Battle of Kōnodai (1564)
| Battle of Kōnodai | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sengoku period | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| forces of Hōjō Ujiyasu | forces of Satomi Yoshihiro | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Hōjō Ujiyasu Hōjō Ujimasa Matsuda Yasuyoshi | Satomi Yoshihiro | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 20,000 | 8,000 | ||||||
In the second battle of Kōnodai, fought in 1564, Hōjō Ujiyasu led his men to victory against Satomi Yoshihiro. Both Ujiyasu and Yoshihiro were the sons of the commanders at the first battle of Kōnodai, in which Hōjō Ujitsuna defeated the combined forces of Satomi Yoshitaka and Ashikaga Yoshiaki.
Outnumbered 20,000 to 8,000, Satomi fell back when the Hōjō vanguard advanced. But this was a feint, and an attempt to draw his enemy into a trap. However, Hōjō Ujiyasu expected a trap of this sort, and had sent his son Ujimasa with a small force to attack the Satomi rear, surrounding him. In the ensuing battle, Satomi saw his son Chokuro killed by Matsuda Yasuyoshi, a Hōjō retainer; after the battle, feeling remorse at killing such a young boy, Matsuda entered the clergy.
Hōjō Ujiyasu celebrated his victory with a poem:
- Conquering the foe
- As I wished at Kōnodai
- Now do I behold
- The evening sunshine of Katsuura
References
- Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.
- Turnbull, Stephen (2002). 'War in Japan: 1467-1615'. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.