The Battle of Nagoya (1545) was a military encounter between the forces of Oda daimyo Nobuhide Oda, commanded by Commissioner for Warfare Muneyori Takayama, and the Oda dissident Tametomo Oda. The outnumbered rebels took up positions on a hilltop near the coastal village of Nagoya, but they were defeated by a flank attack and their army was damaged beyond repair.
Background[]
At the start of the Japanese warlords' bid for power against the Ashikaga Shogunate in the Sengoku Period, the Owari Prefecture warlord Nobuhide Oda of the Oda clan faced a challenge. The Saito clan of Mino Province to the north and the Tokugawa vassals of the Imagawa clan in Mikawa Province to the south both proved to be enemies with some degree of a good threat, and the Oda were also at risk of a rebellion in Owari Province, their homeland. The army of daimyo Nobuhide Oda was soon threatened by Tametomo Oda's rebel army, who had occupied the coastal village of Nagoya with 315 troops and threatened to take down the Oda through the inside. Nobuhide sent Muneyori Takayama and 720 troops to put down the uprising, and to pacify Owari.
Battle[]
The Nobuhide faction besieges the hill.
The rebel army took up a defensive position on the summit of a hill near Nagoya, gaining the advantage of heights over the Nobuhide faction's army on the ground. Muneyori ordered an attack on the hill from the south and from the east in order to successfully divert the rebel units to two separate corridors against superior numbers and quality troops. Muneyori himself slowly rode with his cavalry bodyguards to the western face of the hill to prevent any escape by the rebel forces, and the Nobuhide archers took up positions on the south face of the hill to damage the morale of the rebels. They were able to fell many of the rebel archers before they could deliver their first volley, and the units from the east charged up the hill to strike at the rebel Yari Ashigaru militiamen. The units from the south then charged the rebel bowmen, and within a minute, the morale of the rebels collapsed and they began to retreat. Muneyori's men charged uphill as Tametomo charged down the hill, and the cavalry briefly clashed. In the end, it was a victory for Muneyori, and the Nobuhide faction chased down the rebels as they routed.
Aftermath[]
As the fog cleared, 57 Nobuhide troops and 238 rebels lay dead on the hill and the surrounding fields. Tametomo was pursued a few miles north with 60 men and killed in a short skirmish action, and the rebellion was crushed. Nobuhide was now able to focus on his enemies to the north and south, and he readied his army to encounter Hirotada Tokugawa's invading army to the south.