Kawanakajima: Five Battles in 11 Years
The stalemate between Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin.
Dec 7, 2008 Grant Sebastian Nell
The Kawanakajima Valley
Kawanakajima is the meeting place of two rivers - the name ‘Kawanakajima’ means the ‘island within the river.’ Located in Shinano province, the valley technically formed part of Takeda territory. In reality, it was a no-mans land, the area best suited by geography to halt an invasion from north or south. It’s forests, rivers and the steep flanks of the surrounding mountains created perfect sites for ambush and attack.
Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin
These two rivals were the essence of Sengoku-era daimyo. Both had taken Buddhist vows and shaved their heads - Shingen and Kenshin are Buddhist names. Prior to taking their vows, their names had been Takeda Harunobu and Uesugi Kagetora. Each had tasted battle for the first time in their mid-teens. Takeda Shingen was the daimyo of the Takeda clan, and Uesugi Kenshin led the Uesugi.
Both were tremendously powerful men in their own right, but their characters were quite different. Takeda Shingen is depicted as a squat, stocky man with extravagant moustaches. He had several wives and possibly as many as thirty mistresses. He was also bisexual.
Uesugi Kenshin was slighter in build, totally clean-shaven and was possibly celibate throughout his life. He was a heavy drinker and it is believed that this may have had something to do with his death.
The Kawanakajima Campaigns
Hostilities commenced between the two rivals at the end of the 12 years it took for Shingen to subdue Shinano province. Uesugi Kenshin was compelled to come to the assistance of a Shinano daimyo, Murakami Yoshikiyo. Yoshikiyo had inflicted two defeats on Takeda forces before his castle of Katsurao eventually fell. Yoshikiyo fled northward to Echigo province to seek sanctuary with the Uesugi. Kenshin fully expected the aggressive Takeda to make a move against his domains.
Within 12 days, Kenshin marched an army toward Katsurao. The first clash took place on the 3rd June 1553 at Hachiman, across the Chikumagawa river. Little is known of this first encounter, but Kenshin was apparently the victor.
The campaign and battles were characterised by each side attempting to outmanoeuvre the other and the capture and holding of strategic castles up and down the valley. Matters were to proceed in this back and forth fashion for years. Several times, both armies confronted each other in a tense standoff whilst raiding parties penetrated their opposing territories around the flanks and most of the casualties sustained were the result of these raids and castle sieges rather than pitched battles.
Many notable samurai achieved fame in the Kawanakajima campaigns. Yamamato Kansuke, a veteran Takeda general with a limp and only one eye, charged alone into the Uesugi ranks at the 4th battle and fought until, wounded in many places, he retired to a hillock and committed seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment.)
Another, Kojima Yataro - nicknamed ‘Oni’ (devil) - was very large for a samurai, at over 6 feet tall. He was sent by Kenshin as an ambassador to the Takeda camp. Shingen set a dog on him. Yataro restrained the dog, delivered his message and killed the animal with his bare hands before departing.
The 4th battle, in 1561, was a true slaughter, where the Uesugi charged the Takeda lines at dawn and Uesugi Kenshin managed to penetrate the curtained field headquarters (maku) of Takeda Shingen and there followed a few seconds of single combat between the two warlords before Kenshin was forced to withdraw. This incident, where Kenshin hacked wildly at Shingen from horseback and Shingen desperately fended the blows off with his war-fan, has been immortalized in Samurai history. Both sides suffered thousands of casualties and both claimed victory for the 4th battle.
After 11 years of inconclusive fighting, the two rivals were content to glare at each other over their borders whilst they directed their warlike attentions against the rising star of the Oda clan, led by their brilliant and ruthless daimyo Oda Nobunaga, who was to play a critical role in the unification of Japan.
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