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| Battle of Mikatagahara | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSengoku period | |||||||
 Battle of Mikatagahara | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Takeda clan | Tokugawa clan Oda clan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 35,000 Takeda | 11,000 total (8,000 Tokugawa, 3,000 Oda reinforcements) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 500 to 3,000 | Almost completely annihilated | ||||||
TheBattle of Mikatagahara (三方ヶ原の戦い,Mikatagahara no tatakai) took place during theSengoku period ofJapan betweenTakeda Shingen andTokugawa Ieyasu inMikatagahara,Tōtōmi Province on 25 January 1573.[1] Shingen attacked Ieyasu at the plain of Mikatagahara north of Hamamatsu during his campaign againstOda Nobunaga while seeking a route fromKōfu toKyoto. The Tokugawa-Oda force was almost totally annihilated by the Takeda after being encircled and many of Ieyasu'sretainers were killed in the battle. Ieyasu and his surviving men were forced to retreat before launching a minor counterattack to delay Shingen's march towards Kyoto.
In October 1572, after having concluded alliances with his rivals to the east (theLater Hōjō clan ofOdawara and theSatomi clan ofAwa), and after waiting for the snow to close off the northern mountain passes against his northern rival,Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen led an army of 30,000 men south from his capital ofKōfu intoTōtōmi Province, whileYamagata Masakage led a second force of 5,000 men into easternMikawa Province. They quickly capturedYoshida Castle andFutamata Castle.[2]
Shingen was opposed byTokugawa Ieyasu, based atHamamatsu Castle with 8,000 men, plus an additional 3,000 reinforcements received from his ally,Oda Nobunaga. However, Takeda's intent was not to attack Ieyasu nor to seize Hamamatsu; rather, he wished to avoid conflict if possible to save his forces to destroy Nobunaga and to march onKyoto.[3]
Against the advice provided bySakuma Nobumori andTakigawa Kazumasu, who had been sent by Nobunaga, and by his own generals,Matsudaira Koretada (Fukōzu) andIshikawa Kazumasa, Ieyasu refused to allow the Takeda to pass through his territory unhindered, and drew up his forces on ahigh plain called Mikatagahara, at the time located just north ofHamamatsu.[2][4]
According to theKōyō Gunkan, the contemporary Takeda military history, Shingen outnumbered Ieyasu three-to-one, and organized his men in thegyorin (魚鱗, fish-scale) formation, enticing his opponent to attack.Oyamada Nobushige was in Shingen's vanguard, followed byNaitō Masatoyo andYamagata Masakage. The third line was commanded byKatsuyori andObata Masamori, whileBaba Nobuharu was in the fourth.[2] Opposing him, Ieyasu had gathered his available forces and arrayed them in a line.[4]
At around four in the afternoon as snow began to fall, Tokugawaarquebusiers accompanied by a number of peasant stone-throwers opened fire upon the Takeda formation. Firearms, still somewhat new to Japanese warfare, were a known deterrent to cavalry assaults. Ieyasu had expected his superior weaponry to overcome Shingen's overwhelming forces and formation, but this assumption was quickly dispelled asNaitō Masatoyo's vanguard cavalry attacked and rapidly overranHonda Tadakatsu's segment of the Tokugawa right.
Takeda horsemen exploited the opening and rapidly assaulted the accompanying Oda reinforcements[5] before charging the Tokugawa rear. Oda forces were quickly overrun and routed, with officersHirate Hirohide killed andSakuma Nobumori andTakigawa Kazumasu fleeing the battle. A similar attack on the left was thwarted as Tokugawa units refused to yield ground and shrugged off the advance of the Takeda right, preventing an encirclement of the Tokugawa center.[6]
Shingen then withdrew his vanguard, offering them an opportunity to rest. He brought forward a new set of horsemen from the army's main body, orderingTakeda Katsuyori,Obata Masamori, andSaegusa Moritomo to lead a two-pronged cavalry charge into the weakening Tokugawa line. They were closely followed by the footsoldier-heavy main body of the Takeda army, whose combined weight drove the already battered Tokugawa army into a disorderly retreat.
In an effort to reorganize his rapidly dissolving army, Ieyasu ordered his commanderŌkubo Tadayo to plant his golden fan standard (uma-jirushi) upon a hill and rally his troops towards the castle town ofSaigadake. Ieyasu then sought to personally re-engage the Takeda army to free his trapped generalMizuno Tadashige, but was persuaded by his retainerNatsume Yoshinobu to retreat.
Convinced by his retainers that as head of theTokugawa clan his life was too important, Ieyasu fled the field. To buy time for the Tokugawa retreat,Natsume Yoshinobu led the few soldiers remaining under his command in a suicide charge against the advancing Takeda, and was killed. Other notable Tokugawa retainers killed in the fighting wereMatsudaira Koretada,Naruse Masayoshi,Toyama Kosaku, andEndo Ukon, who all perished as their units were encircled and overrun by the Takeda forces.[4]
When Ieyasu returned to Hamamatsu Castle, he was accompanied by only five men. The town was on the verge of panic as rumor had already reached Hamamatsu that the battle had gone badly.[7]
Nevertheless, Ieyasucommanded that the castle gates remain open and that braziers be lit to guide his retreating army back to safety.Sakai Tadatsugu beat a large war drum, seeking to persuade the returning men of their courageous retreat. When the Takeda vanguard led byBaba Nobuharu andYamagata Masakage heard the drums and saw the braziers and open gates, they mistakenly assumed that Ieyasu had planned a trap and stopped to made camp for the night at their present position short of Hamamatsu.[4]
In the night, a small band of about one hundred Tokugawa foot soldiers and 16 matchlock gunners led byŌkubo Tadayo andAmano Yasukage attacked the Takeda camp,[8] throwing the vanguard of the Takeda army into confusion. Uncertain of the remaining strength of the Tokugawa forces, and worried that reinforcements from Oda Nobunaga or Uesugi Kenshin were on their way, Takeda Shingen decided to withdraw his forces back to his own territories.[9]
According to the Kansei Chōshū Shokafu, the famousIga ninjaHattori Hanzō rendered meritorious service during the Battle of Mikatagahara. The genealogy of major samurai complied by the laterTokugawa shogunate records that Hanzo captured a Takeda spy named "Chikuan" and delayed the advancing Takeda at theTenryū River with an asymmetrical counterattack of only thirty men.[10]
The Battle of Mikatagahara was one of the most famous battles of Takeda Shingen's campaigns and one of "the most notable demonstrations ofcavalry tactics" of the Sengoku period. The battle was also Tokugawa Ieyasu's most decisive defeat, featuring the effective annihilation of Ieyasu's army and the daimyo himself only narrowly escaping death through a bluff and perilous night attack.[11] According to theJapanese calendar, the battle was fought on the 22nd day of the 12th month of the 3rd year ofGenki.
For Shingen, there would be no following attack on Hamamatsu as he would be fatally wounded in February 1573 at theSiege of Noda Castle and die in May 1573.[12][13]
34°42′36″N137°43′09″E / 34.71000°N 137.71917°E /34.71000; 137.71917
