Battle of Miyajima

• Mori Motonari (10,000) vs. Sue Harukata (20,000)
  • Date: October 1555
  • Location: Aki province
  • KIA: Sue Harukata, Sue Nagafusa

In 1551 Sue Harukata overthrew Ouchi Yoshitaka and became the defacto head of the Ouchi clan through a puppet, Ouchi (Otomo) Yoshinaga. In 1554 Mori Motonari of Aki rose against Harukata and defeated a Sue force at Oshikihata in June. In October 1555 Sue was lured to Miyajima (Miya Island, also known as Itskushima) by a ploy on Motonari's part: he had ordered a fort built there, then publicly lamented that he could hardly hope to hold it for long. Even as the Sue were occupying Miyajima, the Mori were initiating the second phase of Motonari's scheme: the Mori army recaptured Sakarao, a fort on the mainland that acted as an anchor to Sue's army on the island. Then, in a thunderstorm the Mori, led by Motonari and his sons (Takamoto, Kikkawa Motoharu, and Kobayakawa Takakage) sailed to the island and launched a surprise attack at dawn that resulted in the complete destruction of Sue's army. Harukata himself commited suicide and Motonari's rise in the western provinces had begun. Motonari's victory here had been much aided (if not made possible) by the assistance of the Murakami, a family of pirates whose friendship Motonari had been courting for some time.