Short Biography of Miyoshi Nagayoshi （３）The Siege of Eguchi Castle and Masanaga's Downfall

A study of Nagayoshi's exertions in the consolidation of his power, as related in the preceding chapter, affords insights into several key aspects of governance in that disordered age. One is struck first by the overriding decentralization that prevailed, with a multiplicity of warlords and vassals, the enfeebled Bakufu, and the temporalities all contending in shifting concord and opposition for mastery and influence. No strong, supreme authority endured to impose peace and unity upon the realm. Instead, an incessant tangle of conflicts and realignments held sway, shaped as much by the vagaries of personal relationship, obligation and injury as by motives of policy. Thus the gesture of Oda Nobuhide in gifting a falcon to Hosokawa Harumoto would have its part to play when Nagayoshi later sought to bring to bear his connection with that lord. The slaying of Nagayoshi's father at Miyoshi Masanaga's treacherous hands bequeathed a blood feud whose consequences, to be recounted below, were of great moment. 

Despite its diminished authority, the Bakufu could still exert influence as a moderating force amidst these contending factions. We find the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru striving to preserve a measure of stability by opportune intervention to counterbalance hostile interests, consenting to Nagayoshi's suit while commissioning a neutral party such as Rokkaku Sadayori to negotiate an accord. Potent religious houses like the Ishiyama Honganji acted as formidable political and military players in their own right, their allegiance jealously courted as in the case of Nagayoshi and the prelate Shonyo. Across this landscape, the intermingling of religion, secular policy and the profession of arms was intricate and pervasive. We have seen too how transient and imperiled was the tenure of power, with the possession of the capital itself passing from hand to hand while the Shogun was driven to dispatch his own household from its midst to refuge.

In sum, Nagayoshi's early fortunes afford us a revealing aperture upon the tumultuous realities of authority, conflict and the exercise of power in that epoch when the centripetal forces of governance had catastrophically decayed. Where once a paramount sovereign held sway, an embroiled mosaic of regional warlords, vassals and monastic powers engaged in fluxional, high-stakes contestation for dominion over lands, wealth and the instruments of influence. Success might hinge as much upon acuity in managing the bonds of personal fealty as upon sheer martial capacity; upon adroit husbandry of key institutional support as upon mere preponderance of arms. It was an age of profound instability bordering on anarchy, yet one which would ultimately cede to the reunification of the realm beneath the banners of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu.

The Siege of Eguchi Castle and Masanaga's Downfall

Word was brought to Nagayoshi by Yusa Naganori that the death of his father was due to the sinister workings of Miyoshi Masanaga. Fired with a desire for vengeance, Nagayoshi put his grievance in writing and appealed to his nominal lord Hosokawa Harumoto, requesting license to retaliate against Masanaga and his son Masakatsu for this act of treachery. At a council of war Nagayoshi held at Koshimizu Castle it was resolved with one voice that should Harumoto afford protection to Masanaga he too must be accounted an enemy. When Harumoto refused compliance, Nagayoshi took the field in open rebellion, having the support of his stepfather Naganori and of Hosokawa Ujitsuna.

In the tenth month of 1548 Nagayoshi laid siege to Enami Castle, Masakatsu's stronghold lying to the northeast of what is now Osaka. Through the rigors of winter he succeeded in cutting off the castle from all supply, and brought ever-increasing distress upon Masakatsu's forces. An attempt by Hosokawa to send a powerful relief army of some 10,000 men, much larger than Nagayoshi's force of 3,000, under Rokkaku Sadayori was obstructed by the fortresses of Nagayoshi's allies which lay across the path to Enami.

With the coming of spring Masanaga himself appeared with an army of 3,000 men, preceding the relief forces of Hosokawa. He entered Eguchi Castle near his son's stronghold, there to await the junction with the advancing troops of his lord, and so brought matters to a head. Eguchi Castle was an important fortress whose situation, begirt on three sides by rivers, while rendering it difficulty to assault directly, likewise made it passing easy to cut off from all supply by the besiegers. Nagayoshi promptly laid close siege to Eguchi and summoned his younger brother Fuyuyasu to take post behind the castle to forestall any advance of Hosokawa's troops. Fuyuyasu commanded the Miyoshi pirate fleet, their ships plying the Inland Sea whence they had come, and with these he blocked the three rivers. Thus Masanaga's forces soon found themselves cut off from retreat and all replenishment, for they had made camp at Eguchi with provisions for but three days and had now been there eleven from the twelfth to the twenty-third day of the sixth month.

When word reached Nagayoshi that Rokkaku's army was at hand, he assaulted Eguchi Castle while Fuyuyasu attacked from the rivers with his ships. Masanaga's men, ill-nourished and feeble from their protracted confinement in the castle, were overborne, and some eight hundred heads were taken. It is related that Masanaga himself sought to flee by crossing the river and was drowned, an unseemly death for a samurai. The next day Rokkaku's troops arrived to find the battle lost and Masanaga slain, so that there remained nothing for them but to withdraw.

This affair at Eguchi well exemplifies the character of warfare in the Sengoku period. Swift movement of troops and close concert between the separate forces was of crucial importance. Success depended above all upon skillful logistics and provision. Castles, though as yet lacking the massive construction of later times, were vital strong points by virtue of their natural defences, earthworks, moats and towers. As artillery was still in its infancy, battles were fought at close quarters with bow and spear and showers of stones from the besieged ramparts.

(to be continued)