Siege of Ōta Castle 1585
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1585 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Japan | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| Coordinates | 34.2276, 135.1720 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The 1585 siege of Ōta Castle (太田城の戦い, Ōta Jō no Tatakai) was one of a series of assaults made by Toyotomi Hideyoshi against the Ikkō-ikki religious zealots towards the end of Japan's Sengoku period. This battle followed the siege of Negoro-ji, in which Hideyoshi's forces burnt a temple complex to the ground; a number of the Saiga Ikki zealots escaped to nearby Ōta Castle, which was held by Ōta Munemasa.
Due to the topography of the area, Hideyoshi determined that he could not easily burn this fortress as he had the Negoro-ji; he decided to instead use flood tactics, as he had three years earlier in the siege of Takamatsu. The presence of the Ikki zealots was already straining Ōta's supplies of food and other resources even before the siege began. With the construction of a palisade and series of dikes roughly 300 meters from the castle, Hideyoshi began the process of isolating the castle from supplies, and flooding it, a process bolstered by heavy rains. At one point, part of the dike gave out, resulting in the drowning deaths of several of Hideyoshi's men. However, by the 22nd day of the fourth lunar month, the garrison could hold out no longer and surrendered; fifty samurai committed seppuku.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Ōta Castle (revision 1375618859), 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.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Negoro-ji 1585 · 15 km
- Battle of Kashii 1615 · 20 km
- Battle of Ichi-no-Tani 1184 · 46 km
- Siege of Akasaka 1331 · 48 km
- Siege of Chihaya 1333 · 49 km
- Battle of Minatogawa 1336 · 50 km
Browse more: battles in Japan · Asia · Early modern battles