Nishina Morinobu

Nishina Morinobu (1557-1582) was a samurai warrior born as the fifth son of Takeda Shingen, who went on to succeed the Nishina clan of Shinshū (Shinano Province). In Tenshō 10 (1582), during the Takeda Conquest, when the vast armies of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu marched against the Takeda, he held out in Takatō Castle (present-day Ina City, Nagano Prefecture) and met a fierce end. His solitary fighting spirit is still passed down as a symbol of Takeda bushidō.

Morinobu was born as the fifth son of Takeda Shingen and succeeded to the Nishina clan, whose base was Azumi District in Shinano Province (around present-day Ōmachi City, Nagano Prefecture). (Some traditions say he was adopted as a son-in-law of Nishina Morimasa, but other theories also exist.) As head of the Nishina clan, he led the local lords of Azumi District and took charge of duties such as guarding the border with Echigo. In the time of his older half-brother Takeda Katsuyori, he moved into Nechi Castle in Echigo in Tenshō 8 (1580), and in Tenshō 9 (1581) he also held Takatō Castle.

In the 2nd month of Tenshō 10 (1582), Oda Nobunaga dispatched a great army to conquer the Takeda. As the Takeda castles fell one after another, Morinobu chose to hold out at Takatō Castle and fight to the end. Takatō Castle had only about 3,000 defenders, while the army of Oda Nobutada that closed in on it is said to have numbered 50,000. In the siege on the 2nd day of the 3rd month, Takatō Castle fell, and Morinobu took his own life inside the castle. He was aged 26 (by traditional count). His battle is regarded as the embodiment of the Takeda samurai spirit and is passed down to later generations as the "Battle of Takatō Castle."

Morinobu's head was delivered to Oda Nobutada, and later, in Kyoto, it was displayed on a gibbet together with the heads of Takeda Katsuyori and others. However, it is said that local people, who revered Morinobu, reverently buried his body. In the late Edo period, in Tenpō 2 (1831), Naitō Yoriyasu, lord of Takatō Domain, enshrined Morinobu within Takatō Castle as a guardian deity, Shinjō-shin. He is also named in the fifth verse of "Shinano no Kuni," the Nagano prefectural song, as a figure connected with Shinshū.