The Battle of Uchimi (Japanese: 打見の戦い, Hepburn: Uchimi no tatakai) was a battle fought in September, 1547 between the forces of Kitabatake Harumoto and his rival Hatakeyama Yoshikuni in Ise Province. The battle was a decisive victory for Harumoto and earned him his reputation as a formidable tactician. Yoshikuni meanwhile was forced to retreat back to his stronghold in Kawachi province where he would become embroiled in a three-way war against the Miyoshi, Hosokawa, and Ikeda clans.
Following his victory, Harumoto began to involve himself more in the affairs of the other Kansai clans, and swiftly became one of Kansai’s most powerful daimyō.
Background[]
Hatakeyama Yoshikuni, head of the Kawachi branch of the powerful Hatakeyama Clan, had been steadily expanding his influence across most of Central Kansai since the early 1530s. However, his expansion had been checked by the Miyoshi Clan to the north and west, and the Negoro-shū monks to the south-west, leaving only the east and south-east as viable options. Yoshikuni had a fairly amicable relationship with the Ashikaga shōguns, having come to Yoshiharu’s aid alongside Hosokawa Harumoto against Miyoshi Chōkei in 1546. To the south-east lay the weak Tsutsui Clan who nominally ruled over Yamato Province but in actuality, the province was a patchwork of smaller clans each relatively autonomous from the Tsutsui’s authority.
Yoshikuni therefore offered support to a number of minor clans in Yamato, sparking a largescale revolt against Tsutsui Junshō. Junshō was forced to flee further east, to the court of Kitabatake Harumoto, his most powerful ally. Harumoto had remained reserved from the feudal conflicts of his neighbours, instead devoting himself to sword training, poetry and administration of his province. However, upon realising the threat that Yoshikuni now presented, he amassed his forces and marched west to face the Hatakeyama. But upon hearing of the size of Yoshikuni’s force, which had been bolstered by the rebelling Yamato clans, Harumoto marched back east, apparently in retreat. Yoshikuni eagerly pursued along the Miya River.
Battle[]
The Hatakeyama army decided to cross the Miya River at the village of Kawazoe, in Taiki-chō. Yoshikuni insisted on the Yamato forces to cross first, as most of them were more lightly armoured and could more quickly establish a beachhead on the northern side of the river. This resulted in an argument between the Hatakeyama and Yamato forces, the latter of which wanted to loot the nearby towns first before crossing. Yoshikuni eventually relented and allowed the Yamato forces to raid the towns on the north side of the river.
The Yamato forces, led by Ido Satohiro, began to cross the Miya River, and eagerly began to loot the town of Kawazoe. Once a large number were on the northern side of the river, however, they were suddenly beset upon by Kitabatake forces who had hidden themselves in the nearby wooded hills. Lead by Harumoto himself, who was renowned as an exceptional swordsman, the ferocity of the Kitabatake was so great that the Yamato forces immediately began to rout back across the river.
In order to prevent the Hatakeyama from reinforcing, Harumoto sent another force to ford the river to the west on makeshift rafts, threatening Yoshikuni's hatamoto. Meanwhile, his relentless push at Kawazoe was turning into a slaughter as Hatakeyama forces attempting to cross were preventing the retreat of the Yamato samurai. Yoshikuni tried to send some cavalry to counter-charge Harumoto's flanking force, but hidden archers forced them back after some casualties. As the death toll continued to rise, Yoshikuni realised his situation was untenable and so prepared to reassemble his force.
Yoshikuni desperately tried to rally his troops but was unable to stop the mass panic, as Harumoto himself joined the flanking force and began to ascend a large hill to the south-west, intending to cut off Yoshikuni's means of escape. Realising his unfavourable position, Yoshikuni ordered his own men to retreat, but in the confusion, many troops assumed Yoshikuni was fleeing himself, or even dead.
Thus, an orderly retreat devolved into a full-scale rout. Whilst Yoshikuni himself and his elite guard managed to escape mostly unscathed, Harumoto and his flanking force had by this point blockaded the pass towards Kanawa and Eikai. Trapped between the river and Kitabatake samurai, the Yamato forces and Hatakeyama vanguard were massacred.
Harumoto ordered his troops to pursue those that had managed to escape for a number of miles, killing as many Hatakeyama troops as possible. Upon seeing that Yoshikuni was retreating back to Kawachi, however, Harumoto put a stop to the pursuit and regathered his forces.
Aftermath[]
Having lost nearly a third of his army during the battle, and a large number more to desertions as Harumoto reinstalled Junshō as daimyō of Yamato, Yoshikuni was forced to abandon his claims over southern Kansai, and instead focused on his position in Kawachi. His position was challenged by Miyoshi Chōkei, who sought revenge on Yoshikuni for intervening in his attempt to install Ashikaga Yoshiteru as shōgun. Yoshikuni’s ally, Yusa Naganori, started the war by attacking Hosokawa Ujitsuna, a Miyoshi vassal. During the ensuing conflict, the Ikeda clan of southern Yamashiro Province attempted to expand their own holdings, at the expense of both sides. Both the Miyoshi and Hatakeyama found themselves greatly weakened by the war and before long were overthrown.
Meanwhile, Harumoto received prestige and respect from across Japan. Tsutsui Junshō now essentially served as his puppet ruler in Yamato, and even as far away as Omi, the Asai clan sent an offer of friendship. Harumoto steadily became more and more involved in the affairs of Kansai, especially after the Ashikaga shōgun, Yoshiharu offered him the position of Kanrei, after the defeat of Hosokawa Ujitsuna at the battle of Ikoma. Harumoto would continue to serve as the Ashikaga’s most powerful supporter until their usurpation at the hands of the rising Horiuchi Clan.
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