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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
132 events
9th month of Tenbun 9 (1540) – 1st month of Tenbun 10 (1541)
In autumn 1540, at Kōriyama Castle in Aki Province (present-day Akitakata City, Hiroshima Prefecture), Mōri Motonari repulsed a massive invasion by Amako Haruhisa of Izumo Province. Vastly outnumbered, Mōri's defense and counterattacks forced the Amako withdrawal, marking the turning point in Mōri's rise to dominate the Chūgoku region.
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the 7th day of the 10th month of Tenbun 7 (October 29, 1538)
A 1538 battle at Kōnodai in Shimōsa Province between the allied forces of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, head of the Koyumi Kubō, and Satomi Yoshitaka against Hōjō Ujitsuna and his son Ujiyasu of the Later Hōjō. Yoshiaki's death in battle ended the Koyumi Kubō line and opened the way for Hōjō expansion into Shimōsa.
7th month, Tenbun 5 (1536)
In the 7th month of Tenbun 5 (1536), warrior-monks of Enryaku-ji on Mt. Hiei, backed by Rokkaku Sadayori's forces, burned all twenty-one Hokke (Nichiren) temple compounds in Kyoto. The resulting destruction surpassed even the Ōnin War, and the Hokke faithful were expelled from the capital for six years — a vivid example of the interplay between religion, armed force, and daimyo power in the Sengoku age.
Imagawa Ujiteru and Hikogorō died suddenly on the 17th day of the 3rd month of Tenbun 5 (April 7, 1536); the conflict ended with Etan's suicide on the 10th day of the 6th month (June 28, 1536)
In 1536, the sudden deaths of Imagawa Ujiteru and his brother Hikogorō triggered a succession struggle within the Imagawa clan. Forces backing Senkaku Shōhō (the future Imagawa Yoshimoto) fought those backing Genkō Etan across Suruga Province; the fall of Hanakura Castle and Etan's suicide left Yoshimoto as head of the clan.
A series of incidents from 1535 (Tenbun 4) to c. 1579 (Tenshō 7)
Blades by the Muramasa school of Ise-Kuwana became associated with a chain of wounds and deaths said to have befallen four generations of the Tokugawa house—Kiyoyasu, Hirotada, Ieyasu, and Nobuyasu—giving rise during the Edo period to the legend of the "sword that curses the Tokugawa." The blades’ genuine reputation for sharpness and their wide circulation in the Tōkai region likely underlie the legend’s formation.
October 16, 1555 (Tenbun 24/10/1)
In the 10th month of Tenbun 24 (1555), Mōri Motonari of Aki defeated the great army of Sue Harukata, which had landed on the sacred island of Itsukushima in the Seto Inland Sea. He did so with a small force, using unorthodox tactics and naval power. This strategic victory set Motonari, known for the “Lesson of the Three Arrows,” on the path to hegemony over the Chūgoku region.
9th month, 1st day, Tenbun 20 (September 30, 1551)
In Tenbun 20 (1551), Sue Harukata, a senior retainer of the Ouchi clan, rebelled and drove Ouchi Yoshitaka, the great cultural patron of western Japan, to take his own life at Daineiji temple in Nagato. With the fall of the Ouchi, who had carried on the Japan–Ming trade, the official kangō (tally) trade also came to an end.
From the 9th day of the 9th month through the 1st day of the 10th month of Tenbun 19 (1550)
A battle fought from the 9th to the 10th month of Tenbun 19 (1550) between Takeda Harunobu (Shingen) and Murakami Yoshikiyo over Toishi Castle in the Chiisagata district of Shinano Province. The failed Takeda assault turned into a disastrous retreat that cost roughly 1,000 casualties and the life of the senior retainer Yokota Takamatsu, in what is known as Shingen's second major defeat, after the Battle of Uedahara. The following year, Sanada Yukitaka took the castle for the Takeda without a fight through stratagem.
Tenbun 18 (1549)
Miyoshi Nagayoshi defeated Hosokawa Harumoto at the Battle of Eguchi and gained mastery of the Kinai. Establishing a power that surpassed the Muromachi shogun, he became the first Sengoku hegemon to realize the status of tenkabito (ruler of the realm), before Nobunaga.
19th day of the 3rd month, Tenbun 17 (1548)
On the 19th day of the 3rd month of Tenbun 17 (1548), a battle was fought at Azukizaka in Nukata District, Mikawa Province (present-day Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture). Oda Nobuhide of Owari clashed with Imagawa Yoshimoto, who governed Suruga and Tōtōmi, and whose army was led by Taigen Sessai. It took place amid a contest between the Oda clan of Owari and the Imagawa clan of Suruga over Mikawa, with Matsudaira Hirotada, lord of Okazaki Castle, caught in between. The Imagawa victory strengthened Imagawa dominance in Mikawa. The two sides are said to have fought at the same location twice, and the 1548 battle is also called the “Second Battle of Azukizaka.”
2nd month, Tenbun 17 (1548)
The Battle of Uedahara was fought in the 2nd month of Tenbun 17 (1548) at Uedahara in Chiisagata District, Shinano Province (present-day Ueda, Nagano Prefecture), where Takeda Shingen and Murakami Yoshikiyo clashed. The Takeda army suffered a severe defeat, and Shingen himself was wounded in two places, an unusually hard-fought ordeal. For the Takeda army, which lost two senior retainers, Itagaki Nobukata and Amari Torayasu, it is remembered as one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of the Sengoku period.
22nd day of the 9th month, Tenbun 16 (1547; the year is disputed)
On the 22nd day of the 9th month of Tenbun 16 (November 4, 1547), Oda Nobuhide of Owari invaded Mino and burned the castle town below Inabayama, only to be routed by a counterattack led by Saito Dosan at Kanoguchi, according to the common account. The two houses are said to have made peace afterward, leading to the marriage of Nobuhide's heir Nobunaga and Dosan's daughter Kicho (Nohime). The year is disputed: a 1544 (Tenbun 13) theory and a multiple-clashes theory also exist, and the 1547 dating is used here as the standard account.
May 19, 1546 (20th day, 4th month, Tenbun 15)
In Tenbun 15 (1546), Hōjō Ujiyasu reportedly carried out a night surprise attack with only 8,000 troops against a besieging force that war chronicles put at 80,000. It was the largest surprise battle in Kantō. Amid a three-way struggle among the Hōjō, Uesugi and Ashikaga, Ujiyasu's bold strategy destroyed the combined army of Uesugi Tomosada and Ashikaga Haruuji and established Hōjō supremacy in Kantō.
September 23, 1543 (Tenbun 12, 8th month, 25th day)
In 1543, Portuguese traders aboard a Chinese junk were shipwrecked on Tanegashima island (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture), bringing the first matchlock firearms to Japan. Lord Tanegashima Tokitaka purchased two guns, and the local swordsmith Yaita Kinbei and others succeeded in making domestic copies in a short time. The rapid spread of firearms fundamentally transformed Sengoku-era warfare, culminating in Oda Nobunaga's organized deployment of arquebusiers at the Battle of Nagashino (1575). The arrival of firearms marked a turning point from the age of individual sword-wielding valor to massed infantry and ranged weaponry.
6th month, Tenbun 11 (1542) – 9th month, Tenbun 17 (1548)
From 1542 to 1548, Date clan head Date Tanemune and his son and heir Harumune clashed over succession and foreign alliance policy, escalating into a six-year war that split the daimyo of the Ōu region into two camps. Mediation by shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru brought peace; Harumune relocated the clan's base to Yonezawa Castle and reorganized its rule, laying the groundwork for Date Masamune's later unification of Ōshū.
Tenbun 10 – Kōji 2 (1541–1556)
The rise of Saitō Dōsan (Toshimasa), a retainer of the Toki family, the shugo (military governor) of Mino Province, who took control of Mino by driving out the shugo Toki Yorinori, until he was killed by his son Yoshitatsu in 1556. The story of an oil merchant who seized a province in a single lifetime comes from Edo-period war chronicles and similar works; today the takeover is generally seen as the work of two generations, Dōsan and his father Nagai Shinzaemon-no-jō.
July 30, 1570 (Genki 1, 6th month, 28th day)
In the 6th month of Genki 1 (1570), the allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu clashed with those of Azai Nagamasa and Asakura Yoshikage in a pitched battle at the banks of the Anegawa River in Ōmi Province. The fierce efforts of Tokugawa Ieyasu's retainer Sakakibara Yasumasa and others turned the tide of battle, and the Oda-Tokugawa forces achieved victory. This battle accelerated the collapse of the Azai-Asakura alliance.
4th month, Genki 1 (1570)
In the 4th month of Genki 1 (1570), at Kanegasaki Castle in Tsuruga, Echizen Province (now Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture), Oda Nobunaga was invading Echizen to subdue Asakura Yoshikage when the sudden betrayal of his ally Azai Nagamasa put him at risk of being caught between two enemy forces. He broke through in a withdrawal battle, leaving Kinoshita Hideyoshi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi) behind as rear guard. The Kanegasaki no Nokikuchi (the Kanegasaki withdrawal), in which Hideyoshi is said to have gained a foothold toward becoming ruler of the realm, is remembered as one of the finest withdrawals of the Sengoku period.
9th–12th month, Genki 1 (1570)
From the 9th to the 12th month of Genki 1 (1570), the combined forces of Asai Nagamasa and Asakura Yoshikage took refuge on Mt. Hiei together with Enryaku-ji and faced off against Nobunaga in the Siege of Shiga. Nobunaga was forced to accept a humiliating peace brokered by the imperial court, but the standoff became a turning point that hardened his resolve to burn Mt. Hiei the following year.
20th day of the 8th month, Genki 1 (1570)
In the 8th month of Genki 1 (1570), during the Battle of Imayama, the great army of Ōtomo Sōrin besieged Saga Castle (Sagajō; the site of the later Saga Castle), the stronghold of Ryūzōji Takanobu. Nabeshima Nobunari (later Naoshige), a senior retainer of the Ryūzōji clan, carried out a night raid and killed Ōtomo Chikasada, the commander of the siege. Although it was a localized victory, it set the Ryūzōji clan on the path to dominance over Hizen and marked a turning point in the Sengoku history of Kyushu.
1570–1574 CE (Genki 1 – Tenshō 2)
An armed uprising by Ikko sect (Jodo Shinshu) followers that erupted in Nagashima, Ise Province (present-day Kuwana City, Mie Prefecture) from Genki 1 (1570) through Tensho 2 (1574). Oda Nobunaga launched three campaigns against Nagashima, finally suppressing it in the Third Campaign (1574). However, the mass massacre of surrendered followers that occurred during this final campaign became an iconic example of Nobunaga's ruthless warfare that was passed down to posterity.
1570–1580 (Genki 1 – Tenshō 8)
From 1570 to 1580, the Ishiyama Hongan-ji — the headquarters of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism on the site of present-day Osaka Castle — resisted Oda Nobunaga's forces for nearly a decade. The fortress-temple's armed adherents (ikki) held out against repeated assaults and naval blockades until an imperial-mediated truce ended the conflict. The longest siege of the Sengoku period.
May 13, 1573 (Genki 4, 4th month, 12th day)
In 1573, Takeda Shingen, the daimyo of Kai who was advancing toward Kyoto in the Saikō Campaign after crushing Tokugawa Ieyasu at Mikatagahara, fell fatally ill during the siege of Noda Castle and died at Komaba in Shinano Province at age 53 while retreating to Kai. His death collapsed the anti-Oda coalition and set the stage for the Takeda clan's later defeat at Nagashino and eventual destruction.
Genki 4 (Tenshō 1), 1573, 7th month 18th day (old calendar)
The 1573 clash in which Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki raised troops again against Oda Nobunaga at Makishima Castle in Uji, Yamashiro, surrendered after the attack of the 18th day of the 7th month, and was expelled from Kyoto. This article follows the dates through the breakdown of the relationship between Nobunaga and Yoshiaki five years after the march on Kyoto, and explains why the Muromachi shogunate is regarded as having effectively ended.