Battle of Shigiyama Castle (2/2)The last moments of Okuo Hisashi Matsunaga

Despite Hisahide's second betrayal, an unusual situation is occurring in which Nobunaga is acting poorly, but at that time, Nobunaga is in the middle of the third siege. Ishiyama Honganji Temple, Uesugi Kenshin, Mori Terumoto, Takeda Katsuyori, and others participated in the siege and tormented Nobunaga. While Nobunaga continued to fight against Ishiyama Honganji Temple, in the north Uesugi Kenshin attacked Nobunaga's Nanao Castle in an attempt to pacify Noto Province (Ishikawa Prefecture). In order to rescue Nanao Castle, Nobunaga dispatched Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Takigawa Kazumasu, Niwa Nagahide, Maeda Toshiie, Sassa Narimasa, and others to Hokuriku with Katsuie Shibata as the general. Since Hisahide betrayed the enemy in a situation where such enemies were attacking all at once, Nobunaga may have wanted to somehow prevent the rebellion so as not to cause further trouble.

There is also a story that at this time Nobunaga asked Hisahide to offer him the famous tea kettle ``Kotenmyouhiragumo'' in exchange for his betrayal. The Koten Myohira spider was a specialty that Nobunaga was passionate about, and he had requested several times to give it to Hisahide. However, Hisahide ignored these and negotiations broke down. Nobunaga decides to execute the hostages and defeat Hisahide. This is the beginning of the Battle of Shigiyama Castle.

Nobunaga dispatched Junkei Tsutsui, Mitsuhide Akechi, and Fujitaka Hosokawa as the advance party to attack Hisashi Matsunaga. On October 1st, the advance party attacked Kataoka Castle (Kamimaki Town, Kitakatsuragi District, Nara Prefecture), which was a branch castle of Shigisan Castle, with approximately 5,000 soldiers. In response, Matsunaga's army, including Tomokyo Ebina and Masatomo Mori, defended the castle with 1,000 soldiers, but the castle fell. The battle seems to have been fierce, and 150 members of Matsunaga's army were killed, including Tomokiyo and Masatomo.

Why did Hisashi Matsunaga betray Nobunaga?

Why did Hisashi Matsunaga betray Oda Nobunaga at this timing? One of the reasons for this is Yamato Province, which was ruled by Hisahide. After leaving Hisahide's control, Yamato Shugo was succeeded by Naomasa Hanawa and then by Junkei Tsutsui. Junkei was Hisahide's arch-enemy with whom he had long been fighting over control of Yamato Province. Furthermore, Hisahide's famous castle, Tamonyama Castle, was destroyed by Junkei. Tamonyama Castle is famous as a gorgeous castle with a four-story turret, and it is said that Nobunaga used it as a reference when building Azuchi Castle. Hisahide must have been extremely disappointed to have such a castle destroyed by his nemesis.

In terms of timing, Ishiyama Honganji and Uesugi Kenshin are in the midst of fighting Nobunaga. The main forces of the Oda army, including Katsuie Shibata, are heading to Hokuriku to suppress Kenshin. Furthermore, Terumoto Mori supported Hongan-ji Temple, and in the First Battle of Kizugawaguchi in July, the Mori navy defeated the Oda navy and succeeded in transporting food and supplies to Hongan-ji Temple, which was surrounded by the Oda army. I just did it. If you want to betray Nobunaga, now is the time! Was it something like that?

However, Kenshin stopped his advance in October, probably due to Ujimasa Hojo's departure to the Kanto region. Seeing this, Nobunaga recalled Oda Nobutada, Sakuma Nobumori, Hashiba Hideyoshi, Tamba Hide, and others from the Northern Army and joined them in attacking Shigiyama Castle. As a result, the Oda army swelled to 40,000 soldiers.

Battle of Shigiyama Castle lost to traitors

Then, on October 5th, the battle at Shigiyama Castle finally began. The Oda army attacked Shigiyama Castle with 40,000 soldiers, but was unable to attack due to the desperate resistance of 8,000 soldiers led by Hisashi Matsunaga. However, Hisahide was still in a predicament. Therefore, Hisahide dispatched Yoshihisa Mori to Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple to request reinforcements from Kenyo at Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple.

On October 8, Yoshihisa safely returned to the castle with 200 guns. When Hisahide heard that more reinforcements were coming, he was overjoyed that he now had a chance of victory, but Yoshihisa was actually a vassal of Junkei Tsutsui from the Oda side. After leaving Shigisan Castle, he did not go to Honganji Temple, but went to Matsukura Shigenobu, a vassal of Junkei, and leaked information about Shigisan Castle. Yes, Yoshihisa was a traitor! The gun corps that was taken back to the castle was Shigenobu's soldiers, that is, enemy soldiers.

From the night of October 9th, the Oda army and Matsunaga army began fighting again. Junkei Tsutsui took the lead in attacking the Matsunaga army. At one point, the Oda army was almost repulsed and retreated, but Yoshihisa turned around and used a gun to set fire to the castle, causing Matsunaga's army to fall into chaos. The Oda army attacks without missing a chance. In the end, Matsunaga's army collapsed, and Hisahide committed suicide along with Hisamichi on October 10th. He passed away at the age of 68. Coincidentally, that day also happened to be the day when the Great Buddha Hall of Todaiji Temple was set on fire during the Battle of the Great Buddha Hall, so it is written in the Nobunaga Koki that people at the time rumored that it was a divine punishment (because of the syncretization of Shinto and Buddhism). Masu.

``The flat spider died in an explosion'' was a lie! ?

A well-known theory about Hide Matsunaga's death is that he died in an explosion along with the famous Koten Myohei spider. Hisahide is famous as the ``first daimyo in Japanese history to die in an explosion,'' but this is actually a creation of later generations. According to the diaries of people at the time, it seems that he actually died by seppuku or his own arson, and his charred head was sent to Azuchi Castle. According to "Nobunaga Koki," it seems that the flat spider was crushed when it died.

The story of his death in the explosion seems to have been gradually expanded from an anecdote in the Kawazuno Taikoki written in the early Edo period that states, ``Hisahide's head was shattered into pieces by the gunpowder of a gun, just like that of a flat spider.'' According to researchers, the bomb death theory is a relatively new theory that arose after World War II. Hisahide is often depicted as one of the three great owl men and a dark and villainous person due to the three evil deeds mentioned above and the theory that he died in an explosion, but recent research has started to reconsider his evaluation. It may not be long before the "new" Hisahide is depicted in stories and novels.