Best books online Library

Gaining
the victory, Harunobu came into control of the province of Kai, which
had long been the seat of the Takeda family. This daimyo, commonly
spoken of as Takeda Shingen, the latter being the name he took on
receiving the tonsure, ranks among Japan's six great captains of the
sixteenth century, the roll reading thus:

Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)

Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578)

Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590)

Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616)

The second of the above, Uesugi Kenshin, was not member of the great
Uesugi family which took such an important part in the affairs of the
Kwanto. He belonged to the Nagao, which originally stood in a
relation of vassalage to the Yamanouchi branch of the Uesugi in
Echigo, and his father attained an independent position. Kagetora, as
Kenshin was called in his youth, found himself engaged in his
twenty-first year in a contest with his elder brother, whom he
killed, and, by way of penance for the fratricide, he took the
tonsure under the name of Kenshin and would have retired from the
world had not his generals insisted on his remaining in command. It
was at this time that Kenshin became a member of the Uesugi sept. In
1505, the two branches of the Kwanto Uesugi joined hands against
their common enemy, Hojo Soun, and from that time the contest was
continued until 1551, when Ujiyasu, grandson of Soun, drove Uesugi
Norimasa from his castle of Hirai in Kotsuke. The vanquished general
fled to Echigo to seek succour from his family's old-time vassal,
Nagao Kagetora, already renowned under the name of Kenshin. Norimasa
bestowed the office of kwanryo as well as the uji of Uesugi on
Kenshin, who thenceforth became known as Uesugi Kenshin, and who thus
constituted himself the foe of the Hojo. At a somewhat earlier date,
Kenshin had been similarly supplicated by Murakami Yoshikiyo, whose
castle was at Kuzuo in Shinano, whence he had been driven by Takeda
Shingen.

ENGRAVING: UESUGI KENSHIN

It thus fell out that Uesugi Kenshin had for enemies the two captains
of highest renown in his era, Hojo Ujimasa and Takeda Shingen. This
order of antagonism had far-reaching effects. For Kenshin's ambition
was to become master of the whole Kwanto, under pretence of
re-establishing the original Uesugi, but his expansion southward from
Echigo was barred by Shingen in Shinano and Kai, and his expansion
eastward by the Hojo in Sagami and Musashi. The place of the struggle
between Shingen-and Kenshin was Kawanaka-jima, an arena often
pictured by artists of later generations and viewed to-day by
pilgrims to the venerable temple, Zenko-ji. There the two generals,
recognized as the two greatest strategists of that epoch, met four
times in fierce strife, and though a Japanese historian compares the
struggle to the eruption of volcanoes or the blowing of gales of
blood, victory never rested on either standard.

ENGRAVING: TAKEDA SHINGEN

Peace having been at length restored for a moment, in 1558, Kenshin
visited Kyoto in the following year. There he was received with
distinction. The Emperor--Okimachi--bestowed on him a sword, and the
shogun, Yoshiteru, entitled him to incorporate the ideograph "teru"
in his name, which was thus changed from Kagetora to Terutora. He was
also granted the office of kwanryo. On his return to Echigo, Kenshin
proceeded to assert his new title. Mustering an army said to have
been 110,000 strong, he attacked the Hojo in Odawara. But Ujiyasu
would not be tempted into the open. He remained always behind the
ramparts, and, in the meanwhile incited Shingen to invade Echigo, so
that Kenshin had to raise the siege of Odawara and hasten to the
defence of his home province. There followed another indecisive
battle at Kawanaka-jima, and thereafter renewed attacks upon the
Hojo, whose expulsion from the Kwanto devolved on Kenshin as kwanryo.
But the results were always vague: the Hojo refrained from final
resistance, and Shingen created a diversion. The chief sufferers were
the provinces of the Kwanto, a scene of perpetual battle. In the end,
after Etchu and Kotsuke had been brought under Kenshin's sway, peace
was concluded between him and the Hojo, and he turned his full
strength against his perennial foe, Shingen. But at this stage the
situation was entirely changed by the appearance of Oda Nobunaga on
the scene, as will be presently narrated. It is recorded that, on the
eve of his death, Shingen advised his son to place himself and his
domains in Kenshin's keeping, for, said he, "Kenshin now stands
unrivalled, and Kenshin will never break faith with you;" and it is
recorded of Kenshin that when he heard of Shingen's death, he shed
tears and exclaimed, "Would that the country had such another hero!"*

*The present Count Uesugi is descended from Kenshin.

THE IMAGAWA, THE KITABATAKE, THE SAITO, AND THE ODA FAMILIES

The Imagawa, a branch of the Ashikaga, served as the latter's bulwark
in Suruga province during many generations. In the middle of the
sixteenth century the head of the family was Yoshimoto. His sway
extended over the three provinces of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa,
which formed the littoral between Owari Bay and the Izu promontory.
On the opposite side of Owari Bay lay Ise province, the site of the
principal Shinto shrine and the original domain of the Taira family,
where, too, the remnants of the Southern Court had their home. Its
hereditary governor was a Kitabatake, and even after the union of the
two Courts that great family, descendants of the immortal historian
and philosopher, Chikafusa, continued to exercise sway. But, in 1560,
discord among the chief retainers of the sept furnished a pretext for
the armed intervention of Oda Nobunaga, who invested his son,
Nobukatsu, with the rights of government. On the northern littoral of
Owari Bay, and therefore separating Ise and Mikawa, was situated the
province of Owari, which, in turn, opened on the north into Mino. In
this latter province the Doki family was destroyed by the Saito, and
these in turn were crushed by the Oda, in 1561, who, from their
headquarters in Owari, shattered the Imagawa of Mikawa and the Saito
in Mino, thereafter sweeping over Ise.

THE ROKKAKU, THE ASAI, THE ASAKURA, AND THE HATAKEYAMA FAMILIES

The province of Omi had special importance as commanding the
approaches to Kyoto from the east. Hence it became the scene of much
disturbance, in which the Hosokawa, the Kyogoku, the Rokkaku, and the
Asai families all took part. Finally, in the middle of the sixteenth
century, the Asai gained the ascendancy by obtaining the assistance
of the Asakura of Echizen. This latter province, conterminous with
the north of Omi, was originally under the control of the Shiba
family, but the Asakura subsequently obtained the office of high
constable, and acquired a great access of power at the time of the
Ikko revolt by driving the turbulent priests from the province. At
that era, or a little later, the provinces of Kii, Kawachi, Izumi,
and Yamato were all the scenes of fierce fighting, but the pages of
history need not be burdened with details of the clash of purely
private ambitions.

THE MORI AND THE AMAKO FAMILIES

The Ouchi family was very powerfully situated. Descended from a
Korean Crown Prince who migrated to Japan early in the seventh
century, its representative, Yoshioki (1477-1528), controlled the
southern provinces of the main island--Iwami, Aki, Suwo, and
Nagato--as well as the two northern provinces of Kyushu--Chikuzen and
Buzen. This was the chieftain who, in 1508, marched to Kyoto at the
head of a great army, and restored the Ashikaga shogun Yoshitane,
himself receiving the office of kwanryo. Eleven years later, on his
return to the south, he was followed by many nobles from Kyoto, and
his chief provincial town, Yamaguchi, on the Shimonoseki Strait,
prospered greatly. But his son Yoshitaka proved a weakling, and being
defeated by his vassal, Suye Harukata--called also Zenkyo--he
committed suicide, having conjured another vassal, Mori Motonari, to
avenge him.

ENGRAVING: MORI MOTONARI

The Mori family* had for ancestor the great statesman and legislator
of Yoritomo's time, Oye Hiromoto, and its representative, Motonari
(1497-1571), had two sons scarcely inferior to himself in strategical
ability, Kikkawa Motoharu and Kohayakawa Takakage. A commission
having been obtained from Kyoto, Motonari took the field in 1555, and
with only three thousand men succeeded, by a daring feat, in
shattering Harukata with twenty thousand. Thus far, Mori Motonari had
obeyed the behest of his late chief. But thereafter he made no
attempt to restore the Ouchi family. On the contrary, he relentlessly
prosecuted the campaign against Suye Harukata, with whom was
associated Ouchi Yoshinaga, representing the Ouchi house by adoption,
until ultimately Yoshinaga committed suicide and, the Ouchi family
becoming extinct, Motonari succeeded to all its domains.

*Now represented by Prince Mori.

At that time the province of Izumo, which is conterminous with Iwami
along its western frontier, was under the control of the high
constable, Amako Tsunehisa (1458-1540), who, profiting by the fall of
the great Yamana sept, had obtained possession of the provinces Bingo
and Hoki as well as of the Oki Islands. This daimyo was a puissant
rival of the Ouchi family, and on the downfall of the latter he soon
came into collision with Mori Motonari. Tsunehisa's grandson,
Yoshihisa (1545-1610), inherited this feud, which ended with the
extinction of the Amako family and the absorption of its domains by
the Mori, the latter thus becoming supreme in no less than thirteen
provinces of the Sanyo-do and the Sanin-do.

THE MIYOSHI, THE ICHIJO, THE CHOSOKABE, AND THE KONO FAMILIES

With the island of Shikoku (four provinces) are connected the names
of the Hosokawa, the Miyoshi, the Ichijo, the Chosokabe, and the Kono
families. Early in the fourteenth century, the celebrated Hosokawa
Yoriyuki was banished to Sanuki, and in the middle of the fifteenth
century we find nearly the whole of the island under the sway of
Hosokawa Katsumoto.