Siege
1573 siege in Japan
The 1573 siege of Odani Castle (小谷城の戦い, Odani-jō no Tatakai) was the last stand of the Azai clan, one of Oda Nobunaga's chief opponents. and the first battle of Oda Nobutada.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “Siege of Odani Castle”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The 1573 siege of Odani Castle (小谷城の戦い, Odani-jō no Tatakai) was the last stand of the Azai clan, one of Oda Nobunaga's chief opponents. and the first battle of Oda Nobutada.
In September, 1573, Oda Nobunaga defeated the Asakura clan at the siege of Ichijodani Castle. Later, the Oda forces returned to northern Ōmi, he defeated Isono Kazumasa, took Sawayama Castle and on October, 1573, Nobunaga began attacking Odani Castle, devastating the Azai clan.
Nobunaga took Odani Castle from Azai Nagamasa, who, left with no other option, committed seppuku along with his father. Azai knew from the beginning that he would lose the battle, so he gave his wife Oichi (Nobunaga's sister), and their three daughters back to Nobunaga, saving them from death. Two of Nagamasa's daughters would later marry into powerful families. Their escape from the besieged castle became a fairly common sentimental scene in traditional Japanese art.
Nagamasa suffered much the same fate as his comrade-in-arms Asakura Yoshikage, whose castle at Oda Nobunaga's siege of Ichijodani Castle was set aflame and destroyed.
The siege of the castle and the late surrender is shown in the movie Sword for Hire, directed by Hiroshi Inagaki in 1952.
The battle has been featured in the game Samurai Warriors 2. In the game, however, both the Azai and Asakura clans are destroyed during the Odani siege. Historically, the Asakura clan was destroyed before the Azai at the Battle of Ichijodani.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Siege of Odani Castle”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.