The siege of Minamata Castle was a short siege of the castle of

Minamata is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. It is on the west coast of Kyūshū and faces Amakusa islands. Minamata was established as a village in 1889, re-designated as a town in 1912 and grew into a city in 1949. As of March 2017, the ci ...

. Minamata was the entry point for the Ōtomo lands in

Higo province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. It was sometimes called , with Hizen Province. Higo bordered on Chikugo, Bungo, Hyūga, Ōsumi, and Satsuma Provinces. History The cas ...

, the castle was guarded by

Sagara Yoshihi (1544–1581) was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period, who ruled a region in southern Higo Province. In the Siege of Minamata Castle, Sagara Yoshihi was guarded the Castle with 700 soldiers, it was a short siege of the castle of Min ...

with 700 soldiers. When

Shimazu Toshihisa was a Japanese samurai of the Azuchi-Momoyama period, He called 'Saemon no kami'. he was a third son of Shimazu Takahisa, who served as a general officer and senior retainer of the Shimazu clan of Satsuma Province. Toshihisa was known as a rar ...

and Iehisa encamped near the castle with 115,000 men, Yoshihi was forced to surrender. Later, Yoshihi was killed in a surprise attack by Kai Soun's army in the

Battle of Hibikinohara A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Minamata Castle 1581 Sieges of the Sengoku period 1581 in Japan Shimazu clan Attacks on castles in Japan Conflicts in 1581 Minamata, Kumamoto Higo Province Military history of Kumamoto Prefecture 16th-century military history of Japan