The Nagara River: In 1556, the Schemer Was Killed by His Own Son

In the fourth month of 1556 (Kōji 2), on the bank of the Nagara River in Mino (present-day Gifu City).

Saitō Dōsan faced the great army led by his own son Yoshitatsu. Dōsan's force was small, and many retainers had gone over to Yoshitatsu.

The man who had seized a province by force was now about to be destroyed, by force, by his own child.

Dōsan crossed the river with resolve, and was struck down before the overwhelming difference in numbers.

He was sixty-three.

In his last years, Dōsan is transmitted to have loved his other sons over his eldest, Yoshitatsu, and to have tried to take the headship from Yoshitatsu and cede it to a younger brother.

Yoshitatsu conceived a deep resentment at this. The father who had seized a province by force tried, by the very logic of strength, to select his heir by ability.

But that cold-bloodedness turned his own successor Yoshitatsu into an enemy. The blade of gekokujō the father had embodied would now be gripped in the hand of the son.

In 1555, Yoshitatsu feigned illness, summoned his younger brothers to the castle, and murdered them.

It was open rebellion against his father Dōsan. Many retainers ran not to the already-retired Dōsan but to Yoshitatsu, who held real power.

The value Dōsan had spread — that a lord is chosen by strength — ironically isolated Dōsan himself.

The next year, 1556, Dōsan and Yoshitatsu at last crossed swords at the Nagara River.

The difference in strength was plain. Dōsan fought desperately with his small force, but was surrounded by Yoshitatsu's great army and struck down.

It is transmitted that, on the verge of death, Dōsan left a will ceding Mino to his son-in-law Nobunaga.

Whether true or not, the anecdote — that a father killed by his own son entrusted his last hope to his son-in-law — symbolizes Dōsan's life.

The blood of the schemer who seized a province and had it seized by his son would be inherited, toward a bid for the realm, by the son-in-law he had foreseen — Nobunaga.