Siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji | |||||||
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Part of the Sengoku period | |||||||
The battle of Ishiyama Hongan-ji by Utagawa Yoshifuji (1828-1887) | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
forces of Oda Nobunaga |
Ikkō-ikki monks forces of Ashikaga Yoshiaki[1] Mōri clan | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Oda Nobunaga Sakuma Nobumori Niwa Nagahide Akechi Mitsuhide Harada Naomasa † Araki Murashige Takayama Ukon Hosokawa Fujitaka Inaba Yoshimichi Andō Morinari Ikoma Chikamasa |
Kōsa Shimozuma Nakayuki Shimozuma Rairyū Saika Magoichi Ashikaga Yoshiaki Rokkaku Yoshikata Mori Terumoto | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
At least 30,000 | At least 15,000 |
The Ishiyama Hongan-ji War (石山合戦, Ishiyama Kassen) was a ten-year military campaign that took place from 1570 to 1580 in Sengoku period Japan, carried out by lord Oda Nobunaga against a network of fortifications, temples, and communities belonging to the Ikkō-ikki, a powerful faction of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist monks and peasants opposed to the rule of the samurai class.
It centered on attempts to take down the Ikki's central base, the cathedral fortress of Ishiyama Hongan-ji, in what is today the city of Osaka. While Nobunaga and his allies led attacks on Ikki communities and fortifications in the nearby provinces, weakening the Hongan-ji's support structure, elements of his army remained camped outside the Hongan-ji, blocking supplies to the fortress and serving as scouts.