The Withdrawal at Shizugatake: In 1583, Toshiie Chose Between Old Lord and Sworn Friend

In the fourth month of 1583 (Tenshō 11), at Shizugatake in Ōmi (present-day Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture).

Maeda Toshiie, as one wing of Shibata Katsuie's army, faced the side of Hashiba Hideyoshi (this site's id 2).

But in the midst of the battle's intensifying, Toshiie suddenly gathered his soldiers, withdrew from the line, and pulled back to Echizen.

At the withdrawal of Toshiie, who had held a key position, Katsuie's army collapsed utterly.

Behind that back turning away from his old lord was a heartbreak of Toshiie's own.

After Nobunaga fell at Honnō-ji, the real power of the Oda house was contested by Hashiba Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie.

Toshiie served as Katsuie's auxiliary in the Hokuriku and was on terms close to a long lord-and-retainer bond with Katsuie.

Hideyoshi, on the other hand, was a childhood friend with whom he had shared hardship as a fellow retainer of Nobunaga from his youth.

Neither could be cast aside. As the surviving retainers of the Oda split in two, Toshiie was made to stand directly atop that fissure.

Seeing the tide of Shizugatake lean toward Hideyoshi's side, Toshiie resolved to leave Katsuie.

To die for a losing battle and destroy the Maeda house, or to leave the house standing and take his friend's hand.

Toshiie chose the latter. It is transmitted that the retreating Katsuie passed by Toshiie's camp and, without a word of resentment, took his leave with 'This is the end.

' Leaving his former lord in a place of death, Toshiie turned his horse back to his own domain.

What was in his breast became something he could never forget for the rest of his life.

Katsuie was cornered at Kita-no-shō in Echizen and took his own life together with his wife Oichi (this site's id 63).

Toshiie surrendered to Hideyoshi and thereafter became his most trusted senior retainer, rising to a great daimyō holding Kaga, Noto, and Etchū.

But the memory of abandoning his old lord remained a thorn that never left the breast of the Toshiie judged a faithful man.

The reality of a warrior who protects his house, and the ideal of a warrior's duty.

On this day Toshiie chose the former, and lived bearing its weight.