10 Amazing Rarely Mentioned Battles Of Japan's Civil War Era

The first siege of the castle of Gassan-Toda occurred in 1543 between the Ouchi Clan and the Amago clan. Backed up by the locally powerful Mori clan the combined Ouchi-Mori alliance outnumbered the defenders by double. They paved a way through the Amago territory and surrounded the castle. However it was at this point that two of their neighbors betrayed them and joined the Amago – the Kikkawa cut off their supply lines and the Kobayakawa attacked them from behind. Mori Motonari himself was almost captured in the ensuing rout – saved only by the valiant stand of his vassal, Watanabe Hajime. The defeat was so disastrous it led the Ouchi lord to give up almost entirely on expanding his domain.

After having given up two of his sons to secure alliances with said Kikkawa and Kobayakawa clans, Motonari decided he was powerful enough to make a second try at the castle 22 years later. This time he attacked with more than double the defender's ranks and reduced several satellite forts before surrounding Toda castle. He used the genius strategy of refusing to accept deserters, forcing them back into the defender's castle to whittle away at their food supplies and morale.

After the defending lord fell for a ploy to execute his own subordinate under the presumption that he was trying to defect, morale was all but broken. Suddenly Motonari announced that he was lifting his ban on refusing to accept deserters and almost overnight the castle hemorrhaged defenders as thousands of soldiers slipped out of the gates and joined the Mori. With no choice but to surrender, the Amago lord turned over the castle and was sent into exile – essentially ending the fortunes of the powerful Amago clan.