The 1546 siege of Uchiyama was one of many battles fought by

Takeda Shingen , of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' in feudal Japan. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period. Shingen was a warlord of great ...

bid to gain control of

Shinano Province or is an old province of Japan that is now Nagano Prefecture. Shinano bordered on Echigo, Etchū, Hida, Kai, Kōzuke, Mikawa, Mino, Musashi, Suruga, and Tōtōmi Provinces. The ancient capital was located near modern-day Matsumoto, whi ...

. His troops surrounded the fortress and starved out the garrison.

Background

The battle took place during the 16th-century

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 ...

, also known as the "Age of Civil War". After the

Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era during which the war started; the war ended during the Bunmei ...

(1467–77), the ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

''s system and taxation had increasingly less control outside the province of the capital in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, and powerful lords (''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

s'') began to assert themselves. Such lords gained power by usurpation, warfare or marriage—any means that would safeguard their position. It was manifested in '' yamajiro'' ("mountain castles"), which overlooked the provinces. One of the most ambitious and successful warlords of the period was

, the ''daimyō'' of the Takeda clan, which dominated Kai Province. Bordering Kai to the north was

, a large mountainous territory which was not controlled by a single clan but by several relatively weak ones, notably the Suwa, Ogasawara, Murakami and Takato. As such it was an attractive target to its neighbours, in particular the Takeda to the south and

Uesugi clan The is a Japanese samurai clan which was at its peak one of the most powerful during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods (14th to 17th centuries). Appert, Georges. (1888) ''Ancien Japon,'' p. 79./ref> At its height, the clan had three main branch ...

Echigo Province was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan. It bordered on Uzen, Iwashiro, Kōzuke, Shinano, and Etchū Provinces. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Echigo''" in . It corresponds today to Niigata ...

to the north. Takeda Shingen's father, Takeda Nobutora, had already made a probing expedition into Shinano in 1536 (leading to the

Battle of Un no Kuchi The Battle of Un no Kuchi (referred to in Japanese as 海ノ口城, ''un no kuchi jou'', literally Un no Kuchi Castle) in 1536 was the first major victory for Takeda Harunobu, aged fifteen at the time. He would later take on the name Takeda Shin ...

), and after becoming ''daimyō'' himself Shingen mounted his own invasion in 1542, which ended with the successful conquest of the Suwa. One of the castles Shingen seized was that of Nagakubo, which he entrusted to Oi Sadataka. However, in 1543 Sadataka betrayed Shingen and went over to the Takato. Shingen responded by mounting a second invasion of Shinano in 1543, and he quickly seized Nagakubo and captured Sadataka. Sadataka's son Oi Sadakiyo continued to resist, making his base at Uchiyama, but Shingen was temporarily distracted by a renewed the threat from the Takato, whom he spent the next two years fighting.

Siege

Once that threat was finally dealt with, Shingen was free to turn his attention back to Oi Sadakiyo. He marched against Sadakiyo's fortress at Uchiyama in June 1546 and successfully starved it into submission.

Aftermath

Uchiyama subsequently became a Takeda base for operations deeper in Shinano Province. After the Takeda reverse at the

Battle of Uedahara The was the first defeat suffered by Takeda Shingen, and the first field battle in Japan in which firearms were used. It took place in Shinano Province or the modern-day Nagano Prefecture. Battle The Battle of Uedahara was part of Shingen's ...

it was attacked and burned on 1 June 1548 by

Ogasawara Nagatoki (November 9, 1519 – April 17, 1583) was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' of Shinano Province in the Sengoku period. Turnbull, Stephen. (2013)''Kawanakajima 1553–64: Samurai Power Struggle'', P. 54 In 1542, Shinano Province was invaded by Taked ...

and the

Murakami clan Murakami may refer to: * 3295 Murakami, a minor planet * Murakami (crater), an impact crater on the far side of the Moon * Murakami (name), a Japanese surname, including a list of people with the name * Murakami, Niigata, a city in Niigata prefect ...

, but Shingen's general Oyamada Nobushige regained it in September.

References

*Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co. *Turnbull, Stephen (2013). 'Kawanakajima 1553-64: Samurai power struggle'. Oxford: Osprey {{DEFAULTSORT:Uchiyama Battles of the Sengoku period Sieges involving Japan 1546 in Japan Conflicts in 1546