maverick
Banned
The Realm of the Mountain
風林火山
Swift as the Wind, Silent as a Forest, Fierce as Fire and Immovable as a Mountain
Chapter I: The Tiger of Kai
The end of the Ashikaga order, the extinction of stability and peace, the rise and fall of the daimyos, the social and national war and the rise of the great generals of lowly origins.
By 1573, the empire of Japan has suffered from generations of war as the shoguns lost their grip over the nation and let the country disintegrate and divide under the influence and power of the most powerful daimyo clans.
One of these clans was the Takeda of the Kai Province, in western Japan, a family of power and influence, under the leadership of the talented and resourceful Takeda Shingen, son of Takeda Nobutara.
Shingen, a man of great intelligence and skill, was able to take the domain he inherited at the age of 21 and turn it into a force to be reckoned with in the west of Japan, beginning a series of campaigns against his neighboring clans, succeeding in the conquest of the provinces of Shinano and several other territories around his own domain, including several castles from the warlord that would become his chief rival over the years, Uesugi Kenshin.
Kenshin and Shingen would come to fight each other for several years, the rivalry between the two gaining fame thanks to the series of engagements fought at Kawanakajima, the Takeda facing the Uesugi five times in a war that nearly bled the two clans white.
In the year of 1572, Takeda Shingen had made himself one of the most powerful daimyos in Japan, having expanded his domains greatly at the expense of his neighbors and achieving an uneasy yet effective peace with his neighbors thanks to the truce made with Hojo Ujimasa and the exhaustion that resulted from his wars with Uesugi Kenshin, who would remain a threat to Shingenfs northern border for years nonetheless.
It was the great fame and power that Shingen had obtained in his years as head of the Takeda clan that made him the most suitable candidate for shogun Ashikaga Yoshinaki, who had been conspiring against his patron, the great daimyo Oda Nobunaga.
Nobunaga, who had risen from relative obscurity in the Owari province, had not only conquered the imperial capital of Kyoto along with most of central Japan, but had also been able to install a puppet Shogun in the capital, but in spite of Yoshinaki's role as de jure ruler of the country, it was Nobunaga the one who controlled the government, much to the frustration of the Shogun.
Of the great four daimyos that quarreled for power outside of the Oda sphere of influence; Mori Motonari, Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen and Hojo Ujiyasu, Shingen was the only one with the power and in the position to halt Nobunaga's momentum and prevent him from gaining national hegemony.
Shingen's campaign began in earnest in 1572, when he launched an invasion of the domains of Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of Nobunaga's staunch allies and Shingen's rivals, with whom he had disputed the division of the Imagawa domain recently.
The invasion of Totomi and the capture of the imposing fortress of Iwamura marked the beginning of the campaign against Ieyasu in the winter of 1572, in an offensive made possible by the strategic genius of the Takeda generals and Shingen himself, while the Tokugawa suffered from poorer leadership and only enjoyed little support from Nobunaga, who was at the time engaged in a series of campaigns at Nagashima.
Meanwhile, the war between Ieyasu and Shingen would continue, eventually leading to the decisive battle of Mikatagahara, on January 6th of 1573.
風林火山
Swift as the Wind, Silent as a Forest, Fierce as Fire and Immovable as a Mountain
Chapter I: The Tiger of Kai
The end of the Ashikaga order, the extinction of stability and peace, the rise and fall of the daimyos, the social and national war and the rise of the great generals of lowly origins.
By 1573, the empire of Japan has suffered from generations of war as the shoguns lost their grip over the nation and let the country disintegrate and divide under the influence and power of the most powerful daimyo clans.
One of these clans was the Takeda of the Kai Province, in western Japan, a family of power and influence, under the leadership of the talented and resourceful Takeda Shingen, son of Takeda Nobutara.
Shingen, a man of great intelligence and skill, was able to take the domain he inherited at the age of 21 and turn it into a force to be reckoned with in the west of Japan, beginning a series of campaigns against his neighboring clans, succeeding in the conquest of the provinces of Shinano and several other territories around his own domain, including several castles from the warlord that would become his chief rival over the years, Uesugi Kenshin.
Kenshin and Shingen would come to fight each other for several years, the rivalry between the two gaining fame thanks to the series of engagements fought at Kawanakajima, the Takeda facing the Uesugi five times in a war that nearly bled the two clans white.
In the year of 1572, Takeda Shingen had made himself one of the most powerful daimyos in Japan, having expanded his domains greatly at the expense of his neighbors and achieving an uneasy yet effective peace with his neighbors thanks to the truce made with Hojo Ujimasa and the exhaustion that resulted from his wars with Uesugi Kenshin, who would remain a threat to Shingenfs northern border for years nonetheless.
It was the great fame and power that Shingen had obtained in his years as head of the Takeda clan that made him the most suitable candidate for shogun Ashikaga Yoshinaki, who had been conspiring against his patron, the great daimyo Oda Nobunaga.
Nobunaga, who had risen from relative obscurity in the Owari province, had not only conquered the imperial capital of Kyoto along with most of central Japan, but had also been able to install a puppet Shogun in the capital, but in spite of Yoshinaki's role as de jure ruler of the country, it was Nobunaga the one who controlled the government, much to the frustration of the Shogun.
Of the great four daimyos that quarreled for power outside of the Oda sphere of influence; Mori Motonari, Uesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen and Hojo Ujiyasu, Shingen was the only one with the power and in the position to halt Nobunaga's momentum and prevent him from gaining national hegemony.
Shingen's campaign began in earnest in 1572, when he launched an invasion of the domains of Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of Nobunaga's staunch allies and Shingen's rivals, with whom he had disputed the division of the Imagawa domain recently.
The invasion of Totomi and the capture of the imposing fortress of Iwamura marked the beginning of the campaign against Ieyasu in the winter of 1572, in an offensive made possible by the strategic genius of the Takeda generals and Shingen himself, while the Tokugawa suffered from poorer leadership and only enjoyed little support from Nobunaga, who was at the time engaged in a series of campaigns at Nagashima.
Meanwhile, the war between Ieyasu and Shingen would continue, eventually leading to the decisive battle of Mikatagahara, on January 6th of 1573.