The 1555 was the only battle to be fought on the sacred island of Miyajima; the entire island is considered to be a

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

, and no birth or death is allowed on the island. Extensive purification rituals took place after the battle, to cleanse the shrine and the island of the pollution of death. The Battle of Miyajima was the turning point in a campaign for control of the

Ōuchi clan was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 14th to 16th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi in the western tip of Honshu island, compris ...

and of

Aki Province or Geishū () was a province in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, comprising the western part of what is today Hiroshima Prefecture. History When Emperor Shōmu ordered two official temples for each province (one for male Buddhist prie ...

, a strategically important province for establishing control of western

Honshu , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the list of islands by area, seventh-largest island in the world, and the list of islands by ...

. It was an important step for the

Mōri clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. Durin ...

in taking the foremost position in western Japan, and cemented the reputation of

Mōri Motonari was a prominent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the western Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. The Mōri clan claimed descent from Ōe no Hiromoto (大江広元), an adviser to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Motonari w ...

as a cunning

strategist A strategist is a person with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of a strategy. Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy ...

Background

In 1551,

Sue Harukata was a samurai who served as a senior retainer of the Ōuchi clan in the Sengoku period in Japan. He was the second son of Sue Okifusa, a senior retainer of the Ōuchi clan. His childhood name was Goro, and he previously had the name Takafusa ...

revolted against his lord

Ōuchi Yoshitaka was the ''daimyō'' of Suō Province and the head of the Ōuchi clan, succeeding Ōuchi Yoshioki. In 1522, he fought the Amago clan along with his father, Yoshioki, to win the control of Aki Province. Upon Yoshioki's death in 1528, Yoshit ...

in the Tainei-ji incident, forcing him to commit

seppuku , also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...

. Sue installed the next lord of the clan, Ōuchi Yoshinaga (younger brother of Ōtomo Sōrin), but effectively led the

Ōuchi family Ouchi or Ōuchi may refer to: Geography * Ouchi, Hubei (), a town in Gong'an County, Jingzhou, Hubei, China Japan * Ōuchi, Akita, a town now merged into Yurihonjō, Akita * Ouchi, Saga, a town now merged into Karatsu City, Saga * Ōuchi-juku, a p ...

and its armies, intent on military expansion. In 1554,

, as a vassal of the Ōuchi clan, wanted to avenge the betrayed Yoshitaka, and so he rebelled against Sue, whose territorial ambitions were depleting clan resources. The heavily outnumbered force under Mōri attacked and defeated Sue at the Battle of Oshikibata. Mōri then departed from the mainland to build a fort, known as Miyao Castle, on Miyajima while proclaiming publicly his woe that it would not hold out long against an attack.

Battle

Miyao Castle was built on a hill near Itsukushima Shrine and facing the mainland, making it a visible and tempting target. Sue commandeered a fleet of merchant vessels and prepared the troops of the Ōuchi clan to cross the channel. In the early hours of 15 October, Sue attacked Miyao Castle in an amphibious frontal assault. Meanwhile, Mōri took advantage of his absence to seize Sakurao Castle, Sue's castle on the mainland. With an embarkation point secured, Mōri Motonari continued with his elaborate plan. He had enlisted the aid of the Noshima Murakami, a gang of local pirates led by Murakami Takeyoshi, who agreed to transport the Mōri troops to Miyajima. The fleet carrying the Mōri forces set out in a driving thunderstorm. Their approach thus obscured, Motonari and two of his sons, Kikkawa Motoharu and Mōri Takamoto, landed on the east side of the island, to the rear of the Sue force. Meanwhile, Motonari's third son, Kobayakawa Takakage, sailed straight toward Miyao Castle in a feint, then retreated so he could be in a position to return the following day, his attack synchronized with the overland assault. At dawn, Takakage and his 1,500 troops landed before the small fortress, and the sound of shell trumpets signaled that all units were in position and the attack commenced. As Takakage's force rushed the front gate of Miyao Castle, Mōri and his troops hit the Ōuchi position from behind. Caught completely by surprise, many of the Ōuchi troops scattered in disarray. Hundreds tried to swim to the mainland and drowned in the attempt. Many more saw that defeat was inevitable and committed ''

''. By 18 October 1555, resistance had ended at a cost of about 4,700 deaths among the Ōuchi army. Sue Harukata escaped from the confines of Miyao Castle, but when he saw that escape from the island was not possible, he also committed suicide by ''seppuku''. The Ōuchi clan's senior vassal Hironaka Takakane fought, together with his son, to the end, and he was also killed. Battle of Miyajima-2

Aftermath

The Sue forces at Miyajima are estimated to have been about 20,000 to 30,000 men, and though estimates of the combined forces under Mōri Motonari range widely from 4,000 to 10,000 troops, it is clear that Mōri was heavily outnumbered. This victory brought the Mōri clan into a preeminent position in western Japan, and established their reputation for strategy and naval tactics. Immediately after the battle, Mōri Motonari ordered that the bodies of the fallen troops be removed to the mainland, and then ordered that the entire battlefield be cleansed of the blood that was spilled, to the point that buildings were scrubbed, and blood-soaked soil was removed from the island. The Mōri clan later funded several construction or renovation projects on the island. The remains of Sue Harukata were transported back to the mainland and positively identified at Sakurao Castle before being accorded a funeral and burial in the

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

of a nearby

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhism, Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat, khurul and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in B ...

in present-day Hatsukaichi city, Hiroshima Prefecture.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyajima 1555 1555 in Japan Naval battles of the Sengoku period Conflicts in 1555 Mōri clan Ōuchi clan Itsukushima Aki Province Amphibious operations History of Shinto Military history of Hiroshima Prefecture Attacks on castles in Japan 16th-century military history of Japan

Background

Battle

Aftermath

See also

References