Season 9, Episode 7: Sengoku “States,” Part I

As the quote marks around states in the title suggest, I am using the term somewhat ironically. The factions that vied for power during Sengoku Jidai were, once more with feeling, not technically states. They did, however, fulfill many of the basic functions of states to varying degrees between them. They made laws, arranged for public welfare, set regulations on trade, and were often just as concerned with economics as they were with the next battle, if not more so.

For the next three episodes, we will broadly cover the domains of the major clans who would become power players during Sengoku Jidai. This episode will focus primarily on some of the major powers of the Kanto and Chubu regions, specifically the Imagawa, Takeda, and Uesugi, giving a basic overview of those clans’ histories, dispositions, and domains up to around the 1550s or so. Keep in mind that we are primarily discussing the clans who managed to thrive and survive during Sengoku Jidai and sometimes even beyond. It really wouldn’t be possible to try and cover every single clan that existed during Sengoku and while these clans were generally the most successful, there were many more who fell victim to intrigues, warfare, and feuds typical of the time.

The daimyo who led great clans and confederations during the Sengoku period are often described as warlords. I have used this term sparingly, but I think a case can be made that it is a somewhat anemic descriptor for many of the faction leaders. The term warlord conjures an image of a petty leader raiding and pillaging throughout the countryside, seizing movable wealth and burning whatever cannot be taken. Although the warfare of Sengoku did sometimes take a similar form, this was not done merely out of greed but usually to achieve some larger strategic objective. What made them warlords in the most strictly technical sense is that their warriors pledged allegiance to them personally - not to the emperor, the shogun, the bakufu, or other nebulous entity. However, do we think of the leaders of York and Lancaster from the War of the Roses as Warlords? Would we describe Charlemagne or William the Conqueror as mere warlords? I propose we treat the warring factions of Sengoku Jidai with a similar basic level of respect as we would their counterparts in Europe.

We will begin, as promised, with the Imagawa Clan. You may recall from last season that the Imagawa family came to prominence during the Nanboku-cho War when Imagawa Ryoushun led a successful incursion into Kyushu and nearly had the entire region united under the Bakufu’s banner until he arranged the murder of one of the local chieftains whom he suspected of treachery, an act which effectively alienated every major clan on Kyushu, who soon turned against him and against the shogunate. In spite of this blunder, and in spite of providing aid to rebel Ashikaga Yoshihiro, the Imagawa Clan became hereditary shugos over Suruga Province.

They had been greatly aided by Hojo Soun, and they maintained good relations with the Hojo Clan throughout Sengoku and beyond. It was thanks to Soun that power in the clan was finally handed over to Imagawa Ujichika, who took to the job of chieftain with enthusiasm and vigor. Avenging his father and retaking a province which had formerly belonged under the Imagawa banner was his most pressing objective.

I mentioned in episode 3 that the Shiba clan was eventually muscled out of the position of Kanrei in 1468, near the beginning of the Onin War. Some of their members participated in the war in the capital, including former Kanrei Shiba Yoshikado. The Shiba clan was, at the time, undergoing an extremely destructive succession dispute which was fueled by the Ouchi clan, who gave shelter to the former chieftain of the Shiba Clan, Shiba Yoshitoshi. The chieftain of the Shiba Clan was still the hereditary shugo of Owari Province, but after the Onin War the Asakura Clan would drive their partisans out of Echigo Province to the north.

To the east of Owari lay Mikawa, Totomi, and Suruga Provinces. Both Mikawa and Totomi were claimed by the Imagawa Clan but the resident samurai of those provinces had come to resent Imagawa domination and frequently requested help from the Shiba Clan in an effort to play the two against each other. Imagawa Ujichika’s father, Yoshitada, spent much of his career trying to completely subdue neighboring Totomi Province and just when it seemed like things were calming down, in 1476 the Shiba helped improve the defense works of some of the local factions in Totomi. Imagawa Yoshitada once again raised an army and once again swept into Totomi and destroyed all active opposition. At least, he thought he did.

As he returned to Suruga Province triumphant and probably feeling ready to expand his control over Mikawa Province next, his warband was ambushed by a remnant force loyal to the Totomi resistance and he was killed by an arrow. Thus when Imagawa Ujichika came of age, he felt it was only right to press the Imagawa claim in Totomi and beyond.

Friend of the pod Hojo Soun led the Imagawa forces into Totomi in 1494, an incursion which successfully brought about half the province under Imagawa control. The Shiba Clan was weakening and had few practical options at their disposal. They controlled Owari but Mikawa had by this point become relatively independent, which essentially severed any supply line between Owari and Totomi Province. By the early 1500s, the entirety of Totomi was part of Imagawa Ujichika’s domain, and he soon felt secure enough to press his influence further, making incursions into Mikawa Province next door.

After the clans of Mikawa submitted, at least nominally, Ujichika took the fight to Owari Province while also finding time to occasionally fight alongside his friend and now fellow sengoku daimyo, Hojo Soun. Unfortunately for the Imagawa, their battle line was starting to become somewhat overstretched. Periodic risings in Mikawa and Totomi required military response, which meant fewer troops to pursue expansionist wars against the Shiba in Owari and the Takeda in Kai Province, whom they also now counted as enemies. Imagawa Ujichika is credited with building a castle called Yanagi-no-maru in western Owari Province, apparently with the objective of exerting permanent control over Owari.

In 1532, however, that fortress would be seized by one Oda Nobuhide, a member of the Oda Clan. The Oda held the hereditary title of shugodai, or shugo’s deputy, of Owari Province. Nobuhide would renovate and fortify the structure and give it a new name, the same name which it is known by today: Nagoya Castle. Incidentally, I have visited modern-day Nagoya Castle with Mrs. A-History-Of-Japan, though this was back before we were even engaged. I highly recommend visiting it with someone you hope to marry, clearly it worked for me.

Deserving of special attention is Imagawa Ujichika’s wife, a woman who originally hailed from a Kuge clan - the Nakamikado. She is only known by the Dharma name she received when she took vows as a Buddhist nun much later in life, Jukei-ni. A political animal who provided much of the diplomatic backing her husband needed between battles, Jukei-ni was a champion for the Imagawa clan who had an uncanny understanding of politics and people. Their marriage had probably been arranged in order to secure the loyalty of the Imagawa Clan to the court and, by extension, the Bakufu, but Jukei-ni clearly had no intention of being anyone’s impotent political pawn. She arranged alliances, negotiated peace treaties, and somehow found the time to have four children - three sons and a daughter.

Jukei-ni continued exerting influence long after Ujichika died. She advised their son, Ujiteru, when he was made chieftain. She helped arrange a tripartite alliance between the Imagawa, Hojo, and Takeda Clan, which we will discuss a little later on. She was so influential that she was unofficially called the Onna Daimyo, or Woman Daimyo, of the Imagawa Clan.

As for Ujichika, six years before the loss of Nagoya Castle he wrote a law code titled the “Imagawa Kana Mokuroku.” While it seems likely that this “mokuroku” was meant as a supplement to the previous law codes previously promulgated by the court and the shogunate, it included specific rules applicable to the residents of the Imagawa Domain. Such documents were not entirely unheard of before Sengoku Jidai - many such mokuroku had been established by managers and owners of shoens, for example - but to enforce a series of supplemental laws as a daimyo was a step beyond the usual “don’t steal from the boss” mokuroku which had come before.

Of particular interest is the stipulation that samurai vassals who are sworn to the Imagawa clan were not permitted to marry or arrange to marry anyone from a clan which was outside of the Imagawa domain. It is easy to see the practical wisdom behind such a measure, as it was most beneficial for daimyo to avoid allowing a retainer to cultivate divided loyalties. However, the Imagawa Kana Mokuroku did not end with samurai alone - it included limits on land sales, a threat of execution for retainers who were caught fighting amongst themselves, and specific punishments for petty crimes like breaking and entering, among many others.

Such legal supplements would become somewhat common during the Sengoku Period, and are yet another symbol of the shrinking authority of the Bakufu and the growing authority of regional power brokers like Imagawa Ujichika. Kanto had always enjoyed a certain degree of independence from the shogunate and imperial court, being so distant and so generally neglected. Other powers in the region would also begin flexing their independent muscle through similar means.

North of the Imagawa domains of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa lay the inland province of Kai, the home of the Takeda Clan. The Takeda were hardly newcomers - they claimed membership in the Kai branch of the Seiwa-Genji and had helped Minamoto Yoritomo during the Gempei War. At a time when so many old power clans were failing to adapt to the realities of the new era, the Takeda Clan seems to have had little trouble. I think a significant factor in their seeming adaptability is the fact that they were based in Kanto, where fighting was more common and the bonds of state had rarely superceded the bonds of personal loyalty.

Takeda Nobutsuna took over the clan leadership in 1491, when he was around twenty years old. His father, Nobumasa, appears to have had great difficulties in the position, and many of the Jizamurai of Kai province were beginning to form leagues to resist Takeda hegemony. The Takeda were the official shugo of Kai Province, but during Sengoku that meant almost nothing without an army to back it up. Unfortunately for Nobutsuna, his clan was also about to go through a succession dispute.

The primary challenger to Nobutsuna’s supremacy within the clan was Aburakawa Nobuyoshi, his half brother who had taken his mother’s clan name. In 1491 his own father Nobumasa also supported Nobuyoshi over him, and a decades-long power struggle ensued. In addition to the occasional skirmish with his half-brother’s army, he also faced off against aggression from the Imagawa clan, whose armies were being led by the man who would later be known as Hojo Soun. Nobutsuna was a very capable leader, however, and he managed to expand the Takeda clan’s control over Kai Province, though it was not entirely united under their authority in his lifetime.

He died in 1505, the same year his father Nobumasa also passed away, and his son Takeda Nobutora took up the leadership of the clan. His uncle Nobuyoshi still had not given up trying to win the chieftainship, and would need to be dealt with. In 1508 Nobutora got his opportunity. Showing an aptitude for the warfare of his age, Nobutora led a warband to Katsuyama Castle and succeeded in launching a surprise nighttime assault which soon overwhelmed the defenders. Nobuyoshi was killed in the ensuing melee, and the question of rightful succession in the Takeda Clan was now settled.

Nobutora deserves a lot of credit for the revival of the Takeda Clan in Kanto. He successfully defended against incursions by the Hojo Clan and the Imagawa Clan and maneuvered the Takeda Clan so that they would benefit from the divisions which had splintered and weakened the Uesugi Clan. He even made official requests of recognition to the Bakufu, who confirmed his position as Shugo of Kai Province and arranged for him to receive a court rank promotion. This helped give the Takeda Clan a little extra polish of legitimacy and while the Bakufu was wise enough to acknowledge their supremacy in Kai, they also weren’t in much of a position to refuse.

Nobutora had several sons, who served him ably as generals but also contributed to an unstable political situation within the clan. Although the oldest, Harunobu, was the official heir, some vassals schemed to put his brothers Nobukado or Nobuzane in charge instead. Some even gained the ear of Nobutora, who seems to have given the matter far more consideration than his oldest son would have liked.

Harunobu seems to have had the majority support among all the Takeda vassals, however, and would even later enjoy the unwavering loyalty of the very brothers whom he was erstwhile competing against. Even in his younger days, Harunobu was a cunning strategist with an eye for terrain, a deep understanding of human nature, and the will to exploit every advantage he could find.

Humorist Mark Twain once said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. It’s hard not to draw parallels between the elder Nobutora, who had been obliged to fight against his own father and his son Harunobu who now seemed ready to do the same.

In 1536, Nobutora led an army to Un no Kuchi Castle but did not have the resources or confidence to launch an assault. As he and his men were withdrawing, Harunobu saw a perfect opportunity to outdo his father and win a great victory. Two birds, one stone.

In the dead of night, Harunobu brought his division of the army, the rearguard, out of sight of the castle. As soon as he was satisfied that the enemy believed their withdrawal was genuine, he launched a surprise assault which quickly overwhelmed the gobsmacked defenders who thought the Takeda had departed. Un no Kuchi Castle fell quickly and now Harunobu had succeeded where his father had failed. In 1540, Nobutora conceded that his eldest son was the right man for the job and retired, fleeing to Suruga Province to take shelter with the Hojo Clan for fear that he would be assassinated.

Takeda Harunobu was now the new daimyo of the Takeda Clan of Kai Province, and his father’s court titles and ranks now passed to him. He changed his name to Shingen, the name by which he is primarily remembered, because Shingen was the Dharma name he adopted later in life.

Takeda Shingen would prove himself every inch a worthy heir to his illustrious father. He promoted his warriors on the basis of merit and the leaders of his armies later became known as the “Twenty-four Generals of Takeda Shingen.” I will now list all of their names: just kidding.

You can google them if you’d like, they are certainly worth learning about, but it suits our purposes in this podcast to note that three of those generals were his brothers who, as I mentioned earlier, served him loyally and with great enthusiasm. In an age where every brother was a rival and every male cousin a mortal threat, it is refreshing to see some family unity. Arguably this unity was one of the core strengths of the Takeda Clan, though their broad deployment of clever stratagems and well-timed tactics certainly helped. It also helped that the Takeda Clan itself functioned like a council, taking input from the higher ranking members who acted in a strong confederation.

We will follow Takeda Shingen’s career in more detail in a future episode. Suffice to say, he spent a lot of time expanding into Shinano Province, which bordered Kai on the north, and developed a long-term rivalry with a member of the final clan which we will discuss in today’s episode.

That final major clan is the Uesugi. We have already discussed many of their foibles and follies in previous episodes, particularly episode 4, “The Rise of Hojo.” In spite of the many disasters they suffered at the hands of Nagao Tamekage and Hojo Soun, the Uesugi clan were not entirely extinguished just yet.

Their former domains were composed of Sagami, Musashi, Kozuke, and Echigo Provinces, a stretch of land which would have touched the ocean on both its northern and southern border. The Hojo had gobbled up Sagami Province while the Uesugi branches were busy fighting one another, and Echigo Province was largely under the control of the burgeoning Nagao Clan. Musashi and Kozuke Provinces were both heavily contested by the Hojo, Imagawa, and Takeda Clans, each of whom were nibbling at the edges of the Uesugi domains. The family still held the hereditary rights to the title of Kanto Kanrei. While the title of Kanto Kubo’s deputy had, in effect, transformed into “Assistant to the Kanto Kubo,” it was still important enough to prevent the Uesugi Clan’s premature demise. They might have been somewhat powerless to enforce the implied authority behind the title, but one of their rival clans discovered a clever way to gain both the power and the title.

As their territories in Kanto proper were gradually absorbed by their aggressive rivals, eventually they regrouped under Uesugi Tomosada, who organized a massive army meant to assault Kawagoe Castle starting in October of 1545. This particular stronghold was located in Musashi Province and if the Uesugi could manage to oust the Hojo clan squatters, they may have had a real chance at reviving their role as the leading clan in Kanto. As the venture began, every sign pointed to a massive Uesugi victory.

The army led by Uesugi Tomosada was said to number around 80,000. It is possible that this figure is inflated, but it is also possible that many of their number were conscripts or ronin mercenaries or just plain old ashigaru. The events of the battle hint that the Uesugi force, whatever their background, was not sufficiently motivated to earn a victory. Kawagoe Castle itself was manned by a force of 3,000, but the fortifications proved sufficient to keep the assaulting Uesugi at bay. The castle garrison was led by one Hojo Tsunashige, who had adopted the Hojo name after marrying the daimyo’s daughter.

The defenders ably held back repeated assault attempts, much to the frustration of the Uesugi besiegers. For months the castle held firm, and even managed to keep in contact with their daimyo, Hojo Ujiyasu, the grandson of Hojo Soun. He advised them to hold the castle, and that he was making arrangements to relieve the siege. By May of 1546, Hojo Ujiyasu arrived with a modest relief force of around 8,000 warriors. Many of these were loyal, hardened samurai who had fought for the Hojo and won great rewards in previous battles, and the difference in morale on both sides was no doubt a factor in determining the outcome.

The usual manner of samurai warfare was that they would wear heavy armor, take and keep enemy heads, and present said heads to receive rewards and have their heroic deeds recorded for posterity. Hojo Ujiyasu ordered his relief army to leave their heavy armor behind and not to bother keeping enemy heads. The most likely explanation is that he favored a sudden lightning attack and feared that the armor and head-taking would slow the progress of such an attack, which relied on speed and surprise.

In the middle of the night, Ujiyasu sprung his trap, reportedly inflicting over 10,000 casualties on the Uesugi besiegers, whose army soon crumbled and fled before the combined force of the relief army and the defenders, who sallied forth to support their brothers-in-arms. Uesugi Tomosada himself was killed in the onslaught, leaving the clan in the hands of Uesugi Norimasa, a man who was by no means prepared to restore the former glories of the Uesugi Clan. After losing the Battle of Odaihara to Takeda Shingen, Norimasa turned to the one person he hoped could turn the Uesugi fortunes around: Nagao Kagetora.

After the death of Nagao Tamekage at the hands of Ikko-Ikki partisans in neighboring Etchu Province in 1536, the chieftainship of the Nagao Clan fell to his eldest son, Nagao Harukage. Unfortunately for the ascendant Nagao Clan, Harukage had a sickly constitution and his frequent illnesses led some jizamurai in Echigo to try and take advantage by organizing rebellions. These rebellions were put down by Harukage’s younger brother Kagetora, who appears to have been quite loyal to his elder brother.

The Nagao Clan were hereditary shugodai, or shugo’s deputies, of Echigo Province, and they nominally served the Echigo branch of the Uesugi Clan, which was led by a man named Sadazane. Nagao Harukage was ineffective both as chieftain and as the shugodai, and the vassals soon began flocking to his younger brother Kagetora and encouraging him to overthrow his sickly older brother. Kagetora refused to even entertain the idea that he would usurp his brother, but when Uesugi Sadazane himself suggested a change in management, he agreed.

Sadazane approached Harukage with a simple proposal: he would adopt his younger brother Kagetora, then immediately retire. It seems that Harukage saw the wisdom in this decision and in 1549, he did exactly that, making Nagao Kagetora the chieftain of the Nagao Clan and the rightful shugodai of Echigo Province. When the childless Uesugi Sadazane died in 1550, the Muromachi Bakufu officially recognized Nagao Kagetora as the rightful shugo of Echigo Province. Quite a promotion.

In 1551, he found an opportunity for an even greater promotion. Uesugi Norimasa, fleeing from the aggression of Hojo Ujiyasu’s forces, sought refuge at Kasugayama Castle, the headquarters of the Nagao Clan. Nagao Kagetora saw an opportunity and set forth the following conditions: 1) that Kagetora be adopted by Norimasa, 2) that he be declared Norimasa’s rightful heir and thus heir to the title of shugo of Musashi Province, and 3) that he also be privy to the title of Kanto Kanrei. Uesugi Norimasa was hardly in a position to refuse these outrageous demands, so he quickly agreed to them and went through the official motions to make them legally binding. Kagetora initially changed his name to Terutora, but later he would change it to the name by which history would remember him: Uesugi Kenshin.

Any book, course, or independent study of Japan during Sengoku Jidai that neglects to mention Uesugi Kenshin is woefully incomplete. I will admit that during my own research for this season, I had forgotten that Uesugi Kenshin was not originally a member of the Uesugi Clan but was adopted by Uesugi Norimasa. Soon afterward, Norimasa officially retired, leaving the man formerly known as Nagao Kagetora to govern the Uesugi Clan as Uesugi Kenshin. It is under his leadership that the Uesugi Clan would experience a marvelous resurgence and prove that it had a rightful place in Sengoku Japan as a legitimate player in the Kanto region.

We will discuss the specifics of Uesugi Kenshin’s accomplishments in a later episode. Next time, we will explore more of the great clans that came to dominate important regions of Japan and would thus make themselves into players in the great game: specifically the Date Clan, the Oda Clan, and the Mori Clan.