Tenmokuzan: How the Takeda Vanished

On March 11, 1582, in the Tano valley at the foot of Mount Tenmoku in eastern Kai Province, Takeda Katsuyori committed suicide together with his principal consort and his heir, Nobukatsu. Seven years had passed since the defeat at Nagashino, nine since Shingen's death. The clan once called the fiercest of the Sengoku ended there.

Why the Collapse Was So Fast

In February 1582 Nobunaga launched a four-axis simultaneous invasion of Takeda territory. Nobutada's main force came up the Kiso road from Mino; Tokugawa Ieyasu came in from Tōtōmi; Hōjō Ujimasa pressed from the Kantō; Kanamori Nagachika came in from Hida. The Takeda defensive system had never recovered from the losses at Nagashino. Castle commander after castle commander surrendered or fled. When even hereditary retainers of the rank of Kiso Yoshimasa and Anayama Nobukimi defected, Katsuyori's chain of command broke. He abandoned the new Shimpu Castle on March 3 and tried to fall back to Iwadono Castle under Oyamada Nobushige on March 7; Oyamada refused him entry. Katsuyori turned toward Mount Tenmoku.

The Last Day at Tano

On March 11 Katsuyori was overtaken at the foot of Tenmoku in Tano. The retainers still with him numbered around forty. His principal consort, a sister of Hōjō Ujimasa, chose to die with him at the end. His heir Nobukatsu, sixteen years old, helped his father commit suicide before taking his own life. Katsuyori was thirty-six. Of the famous Twenty-Four Generals of the Takeda, only a handful would survive into the Tokugawa era.

What Nobunaga Did With the Takeda Lands

Nobunaga divided the former Takeda territories of Kai and Shinano among Kawajiri Hidetaka, Mori Nagayoshi, and Takigawa Kazumasu. Three months later he himself was dead at Honnō-ji, and the former Takeda lands became the battleground of the Tenshō-Jingo conflict between Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hōjō Ujinao, and Uesugi Kagekatsu. The Takeda clan was gone, but many former Takeda retainers reentered service under Tokugawa Ieyasu and, as Ii Naomasa's famous Red Devils, carried Takeda military doctrine into the Edo period. The Takeda name vanished; the Takeda personnel and tactics flowed into the Tokugawa Bakufu.

"Dim the moon, faint through the haze of cloud — and the edge of the western mountain clearing."