The 1547 Battle of Odaihara was one of a series of battles waged by
Takeda Shingen
was daimyō, daimyo of Kai Province during the Sengoku period of Japan. Known as "the Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and credited with exceptional military prestige. Shingen was based in a p ...
in his long campaign to conquer
Shinano province
or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture.
Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...
. In this particular encounter he was fighting the forces of
Uesugi Norimasa, who was based in
Echigo province
was an old provinces of Japan, old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen Province, Uzen, Iwashiro Province, Iwashiro, Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Etchū Province, ...
but had decided to intervene in Shinano to prevent Shingen from overrunning the whole province. The
Uesugi army attempted to relieve the castle of Shika, which Shingen
had besieged, but were attacked and defeated at Odaihara on 19 September 1547.
Background
The battle took place during the 16th-century
Sengoku period
The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...
, also known as the "Age of Civil War". After the
Ōnin War
The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era name, Japanese era during which the war started; the war ende ...
(1467–77), the ''
shōgun
, officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...
''s system and taxation had increasingly less control outside the province of the capital in
Kyoto
Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
, and powerful lords (''
daimyō
were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and no ...
s'') began to assert themselves. Such lords gained power by usurpation, warfare or marriage—any means that would safeguard their position. It was manifested in ''
yamajiro'' ("mountain castles"), which overlooked the provinces.
One of the most ambitious and successful warlords of the period was
Takeda Shingen
was daimyō, daimyo of Kai Province during the Sengoku period of Japan. Known as "the Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyo of the late Sengoku period, and credited with exceptional military prestige. Shingen was based in a p ...
, the ''daimyō'' of the
Takeda clan
The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...
, which dominated
Kai Province. Bordering Kai to the north was
Shinano Province
or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture.
Shinano bordered Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...
, a large mountainous territory which was not controlled by a single clan but by several relatively weak ones, notably the
Suwa,
Ogasawara, and
Takato. As such it was an attractive target to its neighbours, in particular the Takeda to the south and
Uesugi clan
The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi period, Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries).Georges Appert, Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its heigh ...
of
Echigo Province
was an old provinces of Japan, old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen Province, Uzen, Iwashiro Province, Iwashiro, Kōzuke Province, Kōzuke, Shinano Province, Shinano, and Etchū Province, ...
to the north. Takeda Shingen's father,
Takeda Nobutora
was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) who controlled the Province of Kai, and fought in a number of battles of the Sengoku period. He was the father and predecessor of the famous Takeda Shingen.
Biography
Nobutora’s son was Harunobu, la ...
, had already made a probing expedition into Shinano in 1536 (leading to the
Battle of Un no Kuchi), and after becoming ''daimyō'' himself Shingen mounted his own invasion in 1542, which ended with the successful conquest of the Suwa, and then followed that up with the defeat of the Takato in 1543–5, and of the turncoat
Oi Sadakiyo in 1546. Fresh from the defeat of the Sadakiyo, he then turned his attention to Shika castle, controlled by
Kasahara Kiyoshige, which he laid siege to on 8 September 1547. This move alarmed
Uesugi Norimasa, who feared that Shingen might conquer the whole of Shinano if left unchecked. He therefore sent an army into the province to relieve Shika, commanded by
Kanai Hidekage.
Battle
While
besieging Shika castle, Shingen detached a part of his troops and met the forces of
Uesugi Norimasa on the plains of Odaihara. The advancing army was tasked to augment the defense of the castle, which was close to Norimasa's territories. In the ambush, Shingen defeated Uesugi's army. He decapitated 15 senior samurai and 300 ashigaru and displayed the severed heads in front of the Shika castle.
Aftermath
Despite the gruesome spectacle of the severed heads, the Shika garrison continued to hold out for another four days. However, at noon on 23 September a fire broke out within the castle, greatly damaging the defences, and Shingen seized the opportunity to mount an assault that evening, which overran the defences and captured the fortress.
With Shika reduced, the Takeda war machine rolled on into the northern part of Shinano, provoking a renewed intervention by the Uesugi, now led by their new ''daimyo''
Uesugi Kenshin
, later known as , was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (magnate). He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period ...
, which resulted in the famous
Battles of Kawanakajima
The were a series of battles fought in the Sengoku period of Japan between Takeda Shingen of Kai Province and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province from 1553 to 1564.
Shingen and Kenshin contested each other for control of the plain of Kawanak ...
.
In popular culture
The parading of the severed heads from the Odaihara battlefield is famously depicted in the 1969 Japanese film
''Fūrin Kazan'' ('Samurai Banners'), which follows the careers of Takeda Shingen's general
Yamamoto Kansuke.
References
*Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Odaihara 1547
Battles of the Sengoku period
1547 in Japan
Conflicts in 1547
Ambushes in Japan
Shinano Province
Saku, Nagano
Military history of Nagano Prefecture
16th-century military history of Japan