The realm of the Mountain

Iñaki

Great update Maverick:cool:

Takeda is on rise and once eliminated Oda, it seems that little true enemies could menace his power.

Originally posted by DAv
Weren't the first Spanish visits around about this time?
Click to expand...

The first visits were protagonized by the portuguese, the first portuguese commerciants arrived at Tanegashima at 1543, and in a period of 10 years more or less had displaced totally the traditional chinese commerciants, the daimyos of Kyushu soon begin to compete to get the best treats with the portuguese, these had as principal ports of commerce Kagoshima, Fukuoko and Hirado, but it would be Nagasaki that was opened as port for the exchange with the portuguese in 1571 the principal center for commerce with them.

Apart of the portuguese, we have the jesuitas, the Company of Jesus of Ignacio de Loyola had in San Francisco Javier his first great missioner in Japan, by 1570´s Kyushu was in important center of cristianism in Japan with some daimyos having adopted the christianism.
 

maverick

Banned
Japan in 1573-1578
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maverick

Banned
Chapter II: The Kofu Period

The period that followed the Takeda conquest of the lands of the Oda clan and their allies is considered by most historians and experts a continuation of the Sengoku Period, agreeing that the true beginning of the Kofu Period took place thanks to the events that developed a decade earlier, but many others claim that it was the entrance of Takeda Shingen at Kyoto the birth of the new historical period.

At age 52, Shingen stood amongst the daimyo of Japan as the most powerful warlord and the most successful of the conquering warriors of the period, having outdone great daimyo such as Imagawa Yoshimoto, Oda Nobunaga and his great rival, Uesugi Kenshin.
Not only did Shingen ruled over the most vast of the domains in Japan, directly or by proxy, but he also controlled the center of the empire, the “soft underbelly”, and the Imperial capital of Kyoto, residence of the Emperor and the Shogun, both of which now courted Shingen as an ally and liberator.

Yet the appearances masked a hidden truth: that the Ashikaga Shogun distrusted Shingen and that he was beginning to fear his influence as he had with Oda Nobunaga and that because of that, he had begun to conspire against his new lord as he had with the last.
The Takeda Clan descended from no other than the Minamoto Clan, the one that had produced the great figure of Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Empire, and therefore Shingen had the historical and familiar right to claim the shogunate to himself and his Clan, something that was well within his possibilities, given not only the grandiosity of his domains or his military powers, but also by the greatness of his name and his person.

It was understanding this situation that Ashikaga Yoshimoto continued to sit alongside Shingen while writing to men like Uesugi Kenshin and Hojo Ujimasa to warn them and encourage them to fight against Shingen. Japan was too much of a treasure for a single man to rule it and enjoy the spoils, and the many enemies of the Takeda clan knew this as did the Shogun.

In the meantime, Shingen consolidated his domains, extending over his neighboring daimyos, particularly the Azai and the Asakura, his protection, incorporating the various domains as protectorates of his own already vast territory, while at the same time moving his borders at the expense of his more reluctant neighbors, such as the Anegakoji and the Hatano. Others, such as the Ikko-Ikki, saw their rights, power and territory expanded under the mantle of the Takeda, although this came at the price of an illusory independence and the submission of their will to that of Shingen, as de Jure allies of the Takeda Clan.

Of course, the powerful rivals that had opposed Takeda Shingen over the years were not about to sit and see how the Takeda unified the country and conquered their domains without saying a word. The main opposition to Shingen’s new authority came from the east, where his old enemy, Uesugi Kenshin, the Dragon of Echigo, formed an alliance with Hojo Ujimasa and several other weaker eastern daimyo.
The Anti-Takeda alliance, formed primarily by the Uesugi and the Hojo, was formed almost immediately after Shingen raised his flags and standards in Kyoto, and it was having anticipated that the Tiger of Kai would not be satisfied simply with the Lion’s share of the country that Kenshin unleashed the power of the Anti-Takeda coalition during the winter of 1575.
 

DAv

A rebellion by the Shogunate? Could cause problems if doubled by the north certainly.
 

maverick

Banned
The Dragon of Echigo

Uesugi_Kenshin.jpg


In the year of 1575, east of the provinces of Kai and Shinano in the Takeda Domain there laid the lands of the Uesugi clan, where the fiercest and oldest enemy of Takeda Shingen, the formidable Uesugi Kenshin reigned.
Just like Shingen had, Kenshin rose to the leadership of his clan through political intrigue and family schemes, to then become one of the most renowned and successful warlords of his time, leading the successful conquest and unification of the province of Echigo, to then begin the great and famed struggle with Shingen over Shinano Provinces, solved in the series of battles fought at Kawanakajima in the 1560s.
Ever since, Uesugi Kenshin had limited his military campaigns to raids and attacks with limited objectives against the Hojo in the Kanto and against the Takeda at Shinano, in a series of attempts to restore the Kanto to the Uesugi clan while keeping the Takeda occupied, not wanting them to be overconfident.

The situation established after the fourth battle of Kawanakajima was nonetheless ended by the Takeda conquest of central Japan through Shingen’s war upon the Tokugawa and the Oda, and now that the Lord of Kai had become the most powerful daimyo of Japan, none doubted that his long term ambition was the elimination of his remaining rivals and the unification of Japan under the banners of the Takeda Clan.
To prevent such a thing and protect their own interests, the remaining great daimyo Clans began to plot with the Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiaki, against the Takeda, forming the first Anti-Takeda coalition in 1575, led by Uesugi Kenshin and Hojo Ujimasa, who had become a de facto Uesugi puppet following the fall of Kyoto.

Kenshin and Ujimasa were joined by several less powerful daimyos of eastern Japan, most of which in fact joined out of fear of the Uesugi rather than fear of the Takeda. In any case, Shingen was now surrounded by enemies, with a powerful coalition threatening the eastern borders of his domains and the ambitious and opportunistic Mori Clan in the west, having achieved a truce with the Otomo clan of Kyushu probably just to have a free hand to interfere in the affairs of central Japan.

Whether Shingen had ever contemplated the possibility of overthrowing Ashikaga Yoshiaki and taking the title of Shogun for himself, a right that he certainly had as descendant of the Minamoto clan, would never be known but forever suspected and suggested as one of the reasons why Yoshiaki and several others conspired against him, forcing him to leave Kyoto just after he left, having enjoyed just a couple of years of peace as de facto ruler of Japan before having to deal with his great rival, Uesugi Kenshin.


The Tiger and the Dragon: the Uesugi-Takeda war

Having anticipated that Shingen would try to recover his momentum and continue with the rush to conquer and unify Japan as Oda Nobunaga had tried before him, Uesugi Kenshin and his allies decided to make his move just as the Takeda prepared for a possible war against the Mori in the west, thus deciding to threaten the Eastern border of the Takeda domain with a massive attack along the frontier.
Kenshin had spent the years following the Takeda conquest of Kyoto subjugating the Jimbo clan of Etchu province, finally succeeding in 1574 as Shingen continued his role as de facto Shogun, promulgating laws and reforms from the Imperial Capital.

In the meantime, Kenshin’s allies were gathering a large force to match Shingen’s own armies, the most powerful of Japan at the time, and placing troops throughout the Uesugi and Hojo domain, trying to prevent Shingen from anticipating their moves and making a preemptive attack.
The preparations worked, and by the autumn of 1575, the joint armies of the Uesugi and the Hojo numbered some 45,000 men, with a large reserve being prepared at the Kanto to hold back any possible Takeda counterattack when it came.

The war began with a move made by the Hojo, Ujimasa leading an army of 20,000 men against Ejiri castle, the stronghold of Yamagata Masakage, one of the famed 24 generals, in the early autumn of 1575. The attack was swift and decisive, the Hojo army outnumbering the small Takeda garrison two to one. This victory was followed by an attack made by Uesugi himself, and with the morale of the anti-Takeda alliance having been bolstered by this victory, Kenshin attacked Kaizu castle in northern Shinano while the allied forces prepared for an attack against Minowa castle in Kozuke.

Between the time news about the fall of Ejiri reached Kyoto and the time in which Kenshin and the bulk of his armies stationed in central Japan left the capital, Kaizu castle had surrendered and an army of 30,000 men was gathering to attack Kofu castle itself, at the de jure capital of the Kai province and the Takeda domain.
Takeda Kenshin left Kyoto on October of 1575, seeing the Imperial Capital for the last time from his horse, contemplating his banners and standards over the city’s castles, streets and walls, unknowingly to him, for the last time.
 

DAv

This isn't ood for Takeda by the sounds of it. Is this going to lead to much more prolonged Seikyu (That right?) period of Japanese history?
 

maverick

Banned
Kofu Castle
The army Uesugi Kenshin commanded at Kofu castle, Shingen’s main stronghold and capital, numbered about 30,000 men in the winter of 1575, when the main actions of the Kofu campaign took place. At the time, Shingen was reorganizing and gathering an army to meet with the invading enemy hordes, but could only muster a force of 12,000, having marched from Kyoto with 10,000 and only receiving some reinforcements from his regional allies as the bulk of the Takeda army was being formed at the Kai and Shinano provinces.

It took Shingen and his generals some weeks to reach Kofu, and fortunately for the Takeda, the Uesugi had not been able to subdue the fortress.
Kenshin had hoped for a short and victorious campaign against the eastern holdings of the Takeda to draw them to his own territory and force them into one large decisive battle, like the one that he had lost at the fourth engagement between the two at Kawanakajima, but he had not counted with the fierce resistance Kofu castle presented to him nor the velocity with which Shingen launched his counterattack.

The first phase of the campaign, the one against the castle itself, presented all kind of difficulties for Kenshin, from small logistical problems that mobilizing a large army always presented to the terrible weather conditions the winter brought, to the well-organized resistance organized by the Takeda defenders, led by Shingen’s son, Takeda Katsuyori.
Early attempts to directly assault the castle by force or to cut its water supply failed through the first weeks of the winter of 1575, and well into 1576 the castle stood as impregnable as before, its 14,500 defenders refusing to surrender. At the same time, bands of peasants organized into militias disrupted the Uesugi communications and supply lines for several weeks, before the Uesugi began employing several brutal tactics to keep the civilian population controlled.

Naturally, the failures of the first phase were nothing compared to the events that unfolded in the month of January of 1576, when Takeda Shingen himself arrived in front of an army of 12,000 men, both Ashigaru and cavalry, carrying the standards of the Takeda clan and ready to confront the Uesugi invaders.

The actual battle between Shingen and Kenshin, the first in over a decade, would nonetheless not take place until about two days after the arrival of the Takeda force, Shingen’s men needing to rest and regroup, as well as the troops under Kenshin, preoccupied with besieging Kofu castle.
The arrival of the Takeda army forced Kenshin to disengage a large part of the forces besieging Kofu to deal with the secondary force, but as a result of this sudden and rapid movement, the force that left the siege to fight Shingen himself was not as organized or rested, and were forced to march several miles to meet the Takeda in their camp.

To lead the attack against Shingen there was Kenshin himself, joined by his generals, although he had no desire to leave the important decisions to his subordinates.
With about 15,000 men, approximately half of his army, Uesugi Kenshin stood to the east of the Takeda camp, which had dug trenches and prepared palisades to serve as protection to their arquebusiers. In terms of firepower Shingen had an advantage, having nearly thrice the arquebusiers and cannons, but both forces had a roughly equal number in terms of cavalry and Infantry.

Confident in the strength of his army and in the conditions of the battlefield, Kenshin decided to split his force, sending some 6,000 men northwards to attack the Takeda camp from the north-east in a diversionary attack, while the bulk of his army attacked from the east and the south-east, but the Takeda force led by Baba Nobufusa repelled the feint without persecuting the Uesugi force, something that Kenshin had not foreseen.

On the center, Kenshin’s generals launched a cavalry attack against the palisades, behind which a reserve force of ashigaru and arquebusiers stood, but the Uesugi cavalry was met by the superior firepower of the Takeda, the arquebusiers having been positioned in three lines that could open fire constantly, spreading chaos through the Uesugi line.
Following the failure of the first charge, the Uesugi force regrouped and prepared for a continued attack, taking advantage of the weakened state of the Takeda line, and thus a general attack was launched with 8,000 men against the main line of the Takeda army.

The renewed attack was much tougher for the Takeda to contain, as Kenshin himself led the attack along the line, forcing the Takeda to reinforce the entire front with their reserves. It was at this point that Kenshin learnt that Takeda general Baba Nobufusa was wounded, therefore convincing him to attack the concentrate on the center-left, where a majority of the Takeda generals were grouped, including Shingen himself.
Carrying the Uesugi banners to the center of the battlefield, Kenshin’s cavalry outmaneuvered their enemy counterparts to pierce a hole through the line, nearly reaching the position in which Shingen and his generals were had there not been for the reserve Arquebusiers and ashigaru redeployed to stop them. Following this failure, the battle degenerated into a long and bloody struggle for domination over the battlefield, something Uesugi Kenshin had been determined to allow due to his previous experiences against Shingen at Kawanakajima.

Rather than to sustain further casualties in a prolonged attrition conflict, the lord of Echigo decided to withdraw from the battlefield and abandon his position at Kofu castle.

Following the Takeda victory at Kofu, which had cost Shingen some 3,000 men and Kenshin some 4,000, the Anti-Takeda force would retreat back to the strongholds they had already taken and to their own castles, while the Takeda would spend the better part of the winter and the spring assembling their forces from the vast domains of the Takeda clan.
 

DAv

If Takeda gets killed in the campaign, does he have any sons to take control? Otherwise, I can see Japan being divided for another few decades else...
 

maverick

Banned
I know, I know...

I actually have a map for the aftermath of the war and a somewhat clear idea of what happenes, but with my other projects and college, I have neglected this one...

Update this weekend, I promise...:)
 

maverick

Banned
Yes! it's back...! muahhahahahahah!!

The war in the East

The season after the campaigning at Kofu was mostly used by the commanders of the opposing armies to regroup their forces and rally badly needed reinforcements, as well as making preparations for the continuation of the war in the upcoming spring.

For Shingen and his armies, two months were needed to gather the necessary forces to engage the Hojo and the Uesugi on the field once more, with troops being called from the vast Takeda domains, cavalry and infantry soldiers being joined by mercenary ronin and Ikko-Ikki troops from throughout central Japan. By late March of 1576, Shingen had amassed a force of 38,000 men at Kofu and the Shinano province, in order to attack the Hojo to the East and the Uesugi to the North.

Kenshin, on the other hand, spent the winter of 1576 strengthening his position in Northern Japan, abandoning the siege of Fukashi castle and instead reinforcing his positions at the castles of Ueda, Kaizu and Minowa, which had been taken from the Takeda domain early in the war. But most importantly was the preparations at Echigo province and the reinforcement of Uesugi Kenshin’s stronghold, Kasugayama castle, one of the most important and powerful fortresses in the Empire of Japan.
Hoping to use the barrier of fortifications between Kasugayama and Kofu to stall Shingen’s forces and gain enough time to regroup properly and prepare a better strategy, Kenshin sought to avoid any direct confrontation with Shingen’s main army for the entire spring of 1576, a time with the Takeda forces used attacking the Hojo clan at the Kanto province, while only launching limited campaigns against the Uesugi in the North.
Hojo Ujimasa’s forces had, after Kofu, retreated back to the occupied castle of Ejiri and the Hojo capital of Odawara, where the bulk of the daimyo’s army had rallied after the defeats suffered at the hands of the Takeda. Only 20,000 troops were available to defend the Sagami province and the Kanto, being distributed at Ejiri and Odawara.

Shingen was, in the early spring of 1576, forced to fight a two front war against the Hojo in the East and the Uesugi to the north, but realizing the strength of Kenshin’s forces and the opportunity that was the destruction of the Hojo in their hour of weakness, Generals Baba Nobufusa and Yamagata Masakage, the greatest of the 24, launched an invasion of the Hojo domain at the head of an army of 25,000 men, striking directly against Odawara while a diversionary force surrounded Ejiri.

Odawara

The Takeda offensive against the main Hojo stronghold at Odawara was a risky strategy at best, Shingen having previously tried to besiege the fortress in an earlier war with the Hojo clan in 1561, only to fail after three days attacking the castle.
On this occasion the stakes were much higher, as Shingen was forced to fight a war against both the Hojo and the Uesugi, both powerful and ancient daimyo clans by themselves.

The campaign against Odawara began in the spring of 1576, when Shingen’s main force arrived at the castle as the defenders were preparing their fortifications. At the time of the arrival of the Takeda army, a force of 8,000 troops of the Hojo clan were camped to the west of the fortress, where the first troops of the Takeda army encountered and engaged them on April of 1576.
The Takeda force, divided in three smaller groups (7,500 under Yamagata against Ejiri, 15,000 under Takeda Katsuyori and Baba Nobufusa and 3,000 reservists) entered the Hojo lands attacking through several fronts, with Yamagata’s force launching a swift offensive against Ejiri castle to the south of Kofu province, in a diversionary effort to keep as many Hojo soldiers tied down to the west as possible, while the main army stroke against Odawara itself.

The vanguard of 15,000 men under Katsuyori was the first to arrive at the site, where the 8,000 troops of the Hojo clan had set a first line of defense as the bulk of the army prepared the castle itself.
Realizing the numerical superiority to be to his favor, Katsurori decided to seize the opportunity to drive them from the field and destroy the force in detail, and thus a sudden attack was launched the day following their first encounter with the enemy army.
Despite some warnings from some older and more experienced retainers, the attack was launched with Katsuyori himself leading the cavalry attack against the armies of Hojo Ujimasa and his brother, Hojo Ujiteru.

As one could expect from such a hasty and unprepared offensive, the Takeda lines charged against the Hojo only to crash against a well prepared and extremely tough wall, and after the first hour, the Takeda retreated with moderated casualties while the smaller Hojo force did the same, moving their camp closer to the castle of Odawara.
The second round of the battle began an hour after the initial attack, when the Takeda army of 14,000 began a three pronged assault on the Hojo line, overwhelming the defenders and preventing them from retreating further east. Once the day reached noon, the Hojo had lost 1,500 while the Takeda had suffered nearly 2,000 casualties, and by this point both sides were too tired to continue the battle. Only the arrival of the 3,000 reservists of the Takeda army was capable of forcing the Hojo to retreat to the south as the Takeda generals had wanted, thus isolating the main group of the Hojo army from the secondary force that Katsuyori had first attacked.

This, the only actual engagement between troops in the prolonged siege of Odawara, was followed by two months of relative stability along the front, as the Takeda had a numerical superiority over the Hojo that only grew as time progressed, and with the roads and the seas blockaded, the castle’s strength began to diminish as the supplies of food and water began to become scarce.
Following the swift fall of Ejiri castle on April of 1576 and the short and inconclusive campaigns against the Uesugi at the Ueda and Minowa castles, Odawara was where the full attention of Takeda Shingen and his generals was focused, as the presence of nearly 30,000 troops by the late spring showed.

The battle was lost and this was clear to everyone in Japan, especially to Hojo Ujimasa and Uesugi Kenshin. And while Kenshin tried to bring his troops for a diversionary action in the northern Takeda domains at the Shinano province, all actions against Shingen at the Odawara campaign would prove futile, and by the end of the third month, Shingen’s gamble against Odawara had proven to be an ultimate success, as the fortress and its 12,000 defenders surrendered on July 18th of 1576, the surrender being followed by the ritual suicide of Hojo Ujimasa and his most loyal retainers.
This was the end of the Hojo clan, descendants of the Minamoto, and Takeda Shingen’s long feud with Hojo Ujiyasu and his son Ujiyasu. Now only Uesugi Kenshin remained in Shingen’s path to the complete domination of Japan.
 

maverick

Banned
The war in the North: Kenshin vs. Shingen

Shinano province had been the battlefield in which the Takeda and the Uesugi fought for supremacy over northern Japan for nearly a decade before Shingen turned his attention to the west and Kenshin began his campaigns against the Hojo.
But in late 1576, following the fall of Odawara castle and the downfall of the Hojo clan, the two rivaling daimyo returned to the old field to fight their last war against each other.

Since his retreat from Kofu castle, Kenshin and his generals had retreated northwards and began to strengthen their position in the region while preparing for an upcoming Takeda invasion of their domain. Withdrawing from the Takeda domains and leaving the conquered castles of Ueda and Minowa, the Uesugi armies left for Echigo while the Uesugi lord mobilized his domains and his men in earnest.
The awaited Takeda attack would nonetheless not come until November of 1576, when the forward units of the Takeda army entered Minowa and Ueda castles, finding them empty according to legend, although other sources would later claim that there were minor skirmishes before the retaking of the two northern fortresses.

In December, Shingen himself invaded the province of Echigo with an army of 40,000 men, to which Kenshin could only oppose a force of 30,000.

The campaign of the winter of 1576 and the spring of 1577 was nevertheless not as easy as one might have expected from the sheer numerical and psychological advantage the Takeda enjoyed. After an entire generation of war, Uesugi Kenshin had become a master of strategy and had, in 16th century Japan, understood and developed the principles of what would later be known as “Mobile warfare.”
While the Takeda army marched upon the Uesugi positions, Kenshin continuously withdrew in order to wear down his opponents while seeking for a more suitable terrain for his own forces. The first real engagement of this campaign would not take place until January of 1577, when the Takeda army caught up with the Uesugi at the Chikuma River, Kenshin having camped north of the stream.

Aware of his numerical disadvantage, Kenshin sent a small group down the river, faking an attack on the right flank of the Takeda camp and tricking the enemy commanders into thinking that he was dividing his own forces. Once the Takeda attempted to cross the river to attack the main Uesugi force, Kenshin’s forces absorbed the attack while two separate corps was able to force their way through the flanks of the enemy army and strike directly against the mobile headquarters of the Takeda, behind the battlefield. This move forced the end of the battle and allowed the Uesugi to retreat westwards, back to the main Uesugi fortress of Kasugayama.
The campaign was however continued by two more battles, one a minor skirmish along the Chikuma river once more, and the other a major battle near the town of Ojiya, where 15,000 troops from the Takeda army encountered 8,000 of the Uesugi force. Once again, Uesugi Kenshin made a good use of his knowledge of the terrain, speed and the element of surprise to catch the Takeda off guard, striking directly to their commanders at the back of the field, bypassing the left flank of the enemy army, as Katsuyori and Sanada attacked the main Uesugi force at the town. The battle cost the Takeda some 3,000 soldiers whereas the Uesugi only lost around 800.

Kasugayama

The summer of 1577, Uesugi Kenshin once again returned to his fortress-capital, the first time in his life he would be forced to defend it against an invading army. After an entire life of battling through central and eastern Japan, not once had the great fortress of Kasugayama been threatened by an enemy army, but not even the historical change of circumstances could make the fortress any weaker.
Kasugayama, ever since it was built by Kenshin, had stood as an impregnable and imposing fortress for over two decades when Takeda Shingen arrived at the head of an army 25,000 men strong on June of 1577, just a few weeks before the end of the spring, and by itself the stronghold was a formidable force to be fought, standing like a mountain and presenting a more impressive target than Kofu and Odawara.

The campaign against the castle was nonetheless not started as a siege, but it was rather begun with a battle between the enemy forces south of the mountain castle, as Uesugi Kenshin once again attempted to break the Takeda army and force them to retreat to their own domains. The battle of Kasugayama, which took place on June of 1577, was at the same time the last real battle of the war and the last either Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin would fight.

Moving his forces in the middle of the night as quietly as humanly possible, Kenshin was able to take his adversary by surprise positioning his men west of the Sekigawa River and north of the Takeda camp, in a dangerous move that divided his own army. The attack that began the next morning was incredibly bloody, as the forward units of the Uesugi army advanced to the very center of the enemy camp completely crushing any resistance encountered in the early hours of the morning. The attack that was forced from the river was however stopped by Baba Nobufusa’s forces, and despite the inability of the Takeda army to display their superior cavalry, the foot soldiers and the samurai were enough to hold down the attacks from the western and northern flanks.
But what truly decided the outcome of the battle was the appearance of Takeda Shingen himself on the battlefield, although others claim that it was in fact a double, or ‘Kagemusha’ the one to ride to the middle of the field with the Takeda generals, leading the charge against the center of the enemy army. The rapid mobilization of the Ashigaru arquebusiers was an important factor however, having being able to stop the attack coming from the right flank with enough velocity to allow the bulk of the reserves to be moved to fight at the northern flank.

Thus the last desperate attempt by Kenshin to avoid a battle at his own capital failed, at the cost of several of his trusted generals and nearly 4,000 of his best men. The destruction and the havoc created at the Takeda camp were insufficient to prevent the invading army from starting the siege against Kasugayama castle merely a week after the bloody and rather inconclusive battle.
 

maverick

Banned
The Castle

Kasugayama castle had withstood for over six months as the besieging forces of Takeda Shingen waited tirelessly.
Inside the fortified walls of the castle there were Uesugi Kenshin, his retainers, his family and the most loyal of his followers. Outside there was the most powerful man in Japan, whose domains spread from Ishiyama Hongan-Ji to Edo and Odawara and who had in his lifetime conquered half of the Empire of the Sun.

Come December of 1577, the war between the Uesugi and the Takeda, the last in a series of engagements between the two rivaling clans that had lasted for a generation had cost thousands upon thousands of lives, counting those lost from the beginning of the feud to the end of the siege of Kasugayama castle. By January of 1578, the will to continue fighting was the only thing that forced the two exhausted and beaten armies to carry on. The snow continued to fall and the cold was taking its toll upon both armies, as the roads covered with ice and snow made it increasingly difficult for the two forces to receive the badly needed surprise.

But finally, as the month of January closed to its end, it would be fate the one to end the stalemate and not military ability or numbers. The merciless weather and the horrid conditions of the siege and the battlefield had left both armies near the breaking point, but its effects on the two great lords of Kai and Echigo had left an incalculable toll as well.
It was Uesugi Kenshin the one to reach the limit first, his health having deteriorated ever since the start of the war against the Takeda, and by the end of the siege, his body could not resist as much as his spirit could. According to many sources, the Dragon of Echigo was found dead at his chambers near the end of the month of January of 1578, most likely due to pulmonary complications resulting from his poor health and the conditions of the terrible winter of 1578.

Having died childless, Kenshin was succeeded by his adopted son, Uesugi Kagetora, who would perform all of the duties Kenshin had as Daimyo of Echigo and lord of the Uesugi clan and household. Nonetheless, Kagetora was practical enough to realize that he was not Kenshin and that while Kasugayama stood as imposing and impregnable as before, he did not possess the ability his predecessor had and that the circumstances required. Thus a peace settlement with Takeda Shingen was necessary for the survival of the Uesugi clan.

In early February of 1578, as the funeral processions for the deceased Lord of Echigo were undertaken, accompanied by the ceremonial suicide of several of his closest retainers, Uesugi Kagetora in his role as daimyo of Echigo arranged for a peace treaty to be signed with the most powerful remaining daimyo of Japan, Takeda Shingen.

Takeda Katsuyori

The end of the First anti-Takeda coalition, also known as the final Uesugi-Takeda war, brought about many important changes in the internal politics and the balance of power within the Empire of Japan. For once, the Hojo clan had been virtually destroyed while the only man capable of standing against the Takeda, Uesugi Kenshin, was dead, his role now taken by the less able and less threatening Uesugi Kagetora.
Finally, the Takeda domain now spread from central Japan to the eastern provinces, as far as Edo and Kasugayama, the Kanto and Echigo, while areas such as Dewa and Mutsu were now under the sphere of influence of the Takeda clan.

The peace celebrated between the Uesugi and the Takeda had dramatic effects in the internal configuration of Japan. The Hojo were effectively destroyed, their armies dissolved and their lands taken away. With their lords dead and the family gone, only the retainers that hadn’t already committed suicide were left to complain. The rich province of Echigo, which had been unified by Kenshin during his lifetime as his main achievement, was taken by the Takeda as part of their domain.
The lands of the province were split between several of the retainers and allies of the Takeda, including the Baba, the Yamagata and several others of the famed 24 generals, at least those who had survived this far.

Naturally, this left the issue of the Uesugi clan. They could not share the same fate as the Hojo; they had not been brought to the tables in the same way the other enemies of the Takeda had but they couldn’t be spared from defeat either. Kenshin had been an honorable adversary and enemy in times of peace and war. There was also the matter of controlling so much land either directly or indirectly. At the end, the Uesugi clan was to be expelled from Echigo, and returned to the Kanto.

Amongst his many titles, Uesugi Kenshin had been Kanto Kanrei, as the clan had originated at the Kanto Province and had ruled that area for generations before being driven out by the Hojo. The return of the Uesugi to the Kanto took place in the summer of 1578, as the lands of the Hojo were reduced, Odawara now being part of the Takeda domain for once, while the followers of the Takeda took over Echigo and some bordering parts of the Kanto.
Edo would become the new capital of the restored Uesugi domain, and Kanto their new home, not too powerful and not far enough so as to be outside of the control of the Takeda.

Once the Spring of 1578 had arrived, Takeda Shingen found himself unchallenged and as the most powerful man in Japan once more. His oldest and most powerful rival had died and his domains were now the biggest and richest any daimyo had ever had in the history of the Empire. Yet, as he was on his peak, fate intervened once more.

He was on his way to Kyoto when his body began to succumb to the effects of a lifetime warring and a prolonged winter campaign in the north. He and his escort reached Kofu on April of 1578, but it was too late. His health had suffered greatly and his was terribly ill by the time they arrived at the palace that had been his home for most of his life. His generals, his closest retainers and family members were next to him during his last few months, all of which he spent at Kofu castle.

Lying in his bed, he could barely stand or talk by the end of the spring, and once summertime had reached, there was little it could be done for the man that had in the span of 60 years unified a great part of a country turn asunder by war.
His closest heir, that is his grandchild Takeda Nobukatsu, was far from having the age to take over the obligations of a normal daimyo, much less the ones of a lord in charge of over half of the country. Shingen’s son, Katsuyori, whom Shingen had not chosen to be his immediate successor, was thus able to take the reins of power as regent for his son once Shingen had died in July of 1578.
 

DAv

Hmm... with Takeda dead, his successor is going to be under a lot of pressure to succeed. It'll be interesting to see if he can live up to it.
 

maverick

Banned
1580

Part III: The Son Also Rises

katsuyor.gif


The First years

The entire year that passed between Shingen’s death and Katsuyori’s departure from Kofu Castle in 1580 was spent in what could be considered a rest in the expansionist momentum built by the Takeda in the past five years.
Takeda Katsuyori was not the great state builder and administrator Shingen was, and he was surely not expected to adequately succeed in the enterprise that was to succeed the great Shingen, but the regent was nonetheless able to surprise his detractors and rise to the challenge of managing the large domains of the Takeda.

The economic and administrative system built by Shingen between the 1540s and 1578 was largely kept and even expanded, as the growth of the domains and the redistribution of the conquered lands between the Takeda loyalists and retainers, especially the division of the large and rich province of Echigo, forced the system to be reorganized and the Takeda Domain to be administrated in a different manner. The more loyal retainers, that is the 24 generals, were the most benefited, especially Yamagata Masakage, Baba Nobufusa and Obata Masamori, who gained the largest extensions in the northern province of Echigo.

The new government saw a rapid decentralization between 1579 and 1585, a tendency that would be reverted in the 1580s but that in the early years of Katsuyori’s government allowed the daimyo to concentrate on important issues other than the administration of his vast realm.

The Takeda lands prospered economically and politically, as the most powerful domain in the Empire of Japan grew in power and influence. This growth was accompanied by a growth in the power of the lords under the Takeda, not only the Generals such as the Yamagata, the Obata and the Sanada, but also some of the sakikata-shu (the group of vanquished enemies), such as the Christian Daimyo of Yamato, Takayama Ukon, and the vassal daimyos such as the Asai and the Asakura.

Religious freedom in the Takeda domain continued to be restricted as the Ikko-Ikki presence in the Takeda lands remained limited, a policy that Shingen himself had started and that he continued even after his alliance with the Ikko-Ikki against Oda Nobunaga.
The rise of Christianity in the western provinces, the maintenance of the Buddhist sects in the east and the growth of the Jodo Shinshu faith, the sect of the Ikko-Ikki, showed that the religious structure within the Takeda Domain had vastly changed from the old mono-religious nature of Shingen’s Buddhist fanaticism.

The reorganization of the lands, the administration of the conquered territories in the east and the overseeing of infrastructure projects, as well as the relocation of the Uesugi from Echigo to the Kanto and the destruction of much of the old Hojo political apparatus in their former domains; all of these tasks took much of the time of Katsuyori between 1578 and 1580, proving that the son had inherited the father’s administrative skills, as well as many of his old military abilities.

But it would be the year of 1580 the one to definitely cement Katsuyori’s place and position as the heir of Takeda Shingen, when he finally assembled a force to return to Kyoto and depose the last of the Ashikaga Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the man that had plotted to kill his father and destroy the Takeda clan by rallying the Uesugi and the Hojo against them.

On March of 1580, Takeda Katsuyori was joined by 10 of the original 24 generals of Takeda Shingen as well as a force of 30,000 men, and began his march from the eastern capital of Kofu to the Imperial capital of Kyoto.

Seven years later

The balance of power in 1580 had changed greatly since Takeda Shingen decided to wage war upon the Oda and the Tokugawa on the behalf of the Ashigaka Shogun.

In 1573, the Empire of Japan was dominated by dozens of small daimyos with small to medium domains while the largest domains within the nation were under the greatest clans of the Empire: the Hojo of Kanto, the Takeda of Kai, the Otomo of Bungo, the Uesugi of Echigo, the Tokugawa of Totomi, the Mori of Bunzen and the rising Oda Nobunaga of Owari. Seven years later, Nobunaga, Ieyasu, Kenshin, Ujiyasu and Shingen were dead and only 3 of the seven great clans and three great lords were still standing strong: Otomo Sorin in Bungo, Mori Terumoto in Bunzen and Takeda Katsuyori, who’s domain extended from Kyoto to Kofu.

And apart from the three great surviving Daimyo clans (five if the relocated Uesugi of the Kanto and the then rising Shimazu of Satsuma were to be counted), another regional power was rising in the form of the Ikko-Ikki, the fanatical followers of the teachings of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism. Prior to 1573 and the Oda-Takeda war, they had come to dominated vast territories, including the rich province of Kaga, and were involved in a bloody war with the Oda of Owari as the rising daimyo besieged the fortresses of Nagashima and Hongan-Ji.

Following the war, not only did their power and influence grow as their cities were saved and their ranks swelled by thousands of new followers joining, but their geographical base was also augmented.
The death of the Hakateyama lord of Noto province, Hakateyama Yoshinori, in 1577, in the midst of the Uesugi-Takeda war, ignited a civil war in the province between the successors and retainers of the deceased daimyo, thus giving the Ikko-Ikki the perfect opportunity to invade and overrun the province.

The retainer that had killed Yoshinori, Cho Shigetsura, was amongst the killed at the siege of Anamizu Castle in late 1577. By the spring of 1578 the Ikko-Ikki had completed their conquest of the province and their purging of the old feudal system in the region had begun in earnest, as well as the spreading of the teachings of Jodo Shinshu.
 

DAv

So we could have a religously fanatical Japanese Government in the 17th century if this movement gains power? That'll be very interesting indeed...
 
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