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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
296 events
8th month, Tenshō 1 (1573)
In the 8th month of Tenshō 1 (1573), Asakura Yoshikage abandoned his main castle, Ichijodani Castle, and fled after Oda Nobunaga's fierce pursuit. The Asakura clan, which had enjoyed a century of prosperity, was destroyed within just a few days.
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April 25, 1581 (22nd day, 3rd month, Tenshō 9)
On the 22nd day of the 3rd month of Tenshō 9 (April 25, 1581), Takatenjin Castle in Tōtōmi Province (present-day Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture) fell to Tokugawa forces. Takeda Katsuyori was unable to send relief to the besieged garrison, and the castle commander Okabe Motonobu and many of his men were killed. The Takeda retainers' disillusionment with Katsuyori, who had failed to hold Takatenjin, became decisive, making this tragic siege the turning point toward the fall of the Takeda clan the following year.
9th month, Tenshō 9 (1581)
In the 9th month of Tenshō 9 (1581), Oda Nobunaga appointed his second son, Nobukatsu, as commander-in-chief and invaded Iga Province with an army of more than 40,000 men. It was the "Second Tenshō Iga War," ordered by Nobunaga to avenge the failure of the first invasion two years earlier (Tenshō 7). Iga, known as the home of the shinobi, attempted organized resistance, but in the face of overwhelming numerical superiority it was destroyed within a few days. This battle is a rare historical case in which the sword culture of the samurai directly collided with the culture of ninja concealed weapons and daggers.
Tenshō 9 – Tenshō 13 (1581–1585)
Sassa Narimasa, a commander of the Oda house, entered Toyama Castle in 1581 and the following year was given charge of all of Etchū Province, fighting the Uesugi at Uozu and elsewhere. After the Honnō-ji Incident he sided with Shibata Katsuie and later with Tokugawa Ieyasu against Hashiba Hideyoshi, and in the 8th month of Tenshō 13 (1585) he surrendered when Hideyoshi's great army surrounded Toyama Castle (the Toyama Campaign).
6th month, Tenshō 7 (1579)
In the 6th month of Tenshō 7 (1579), Akechi Mitsuhide brought down the impregnable Yagami Castle (present-day Tanba-Sasayama City, Hyōgo Prefecture) during his campaign to subdue Tanba, which had lasted several years. Castellan Hatano Hideharu and his brothers were executed on Nobunaga's orders. After the capture of Kuroi Castle in the 8th month of the same year, all of Tanba Province came under Mitsuhide's control. Mitsuhide's governance of Tanba is also closely tied to legends surrounding the later Honnō-ji Incident.
April 19, 1578 (Tenshō 6, 3rd month, 13th day)
In 1578, just before departing on a planned campaign into the Kantō region, the celebrated Echigo commander Uesugi Kenshin died suddenly at his stronghold of Kasugayama Castle at age 49. Having never designated an heir, his death triggered the Otate no Ran succession war between his adopted sons Kagekatsu and Kagetora, severely weakening Echigo’s regional power.
3rd month, Tenshō 6 (1578) – 1st month, Tenshō 8 (1580)
From Tenshō 6 to 8 (1578–1580), Hashiba Hideyoshi besieged Miki Castle in Harima Province (present-day Miki City, Hyōgo Prefecture), held by Bessho Nagaharu, with a starvation blockade lasting two years. The campaign became synonymous with Hideyoshi's "hoshigoroshi" (starving-out) tactic, and Bessho Nagaharu took his own life to save his garrison. The resolve of a lord who cared for his soldiers, and his end by the blade, are remembered as one of the great scenes of history.
3rd month, Tenshō 6 (1578) – 3rd month, Tenshō 7 (1579)
Triggered by the sudden death of Uesugi Kenshin, ruler of Echigo Province, in Tenshō 6 (1578), a succession dispute broke out within the Uesugi family between Kenshin's adopted sons Kagekatsu (Nagao Akikage) and Kagetora (Hōjō Saburō). The civil war, which split Echigo in two, lasted about two years and ended with Kagekatsu's victory.
December 10, 1578 (Tenshō 6/11/12)
In the 11th month of Tenshō 6 (1578), the Shimazu army led by Shimazu Yoshihisa crushed the large army of Otomo Sorin in Hyuga Province (present-day Miyazaki Prefecture). It is also called the Battle of the Takajō River after the site of the decisive fighting. The Otomo army was destroyed by the Shimazu "tsuri-nobuse" tactic, and many drowned in the Mimikawa River during the rout. A major turning point in the "Three Kingdoms of Kyushu" struggle, it opened the way to the decline of the Otomo and the Shimazu domination of Kyushu.
21st day of the 10th month of Tenshō 6 (1578) – 9th month of Tenshō 7 (1579)
In the 10th month of Tenshō 6 (1578), Araki Murashige, a senior vassal of Oda Nobunaga, suddenly rebelled and holed up in Itami Castle in Settsu Province (present-day Itami, Hyōgo Prefecture). He kept refusing Nobunaga's repeated demands for surrender, and in the 9th month of Tenshō 7 (1579) he escaped from the castle and disappeared. Afterward, more than 600 of his wife, children, and retainers were executed. The true reason for the rebellion remains shrouded in mystery, and it is still passed down as one of the most puzzling betrayals in Japanese history.
November 3, 1577 (23rd day, 9th month, Tenshō 5)
In the 9th month of Tenshō 5 (1577), Uesugi Kenshin's forces reportedly pursued Oda Nobunaga's retreating great army and inflicted heavy losses at the Tedorigawa River (present-day Ishikawa Prefecture). Known as the great victory of Kenshin's final years, it displayed the martial power of the "Dragon of Echigo" to the country. However, Kenshin's sudden death the following year turned the victory into a "what if" of history.
10th month, Tenshō 5 (1577)
In the 10th month of Tenshō 5 (1577), at Shigisan Castle in Yamato Province (present-day Heguri Town, Nara Prefecture), Matsunaga Hisahide was surrounded by the forces of Oda Nobunaga and his son Nobutada, set fire to the main keep, and took his own life. Hisahide's figure, who met a dramatic end after smashing the famous tea kettle 'Hiragumo,' has been handed down to later generations as 'the pride of a scheming general.'
Tenshō 5–6 (1577–1578)
In 1578, a Mōri army besieged Kōzuki Castle, held by Amago Katsuhisa and Yamanaka Yukimori (Shikanosuke) in an attempt to restore the Amago clan. Oda Nobunaga ordered Hashiba Hideyoshi to abandon relief efforts; Katsuhisa took his own life and Yukimori was assassinated in custody, ending the Amago restoration movement.
August 7, 1576 (Tenshō 4/7/13) / December 4, 1578 (Tenshō 6/11/6)
A naval battle fought on two occasions, in Tenshō 4 (1576) and Tenshō 6 (1578), off Kizugawaguchi (the mouth of the Kizu River) in Settsu (present-day Osaka City). Nobunaga's navy, which sought to block the Mōri navy's transport of provisions, suffered a devastating defeat in the first battle. In the second, it repulsed the Mōri navy with great ships called tekkōsen (iron-clad ships) that Kuki Yoshitaka had built, and which are said to have been equipped with iron armor.
7th day of the 5th month, Tenshō 4 (June 3, 1576)
In the 5th month of Tenshō 4 (1576), during the Ishiyama War, Oda Nobunaga attacked and defeated the Hongan-ji forces that were besieging the Tennōji fort in Osaka. In this fierce battle Nobunaga himself was wounded by a musket ball, yet he turned the tide.
1st month, Tenshō 4 (1576): construction begins – 5th month, Tenshō 7 (1579): main keep completed
In the 1st month of Tenshō 4 (1576), Oda Nobunaga appointed Niwa Nagahide as general construction magistrate and began building a new stronghold on Mt. Azuchi beside Lake Biwa. In the 5th month of Tenshō 7 (1579), a magnificent seven-story tenshu was completed and Nobunaga himself moved in. Combining an all-stone rampart, painted interiors by Kanō Eitoku, and a free-market castle town, Azuchi Castle concentrated a series of innovations that overturned the conventions of Japanese castle architecture. Though it burned soon after the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582, its design left a decisive imprint on all castle-building that followed.
11th month, Tenshō 4 (1576) – 9th month, Tenshō 5 (1577)
A siege in which Uesugi Kenshin surrounded and captured Nanao Castle (present-day Nanao City, Ishikawa Prefecture), the stronghold of Noto Province, from the 11th month of Tenshō 4 (1576) to the 9th month of Tenshō 5 (1577). After a siege of nearly a year, Kenshin brought down Nanao Castle through an epidemic within the castle and the betrayal of insiders, and pacified most of Noto Province. The fall of Nanao Castle came just before Kenshin defeated Oda Nobunaga's forces at the Battle of Tedorigawa, and the siege marks the high point of Kenshin's conquest of the Hokuriku region.
June 29, 1575 (21st day, 5th month, Tenshō 3)
On the 21st day of the 5th month of Tenshō 3 (1575), at Nagashino in Mikawa Province (present-day Shinshiro City, Aichi Prefecture), the allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu inflicted a crushing defeat on the army of Takeda Katsuyori. Nobunaga is said to have used organized three-rank volley fire with matchlock arquebuses, and the battle stands as a symbol of the 'age of the matchlock arquebus' that brought a tactical revolution to Sengoku-period warfare.
Winter, Tenshō 2 (1574) – 6th month, Tenshō 3 (1575)
From 1574 to 1575, Mimura Motochika, lord of Bitchū Province, rebelled against the Mōri and was destroyed by the allied Mōri-Ukita forces. The fall of Bicchū-Matsuyama Castle brought Bitchū Province fully under Mōri control.
28th day of 2nd month, Tenshō 19 (1591)
The master of wabi-cha, Sen no Rikyū, was forced to commit seppuku by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. This incident illuminates the dark underbelly of Azuchi-Momoyama culture, where the Way of Tea intersected with the way of the sword.
8th–9th month, Tenshō 19 (1591)
In 1591, Kunohe Masazane — a senior retainer of the Nanbu clan — rebelled against Toyotomi Hideyoshi's unification from Kunohe Castle in Mutsu Province. A massive Toyotomi army, with Toyotomi Hidetsugu as commander-in-chief and led by Gamō Ujisato, Asano Nagamasa, and others, was dispatched to Ōshū. After a siege, the castle fell and Masazane was executed. It stands as one of the last armed rebellions against Hideyoshi's completed hegemony.
7th–8th month, Tenshō 18 (1590)
In the 7th and 8th months of Tenshō 18 (1590), immediately after the fall of Odawara, Toyotomi Hideyoshi reorganized the domains of the Ōshū (Tōhoku) daimyō. Date Masamune, who had arrived late to Odawara, was heavily reduced, while the dispossessed former territories of the Ōsaki and Kasai clans erupted into a major uprising, marking the final stage of Hideyoshi's unification of Japan.
July 24, 1590 (Tenshō 18, 6th month, 23rd day)
In 1590, during the Siege of Odawara, a Toyotomi detachment of roughly 15,000 under Uesugi Kagekatsu and Maeda Toshiie stormed Hachiōji Castle, the stronghold of Hōjō Ujiteru. With Ujiteru away defending Odawara, a garrison of some 3,000 held out under his deputy but the castle fell in a single day.
6th–7th month of Tenshō 18 (1590)
The Siege of Oshi Castle was a defensive siege in Tenshō 18 (1590), during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Odawara campaign, in which Ishida Mitsunari attempted to capture Oshi Castle in Musashi Province (present-day Gyōda City, Saitama Prefecture) by water siege. About 500 defenders, led by castle warden Narita Yasusue and later by commander-in-chief Narita Nagachika, and supported by Masaki Toshihide and Kai-hime, withstood the fierce assault of Mitsunari's army of tens of thousands and the water siege by the Ishida Embankment (Ishida-zutsumi), and the castle never fell. Oshi Castle, which continued to fight in isolation even after the surrender of Odawara Castle, is called the 'Floating Castle' (Ukishiro) and is renowned as one of the three great water sieges of Japan.