Battle of Miyajima

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

In 1551 Sue Harukata overthrew Ôuchi Yoshitaka and became the de facto head of the Ôuchi clan through a puppet, Ôuchi (Ôtomo) Yoshinaga. In 1554 Môri Motonari of Aki rose against Harukata and defeated a Sue force at Oshikihata in June. In October 1555 Sue was lured to Miyajima (lit. "Shrine Island", also known as Itsukushima) 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 Môri were initiating the second phase of Motonari's scheme: the Môri 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 Môri, 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 committed 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 clan, a family of pirates whose friendship Motonari had been courting for some time.