Battle of Okitanawate 1584
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1584 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Japan | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| Participants | Arima Harunobu, Ryūzōji Takanobu | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 32.8024, 130.3645 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Okitanawate (沖田畷の戦い), also known as the Battle of Shimabara, was fought on May 3 of 1584, the Arima–Shimazu alliance defeated the Ryūzōji with Portuguese military support, including firearms, mortars, and a Portuguese fusta commanded by Captain Ambrósio Fernandes. The intervention was organised locally through the Jesuit mission and Portuguese merchants.
Ryūzōji Takanobu was attacking a number of independent clans close to his territories. In 1582 he attacked the Arima clan and Arima Harunobu decided to ask the help of Shimazu Yoshihisa. Yoshihisa sent an army in December of that year but not much progress was made until 1584. When the army was reorganized and commanded by the able Shimazu Iehisa, younger brother of Yoshihisa, the allies put Shimabara under siege and Takanobu marched to relieve the castle with his main army.
On May 3 the Shimazu-Arima army entrenched on a hill in front of Shimabara and received the attack of the Ryūzōji who were well armed with muskets, including high calibre ones. They attacked the hill in three columns, one advancing along the road, another advancing along the hills and a third along the beach.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Okitanawate (revision 1370271144), 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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