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The 1570 'battle of Anegawa' (姉川の戦い) came as a reaction to the sieges of the castles of Odani and Yokoyama. Oda Nobunaga, along with Tokugawa Ieyasu, laid siege to these two fortresses of the Asai and Asakura families.
As warriors sallied forth from the castles, the battle turned into a melee fought in the middle of the shallow river. For a time, Nobunaga's forces fought the Asai, while the Tokugawa warriors fought the Asakura a short distance upstream.
After the Tokugawa forces finished off the Asakura, they then turned and hit the Asai right flank. Inaba Ittetsu, who had been held in reserve, then came forward and hit the Asai left flank. Many of the besiegers of Yokoyama even left their task to aid in the battle. The Asai and Asakura forces were soon defeated.
It is perhaps interesting to note that Nobunaga made use of 500 arquebusiers in this battle. He was famous for his strategic use of firearms, but would find himself on the opposite end of skilled arquebus tactics in his siege of Ishiyama Honganji that year.
Meanwhie, no reliable source exist to reconstruct the battle. The battle of Anegawa is vividly presented in the books compiled in the middle or the end of the Edo period. Much of them are pure fiction. The only valuable source that is "Shinchokoki" describes it very briefly without any notes concerning tactics or details of the battle.

Contents

In popular culture

Reference

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In popular culture

The battle has been featured in both games of the Samurai Warriors series. However, because Azai Nagamasa was made playable in Samurai Warriors 2, as opposed to the first game where he was a unique non-playable character, the battle had a larger significance.

Reference

★ Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.

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