BATTLES
Battles
Battles you can follow phase by phase on the map. Dates are given in the Western calendar (Julian before 1582).
Hatakeyama Yoshinari attacked Hatakeyama Masanaga at Kamigoryō Shrine, opening the conflict.
Both armies fought fiercely and Shōkoku-ji burned, but neither side won decisively.
Eastern commander Honekawa Dōken was killed and Fushimi Inari Shrine burned.
Ise Sōzui (Hōjō Sōun) attacked the Horigoe palace, expelled Ashikaga Chachamaru, and advanced into Izu.
The forces of Yamanouchi Uesugi Akisada clashed at Tachikawahara in Musashi with those of Ōgigayatsu Uesugi Asayoshi, Imagawa Ujichika, and Ise Sōzui. The Ōgigayatsu side won, but the war continued when Akisada counterattacked with reinforcements from Echigo.
The Yamanouchi and Ōgigayatsu Uesugi armies attacked Gongenyama, a base held by Ise Sōzui's side, in an intense battle that deepened the struggle between the Ise and Uesugi forces over Sagami and Musashi.
Hosokawa Takakuni and Ōuchi Yoshioki's forces defeated Hosokawa Sumimoto's side at Funaokayama on the twenty-fourth day of the eighth month. Shogun Ashikaga Yoshitada returned to Kyoto on the first day of the ninth month and restored his government.
The Mōri and Kikkawa forces defeated Takeda Motoshige's army at Arita-Nakaide and killed Motoshige, an early Mōri victory that altered the balance of power in Aki.
On the thirteenth day of the first month, Hōjō Ujitsuna defeated Ōgigayatsu Uesugi Tomooki at Takanawahara and, aided by Ōta Suketaka's defection, captured Edo Castle as a base for expansion into Musashi.
The Bōsō forces of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Satomi Yoshitaka, and their allies fought Hōjō Ujitsuna's army at Kōnodai. The Hōjō won and Yoshiaki was killed.
Amago Haruhisa attacked Yoshida-Koriyama Castle, but Mōri Motonari defended it with Ōuchi reinforcements.
Hōjō Ujiyasu's relief force defeated the allied Uesugi and Koga Ashikaga army besieging Kawagoe Castle, and Ōgigayatsu Uesugi Tomosada was killed.
Takeda Harunobu was defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo at Uedahara and lost senior retainers including Itagaki Nobukata and Amari Torayasu.
Takeda Harunobu attacked Toishi Castle, held by Murakami Yoshikiyo's side, but failed to capture it and withdrew after suffering heavy losses.
Takeda Harunobu and Nagao Kagetora confronted each other at Kawanakajima over control of northern Shinano.
Takeda Harunobu and Nagao Kagetora faced each other across the Sai River for more than 200 days. Because Asahiyama Castle would not fall there was no decisive battle, and the two sides came to terms through the mediation of Imagawa Yoshimoto.
Mōri Motonari crossed to the island of Itsukushima and struck the camp on Tō-no-oka held by Sue Harukata, who by then wielded the real power of the Ōuchi house. The weaker side had chosen a narrow island as its ground.
Saitō Dōsan, who had retired from the lordship of Mino, and his heir Yoshitatsu, who had succeeded him, fought on the Nagara River, and Dōsan was killed. The relief force of his son-in-law Oda Nobunaga did not arrive in time.
A fight over the headship of the Oda Danjōnojō house, between Oda Nobunaga and the party of Shibata Katsuie and Hayashi Hidesada, who had raised his brother Nobuyuki. Nobunaga built a fort at Nazuka to meet them and won on the plain of Inō.
After the Takeda took Katsurayama Castle, Nagao Kagetora marched into northern Shinano; the Takeda avoided a decisive engagement and nothing was settled.
After the victory at Itsukushima, Mōri Motonari invaded Suō and Nagato, took Yamaguchi and drove Ōuchi Yoshinaga into Nagato. Yoshinaga took his own life at Chōfuku-ji and the Ōuchi house came to an end.
Oda Nobunaga of Kiyosu Castle fought the Oda of Iwakura, who held the north of Owari, at Ukino and won. The fall of Iwakura Castle the next year followed from it.
Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru, who had taken refuge in Ōmi, tried to win Kyoto back and fought the party of Miyoshi Nagayoshi over the castles of the Eastern Hills. He lost the battle, but a settlement later the same year brought him back to the capital after five years.
Oda Nobunaga attacked Imagawa Yoshimoto's main force around Okehazama and Dengakuhazama during Yoshimoto's invasion of Owari, and Yoshimoto was killed. The battle formed part of a wider struggle over Narumi and Odaka castles and the Oda forts that blockaded them.
Azai Nagamasa marched to relieve Hida Castle, under attack by the Rokkaku, and beat the army of Rokkaku Yoshikata across the Uso River. The battle was the turn at which the Azai became independent of the Rokkaku.
Nagao Kagetora, at the head of the lords of the Kantō, besieged Odawara Castle without taking it, succeeded to the office of Kantō kanrei at Kamakura under the name Uesugi Masatora, and withdrew.
Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Masatora met head-on across the Kawanakajima plain between the Chikuma and Sai rivers. Both sides suffered heavily and nothing was decided.
The Ōtomo laid siege to Moji Castle, which looks down on the Kanmon Strait, and a Mōri force that crossed the water held it. The boundary between the two powers across the strait was settled by this fight.
Betrayed by Azai Nagamasa at Kanegasaki, Oda Nobunaga marched into Omi with Tokugawa Ieyasu and met the Azai and Asakura at the Anegawa. The Oda and Tokugawa won the day but did not destroy the Azai.
Kennyo of the Ishiyama Hongan-ji in Settsu rises against Nobunaga, starting a prolonged war involving Ikkō sect followers.
In Settsu, Oda forces attack strongholds of the Miyoshi Triumvirs and Hongan-ji, but retreat when Azai–Asakura advance south.
Takeda forces captured Futamata Castle in Totomi, breaking through part of the Tokugawa defensive line. Ieyasu was driven into a situation where he had to endure from Hamamatsu and wait for a chance to counterattack.
Marching west, Takeda Shingen entered Totomi and passed by Hamamatsu castle without attacking it. Drawn out, Tokugawa Ieyasu was caught on the Mikatagahara plateau and suffered one of the heaviest defeats of his life.
While Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki continued calling on various daimyō to rise against Nobunaga, Oda Nobunaga attacked Makishima Castle near Kyoto. Yoshiaki was defeated, surrendered, and was expelled from Kyoto.
Oda forces pursued the retreating Asakura army into Echizen and won a major victory. This decisively shattered the military foundation of the Asakura clan.
Takeda Katsuyori besieged Nagashino castle and was met by Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu at Shitaragahara. Palisades and firearms broke the Takeda charge, and Katsuyori lost many of his senior commanders.
After the fall of the Asakura, the Ikkō-ikki had effectively ruled Echizen Province. Nobunaga's army crushed it with a two-pronged assault through Kinome Pass and Sugitsu. Afterward, Shibata Katsuie received eight districts of Echizen, while Maeda Toshiie, Sassa Narimasa, and Fuwa Mitsuji — the 'Three Men of Fuchū' — were granted the two Fuchū districts.
Bessho Nagaharu of Miki Castle broke with the Oda and aligned with the Mōri, prompting Hashiba Hideyoshi to begin the siege of Miki.
After Nobunaga's peace with the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, Sakuma Morimasa, serving under Shibata Katsuie, took Oyama Gobo, the headquarters of the Kaga Ikkō-ikki. The fall of its nearly century-old center brought Kaga under effective Oda control.
Sakuma Morimasa crushed the Yamanouchi-sōshō, the Ikkō-shū organization in the Hakusan foothills that had kept resisting at Torigoe and Futokoro castles after the fall of Oyama Gobo. Over 300 ikki fighters were executed, ending the Kaga Ikkō-ikki after nearly a century.
Hashiba Hideyoshi besieged Bitchū Takamatsu Castle, defended for the Mōri by Shimizu Muneharu, and conducted a water siege.
Shibata Katsuie, Maeda Toshiie, Sassa Narimasa, and other Oda commanders surrounded Uozu Castle, a key Uesugi stronghold. The siege lasted about eighty days.
Akechi Mitsuhide attacked his lord Oda Nobunaga at Honnoji in Kyoto, driving Nobunaga and his heir Nobutada to their deaths. The Oda regime, on the verge of unifying the country, collapsed in a single night.
Eleven days after the Honnoji Incident, Hashiba Hideyoshi returned from Bitchu and defeated Akechi Mitsuhide at Yamazaki. Mitsuhide’s regime collapsed after little more than ten days, and Hideyoshi rose above his peers in the Oda house.
The decisive clash between Hashiba Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie over Nobunaga’s succession. After a long standoff across Lake Yogo, Sakuma Morimasa’s surprise attack set the battle in motion, and Katsuie took his own life at his home castle of Kitanosho.
Hashiba Hideyoshi fought Oda Nobukatsu and Tokugawa Ieyasu in Owari. While the armies sat facing each other at Komakiyama and Gakuden, a Hashiba column swung towards Mikawa and was destroyed at Nagakute. Ieyasu won the field; Hideyoshi won the settlement by making a separate peace with Nobukatsu.
Hashiba Hideyoshi sent armies into Shikoku on three fronts against Chosokabe Motochika. Motochika submitted, retained only Tosa, and Shikoku was reorganized under Hideyoshi's settlement.
Date Masamune fought a coalition led by Satake Yoshishige and including the Ashina around Hitotoribashi. The Date army was hard pressed, but the coalition withdrew.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Kyushu after intervention in the Otomo-Shimazu conflict and compelled Shimazu Yoshihisa to submit.
Date Masamune and the Satake-Ashina side fought and faced each other around Koriyama before a negotiated settlement.
Date Masamune defeated the forces of Ashina Yoshihiro at Suriagehara and subsequently entered Kurokawa Castle, taking control of Aizu.
The Toyotomi army attacked Yamanaka Castle, a Later Hōjō stronghold guarding the route to Odawara, and captured it within half a day.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi arrived at Odawara and his assembled armies began the siege of the Later Hōjō stronghold.
Former retainers in the confiscated Kasai and Osaki territories rose against the newly installed Kimura house before being defeated at Sanuma Castle.
Kunohe Masazane of the Nanbu house rebelled amid the post-settlement order in Oshu and surrendered after a Toyotomi army surrounded Kunohe Castle.
Hosokawa Yusai held Tanabe Castle with about 500 men and tied down a Western force said to number 15,000 for 52 days, surrendering at the imperial court's urging.
After Tokugawa Ieyasu marched toward Aizu, the Western Army surrounded Fushimi Castle, defended by Torii Mototada and his garrison.
The Eastern vanguard stormed Gifu Castle, held by Oda Hidenobu, who had sided with the Western army.
Tokugawa Hidetada's army attacked Ueda Castle, defended by Sanada Masayuki and Nobushige, but failed to take it and was delayed on its westward march.
An Uesugi army under Naoe Kanetsugu invaded Mogami territory but failed to take Hasedo Castle and withdrew after news of Sekigahara.
Kyogoku Takatsugu, having gone over to the Eastern side, held Otsu Castle and pinned down a large Western force; the castle surrendered on the day of Sekigahara itself.
Otomo Yoshimune, seeking to recover his old domain, met the forces of Kuroda Yoshitaka and Matsui Yasuyuki on the Beppu alluvial fan; the Kuroda and Matsui side won.
The decisive battle in Mino: Tokugawa Ieyasu’s Eastern Army defeats the Western Army.