Battle of Azukizaka

What Happened

On 19 September 1542, the forces of Oda Nobuhide met those of Imagawa Yoshimoto at Azukizaka, a site southeast of Okazaki castle in Nukata district. The engagement was decided quickly in the Oda's favour. The Imagawa vanguard was led by a warrior named Yuhara of Suruga, and the fighting ended with Yuhara's defeat.

Nobuhide was joined in the field by his brothers Nobuyasu, Nobumitsu, and Nobuzane. Credit for the victory was given to seven samurai who came to be known as the "Seven Spears of Azukizaka." Among them was Kawajiri Hidetaka, who fought Yuhara directly and defeated him at the close of the battle.

The date fell in the eleventh year of the Tenbun era (天文, てんぶん), a nengō (年号, ねんごう) — a Japanese era name used to count years — within the Muromachi period, which ran from 1336 to 1573. The battle belongs to the Sengoku period, the century of near-constant regional warfare that overlapped the late Muromachi years.

Background

The clash grew out of Oda moves into western Mikawa, the province lying east of Oda territory. In the eighth month of 1542, Imagawa Yoshimoto responded by moving forces into Ikutahara. Nobuhide answered in turn: he left his position at Anjō castle, crossed the Yahagi river, and took up a position at Kamiwada.

In the tenth month, the two sides engaged at Azukizaka. The site lay southeast of Okazaki castle, placing the battle squarely in the contested ground between Oda and Imagawa spheres of influence. Both houses were still expanding, and Mikawa was the natural point of friction between them.

The Imagawa were the stronger house at this stage, with a power base in Suruga. The Oda were the rising force from the west, and Nobuhide's willingness to cross the Yahagi and meet the Imagawa in the field set the terms of the campaign.

Why It Mattered

The First Battle of Azukizaka was an Oda victory, and it set the stage for Nobuhide's son, Oda Nobunaga, to become one of Japan's greatest warlords. The result checked Imagawa expansion into Mikawa for the moment and confirmed the Oda as a force capable of beating a major eastern neighbour.

The reversal did not last. Later, in 1548, Yoshimoto defeated Nobuhide at the Second Battle of Azukizaka, and he continued to expand his territory afterwards. The two houses remained locked in the same contest over the same ground.

That contest reached its end in 1560, when Yoshimoto faced Nobunaga and was killed at the Battle of Okehazama. The long rivalry that began at Azukizaka in 1542 thus ran its course across eighteen years, from Nobuhide's victory to his son's destruction of the Imagawa leader.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name is 第一次小豆坂の戦い, read in kana as だいいちじあずきざかのたたかい, and romanised as Daiichiji Azukizaka no tatakai. The word 第一次 marks it as the "first" of the Azukizaka battles, distinguishing it from the second, fought in 1548.

Breaking the name down character by character:

• 第 (だい, dai) — a prefix forming ordinal numbers, "number" in a sequence. It is what turns a plain noun into "the first," "the second," and so on.
• 一 (いち, ichi) — "one." Together, 第一 (だいいち, daiichi) means "first."
• 次 (じ, ji) — "next" or "order" in a sequence. In the compound 第一次 (だいいちじ, daiichiji), it completes the ordinal phrase "the first time" or "the first instance."
• 小 (あず, azu) — "small." Here it supplies the first sound of the place name rather than its ordinary meaning.
• 豆 (き, ki) — "bean." Like 小, it functions phonetically in this place name, giving the second sound.
• 坂 (ざか, zaka) — "slope" or "hill." It is the ordinary word saka, voiced to zaka when it follows another element in a compound. Together, 小豆坂 (あずきざか, Azukizaka) is the place name: "Azuki slope."
• の (の, no) — the possessive particle, linking the place name to the word for battle. It corresponds to English "of."
• 戦 (たたか, tatakа) — "war" or "battle." In this compound it supplies the stem of the verb tatakau, "to fight."
• い (い, i) — the final kana, completing 戦い (たたかい, tatakai), the noun "battle."

Read as a whole, the name means "the First Battle of Azukizaka." The place name itself is written with characters meaning "small," "bean," and "slope" — a reminder that Japanese place names often preserve old phonetic spellings rather than literal descriptions.

Key Figures

Oda Nobuhide (織田信長's father) commanded the Oda side and won the battle. He had left Anjō castle, crossed the Yahagi river, and positioned himself at Kamiwada before the engagement at Azukizaka.

Imagawa Yoshimoto led the Imagawa forces and lost the day. He recovered from the defeat, beat Nobuhide at the Second Battle of Azukizaka in 1548, and continued expanding until 1560, when he was killed by Oda Nobunaga at the Battle of Okehazama.

Yuhara of Suruga led the Imagawa vanguard. He was the forerunner of the Imagawa clan in the fighting and was defeated at the battle's end.

Kawajiri Hidetaka fought Yuhara directly and defeated him, one of the seven samurai credited with the victory — the "Seven Spears of Azukizaka."

Oda Nobuyasu, Oda Nobumitsu, and Oda Nobuzane — Nobuhide's brothers — joined him in the field at Azukizaka.