The 1581 was one of the crucial battles in

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

's campaigns to seize Iga province during Japan's

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 ...

. After a lengthy siege, and several successful sallies by the defenders, the castle eventually fell and was destroyed.

Gamō Ujisato or Gamō Yasuhide was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku and Azuchi–Momoyama periods. He was heir and son of Gamō Katahide, lord of Hino Castle in Ōmi Province, he later held Matsusaka (Ise Province) and finally Aizuwakamatsu Castle in M ...

Tsutsui Junkei son of Tsutsui Junshō, and a ''daimyō'' of the province of Yamato. On 1571, Junkei, through the offices of Akechi Mitsuhide, pledged to service of Oda Nobunaga. Military life Early in his career, in 1565, Matsunaga Hisahide, one of the most ...

and

Wakisaka Yasuharu (1554 – September 26, 1626), sometimes referred to as Wakizaka Yasuharu, was a ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of Awaji Island who fought under a number of warlords over the course of Japan's Sengoku period. Wakisaka originally served under A ...

commanded Nobunaga's forces, Gamō attacking the castle's neighboring towns near modern-day

Ueno is a district in Tokyo's Taitō Ward, best known as the home of Ueno Park. Ueno is also home to some of Tokyo's finest cultural sites, including the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Western Art, and the National Museum of Na ...

Mie prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture and Kyoto Prefecture to ...

while Tsutsui approached from the west. The defensive force rose from those villages and gathered at the fortress, some preparing an ambush halfway up the hill. Gamō and Tsutsui launched their assault at night, pressing up the hill and meeting fierce resistance before being pushed back entirely by the ambush. The defenders threw rocks and even trees, and fired muskets from the castle. Several nights later, the garrison launched a secret attack of their own on the enemy camp at Nagaokayama. Approaching from three directions, they lit torches upon a signal and closed in. Tsutsui's forces were alarmed and confused, and began firing arrows in every direction. Shortly, however, the torches were blown out by a fierce wind, and the battle was plunged into darkness. The garrison's warriors allegedly used passwords to help them determine friend from foe, while their foes killed many of their own in the confusion. Despite this assault, the fortress was still under siege, badly outnumbered, and running out of food. When Gamō and Tsutsui attacked the fortress once more, they found the weather to be perfect for setting the entire complex ablaze. Wind from the mountains and dry weather combined to fan the flames and spread them across the wooden stockades, destroying the entire fortress, along with the nearby

Hachiman In Japanese religion, ''Yahata'' (八幡神, ancient Shinto pronunciation) formerly in Shinto and later commonly known as Hachiman (八幡神, Japanese Buddhist pronunciation) is the syncretic divinity of archery and war, incorporating elements f ...

Shintō Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoist ...

shrine.

References

{{coord missing, Japan Hijiyama 1581 1581 in Japan Hijiyama Hijiyama 1581