Battle of Okehazama

[edit] Americola's celebrity biographies are provided by AmericolaWiki, a celebrity wiki. You can help contribute to Americola and edit this article.

Battle of Okehazama
Part of the Sengoku period
Image:The grave of Yoshimoto Imagawa in Okehazama.jpg The grave of Yoshimoto Imagawa, in Nagoya, near the site of the battle.
Date May-June, 1560 Location Dengaku-hazama, Owari Province Result Oda victory, Imagawa Yoshimoto killed
Combatants
forces of Imagawa Yoshimoto	forces of Oda Nobunaga
Commanders
Imagawa Yoshimoto, Matsudaira Motoyasu	Oda Nobunaga
Strength
~25,000	~3000

Campaigns of Oda Nobunaga
Okehazama - Azukizaka - Chōkōji - Kanagasaki - Anegawa - Ishiyama Hongan-ji - Mount Hiei - Nagashima - Mikata ga Hara - Hikida - Odani - Ichijō ga dani - Itami - Nagashino - Mitsuji - Kizugawaguchi - Shigisan - Tedorigawa - Hijiyama - Temmokuzan - Uzu - Honnōji

The battle of Okehazama (桶狭間の戦い Okehazama-no-tatakai) took place in June 1560. In this battle, Oda Nobunaga defeated Imagawa Yoshimoto and established himself as one of the front-running warlords in the Sengoku period.

Contents 1 Background 2 The battle 3 Aftermath 4 List of notable samurai in the battle 4.1 Oda side 4.2 Imagawa side 5 Reference

Background

In May or June 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto, with an army of perhaps 25,000 men, set forth on a march to Kyoto. Entering the Oda territories in Owari province, he first took the border fortresses of Washizu and Marune before setting up camp in a wooded gorge known as Dengaku-hazama. This was all reported to Oda Nobunaga by his scouts, who then led his own force into position at a temple called Zenshōji, a short distance away, on the other side of the Tōkaidō.

Had Nobunaga decided on a frontal assault, the battle would have been deceptively easy to predict; his army was outnumbered ten to one by the Imagawa forces. A frontal assault would be suicidal, and an attempt to hold out at Zenshōji would only last a few days. Thus, Nobunaga decided to launch a surprise attack on the Imagawa camp.

The battle

Nobunaga left a small force at the temple with a preponderance of banners, to give the illusion of a much larger force, attracting his enemies' attention and distracting them from the force, 3000 strong, which was moving towards them on a circuitous route through the wooded hills.

The Imagawa army did not expect an attack, and were particularly not alert as a result of the incredible heat; in fact, they were celebrating their recent victories with song, dance, and sake. The chance they would detect the approaching Oda forces was further hindered by the sudden downpour and thunderstorm which arrived as their attackers were making their final movements towards the camp on 12 June.

When the storm passed, Nobunaga's men poured into the camp from the north, and the Imagawa warriors, taken completely unaware, fled in every direction. This left their commander's tent undefended, and the Oda warriors closed in further. Imagawa Yoshimoto, unaware of what had transpired, heard the noise and emerged from his tent shouting at his men to quit their drunken revelry and return to their posts. By the time he realized, moments later, that the samurai before him were not his own, it was far too late. He deflected one samurai's spear thrust, but was beheaded by another.

Aftermath

With their leader dead, and all but two of the senior officers also killed, the remaining Imagawa officers defected to other forces. In a short while, the Imagawa faction was destroyed. The victory by Nobunaga was hailed as miraculous, and this proved to be his first step to his goal of unification. One of the officers who would betray the Imagawa was Matsudaira Motoyasu (later to be known as Tokugawa Ieyasu) from Mikawa province, along with Honda Tadakatsu. Matsudaira formed his own force in Mikawa, and would later become an ally of Oda Nobunaga, and the last of the great unifiers.

List of notable samurai in the battle

Oda side

• Oda Nobunaga
• Shibata Katsuie
• Hattori Kazutada
• Mori Yoshikatsu
• Kinoshita Tokichiro

Imagawa side

• Imagawa Yoshimoto
• Asahina Yasutomo
• Matsudaira Motoyasu
• Ii Naomori
• Honda Tadakatsu

Reference

• Turnbull, Stephen (1987). 'Battles of the Samurai'. London: Arms and Armour Press.cs:Bitva u Okehazamy

es:Batalla de Okehazama ja:桶狭間の戦い uk:Битва при Окехадзама zh:桶狹間之役

Wikipedia information about Battle of Okehazama This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Battle of Okehazama". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.