Battle of Mikata ga Hara
The Battle of Mikata ga Hara is remembered as one of the most famous battles of military leader Takeda Shingen. In October of 1572, Takeda Shingen was looking to expand territory. He had already made alliances with his eastern rivals and he wanted the snow to melt before he headed north against Kenshin, so he took an army of 30,000 south into the Totomi Province. He quickly captured Yoshida Castle and Futamata castle.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was not about to let Takeda’s advance stand and raised 8,000 men at Hamamatsu Castle along with 3,000 reinforcements from Oda Nobunaga. Despite the defense rallied by Tokugawa, Takeda did not want to attack the warlord or Hamamatsu. Takeda wanted to save his army to defeat Nobunaga and make an attack on Kyoto. Despite the fact that Takeda had no desire to fight Tokugawa, Tokugawa refused to let him pass through unhindered. So against the advice of his own generals and those of Nobunaga, Tokugawa drew his forces on the Mikatagahara plain.
Takeda had the superiority of numbers but Tokugawa had firearms. However, the peasant stone throwers and shooters were no match for Takeda’s cavalry charge. The mounted troops overran the gunners and broke through. Shingen then withdrew his troops from battle and allowed them to rest before bringing forth a new set of horseman for another cavalry charge. The second charge was flanked by the whole Takeda army which put the Tokugawa forces into full retreat.
Many brave samurai gave their lives in an attempt to delay the advance of Takeda in order to allow Tokugawa to retreat back to Hamamatsu Castle. Tokugawa kept the castle gates open and the braziers lit in order to guide his retreating forces to safety. Takeda’s forces were afraid of a trap and did not march on the castle. Returning Tokugawa troops attacked the camp and threw the vanguard of the Takeda army into confusion. After the attack Takeda had no idea of the strength of Tokugawa and decided to retreat and make an attack on the castle the following year.