Sengoku Period Wiki
Siege of Takatenjin (1581)
Battle Information
Date 1581
Location Takatenjin,
Tōtōmi Province
Result Oda-Tokugawa Victory
Forces
Oda - Tokugawa Takeda
Commanders
Tokugawa Ieyasu Okabe Motonobu
Notable Officers
Mizuno Katsushige
Honda Shigetsugu
Naitō Nobunari
Sakai Tadatsugu
Ōsuka Yasutaka
Ishikawa Yasumichi
Ishikawa Kazumasa
Honda Tadakatsu
Ōkubo Tadayo
Sakakibara Yasumasa
Torii Mototada
N/A

The Siege of Takatenjin of 1581 was a siege between the Oda - Tokugawa alliance against the Takeda clan.

Background[]

The Takeda outpost of Takatenjin was commanded by Okabe Motonobu.[1]

Battle[]

The siege of Takatenjin began in 1580, when Oda Nobunaga’s forces moved to isolate and encircle the Takeda fortress. The defenders held out for several months under increasingly difficult conditions. The siege ultimately concluded on 22 March 1581, ending with the deaths of 680 defenders.[2]

Aftermath[]

More than half of the defenders of Takatenjin in Tōtōmi Province had already died of starvation when the remaining garrison attempted a breakout. Forced to abandon the fortress, they descended over the walls, tore down the tree-trunk palisades surrounding the stronghold, and tried to escape. Tokugawa Ieyasu’s forces, however, repelled them on every front.[3]

Sources[]

  1. Samurai Sourcebook, Stephen Turnbull, p. 231
  2. Samurai Sourcebook, Stephen Turnbull, p. 231
  3. The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga, Brill's Japanese Studies Library, Volume 36, Gyūichi Ōta; Editors/Translators: Jurgis S.A. Elisonas and Jeroen P. Lamers, p. 395