The Warring States period (also known as Sengoku Jidai) was one of the most violent and chaotic in Japanese history, full of daimyo (great lords) fighting to conquer neighboring territory and thus expand the borders of their clans. Royal power was taken from the emperor and the Shogun was the military ruler of the entire country holding royal power.
Throughout the Muromachi period (1338 – 1573), the plain at the foot of Mount Fuji was ruled by the Takeda clan and its expansion was thanks to one of the most powerful daimyo of the time; Takeda Shingen. His mastery on the battlefield, the characteristic aggressive use of cavalry in battle, and his concern for the quality of life of his people and vassals made him a figure as recognized throughout the land as he was feared by his enemies.
In this entry, we’ll summarize Shingen’s life, his trajectory, the clans he faced, and why he is one of Japan’s most famous historical figures and one of the many greatest samurai characters featured in Samurai Warriors 4. Their battles will be summarized, pending further development in a future blog post.
A brief history of the Takeda clan
The origin of the Takeda comes from the Minamoto clan, victors of the Genpei war and the creation of the first shogunate. Yoshimitsu Minamoto (from the same lineage as the first shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo) was rewarded for his services in the Gosannen War (1083-1089) with the province of Kai.
Yoshimitsu’s son, Yoshikiyo, decided to create his own lineage using a new surname: Takeda (武田 – Bamboo Field or Warrior Field) and a new mon (family emblem) whose shape is four diamonds placed as if they were one larger, representing wind, forest, fire, and mountain.
In 1221, during the Jōkyū rebellion, the retired emperor Go-Toba attempts to restore imperial government by overthrowing the shogunate. Takeda Nobumitsu fought the emperor’s forces and was appointed for his loyalty as Shugo (governor) of the province of Aki, thus emerging a second branch of Takeda, which would maintain power until the Mori clan led by Mori Motonari defeated them after several battles between 1516 and 1541.
The province of Kai, which has always been the main clan, was controlled by several generations of Takeda up to the arrival of Takeda Nobutora (b. 1493), who in the early 16th century defended his lands from two other southern clans, the Imagawa and Hojo, who allied in 1535 to attack the Takeda. It was fortunate that the Hojo withdrew when they realized their province was under attack by the Uesugi clan, while the Imagawa entered a civil war after the death of their daimyo.
Nobutora helped Imagawa Yoshimoto (brother of former daimyo Imagawa Ujichika) win the rebellion and offered him his eldest daughter’s hand in marriage as an alliance to protect southern Kai. After that, he headed for the expansion of his territory to the north, the province of Shinano, governed by several minor clans. This campaign was accompanied by his firstborn and protagonist of this story, Takeda Harunobu.
Harunobu’s rise to power
Takeda Shingen was born on December 1, 1521, as Takeda Katsuchiyo and would later receive the official name of Harunobu. At only 15 years old, he was baptized samurai and took part with his father in a campaign against Hiraga Genshin in the Battle of Un no Kuchi (1536) in the south of Shinano province. At only 15 years old, the young man took advantage of a snowfall to besiege his enemy with only a troop of 300 men, demonstrating an incredible capacity for strategy and achieving his first victory.
He went to give the enemy commander’s head to his father, but Nobutora yelled at him for acting impulsively and preferred to focus on his other son, Nobushige. Discovering that his father, who openly despised him, wanted to remove him from the throne in favor of his younger brother, young Harunobu took action and seized control of the Takeda clan in 1540, banishing his father to Suruga province and allowing his brother Nobushige to remain if he swore allegiance to him as the clan’s new daimyo.
Before reaching this position of power, Harunobu had already married an aristocrat nicknamed Sanjō when he was 16 and had his firstborn named Yoshinobu in the year 1538. Three years later, his second child, Nobuchika, who was blind and therefore could not be a vassal and fight, was born. It is recorded that throughout his life, he had 6 sons and 5 daughters.
The conquest of Shinano
His first steps were the expansion of his territory, settling in the province of Shinano, north of Kai and whose domains were shared by various clans. The first battles took place in 1541 with the siege of the castle of Uehara, ruled by Suwa Yorishige, where Harunobu would gather Suwa Goryonin (Koihime): daughter of Yorishige, whom he would make his concubine, and with whom he would have his third son, Takeda Katsuyori in 1546.
After conquering the territory of the Suwa clan, Harunobu led his troops against the Takato clan and its daimyo, Takato Yoritsugu in 1545, whom he defeated by retaking his castles and two years later burned the castle of Shiga ruled by Kasahara Kiyoshige, after several siege attempts.
In the north of the province was the territory of Murakami Yoshikiyo, head of the Murakami clan, considered the strongest in Shinano, who, seeing how his territory was in danger, used firearms imported from China to damage the Takeda army’s charges. The Battle of Uedahara in 1548 was Takeda Harunobu’s first defeat and before continuing he had to defeat the Ogasawara clan (led by Ogasawara Nagatoki) to the west of the province, thus avoiding a possible alliance of his enemies, although it took two years to subdue them.
In 1551, Harunobu adopted the Buddhist name of Takeda Shingen, with which he is known today. He began a siege against Castle Katsurao of the Murakami clan and continued unabated until he took it in 1553, causing Yoshikiyo to flee north to the province of Echigo. The last part of the province he conquered was that of the Kiso clan of Kiso Yoshiyasu in 1554.
Takeda Shingen vs Uesugi Kenshin
Echigo was then ruled by Uesugi Kenshin, daimyo of the Uesugi clan, who decided to face the potential threat as Shingen and his army were engaged in the well-known five Kawanakajima battles that lasted over a decade. The name comes from a plain in northern Shinano province, between the Saigawa and Chikumagawa rivers, north of Katsurao Castle.
In August 1553, the armies of the two clans fought for the first time. The Uesugi erected new castles to the north creating a border that was very difficult to penetrate. A second attempt at conquest in 1555 ended in a truce after months of stagnation, and two years later Shingen managed to lay siege to and destroy Katsurayama Castle, although he eventually retreated again before his rival’s power.
The hardest and most famous was the fourth battle of Kawanakajima in September 1561 and is known as one of the most important battles in Japanese history, all the more so because it is said that in this battle, Takeda Shingen was directly attacked by Uesugi Kenshin who managed to reach the camp where he was organizing the battle. Kenshin attacked with his sword and Shingen defended himself with the Tessen (war fan).
Both survived the encounter, and a final battle in 1564 finally gave Takeda control of the entire Shinano province. The two daimyo’s rivalry was legendary, but far from hating each other, we know that letters and gifts were exchanged. Shingen then gave Kenshin his best katana and they were both grateful to have such a worthy rival to face.
One of the most famous anecdotes is Kai’s salt traffic. At that time, it was very difficult to obtain and preserve salt and, at no cost, the Takeda had to obtain it through the Hojo and Imagawa territories, which at one point cut off his supply. Learning Kenshin about this, he writes to his rival, “Wars must be won with swords and spears, not rice,” allowing him to get salt across his territory.
The fight for Suruga, at the foot of Mount Fuji
Shingen had accomplished what his father could not, expanding the Takeda territory beyond Kai. While fighting at Kawanakajima, he entered into a triple alliance with Imagawa Yoshimoto (offering Yoshinobu, his firstborn to one of Yoshimoto’s daughters) and Hojo Ujiyasu (offering his daughter Obai-in to Hojo Ujimasa, son of the daimyo Hojo Ujiyasu), not only to stabilize eastern Japan, but to allow the three clans to cover their backs and concentrate their resources on expanding their territories.
This motivated the Imagawa to head west toward the capital to conquer it, but he encountered a young demon named Oda Nobunaga, who, against all odds, ended Yoshimoto’s life in the famous Battle of Okehazama in 1560. The provinces of Suruga and Totomi, where the Imagawa belonged, were inherited by Yoshimoto’s inexperienced son, Imagawa Ujizane.
Shingen then considered conquering his late brother-in-law’s territory (Yoshimoto’s wife was Jōkei-in, Shingen’s older sister) but his son Yoshinobu didn’t like the idea, eventually committing suicide by seppuku in 1567 by not accepting his father’s decision. Shingen would join forces the following year with Matsudaira Motoyasu (later known as Tokugawa Ieyasu) to conquer and divide the Imagawa territory, with the Takeda retaining the province of Suruga and the Matsudaira taking Totomi.
The invasion was swift and in 1568 the Imagawa clan disappeared. Unfortunately, the Hojo clan did not accept losing this potential territory and broke its alliance with the Takeda, the two great clans going to war. The clan commanded by Hojo Ujiyasu faced Shingen during the Siege of Odawara in 1569 and although the Takeda were expelled, they did not leave without first setting fire to the villa. Takeda Katsuyori, Shingen’s third son, fought successfully at Kanbara Castle.
Ujiyasu finally managed to make peace with the Takeda and Uesugi, accepting that Suruga belonged to Shingen territory and offering his daughter Hojo Masako in marriage to Takeda Katsuyori. Ujiyasu died shortly afterwards, leaving his heir Hojo Ujimasa in a rather favorable position to rule, having made peace with his powerful enemy.
On the way to the capital, Shingen’s last journey
The Ashikaga shogunate that ruled Japan at the time was headed by the 15th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki. He feared the power of Oda Nobunaga, who had entered the capital, and asked Shingen (and other daimyos) for help in defeating such a formidable foe. Shingen saw an opportunity not only to rule the provinces of the Oda clan, but the whole country, becoming the next shogun if he reached Kyoto and destroyed the weak Ashikaga.
In 1572, he began the great campaign against the Oda, but first, he had to deal with the small Tokugawa clan, allied to Nobunaga. He sent his son Katsuyori to invade Futamata Castle in Totomi to see if he was a capable general. Tokugawa Ieyasu lost Futamata in January 1573 and although he had a fighting spirit, he found it hard to see the massive Shingen army reaching Hamamatsu Castle (Tokugawa Capital), so they decided to defend it at the Battle of Mikatagahara on January 23, 1573.
Although Ieyasu lost almost all his men in battle, he managed to fool the Takeda into not attacking Hamamatsu by leaving the gates open and confusing the enemy as to whether it was a trap or not. Although the Tokugawa clan seemed destined to disappear in a matter of weeks, fate surprised both clans with the unexpected death of Takeda Shingen on May 13, 1573.
His cause of death is still debated; many say he was seriously ill with pneumonia or tuberculosis, that an old wound was complicated, or even that a Tokugawa gunman managed to hit him by infiltrating his camp. Whatever the case, the Takeda had lost their valued commander, something that was tried to keep secret at first to keep spreading fear over their enemies, though the truth eventually came out and his son Katsuyori officially inherited the clan.
The Takeda legacy
The body of the mighty Shingen was burned after his death in the temple of Erin. His father, Takeda Nobutora (exiled to Suruga from Shingen’s youth), attended the funeral invited by his grandson. Shingen’s great rival, Uesugi Kenshin, is said to have mourned Shingen’s loss upon learning what happened.
Katsuyori followed his father’s plans to reach the capital, capturing in 1575 the castle of Akechi (of the Oda clan) and Takatenjin (of the Tokugawa clan), but began to struggle to capture the castles of the Tokugawa clan when Nobunaga began to send reinforcements. They decimated the Takeda in the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 and later in the Battle of Tenmokuzan in 1582, Katsuyori committed seppuku with his wife and son. The Takeda clan disappeared at this point in history.
The Shingen-ko festival is currently held in the city of Kōfu to celebrate its heritage, held over three days in early April. It is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest samurai gathering, with more than 1,000 participants dressed as real warriors of the period.
Takeda Shingen is one of the most famous samurai in Japanese history and has appeared in a multitude of works for this reason. Akira Kurosawa’s film; Kagemusha, one of the director’s most ambitious works, is based on the legendary rivalry between Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin. He also stars in the film Heaven and Earth by Haruki Kadokawa, and his character and clan appear in many video games such as Total War: Shogun 2 or Sengoku Basara. His characteristic armor can be obtained in other titles such as Ghost of Tsushima or Nioh.
