History of the Takeda Clan

for those of you wondering the next video i make will be returning back to the singokujidai series however for this one i wanted to give a bit of a preview for some of the type of content going forward and particularly following the conclusion of the sengoku jidai series some of you may already know about this based on comments i have responded to or simply talking to you through the discord server but i want to start a separate series that will detail the history of many samurai clans although this video will be for now placed into the extra samurai history playlist i will in time move it over to a brand new playlist just for these samurai clan history videos obviously the goal of these videos will be to go through the complete history of a particular samurai clan discussing their rise and in many cases fall including wars famous figures and territorial expansion but i do think it is important to note here that these videos are a broad overview of a clan's history as i am not looking to go into every minute detail throughout time simply i wish to illustrate the overall story of the clan from its birth and perhaps to its death now i had a hard time determining which clan i wanted to start with but i eventually came to the decision to start with one of the most iconic samurai clans of all time the takeda clan so with that said let's jump back in time and uncover the history of the takeda the takeda clan bears a proud warrior lineage being directly descended from the minamoto clan specifically from the samurai lord known as minamoto yoshimitsu a member of the sewagenji branch of the minamoto family the same lineage as minamoto yoritomo who would in time become the first shogun of the kamakura shogunate or bakufu yoshimitsu was born in 1049 and throughout the 1080s he would come to fight in the kosanen war which was the result of infighting within the northern province of mutsu for his efforts in the war yoshimitsu would be rewarded with a new territory to govern over his prize would be the province of kai located in the chubu region yoshimitsu would pass away in 1127 and it would be his son minamoto yoshikiyo who would decide to create his own unique branch of the minamoto family taking the new family name takeda which can be roughly translated to mean both bamboo rice paddy and warrior rice paddy perhaps more accurately meaning rice paddy warriors their new kamon or family insignia would bear four diamonds arranged into the shape of a large single diamond these diamonds are often said to represent wind forest fire and mountain these elements are in direct connection to sun tzu's art of war directly being lifted from the quote let your rapidity be that of the wind your gentleness that of the forest in raiding and plundering be like fire and be immovable like a mountain these were the words of the takeda and within time become the same phrase that would become immortalized on takeda shingen's foreign kazan other takeda emblems that were used include a pair of cranes a centipede and three vertical flowers known as a hanabishi yet it is the diamonds that we have come to recognize the most as the image of the takeda family for a time the takedown ruled over kai in peace that is until the genpei war when eventually the takeda would be called upon by the minamoto clan to aid in their war effort to this end takeda nubumitsu would distinguish himself as a valiant field commander following the end of the genpe war and into the kamakura period nobumitsu would be called upon again fighting in the brief joku war against the forces of the retired emperor gotoba who sought to overthrow the rule of the shogun for his loyalty nobumitsu would be awarded the province of aki located in the chukoku region and for about 100 years we enter into an interesting period where one takeda shugo a military land governor under the shogun ruled over both provinces in the east and in the west eventually during the genku war which ended in the overthrow of the kamakura shogunate the takeda would ally themselves to the imperial forces and aid in the march against the bakufu however from this point on they have become loyal to ashikaga takahuji who would later in turn overthrow emperor godaigo and establish the new ashikaga shogunate this would then be immediately followed by what is remembered as the nanbokucho period when japan was divided between the northern and southern imperial courts leaving many samurai lords to take up arms for whichever side they saw as legitimate and it is here we see the takeda remain loyal to the ashikaga shogunate and the northern imperial court located in kyoto around the year 1360 the current takeda shugo takera nobutake died yet instead of both kai and aki being passed on to his firstborn his land would in the end be divided between his sons with his son takeda lubunari inheriting kai province and his son takeda ujinobu inheriting aki thus from this point on both the kaitakera and akitakera became separate branches of the same family and we can see roughly half a century later the takeda of kai would face a near catastrophe during the uprising of uesugi zenshu xinshu was a chief advisor to ashikaga mochiyugi the kanto kubo basically the regional lord of the kanto region under the shogunit disagreements between zinchyu and mochiyuuji eventually spiraled out of control to the point where xinchu organized a mass uprising against the kantokubo and surprisingly you'd be joined by many of the shugo throughout the area including the takeda family of kai who were at this point under the leadership of takeda bumitsu the second not to be confused with the earlier takera nugumitsu eventually the shogunate in kyoto was forced to intervene causing ibumitsu to be forced into submission and later be made to commit sipuku for his betrayal yet instead of removing the takeda family from kai in exchange for a much more loyal family to rule over the province the bumitsu's brother moto who at the time had been living the life of a monk would be recalled to take on the position of shugo of kai although the damage done by zinchu's rebellion and later disturbances caused the authority of the kantokubo to continually fall apart eventually allowing nubumitsu's true son and heir nobushige to retake control of the kai takeda family further power struggles throughout the 15th century would also lead to the establishment of a third and minor branch of the takeda family in the province of wakasa when ishiki ushitsura who had become a powerful shugo and overlord to several provinces across japan rebelled against the influence of the ashikaga shogunate due to the heroism of a takeda family member by the name of takeda nobuhide who fought against yoshitsura the takeda family would be granted ownership of wakasa where nobuhide would rule as shugo for a time before his brother nobukata would succeed him eventually we arrive at the year 1467 when the disastrous onion war finally broke out due to a succession dispute within the ashikaga shogunate the question being who was to become the next shogun ashikaga yoshimasa's brother yoshimi or his newly born son yoshihiza whose birth was unprecedented originally the two main instigators of the conflict were the hosokawa who supported yoshimi and the yamana who supported yoshihiza in time more samurai families would begin to join in and pledge their allegiance to one side or the other the takeda family is largely considered to have sided with the hosokawa in the conflict and we can even see that during the course of the war the aki branch of the takeda family would secure control over tango province which they would hold until losing it in 1574. three years later the war would come to an end yet its effects on japan would be even more drastic the owning war had destabilized the country to the point where now samurai lords across the land were rising up to assert their own regional dominance this was now the age of the sengoku jidai in terms of the takeda the first major milestone comes with the downfall of the aki branch of the family in 1517 the akitakera under the leadership of takeda motoshige broke away from the ochi clan they had been loyal to and instead pledged themselves to the amago to this end they were forced to immediately deal with the small mori family who had also called aki province home the mori were still allied to the ochi and if moto shige was to be able to establish himself properly against his former overlord he would need to destroy any family in aki that still held loyalties to the ochi thus he set out with an army of around five thousand men and met with the tiny mori army of just one thousand at arita nakaide however the mori army was under the leadership of the strategically gifted mori motonari who would utterly crush the takeda and pave the way for the mori to in time become the most dominant force in the west because of this devastating defeat the akitakera slowly withered away until finally disappearing from the pages of history around the year 1555 the story was much different in the east when it came to the kai takeda the first real famous kai takeda leader of the single kuji dai would be a lord by the name of takeda nubutora he like many others had evolved past the archaic role of the shugo military land governor and had taken up the new title that we can find throughout the period daimyo meaning great name he much like many of his counterparts throughout the period were hungry for power and ever eager to see their domain and sphere of influence expanded yet nobutora was not a great leader in fact the only good thing that can be attributed to him was that he kept the balance of power in the east in check position between the imagawa uesugi and the new rising later hojo clan however his ambition was the real detriment to his name as he continually attempted to secure territory in shinano province which was home to a whole host of minor families although every attempt he made to invade shinano ended poorly eventually his continuous failures to establish himself in the province led to his public opinion dropping drastically within the kai takeda clan in fact even within his own army his opinion started to deteriorate especially after his eldest son taked haranobu began proving himself as a gifted military leader yet still becoming often scorned by his father eventually it is said that haranobu caught wind of nobutora's wishes to pass leadership on to his favorite son of bushige and not his firstborn haranobu this would lead to haranabu finally taking the step to eventually stage a military coup against his father in 1540 a move that was largely backed by the rest of the takeda commanders to this end nobutora would be exiled from kai and haranobu would go on to become the new daimyo of the clan as we know in time haranobu would take on the name shingen and become one of the most legendary figures of the entire period and one of the most iconic samurai lords of all time for the remainder of shingen's life he would work to expand the takada clan in a strategic and effective manner succeeding where his father had failed and ushering in a golden age for the takeda clan building them into one of the most powerful forces in the entire country often coming to clash largely with his greatest rival uesuki kenshin the two of them would fight five battles over the kawanakajima plane with the fourth battle in particular going down as one of the greatest clashes in samurai history by 1560 we see the takeda imagawa and hojo all joined together in a three-way alliance that moved to not only ensure their own stability but also allow them to focus on expanding their territory outward without fear of threat from behind this was an important move because it allowed imagawa yoshimoto to begin his march on the capital a move which as we know completely backfired when he was defeated and slain by aura nabunaga at okezama this triumph for oda nobunaga allowed him to mount his own campaign to seize the capital and become one of the most powerful lords in japan and the first great unifier however this path would bring him into direct conflict with takera shingen by 1572 shogun ashikaga yoshiaki would end up begging shingen to march on the capital and expel nobunaga who he saw as a tyrant in the end shingen actually agreed to do so not necessarily because it would allow him to save the ashikaga but because it gave him a legitimate cause to march on kyoto which if successful could have actually paved the way to the establishment of a takeda shogunate seeing as how the takeda bore the correct lineage to take up the mantle of the shogun being that they were related to the sewag genji branch of the minamoto clan the same branch that founded the kamakura shogunit this put the fear of god in oronobu naga and he quickly braced for a new war against the mighty takeda and although shingan's march started out amazingly well completely crushing tokugawa ieyasu at mikatagahara eventually due to an injury or illness shingen would abruptly die in 1573 leaving the clan in the hands of his bastard son takeda katsuyori for some time the takeda attempted to keep shingen's death a secret from the wrath of japan but eventually the word got out the legendary takeda shingen was dead in the aftermath both the ora and takeda would back off from one another and it's here i want to briefly move over to the wakasa takeda whose fate will too largely become influenced by the expansion of the oda clan throughout the sengokujidai the asakura clan of ichizen came to exert a strong wave of authority over the minor clan that was the wakasa takeda due to their own infighting yet eventually we reached 1573 when the oda clan would finally defeat the coalition of the asakura and the azai clans leading to the wakasa takeda family falling under the oda sphere of influence because of this we see the wakasa takeda fall under the rule of niwa nakahide a prominent oda clan commander but now back to the east two years later eager to continue his father's legacy takeda katsuyori would set out again to march on the capital however this time the takeda campaign would go very poorly and result in a deadlock at the castle of nagashino this would all culminate in the extremely historically significant battle of nagashino that would revolutionize samurai warfare throughout the sengoku jidai the takeda cavalry had become widely known and feared and because of this katsuyori wished to use his cavalry to devastating effect against the ora and togugawa who were coming to meet him in the field however to counter the cavalry oda nobunaga would mass matchlock gunners lined behind palisade walls which worked to completely destroy the takeda cavalry charge in a single day of fighting the takeda were effectively crippled forcing katsuyori to flee back to kai for the next seven years the takeda under katsuyori were stagnant and weak only engaging in minor conflicts until finally in 1582 when oda nobunaga and tokugawa yayasu moved in to finish off what remained of the takeda clan and lay claim to the vast takeda domain and although katsuyori desired to make a last stand against the oda in the end he would be betrayed from within his suicide along with the suicide of his wife and son marked the end of the kai takeda but the takeda were not fully gone just yet in wakasa takeda motowaki would live on for several more months until after the death of oda nobunaga at the hands of akechi mitsuhide he would side with mitsuhide and ultimately be sentenced to death following hashiba hideyoshi's victory against the akechi faction at yamazaki this is really where we can see the complete end of the takeda line a mighty and proud samurai family that would come to be extinguished in the later years of the sengoku jidai the legacy of the takeda often lies solely with takeda shingen the most famous of the takeda lords a name which has gone down in history as one of the greatest daimyo of the singokujidai yet going all the way back to the beginning we can have a better understanding of the takeda family a dynasty that survived for over 500 years there are more offshoots of the takeda family and cadet branches that i did not get into here minor parts of the takeda family that continued to live on some even to this day yet the main takeda clan we think of the takeda clan of kai were born with minamoto yoshiko in the 12th century and would die with takeda katsuyori in 1582 i hope this video helped you better understand the long and proud history of one of japan's greatest samurai families please keep in mind that i will continue to make more of these clan history videos as time goes on and will eventually create a separate playlist for them but with that said thank you for watching and don't forget to like subscribe and ring that notification bell if you enjoyed this video and found it to be most informative you

Channel: The Shogunate

Views: 73,267

Rating: 4.9680591 out of 5

Keywords: Samurai, History, Japan, Shogun, Shogunate, Takeda, Shingen, Honor, Bushido, Katana, Sun Tzu, Military, Sengoku Jidai, Clan, Family, Nagashino

Id: uz8XniaEyuk

Length: 18min 17sec (1097 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 16 2021