Shibata Katsuie

Life and Origins

Shibata Katsuie (birth year debated, with theories including 1522; died 1583) was a senior retainer of the Oda house, born in Owari Province. He first served Nobunaga's younger brother Oda Nobukatsu (Nobuyuki), fighting on Nobukatsu's side against Nobunaga at the Battle of Ino, but later returned to Nobunaga's service and thereafter carried great weight as a leading elder of the house. Renowned for his ferocity, he was feared under the names "Demon Shibata" and "Charging Shibata."

Commander of the Hokuriku Army

As commanding general of the Oda's Hokuriku army, Katsuie led the suppression of the Ikko-ikki in Echizen and Kaga and confronted the Uesugi clan. Granted Echizen around 1575, he built Kitanosho Castle (in present-day Fukui City) as his base, showing skill in developing the castle town and governing the province as the linchpin of Oda rule in the north.

Katsuie also bears the nickname "Jar-Breaker Shibata" (Kamewari Shibata). In 1570, when he was besieged and cut off from water at Chokoji Castle in Omi by the army of Rokkaku Yoshikata, he is said to have served the last of the water to his troops and then smashed the water jars — cutting off all retreat to steel their resolve for a desperate sortie that broke the siege. (This is a tale of breaking water jars, not a feat of the sword.)

The Battle of Shizugatake and His End

After the Honno-ji Incident of 1582, Katsuie contested leadership of the Oda house with Hashiba Hideyoshi at the Kiyosu Conference. He married Nobunaga's sister Oichi to cement his position, but conflict with Hideyoshi proved unavoidable, and he was defeated at the Battle of Shizugatake in 1583. Withdrawing to Kitanosho Castle, Katsuie took his own life together with Oichi on the 24th day of the fourth month of that year. Oichi is said to have first sent her three daughters (Chacha, Hatsu, and Go) safely out of the castle before sharing Katsuie's fate. This end is widely known as an emblem of a Sengoku warrior's resolve.

Swords and Arms

A noted blade associated with Katsuie is the "Nikkari Aoe," a large wakizashi by Aoe Sadatsugu of the Bitchu Aoe school of the Nanbokucho period (an Important Art Object). Its name derives from a legend in which a warrior cut down a smiling female ghost on a night road, only to find the next morning that he had cleaved a stone pagoda in two. Owned by Katsuie, it passed through his son Katsutoshi to Niwa Nagahide, was presented to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and finally descended to the Kyogoku family of Marugame in Sanuki — a blade steeped in legend, befitting a warrior of Katsuie's ferocity. Sword forging continued in Echizen under Katsuie's rule, and one senses in it the temperament of a martial commander who prized blades fit for real combat.

Legacy

Katsuie is inscribed in history as a peerlessly loyal and valiant veteran retainer, and as the power who divided the post-Nobunaga Oda house with Hideyoshi. His tragic end with Oichi has been retold again and again in later tales and performing arts, conveying an image of a warrior both stout of heart and deep in feeling. Shibata Shrine, on the site of Kitanosho Castle, still enshrines Katsuie and his wife and is revered by the people of Fukui.