Siege of Hijiyama 1581
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1581 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Japan | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| Coordinates | 34.7685, 136.1301 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The 1581 siege of Hijiyama (比自山城の戦い, hijiyama-jō no tatakai) was one of the crucial battles in Oda Nobunaga's campaigns to seize Iga province during Japan's Sengoku period. After a lengthy siege, and several successful sallies by the defenders, the castle eventually fell and was destroyed.
Gamō Ujisato, Tsutsui Junkei and Wakisaka Yasuharu commanded Nobunaga's forces, Gamō attacking the castle's neighboring towns near modern-day Ueno, Mie prefecture while Tsutsui approached from the west. The defensive force rose from those villages and gathered at the fortress, some preparing an ambush halfway up the hill. Gamō and Tsutsui launched their assault at night, pressing up the hill and meeting fierce resistance before being pushed back entirely by the ambush. The defenders threw rocks and even trees, and fired muskets from the castle.
Several nights later, the garrison launched a secret attack of their own on the enemy camp at Nagaokayama. Approaching from three directions, they lit torches upon a signal and closed in. Tsutsui's forces were alarmed and confused, and began firing arrows in every direction. Shortly, however, the torches were blown out by a fierce wind, and the battle was plunged into darkness.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Hijiyama (revision 1373669620), 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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Browse more: battles in Japan · Asia · Early modern battles