The Battle of Yamazaki was fought in 1582 in Yamazaki, Japan, located in current day
Kyoto Prefecture. This battle is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Mt. Tennō.
In the Honnō-ji Incident Akechi Mitsuhide, a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, attacked Nobunaga
as he rested in Honnō-ji, and forced him to commit seppuku. Mitsuhide then took over
Nobunaga's power and authority around the Kyoto area. Thirteen days later, Toyotomi
Hideyoshi met Mitsuhide at Yamazaki and defeated him, avenging his lord and taking Nobunaga's
authority and power for himself. Preparations for Battle
When Nobunaga died, Hideyoshi was busy fighting the Mōri clan. After betraying and defeating
Nobunaga at Honnō-ji, Mitsuhide sent a letter to the Mōri. The letter contained a request
for an alliance to crush Hideyoshi, but the letter's messenger was captured by Hideyoshi's
forces and the plot was revealed. Upon hearing news that Nobunaga had been killed,
and that Akechi Mitsuhide had taken command of his possessions, Toyotomi Hideyoshi immediately
negotiated a peace treaty with the Mōri, remaining careful to keep Nobunaga's death
a secret. Once the treaty was secured, he then led his troops on a forced march towards
Kyoto, averaging 30 to 40 km a day. Akechi Mitsuhide controlled two castles in
the Yamazaki region. Due to his lack of men for the impending battle with Hideyoshi, he
attempted to win the hearts of the people in that region in order to gain more troops.
However, his appeals to Hosokawa Fujitaka were fruitless, and so he was unable to add
significant strength to his forces. Less than two weeks after Mitsuhide's betrayal,
Hideyoshi's army finally arrived and attacked Mitsuhide's inferior forces at Yamazaki. Learning
of the size of Hideyoshi's army and not wanting to be caught inside a castle with his force
divided, Mitsuhide resolved to prepare for battle somewhere to the south. Due to its
position between a river and a mountain, Yamazaki provided Mitsuhide with choke points that
could ease the number of enemies his forces would have to face at any one time.
Meanwhile, Hideyoshi decided that a wooded area called Tennōzan, just outside the town
of Yamazaki, was key to strategic control of the road to Kyoto. He sent a detachment
under Nakagawa Kiyohide to secure this area, while he led the majority of the army to Yamazaki
himself. His forces took over the mountain and gained a significant advantage.
Mitsuhide arranged his army behind a small river, which provided an excellent defensive
position. That night, Hideyoshi's men sent a number of ninja into the Mitsuhide camp,
setting fire to buildings and generally causing fear and confusion.
The battle On the following morning, the main fighting
began as Hideyoshi's men began to form up along the opposite shore of the Enmyōji-gawa
from the enemy, and a portion of Mitsuhide's men crossed the river, seeking to make their
way up the wooded Tennōzan hill. They were driven back by arquebus fire, and so Hideyoshi
felt confident enough to launch the right wing of his forces across the river, and into
Mitsuhide's front lines. They made some progress, and were soon joined by the left wing, with
support from atop Tennōzan. The majority of Mitsuhide's men fled, with the exception
of the 200 men under Mimaki Kaneaki, who charged and were destroyed by Hideyoshi's larger force.
Soon, panic set in among the Mitsuhide army, and Hideyoshi's army chased them back to Shōryūji.
Mitsuhide himself fled much further, to the town of Ogurusu, where he was captured by
bandits and killed. Mitsuhide is rumored to have been killed by a peasant warrior with
a bamboo spear by the name of Nakamura; however, there were also rumors that he was not killed,
but rather started a new life as a priest called Tenkai. Hideyoshi used this victory
as a stepping-stone to gain control over Nobunaga's former territories and eventually all of Japan.
In popular culture The Battle of Yamazaki is the final stage
of Akechi Mitsuhide and the first stage of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Samurai Warriors 2.
The battle is also the basis for the Sonny Chiba martial arts film Shogun Ninja.