The siege of Shika castle, which took place in September 1547, was one of many battles fought in

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 ...

's bid to seize 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 ...

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 The was a Japanese samurai clan active from the late Heian period until the late 16th century. The clan was historically based in Kai Province in present-day Yamanashi Prefecture. The clan reached its greatest influence under the rule of Taked ...

, 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, 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 was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) who controlled the Province of Kai, and fought in a number of battles of the Sengoku period. He was the father of the famous Takeda Shingen. Biography Nobutora’s son was Harunobu, later known as Take ...

, 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, and then followed that up with the defeat of the Takato in 1543-5, and of the turncoat Oi Sadakiyo in 1546. Fresh from the defeat of the Sadakiyo, in 1547 he then turned his attention to Shika castle, controlled by

Kasahara Kiyoshige Kasahara may refer to: * Kasahara (surname) * Kasahara, Gifu, a former town in Gifu Prefecture, Japan * Sakai–Kasahara scheme, an encryption system * 7133 Kasahara, a main-belt asteroid named after Shin Kasahara {{disambiguation ...

. Securing this castle would secure the Takeda position in the Saku Valley and enable Shingen to advance on into the northern half of Shinano.

Siege

Takeda Shingen laid siege to the castle on 8 September 1547. This move alarmed

Uesugi Norimasa was a ''daimyō'' of feudal Japan from Yamanouchi branch Uesugi clan and held the post of Kantō Kanrei, the ''shōgun''s deputy in the Kantō region. He was the adoptive father of Uesugi Kenshin, one of the most famous warlords in Japanese his ...

, who feared that Shingen might conquer the whole of Shinano if left unchecked. He therefore sent an army into the province to relieve Shika, commanded by

Kanai Hidekage Kanai may refer to: *the Kanai, an ethnic group of Jews who settled the Kerala region in India. *Kanai (Judaism), a zealot in the scriptures * Kanai (surname), a Japanese surname * Kanai Anzen, an amulet *Nirai Kanai, an Okinawan myth * ''Nirai Ka ...

, but Shingen ambushed and defeated this force at the

battle of Odaihara The 1547 Battle of Odaihara was one of a series of battles waged by Takeda Shingen in his long campaign to conquer Shinano province. In this particular encounter he was fighting the forces of Uesugi Norimasa, who was based in Echigo province but ...

. The Takeda forces collected the severed heads of 15 ''

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

'' and around 300 ''

ashigaru were infantry employed by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The first known reference to ''ashigaru'' was in the 14th century, but it was during the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi period) that the use of ''ashigaru'' became prevalent by various ...

'' from the battlefield at Odaihara and subsequently paraded these round the walls of Shika in a bid to intimidate the garrison into surrender. Kasahara continued to hold out nevertheless, but then at noon on 23 September a fire broke out within the castle, greatly damaging the defences. Shingen seized the opportunity to mount an assault that evening, in which Kasahara was killed.

Aftermath

The fall of Shika spurred

Murakami Yoshikiyo Murakami Yoshikiyo (村上義清, 1501–1573) was a Japanese samurai from the and retainer of the Uesugi clan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. Yoshikiyo followed in fighting against both Takeda Nobutora and his son Takeda Shingen ...

, the most powerful Shinano ''daimyō'', into moving against the Takeda, and in 1548 he succeeded in defeating Shingen at Uedahara. However this was only a temporary setback for Shingen, who went back on the offensive in Shinano in 1550 and drove Yoshikiyo out of Shinano after the 1553

Siege of Katsurao The 1553 siege of Katsurao was one of many sieges undertaken by the warlord Takeda Shingen in his long campaign to gain control of Japan's Shinano province, which was ruled by a hodgepodge of minor ''daimyō'', notably the Suwa clan, Suwa, Ogasaw ...

. This in turn prompted a renewed Uesugi intervention in Shinano, led by their new ''daimyō''

Uesugi Kenshin , later known as was a Japanese ''daimyō''. He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. Known as ...

, which culminated in the famous

Battles of Kawanakajima The were a series of battles fought in the Sengoku period of Japan between Takeda Shingen of Kai Province and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province from 1553 to 1564. Shingen and Kenshin contested each other for control of the plain of Kawanakaj ...

In popular culture

Takeda Shingen's famous display of severed heads before the walls of Shika is depicted in the 1969 Japanese film ''Fūrin Kazan'' ('Samurai Banners'), which follows the careers of Shingen and his general Yamamoto Kansuke.

References

*Turnbull, Stephen (1998). ''The Samurai Sourcebook''. London: Cassell & Co. {{coord missing, Japan Shika Shika 1546 in Japan 1547 in Japan Conflicts in 1546 Conflicts in 1547 Shika Castle