Siege of Futamata

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Siege of Futamata
Part of the Sengoku period
Date 1572
Location Futamata fortress, Tōtōmi Province, Japan
Result garrison surrenders; Takeda victory
Combatants
forces of Takeda Shingen forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu
Commanders
Takeda Katsuyori Unknown
Campaigns of the Takeda
Nashinokidaira - Un no Kuchi - Sezawa - Uehara - Kuwabara - Fukuyo - Nagakubo - Kojinyama - Takatō 1545 - Ryūgasaki - Uchiyama - Odaihara - Shika - Uedahara - Shirojiritoge - Fukashi - Toishi - Katsurao - Kiso Fukushima - Kannomine - Matsuo - Kawanakajima - Musashi-Matsuyama - Kuragano - Minowa - Hachigata 1568 - Odawara 1569 - Mimasetoge - Kanbara - Hanazawa - Fukazawa - Futamata - Mikata ga Hara - Iwamura - Noda - Takatenjin 1574 - Yoshida - Nagashino - Omosu - Takatenjin 1581 - Temmokuzan - Takatō 1582
Campaigns of Tokugawa Ieyasu
Kakegawa - Anegawa - Futamata - Mikata ga Hara - Yoshida - Nagashino - Temmokuzan - Komaki - Nagakute - Sekigahara

Futamata fortress was Takeda Shingen's first objective in his campaign against Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1572 he left the siege of Futamata in the hands of his son and heir Takeda Katsuyori.

The fortress was built on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the Tenryū river; Katsuyori noticed that the garrison's water supply was obtained via a complex system of dropping wooden buckets to the river and pulling them back up. He decided to send unmanned rafts down the river; these smashed into the well-tower and toppled it. Denied of their water supply, the Tokugawa garrison quickly surrendered.

The Takeda would press on past Futamata towards the major Tokugawa fortress at Hamamatsu, where they would fight the battle of Mikata ga hara two months later.