Nagashima

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This article is about the series of Ikkō-ikki fortresses. For the Japanese baseball player, see Shigeo Nagashima.

Nagashima (長島, Nagashima^?) was a series of fortresses and fortifications controlled by the Ikkō-ikki, a sect of warrior monks in Japan's Sengoku period who opposed samurai rule. It was attacked and destroyed by Oda Nobunaga in the 1570s. This, combined with the destruction of the Ikki's other main fortress, the Ishiyama Hongan-ji, several years later, ended the threat the Ikko-ikki posed to Nobunaga and other samurai conquerors.

The fortress was situated on a swampy delta, on the border of Owari and Ise Provinces, at the point where three rivers converge, to the southeast of the modern-day city of Nagoya. Nagashima was, in fact, not one single fortress, but a number of smaller fortifications surrounding two primary buildings. Nagashima Castle was built in 1555 by Ito Shigeharu, and seized by the Ikkō-ikki shortly afterwards, in much the same way they had seized a number of other daimyo's holdings. The Ganshōji fortified monastery formed the second center of Nagashima's defense.

The Oda clan, which controlled nearby lands, was wary of the Ikki's growing power, and engaged them at Ogie Castle in 1569. The Ikki were victorious, and Nobunaga's brother Nobuoki was killed. Nobunaga returned to lay siege to the Ikki's fortress three times, before finally subduing it in 1574. He set the wooden structure ablaze, and none of the fortress cathedral's 20,000 inhabitants escaped.

Parts of the Nagashima castle survived, and the gate and part of the moat are still extant. The keep was destroyed by lightning in 1959, but the Ganshoji was rebuilt a short distance inland. It now contains a stone stupa erected as a memorial to those killed in the burning of the fortress.