Siege of Takatenjin (1581)

The second siege of Takatenjin came only six years after Takeda Katsuyori took the fortress. This second siege lasted from 1580 until 22 March 1581, the siege ended within four months and ended with the deaths of 680 of Okabe Motonobu/Naganori's garrison.

Background
In 1580, during the conflict between Tokugawa clan against Takeda clan, Tokugawa Ieyasu built up around five fortresses in order to isolate the Takatenjin castle from external supplies and reinforcements. Those new fortresses consisted of:


 * Higamine fort located 1,5 km northeast of Takatenjin castle.
 * Shishigahana Fort located 3 kilometers east of Takatenjin Castle.
 * Nakamura Fort located 3 kilometers southeast of Takatenjin Castle
 * Mitsuiyama Fort located 3 kilometers south of Takatenjin Castle.
 * Nogasaka Fort located 2 kilometers north-northeast of Takatenjin Castle.

In addition of those 5 new fortresses, Ieyasu renovated an old castle located 4 km north of Takatenjin castle. This castle were named Ogasayama fort, which originally built by Ieyasu far before during the conquest of Tōtōmi Province against Imagawa clan to capture Kakegawa Castle. As these six fortresses completed, Ieyasu assigned Ishikawa Yasumichi to garrison the Ogasayama fort, Honda Yasushige to garrison Nogasaka fort, Osuga Yasutaka to garrison Higamine fort, Shishigahana Fort & Nakamura Fort, while Sakai Ietada was appointed to garrison Mitsuiyama fort.

With the completion of those cluster of castles which referred as "six fortress of Takatenjin", the Takatenjin castle which defended by Okabe Motonobu immediately suffered starvations as they deprived any sources or supply to sustain the population inside the castle, while the siege outside the castle by Oda-Tokugawa forces intensified. In response, Motonobu tried to negotiate truce with Ieyasu by offering Takisakai Castle and Koyama Castle to be given for Ieyasu in exchange that Takatenjin castle spared from the siege. However, Oda Nobunaga refused the plea from Motonobu.

Siege
In January 3 1581, Ieyasu was informed that a force under the command of Takeda Katsuyori was approaching. Oda Nobunaga got the same information and he immediately sent reinforcements led by Mizuno Tadashige.

In March 1581, Takatenjin Castle ran out of food, and the castle's soldiers ate plants to survive hunger. Motonobu decided that he should break the siege and giving a party with his remaining soldiers at night before they goes out to try launch assault against Ieyasu's blockade. Shortly after 10 pm. on March 22nd, Motonobu led his remaining soldiers in an assault on Mitsuiyama fort which defended by Ishikawa Yasumichi, as it was considered to be the weakest fortress among the six Tokugawa blockade fortress. However, as they launched the attack towards Mitsuiyama, Yasumichi immediately reinforced by Ōkubo Tadayo and Osuga Yasutaka, and resulted in a fierce battle, where Motonobu killed. Meanwhile, as the battle has phased with the army of Motonobu routed, Ōkubo Tadataka led a detachment to pursue any of fleeing enemies.

Aftermath
This siege was quite an advantageous event for Oda Nobunaga, as it weakened his enemies; the battle of Tenmokuzan the following year would come to be known as Takeda Katsuyori's last stand.

According to the source “Shinchô kôki” in all 688 soldiers of various rank joined the commander of the castle in a desperate attack out onto the besiegers, and they were killed.

In Matsudaira Ietada (Fukōzu)’s diary “Ietada nikki”, the following can be found; “among our own we lost about 130 in total, while the enemy lost more than 600”.