Siege of Kanegasaki

What Happened

On April 7, 1337, the fortress of Kanegasaki fell to forces loyal to Ashikaga Takauji, ending a three-month siege that marked the final stand of the Nitta family in their support of the Southern Imperial Court. The castle, located in what is now Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, had been held by Nitta Yoshisada, one of the most prominent generals of the Southern Court cause. The besieging army was commanded by Kō no Moroyasu, who broke through the walls on that day and took the fortress.

The defenders had been reduced to desperate straits long before the final assault. With food and water exhausted, the garrison was forced to eat horseflesh to survive. In Buddhist belief, consuming horse meat was considered a grave spiritual transgression, thought to break one's karma and condemn the eater to rebirth as an animal or worse in the next life. That the defenders resorted to this act underscores how dire their situation had become.

Despite these conditions, the garrison held out for twenty days after running out of provisions. When Kō no Moroyasu's forces finally breached the walls, the outcome was fatal for the Nitta leadership. Prince Takanaga and Nitta Yoshiaki, the son of Nitta Yoshisada, were compelled to take their own lives rather than be captured. Prince Tsunenaga managed to escape the fallen castle but was soon apprehended and executed.

Background

The siege took place during the Nanboku-chō period, the era of the Northern and Southern Courts, when two rival imperial lines claimed the throne of Japan. The Southern Court, based in Yoshino, traced its legitimacy to Emperor Go-Daigo, while the Northern Court in Kyoto was backed by the Ashikaga shogunate. The conflict had begun in 1336, when Ashikaga Takauji turned against the imperial restoration led by Go-Daigo and established himself as shogun, inaugurating the Muromachi period.

Nitta Yoshisada had been one of the principal military commanders on the imperial side during the Kenmu Restoration, the brief period when Go-Daigo sought to reassert direct imperial rule. After the Ashikaga seized power, Yoshisada remained loyal to the Southern Court and continued to fight against the shogunate's forces. By 1337, his position had become increasingly precarious as Ashikaga power consolidated.

In March 1337, Nitta's ally Uryū Tamotsu was forced to retreat to the fortress of Somayama. Nitta Yoshisada joined him there shortly afterward, hoping to mount a counterstrike that would lift the siege of Kanegasaki. The counterattack failed, and the defenders of Kanegasaki were left to endure the siege without relief.

Why It Mattered

The fall of Kanegasaki effectively ended the Nitta family as a significant military force in the Nanboku-chō wars. With Nitta Yoshisada's son dead by his own hand and the family's stronghold destroyed, the Southern Court lost one of its most capable and committed military houses. The deaths of Prince Takanaga and Prince Tsunenaga, both sons of Emperor Go-Daigo, further weakened the Southern Court's dynastic position.

The siege also demonstrated the lengths to which Southern Court loyalists would go in their resistance. The decision to eat horseflesh, with its profound Buddhist implications, became a mark of the defenders' desperation and their willingness to accept spiritual ruin in the service of their cause. The event entered the historical record as a defining moment of sacrifice in the Nanboku-chō struggle.

For the Ashikaga shogunate, the victory at Kanegasaki consolidated control over the Hokuriku region and removed a major threat to their northern flank. Kō no Moroyasu's success at breaching the fortress added to the reputation of the Kō clan as effective commanders for the Northern Court.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name for this event is 金ヶ崎の戦い, read in kana as かねがさきのたたかい, and in romaji as Kanegasaki no Tatakai. The name translates roughly as "the Battle of Kanegasaki," though the event was a siege rather than an open-field engagement.

Breaking down the name character by character:

• 金 (かね, kane) — "metal" or "gold." In this place name, it carries the sense of metal, though the exact origin of the name is tied to the local geography rather than to precious metal.
• ヶ (が, ga) — a possessive or connective particle, a small katakana character used in place names to link elements. It functions here like the possessive の, indicating that the following noun belongs to or is associated with the preceding one.
• 崎 (さき, saki) — "cape" or "promontory." This character commonly appears in Japanese place names for locations that jut out into the sea or a river.
• の (no) — the possessive particle, meaning "of" or "'s."
• 戦い (たたかい, tatakai) — "battle" or "fight." The character 戦 carries the meaning of war or combat, and in this reading it is nominalized with the い ending.

The full name, then, is "the battle of the metal cape," though the place name Kanegasaki refers specifically to the castle and the promontory on which it stood. The castle itself, 金ヶ崎城 (Kanegasaki-jō), took its name from the same geographical feature.

Key Figures

Nitta Yoshisada (新田義貞) was the commander of the Southern Court forces at Kanegasaki and the head of the Nitta clan. He had risen to prominence as a leading general in the campaigns that overthrew the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, and he remained a steadfast supporter of Emperor Go-Daigo after the Ashikaga broke with the imperial cause. His attempt to relieve the siege from Somayama failed, and he survived the fall of Kanegasaki, though his son did not.

Nitta Yoshiaki (新田義顕) was the son of Nitta Yoshisada. He was inside Kanegasaki when the walls were breached and took his own life on April 7 rather than face capture by the besieging forces.

Prince Takanaga (尊良親王) was a son of Emperor Go-Daigo and a figurehead of the Southern Court presence at Kanegasaki. He too was forced to commit suicide when the castle fell.

Prince Tsunenaga (恒良親王), another son of Emperor Go-Daigo, was also present at the siege. He escaped the fall of the castle but was captured shortly afterward and killed.

Kō no Moroyasu (高師泰) commanded the besieging army in support of Ashikaga Takauji and the Northern Court. He broke through the castle walls on April 7, 1337, and took the fortress, bringing the siege to its bloody conclusion.

Uryū Tamotsu (瓜生保) was an ally of Nitta Yoshisada who had been forced back to the fortress of Somayama in March 1337. His retreat and the subsequent failed counterstrike left Kanegasaki without hope of relief.