Takeda Nobutora

• Born: 1493
• Died: 1574
• Titles: Mutsu no kami, Sakyô-daibu
• Other Names: Nobunao
• Japanese: 武田 信虎

Nobutora was the eldest son of Takeda Nobutsuna, the lord of Kai Province. His mother was from the Iwashita family. Nobutsuna died in 1507 and Nobutora duly succeeded him, only to suffer the revolt of his uncle, Nobue. Nobutora put the rebellion down in 1512 and brought all of Kai under his effective control by 1519. In that year, having gained the support of such Kai notables as the Anayama and Oyamada, Nobutora built a castle he named Yogai on Maruyama near Fuchu. Fuchu, better known as Kofu, would remain the center of the Takeda clan for the next sixty years. He fought a series of battles defending Kai's borders, defeating Fukushima Masashige in 1521 and Hôjô Ujitsuna in 1526. He clashed with his rival Hiraga Genshin in 1536, and captured Un no kuchi thanks, reportedly, to the efforts of his eldest son Harunobu.

The following year he married one of his daughters to Imagawa Yoshimoto of Suruga province. Despite Un no kuchi, Nobutora favored a younger son, Nobushige over Harunobu and planned to name him heir. Perhaps as importantly to the coming events, Nobutora had alienated his retainers with his arbitrary style of leadership and burdened the people of Kai with heavy taxes and forced labor. In the summer of 1541 he was overthrown by Harunobu and his chief retainers (perhaps most notably Amari Torayasu and Itagaki Nobutaka), although the manner in which this played out is not entirely clear. According to one version of the so-called 'bloodless coup', Nobutora departed for Suruga Province to visit his daughter, the wife of Imagawa Yoshimto, and Harunobu seized power in his absence, possibly with the secret understanding of Yoshimoto. The people of Kai in any event celebrated his fall and the Takeda retainers accepted Shingen's rule without incident. Nobutora afterwards lived quietly in Suruga Province, at one point going to Kyoto to visit Ashikaga Yoshiteru, and was watched first by the Imagawa and then by the Takeda when Suruga came under Takeda control after 1569.

After Harunobu (Shingen) died in 1573, Takeda Katsuyori came to visit Nobutora and then allowed him to take up residence in Shinano province. He died on 27 March 1574 in Shinano (almost all western sources state that he died in 1573, perhaps owing to some earlier confusion with the death of Shingen), and was buried in Kai and his grave may be seen in Kofu today. Nobutora was recorded as an intemperate and even unstable man who was not well-liked by his retainers, though he was a warrior of some ability. Katsuyori was said to have been taken aback at how fearsome his grandfather looked even at 80 years of age. His wife, the daughter of Ôi Nobutatsu and the mother of all his sons save Ichijô Nobutatsu, died in 1552. His eldest daughter (who died in 1550), the wife of Imagawa Yoshimoto, produced the latter's heir, Ujizane.