Siege
1581 The Takeda lost the fortress to Oda Nobunaga
The second siege of Takatenjin began only six years after Takeda Katsuyori had taken the fortress. Lasting from 1580 until 22 March 1581, the siege ended within four months and resulted in the deaths of 680 of Okabe Motonobu's garrison.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Second Siege of Takatenjin”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The second siege of Takatenjin began only six years after Takeda Katsuyori had taken the fortress. Lasting from 1580 until 22 March 1581, the siege ended within four months and resulted in the deaths of 680 of Okabe Motonobu's garrison.
In 1580, during the conflict between Tokugawa clan against Takeda clan, Tokugawa Ieyasu built up around five fortresses in order to isolate the Takatenjin castle from external supplies and reinforcements. Those new fortresses consisted of:
In addition of those 5 new fortresses, Ieyasu renovated an old castle located 4 km north of Takatenjin castle. This castle was named Ogasayama fort, which was originally built by Ieyasu far before during the conquest of Tōtōmi Province against Imagawa clan to capture Kakegawa Castle. As these six fortresses were completed, Ieyasu assigned Ishikawa Yasumichi to garrison the Ogasayama fort, Honda Yasushige to garrison Nogasaka fort, Osuga Yasutaka to garrison Higamine fort, Shishigahana Fort & Nakamura Fort, while Sakai Ietada was appointed to garrison Mitsuiyama fort.
With the completion of those cluster of castles which referred as "six fortress of Takatenjin", the Takatenjin castle which defended by Okabe Motonobu immediately suffered starvations as they deprived any sources or supply to sustain the population inside the castle, while the siege outside the castle by Oda-Tokugawa forces intensified. In response, Motonobu tried to negotiate truce with Ieyasu by offering Takisakai Castle and Koyama Castle to be given for Ieyasu in exchange that Takatenjin castle spared from the siege. However, Oda Nobunaga refused the plea from Motonobu.
On January 3, 1581, Ieyasu was informed that a force under the command of Takeda Katsuyori was approaching. Oda Nobunaga got the same information and immediately sent Oda reinforcements led by Mizuno Tadashige.
In March 1581, Takatenjin Castle ran out of food, and the castle's soldiers ate plants to survive hunger. Motonobu decided that he should break the siege and gave a party with his remaining soldiers at night before they went out to try to launch an assault against Ieyasu's blockade. Shortly after 10 pm. on March 22, Motonobu led his remaining soldiers in an assault on Mitsuiyama fort, which was defended by Ishikawa Yasumichi, as it was considered to be the weakest fortress among the six Tokugawa blockade fortresses. However, as they launched the attack towards Mitsuiyama, Yasumichi was immediately reinforced by Ōkubo Tadayo and Osuga Yasutaka, which resulted in a fierce battle, where Motonobu was killed. Meanwhile, as the battle phased out with the army of Motonobu routed, Ōkubo Tadataka led a detachment to pursue any fleeing enemies.
The siege was quite advantageous for Oda Nobunaga, as it significantly weakened his enemy, the Takeda clan; the Battle of Tenmokuzan the following year would come to be known as Takeda Katsuyori's last stand and the fall of the distinguished Takeda of Kai.
According to the Shinchō Kōki by Ōta Gyūichi, "in all, 688 soldiers of various rank joined the commander of the castle in a desperate attack out onto the besiegers, and they were killed".
In Matsudaira Ietada (Fukōzu)'s diary Ietada nikki, he wrote that; "among our own we lost about 130 in total, while the enemy lost more than 600".
Text from the Wikipedia article “Siege of Takatenjin (1581)”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.