Nagao Tamekage
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Nagao Tamekage (長尾為景)(d. 1536) was a retainer of Japanese feudal lord Uesugi Funayoshi, and a daimyo in his own right, during Japan's Sengoku period. According to some scholars, such as George Bailey Sansom, Nagao Tamekage's career makes him representative of the emergence of the daimyo, and the shift of regional power from Constables, Governors, and other government officials into independent lords. He is perhaps most famous as the biological father of Nagao Kagetora, who would be adopted into the Uesugi family as Uesugi Kenshin, and would go on to become one of the most famous of all Sengoku period daimyo.
Serving as Deputy (shugo-dai) to Funayoshi, Constable (shugo) of Echigo Province, Tamekage led his lord's Yamanouchi Uesugi forces to victory against the Ōgigayatsu Uesugi in a series of conflicts from 1500-1505.
However, one of a number of nari-agari mono (成り上がり者), or "upstarts" of this period, Tamekage sought to usurp his lord, and battled with Uesugi forces a number of times in the first decade of the 16th century. He ultimately came under siege from warriors loyal to Uesugi Funayoshi in 1509, at Nishihama in Etchū province. However, the siege failed, and Funayoshi was killed. Tamekage then went on to pursue a number of campaigns of his own, gathering territory and power. Still serving as Deputy, Tamekage then engaged Funayoshi's successor, the new Constable Uesugi Akisada, and defeated him as well, with the help of Hōjō Sōun, another growing power in the region. Within a few years, Nagao and Hōjō brought about the complete collapse of the Uesugi clan.
He was ultimately defeated himself, and killed in the 1536 battle of Sendanno, fighting against the Ikko-ikki of Kaga province.
[edit] References
- Sansom, George (1961). "A History of Japan: 1334-1615." Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.
