Battle of Mikatagahara

• Takeda Shingen (28,000) vs. Tokugawa Ieyasu (11,000, including 3,000 Oda troops)
  • Date: 6 January 1573
  • Location: Totomi province
  • Battle
  • KIA: (Tokugawa) Natsume Yoshinobu, (Oda) Hiraide Norihide

As part of an ongoing effort to dominate Totomi, Takeda Shingen led an army south from Shinano and captured Futamata. A few months later he returned to Futamata and used it as a base in a move against Hamamatsu, Tokugawa Ieyasu's headquarters. Tokugawa Ieyasu, reinforced by troops sent by Oda Nobunaga, rashly marched out to challenge the Takeda army on the Mikata Plain (Mikata ga hara). Shingen ordered a frontal assault that quickly broke the Oda contingent and allowed for Takeda horsemen to begin circling around the Tokugawa flanks. Ieyasu signaled a retreat and barely managed to make it back to Hamamatsu alive. He survived the event only due to Takeda reluctance to become involved in a siege. This battle is often recorded as the opening move of a Takeda advance on Kyoto, but it would appear that Shingen's primary goal was to weaken Ieyasu for local advantage.

References

• Initial text from Samurai-Archives.com FWSeal & CEWest, 2005