The 1576 siege of Mitsuji () was part of the eleven-year

Ishiyama Hongan-ji War The was a ten-year military campaign that took place from 1570 to 1580 in Sengoku period Japan, carried out by lord Oda Nobunaga against a network of fortifications, temples, and communities belonging to the Ikkō-ikki, a powerful faction of J ...

. The

Ikkō-ikki were armed military leagues that formed in several regions of Japan in the 15th-16th centuries, composed entirely of members of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism. In the early phases, these ''ikki'' leagues opposed the rule of local Shugo, go ...

, a group of warrior monks and peasants, controlled the fortress and stood as one of the primary obstacles to

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

's bid for power. In May 1576, Nobunaga personally took part in an attack on the fortress. He led a number of

ashigaru were peasant infantry employed by the warlords of Japan to supplement the samurai in their armies. The first known reference to ''ashigaru'' was in the 14th century, but it was during the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi period) that the use of ' ...

(foot soldiers) in pushing back the Ikki garrison to their inner gates. Nobunaga suffered a bullet wound to his leg. However, Nobunaga lost one of his generals,

Harada Naomasa Harada (written: ) is the 52nd most common Japanese surname. Notable personalities with this surname include: *, Japanese actor *, Japanese professional wrestler *, Japanese Zen Buddhist monk *, Japanese swimmer *, Japanese rock climber *, Japanese ...

References

Sieges of the Sengoku period Military history of Osaka Prefecture 1576 in Japan Conflicts in 1576 Attacks on military installations in Japan 16th-century military history of Japan Ishiyama Hongan-ji War {{Japan-battle-stub