| Siege of Katsurao | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sengoku period | |||||||||
 Chikuma, Nagano. The site of the (now levelled) Katsurao Castle is located within its urban area. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Takeda clan | Murakami clan | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Takeda Shingen Takeda Nobushige Takeda Yoshinobu | Murakami Yoshikiyo | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 4,200 | 6,000 | ||||||||
The 1553 siege of Katsurao was one of many sieges undertaken by the warlord Takeda Shingen in his long campaign to gain control of Japan's Shinano province, which was ruled by a hodgepodge of minor daimyō, notably the Suwa, Ogasawara, Murakami and Takato.
Shingen mounted his first invasion of Shinano in 1542 and steadily worked his way northwards, defeating the Suwa and Takato by 1547. His inexorable advance through the province alarmed the Uesugi clan, which controlled Echigo province to the north, and in 1547 Uesugi Norimasa sent an army into the province to confront Shingen, but this was swept aside at Odaihara. At this point the Murakami and Ogasawara finally entered the fray, and Murakami Yoshikiyo succeeded in defeating Shingen at Uedahara (1548), but Shingen regrouped and went back on the offensive. Identifying Yoshikiyo as the greater threat, he decided to concentrate his initial efforts on the weaker Ogasawara, and in 1550 he seized their principal castle at Fukashi, in modern Matsumoto, forcing their daimyo Ogasawara Nagatoki to flee and seek sanctuary with his ally Murakami Yoshikiyo at Katsurao.
Takeda Shingen then turned his attention to the Murakami, and after some difficulty succeeded in reducing their stronghold at Tosihi in 1551. After another two years of gruelling fighting the Takeda were finally ready to move against Katsurao itself, and Shingen entrusted the task to his brother Takeda Nobushige and son Takeda Yoshinobu. In the end Murakami resistance melted away, and uncle and nephew succeeded in reducing Katsurao after just seven days of fighting.[1]
- ^ Turnbull, Stephen (2013). Kawanakajima 1553–64: Samurai power struggle. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. pp. 26–33. ISBN 978-1-84603-652-1.