in the 2nd month of Tenshō 6 (1578), Nagaharu suddenly turned against Nobunaga.

There are several theories about the reason. The most prominent holds that Nagaharu gave priority to an alliance with the Mōri clan. At the time, the Mōri clan had allied with Ishiyama Hongan-ji and was in fierce conflict with Nobunaga, and Nagaharu may have judged that "the Mōri and Hongan-ji have more future prospects than Nobunaga." It is also said that hardline faction leaders, including Nagaharu's uncle Bessho Yoshichika (Yoshisuke), drove Nagaharu to act.

Miki Castle was a formidable stronghold located at a key point in Harima Province, and Nagaharu's decision had the potential to overturn the submission of all of Harima Province to the Oda side. Hideyoshi regarded this as a matter to be suppressed with top priority and devoted all his strength to the conquest of Miki Castle.

Hashiba Hideyoshi's "Hoshigoroshi" Tactic: A Long Encirclement Born of Strategy

Hideyoshi's strategy in the Miki Campaign was hyōrōzeme (siege by starvation), avoiding a frontal assault on the castle as much as possible. Hideyoshi completely surrounded Miki Castle and cut off every route by which food and supplies could be brought in.

Hideyoshi set up his main camp at Hiraiyama, northeast of Miki Castle, and built numerous tsukejiro (siege forts) around the castle to complete the encirclement. The sea supply route from the Mōri and the supply lines from Settsu were also cut off one after another, leaving Miki Castle isolated. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi's retainer Kuroda Kanbei was confined in Araki Murashige's Arioka Castle from the 10th month of Tenshō 6 (1578) until the 11th month of the following year, so he took no part in most of the siege.

Over the nearly two-year siege, food within Miki Castle ran out, and the castle's soldiers and the townspeople suffered from extreme hunger. The harshness of this siege by starvation was passed down to later generations to such an extent that the phrase "Miki no hoshigoroshi" remains in the land of Harima.

Bessho Nagaharu's Seppuku: The Lord's Resolve and the Sword

On the 17th day of the 1st month of Tenshō 8 (1580), Miki Castle finally reached the moment of surrender.

Bessho Nagaharu offered to give up his own life to Hideyoshi, on the condition that the surviving castle soldiers be spared. Hideyoshi accepted, and Nagaharu composed a death poem and took his own life with a blade.

The death poem of Nagaharu, "Now I hold no grudge at all, for I think of my life as given in exchange for the lives of many," shows the resolve of a lord who exchanged his own death for the lives of the castle's soldiers, and it is highly valued by later generations as a crystallization of the aesthetics of the samurai way. His younger brother Bessho Tomoyuki also took his own life together with him. His uncle Bessho Yoshichika reversed his decision to commit seppuku, tried to set fire to the castle, and was slain by his retainers. The chief retainer Miyake Harutada, who had performed the kaishaku (second), also followed his lord in death, and Miki Castle fell.

Self-inflicted death by blade, seppuku, was regarded as the most honorable end for a samurai. Bessho Nagaharu's seppuku was an act in which love for the castle's soldiers and a samurai's pride became one, and it conveys the Miki Campaign to posterity as a human drama that goes beyond a mere siege.

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

Harima Province (present-day southwestern Hyōgo Prefecture), the stage of the Miki Campaign, borders Bizen Province (present-day eastern Okayama Prefecture), a renowned sword-producing region. Bizen blades, led by Bizen Osafune, were the highest-quality swords most familiar to the warlords of Harima, and it is thought that Bizen blades were widely used in both the camp of Bessho Nagaharu and the camp of Hashiba Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi himself had a keen interest in collecting and appreciating swords, and he later collected masterpieces such as the Taikō Samonji and the Sōza Samonji, which have been passed down as famous swords of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The Miki Campaign was an important step on Hideyoshi's path to national unification. This victory led to the complete subjugation of Harima Province and to the establishment of Hideyoshi's style of siege warfare, which continued with the "starving of Tottori" at Tottori Castle (1581) and the water siege at Bitchū Takamatsu Castle (1582). Although swords played the leading role on the battlefield, battles were decided by strategic "hoshigoroshi." The Miki Campaign is a fine example of how Sengoku-period battles lived simultaneously in both the age of the sword and the age of strategy.

Bessho Nagaharu's Death Poem and Bushidō: The Bond Between Lord and Retainers Tied by Swords

Bessho Nagaharu's death poem is highly regarded even among the words of Sengoku warlords, as a celebrated verse condensing deep love for the castle's soldiers and a samurai's pride. The scene in which Nagaharu took his own life after composing this poem shows one of the purest roles that the sword played as the "soul of the samurai."

The spiritual pillar that kept the warriors of Miki Castle holding out for nearly two years was their "loyalty to their lord" and their "bonds with their comrades." For the samurai, the sword was not merely a weapon but a symbol of their pride and loyalty. The one blade Bessho Nagaharu held at the end has been recorded in history as a "ransom paid with a sword" to the comrades who survived the two-year siege.

Later Influence of the Miki Campaign: Strategic Lessons of the Siege by Starvation

The "hoshigoroshi" tactic of the Miki Campaign became an important lesson in Japan's later military history as well. This strategy, which forced the enemy to surrender without great sacrifices in a direct attack, was used repeatedly in Hideyoshi's later sieges. Heroic single combat and close-quarters fighting with swords are told as acts of valor, but what the Miki Campaign showed was victory through strategy: "winning without drawing a sword." The coexistence of these two aspects, the direct power of the sword and the power of strategy that does not use the sword, was the true face of Sengoku-period warfare.

Miki Castle Ruins and the Present: Passing On Harima's Samurai Spirit

Today, the Miki Castle ruins have been developed at Kaminomaru, Miki City, Hyōgo Prefecture, and a stone monument inscribed with Bessho Nagaharu's death poem has also been erected there. Every year on May 5, Miki City holds the Bessho-kō Haru Matsuri (Lord Bessho Spring Festival), which includes a memorial ceremony at the poem stone and a warrior procession.

The place name Miki has become known throughout Japan as "Miki no hoshigoroshi," and it has become an important part of the historical identity of the Harima region. Locally, Bessho Nagaharu is still loved as "a gentle warrior who cared for the people," and his death poem is passed down as a symbol of the samurai spirit of Harima. For sword enthusiasts, the Miki Castle ruins are a historic sacred site to visit while imagining the sword Bessho Nagaharu held at the end, and a base for exploring Harima's sword culture. The path Nagaharu chose, putting the lives of the castle's soldiers first and taking his own life with a blade, is the ultimate embodiment of "self-sacrifice for others," the spirit at the heart of bushidō. That is why Miki Castle still moves the hearts of many people today. Going beyond a mere siege, the Miki Campaign is one of the battles that most vividly showed the profound meaning swords held as the "soul" symbol of the samurai, and it is eternally inscribed in the history of the Japanese sword.