Battle of Tedorigawa

What Happened

On 3 November 1577, the armies of Uesugi Kenshin and Oda Nobunaga met at the Tedori River in Kaga Province, on the Sea of Japan side of central Honshu. Kenshin's men were waiting on the far bank. Nobunaga's general Shibata Katsuie led an Oda force across the river in a frontal attack, and Kenshin's army destroyed it. The Oda lost about 1,000 men and withdrew south.

The result was a decisive Uesugi victory, and it was the last great battle of Kenshin's career.

Background

By 1577 Oda Nobunaga had spent fifteen years fighting his way to dominance over central Japan. His power base lay in the Kansai region around Kyoto, and his method was relentless: destroy each rival before the next one can combine with him. In the 1570s his attention turned north, toward the provinces along the Japan Sea coast.

Uesugi Kenshin was the lord of Echigo Province, on the northern coast, and one of the most feared commanders of the Sengoku period (戦国時代, sengoku jidai, the "Warring States" era of civil war that ran from the mid-15th to the late 16th century). He had spent much of his life fighting the Takeda and Hōjō clans to his east and south. When Nobunaga began pushing into the Hokuriku region, Kenshin moved to stop him.

Kenshin advanced into Kaga Province and took up a position behind the Tedori River. Nobunaga's northern army, under Shibata Katsuie, moved to meet him. The date was 3 November 1577, in the fifth year of the Tenshō era (天正, Tenshō, a Japanese era name; Tenshō 5 corresponds to 1577).

Why It Mattered

The battle stopped Nobunaga's northward expansion for the moment and confirmed Kenshin as the one daimyō (大名, daimyō, a great territorial lord) in Japan who could beat an Oda army in open battle. For a commander whose reputation rested on invincibility, Nobunaga could not afford many days like this one.

It was also the end of an era. Kenshin died the following year, in 1578, and with him went the last serious military check on Nobunaga's rise in the north. The Oda push into the Hokuriku resumed, and by the time Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582 his authority reached across most of Honshu. The site of the battle lies in what is now Ishikawa Prefecture.

The Name in Japanese

The battle is written 手取川の戦い and read てどりがわのたたかい (Tedorigawa no Tatakai).

• 手 — read te here. It means "hand."
• 取 — read tori here. It means "take" or "grasp." Together, 手取 (tedori) means "taking in hand," and it is the name of the river.
• 川 — read gawa here (it is kawa in isolation; it voices to gawa inside a compound). It means "river."
• の — read no. The possessive particle, linking the river name to the battle: "the battle of the Tedori River."
• 戦 — read tatakai here. It means "war" or "battle." This is the kanji that appears in 戦国 (sengoku, "warring states") and in 戦争 (sensō, "war").
• い — read i. The final kana of 戦い, completing the native Japanese reading of the verb "to fight."

So the full name breaks down as 手取 (Tedori, the river) + 川 (gawa, river) + の (no, of) + 戦い (tatakai, battle). Note that 手取川 literally means "hand-taking river," and the place name is sometimes written in Latin letters as Tetorigawa, reflecting an older romanisation.

Key Figures

Uesugi Kenshin (上杉謙信) commanded the victorious army. He was the lord of Echigo Province and one of the most celebrated generals of the Sengoku period. Tedorigawa was his last great victory; he died in 1578.

Oda Nobunaga (織田信長) was the rising warlord whose forces were defeated. He did not command in person at Tedorigawa; his northern army was led by one of his senior retainers.

Shibata Katsuie (柴田勝家) led the Oda force at the river. He was Nobunaga's chief general in the Hokuriku campaign, and it was his troops who crossed the Tedori and were broken.

Akechi Mitsuhide (明智光秀) is associated with the same conflict. He was one of Nobunaga's most trusted commanders, and in 1582 he would turn on Nobunaga at Honnō-ji, an act that ended the Oda regime.