Battle of Kanasa Castle 1180
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate. Wikidata lists more than one location for this battle; the first is shown.
Key facts
| Year | 1180 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Medieval (500–1499) | derived from year |
| Location | Japan | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Genpei War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Minamoto no Yoritomo, Satake clan | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 36.5552, 140.4650 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Kanasa Castle (金砂城の戦い, Kanasajō no Tatakai) began on the night of 4 November 1180 (Jishō Calendar) or 22 November 1180 (Gregorian calendar), and ended on the 5th at Kanasa Castle in Hitachi Province (near present-day Hitachi-Ōta City, Ibaraki Prefecture) between the Minamoto clan led by Minamoto no Yoritomo and the Satake clan led by Satake Hideyoshi. It ended with a Minamoto victory.
The Satake clan held ties with the Taira clan, causing them to adopt an anti-Minamoto stance. After Yoritomo's victory at the Battle of Fujigawa, it was decided that rather than chase the pursuing Taira clan, the Satake should be subdued first, leading Minamoto forces to set out on 27 October and arrive at Hitachi Kokufu on 4 November.
Here, Hirotsune convinced Satake Yoshimasa to come alone to the center of Ōyabashi Bridge, where he was executed. This led to some of Yoshimasa's followers bowing and surrendering or fleeing. This was quickly followed by Hideyoshi further fortifying Kanasa, which was followed by a Minamoto full-scale assault on it. After hours of fighting, retainers delivered a message to Yoritomo at 4am the next day, notifying him that the castle "cannot be taken by human force".
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Kanasa Castle (revision 1371332420), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Genpei War
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All 19 battles of the Genpei War →
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