was a battle during the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

(16th century) of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It was fought at a field called Suriagehara, whose modern location is split between the towns of

Inawashiro is a town located in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 13,810 in 5309 households, and a population density of 35 persons per km². The total area of the town was . It is noted as the birthplace of the famous ...

and

Bandai is a Japanese multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and Richmond ...

Fukushima Prefecture Fukushima Prefecture (; ja, 福島県, Fukushima-ken, ) is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,810,286 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miya ...

Background

The Battle of Suriagehara served as the aftermath of the

Siege of Kurokawa The siege of Kurokawa Castle was a battle during the Azuchi–Momoyama period (16th century) of Japan. Following the assassination of Ashina Moritaka. Satake Yoshinobu, son of Satake Yoshishige, was chosen to inherit the leadership of the clan. ...

, in which

Satake Yoshinobu was a ''daimyō'' in Sengoku period and early Edo period Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate and the 19th head of the Satake clan and 1st ''daimyō'' of Kubota Domain in Dewa Province. His courtesy title was '' Sakonoeshōshō'', later '' Ukyō ...

with his 16,000 men stole the moment to enact revenge for their previous defeat at Kurokawa Castle.

Battle

Date Masamune was a regional ruler of Japan's Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful ''daimyō'' in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai. An outstanding tactician, he was made all ...

, with his superior 23,000 troops, defeated the Ashina. While some Ashina forces withdrew across the Nippashi River to Kurokawa, the bridge gave out amidst their retreat, leaving many Ashina troops to be cut down when the Date forces overtook them. According to the 17th century text ''Ōū Eikei Gunki,'' there were around 500 Ashina troops killed at the Nippashi River alone.

Aftermath

This battle helped seal the Date clan's hegemony over southern

Mutsu Province was an old province of Japan in the area of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Aomori Prefectures and the municipalities of Kazuno and Kosaka in Akita Prefecture. Mutsu Province is also known as or . The term is often used to refer to the comb ...

. However, despite the victory, resistance after the battle continued, notably from the pro-Ashina,

Nikaidō is the name of one of the administrative units ("towns", chō or machi) of Kamakura, a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo. Nikaidō lies immediately to the east of Nishi Mikado and Yukinoshita, and use ...

and Ishikawa clans. The battle later served as the basis for the

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

play "Suriage." According to local lore, the Tohoku folk song "Sansa Shigure" was written by Masamune in the celebrations following this Date victory.

References

*Date Shigezane. ''Shigezane-ki''. pp. 207-329 of ''Sendai Sōsho'' Volume 3. Sendai: Sendai Sōsho Kankōkai, 1923. 1589 in Japan Suriagehara Suriagehara Date clan Suriagehara {{Japan-battle-stub