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Battle of Anegawa
	Part of Sengoku period
	; Blue: Azai (east) and Asakura (west). Red: Oda (east), Tokugawa (west), and Inaba (southeast)
Date	30 July 1570
Location	Ane River near Lake Biwa, Nagahama, Ōmi Province35°24′57.8″N 136°19′19.8″E / 35.416056°N 136.322167°E
Result	Oda–Tokugawa victory.
Belligerents
Oda clan; Tokugawa clan	Azai clan; Asakura clan
Commanders and leaders
Oda Nobunaga; Hashiba Hideyoshi; Sassa Narimasa; Inaba Yoshimichi Tokugawa Ieyasu; Ishikawa Kazumasa; Sakai Tadatsugu; Honda Tadakatsu; Sakakibara Yasumasa	Azai Nagamasa; Isono Kazumasa; Kaihō Tsunachika; Miyabe Keijun; Akao Kiyotsuna Asakura Yoshikage; Asakura Kagetake
Strength
28,000 total; (23,000 Oda troops, plus 5,000 from Tokugawa Ieyasu)	18,000
Casualties and losses
800 killed	1,700 killed
	class=notpageimage\| Location within Shiga Prefecture Battle of Anegawa (Japan)

The Sengoku period Battle of Anegawa (姉川の戦い, Anegawa no Tatakai) (30 July 1570) occurred near Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province, Japan, between the allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, against the combined forces of the Azai and Asakura clans. It is notable as the first battle that involved the alliance between Nobunaga and Ieyasu, and it saw Nobunaga's prodigious use of firearms.

Background

The battle came as an Azai and Asakura reaction to Oda Nobunaga's sieges of the castles of Odani and Yokoyama, which belonged to the Azai and Asakura clans. It was also referred to as the Battle of Nomura (野村合戦 Nomura Kassen) by the Oda and Azai clans and the Battle of Mitamura (三田村合戦 Mitamura Kassen) by the Asakura clan.

The Oda-Tokugawa allies marched on Odani castle, prompting Nagamasa to send for help from Echizen. Asakura Yoshikage sent an army to support him, and the combined Azai-Asakura force marched out to confront Nobunaga in the field. Nobunaga reacted by placing a screen around an Azai fort he had been reducing from Yokoyama castle and advancing to the southern bank of the Anegawa.

Battle

The following morning on July 30, 1570 the battle began with the Oda and Azai clashing on the right while Tokugawa and Asakura grappled to the left. The battle turned into a melee fought in the middle of the shallow Ane River. For a time, Nobunaga's forces fought the Azai upstream, while the Tokugawa warriors fought the Asakura downstream.^[2]

Nobunaga assigned Hashiba Hideyoshi to lead troops into open battle for the first time, Sassa Narimasa led the rear guard, also with support from Hachisuka Masakatsu, Ikoma Ienaga, Kawajiri Hidetaka and Yamauchi Kazutoyo.

The Tokugawa forces formed the left wing of the Oda and Tokugawa alliance forces facing the Asakura forces, with formation as following: ^[3]

Ishikawa Kazumasa and Sakai Tadatsugu leading the vanguard units.
Honda Tadakatsu and Sakakibara Yasumasa leading the rearguard units.

In this battle, Stephen Turnbull regarded Kazumasa, Tadatsugu, Yasumasa, and Tadakatsu, as Four Tokugawa Guardians.^[3] Ieyasu unleashed his second division under Tadakatsu and Yasumasa onto Asakura's left flank, surrounding Asakura Kagetake.^[4]^: 62–63 It was recorded that at the beginning of this battle, as the Tokugawa army was being steadily pushed back by the Asakura army, Tadakatsu suddenly rode his horse and charged alone against the approaching 10,000-strong Asakura army. Seeing this, the panicked Ieyasu immediately lead his forces to counter the advance of Asakura and to save Tadakatsu. In the end, they manage to defeat the Asakura army. Tadakatsu survived the battle despite the grave danger he faced.^[5]

There is also a report of single combat between Honda Tadakatsu against a giant Asakura warrior named Magara Naotaka, also known as Magara Jurozaemon. However, The duel was cut short when the Asakura army started to retreat.^[a] Naotaka and his eldest son Magara Jurosaburo (Naomoto) covered the retreat of the Asakura army to the northern bank. Both were eventually killed when confronted by four Mikawa samurai, Kosaka Shikibu, Kosaka Gorojiro, Kosaka Rokurogoro, and Yamada Muneroku, and a fifth samurai named Aoki Jozaemon.^[4]^: 63–65

In another notable engagement, an Azai samurai named Endō Naotsune attempted to take Nobunaga's head but was stopped short by Takenaka Kyusaku, younger brother of Takenaka Hanbei.^[2] Another Oda samurai, Sakai Masahisa, was under attack from Azai forces under Isono Kazumasa, when he lost his son Sakai Kyūzō.

After the Tokugawa forces finished off the Asakura, they turned around and attacked the Azai's right flank by sending Tadakatsu and Yasumasa's units.^[7] The troops of Mino Triumvirate, who were under Inaba Ittetsu, were held in reserve, advancing to hit the Azai's left flank. They left the task of besieging Yokoyama castle to aid in the battle. The Azai and Asakura's forces were immediately defeated.^[2]

There is a battlefield memorial marker in Nomura-cho, Nagahama city, in Shiga Prefecture.^[4]

Historical accounts

No reliable source exists to reconstruct the battle. The Battle of Anegawa is vividly presented in the books compiled in the middle or the end of the Edo period. Many of the stories are pure fiction. The only valuable source is the Shinchōkō-ki, describing it very briefly without any notes concerning tactics or details of the battle. The exact number of the casualties in this battle is unknown. However, the Shinchōkō-ki mentions 1,100 samurai from the Asakura clan being killed in battle. Yamashina Tokitsugu, who blindly believed in Nobunaga's propaganda, recorded clearly absurd numbers in his diary, stating "Azai 9,600, Asakura 5,000."^{[citation needed]}

The 1901 publication "Japanese Military History: The Battle of Anegawa" estimates that the casualties on the Azai and Asakura side were around 1,700, while those on the Oda and Tokugawa side were around 800.^[8] According to A.L. Sadler in The Life of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu there were 3,170 heads collected by the Oda camp. A good portion were taken by Mikawa men, the Tokugawa force.^[9]^{[page needed]} The Mikawa Fudoki gives a very real picture of the battle: the retainers fighting in groups and the decapitation of soldiers in the confused mingling of armies among the clouds of smoke and dust.^[10]^{[page needed]} It is often noted^{[by whom?]} that Nobunaga used 500 arquebusiers in this battle. He was famous for his tactical use of firearms but would find himself on the opposite end of skilled arquebus tactics in his Siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji that year.^{[citation needed]}

Aftermath

Later in October 1570, the Asai and Asakura forces led by Asakura Kagetake, launch a counterattack in the Battle of Shimosakamoto, and retaliated by defeating an Oda army at the Usayama castle, near Otsu, in Ōmi Province. Kagetake's troops killed over 750 soldiers in the Oda army including Mori Yoshinari and Oda Nobuharu, one of Nobunaga's younger brothers.

In popular culture

The battle has been featured in all games of the Samurai Warriors series. However, because Azai Nagamasa was made playable in Samurai Warriors 2, as opposed to the first game where he was a unique non-playable character, the battle had a larger significance. The battle has also fictionally appeared in revamped form in the Warriors Orochi series, in particular Warriors Orochi 3 is where its most famous revamp takes place. It also a playable battle in the video game Kessen III. The battle is also featured in the game Nioh 2 as one of the pivotal events of the main story, which centers on the protagonist's role in the conquests of Oda Nobunaga and the Oda clan. The Battle of Anegawa is also featured in Total War: Shogun 2 as a historical battle, in which the player controls Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Appendix

Footnotes

^ Daimon Watanabe, professor of Bukkyo University, and director of Japan institute of arts and culture stated this duel between Tadakatsu and Naotaka were much unconfirmed due to very few historical primary sources of the story.^[6]

References

^ Stephen, Turnbull (1997). Samurai Warfare. Arms and Armour Press. p. 119. ISBN 1854094327.
^ ^a ^b ^c Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. Cassell & Co. p. 220. ISBN 1854095234.
^ ^a ^b Stephen Turnbull (2013). The Samurai A Military History. Taylor & Francis. p. 140. ISBN 9781134243693. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Turnbull, Stephen (1987). Battles of the Samurai. Arms and Armour Press. p. 65. ISBN 0853688265.
^ Kazuo Kasahara (笠原一男) (1992). 物語日本の歴史 16: 天下びとの時代 (in Japanese). 木耳社. p. 193. ISBN 4839375682. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
^ Watanabe Daimon (2023). "「どうする家康」姉川の戦いにおける、真柄直隆と本多忠勝の一騎打ち". yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/ (in Japanese). 渡邊大門無断転載を禁じます。 © LY Corporation. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
^ Stephen Turnbull (2013, pp. 140)
^ "では、実際の戦死者の数字はどうだったのか。『日本戦史姉川役』（1901〈明治34〉年5月発行）はもっと低く見積もり、次のような数字を挙げている。死者は北軍（長政・義景連合軍）1700余人、南軍（信長・家康連合軍）800余人". THE GOLD ONLINE. 5 March 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
^ Arthur Lindsay Sadler (10 July 2009). Turnbull, Stephen (ed.). Shogun The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 9781462916542. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
^ Sawa, Hisajirō (沢久治郎.). Mikawa gofudoki (in Japanese). Japanese Illustrated Books from the Edo and Meiji Periods. Retrieved 29 April 2024.

Bibliography

The Battle of Anegawa on Samurai-archives.com
De Lange, William. Samurai Battles: The Long Road to Unification. Toyp Press (2020) ISBN 978-949-2722-232
Sadler, A.L. (1937). The Life of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Co.