10 Amazing Rarely Mentioned Battles Of Japan's Civil War Era
Japan's Sengoku Jidai is filled with amazing battles; here's ten you might not have heard of.
The Sengoku Jidai, Japan's era of constant civil war, ran from roughly 1477 to 1615 and saw constant fighting between regional warlords.
These battles have become the center point to numerous plots in samurai movies and games: The Takeda's defeat at Nagashino is the climax of Kurosawa's movie Ran, the upset at Okehazama was the setting for the opening to Capcom's Onimusha, and the battle of Sekigahara is the whole plot of Koei-Tecmo's PS2-era game Kessen.
But what about those miraculous victories, terrifying defeats, and otherwise amazing battles that hardly ever make it on screen or get put into the pages of a good book? Well here's a slew of them!
10. Siege Of Arai Castle (1516)
Located on the tip of the Miura peninsula - Arai, now more commonly called Misaki, was the last bastion of the Miura clan. Ise Shinkuro, later to be known as Hojo Soun, had started a siege in 1512 and had been continuing to harass the castle's defenders for four years before he managed to blockade its port. Ise referred to his strategy as letting the Miura 'wither on the vine'.
With the castle facing starvation it was finally time to end the battle. Ise ordered an all-out attack and breached the walls bringing the fighting all the way to the castle's keep. The patriarch of the clan, Miura Yoshiatsu, committed seppuku – ritual suicide – when he saw that all hope was lost.
This is where his son, the nominal lord of Arai castle, claims his moment of fame. With his army failing all around him, the brave warrior is said to have told off the attackers and then committed suicide in a most awe-inspiring fashion. He swung his sword around with such force that he cut off his own head. Whether true or not, he impressed the Ise patriarch enough to have it recorded in the winner's history book.