 | |
| Battle of Anegawa | |
| Date | August, 1570 |
| Location | Ane River, near Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province |
| Result | Oda - Tokugawa victorious |
| Oda - Tokugawa army | Azai - Asakura army |
| Nobunaga Oda Ieyasu Tokugawa Ittetsu Inaba |
Nagamasa Azai Yoshikage Asakura |
| Tadakatsu Honda Hanzo Hattori Yoshinari Mori Mitsuhide Akechi Toshiie Maeda Hideyoshi Toyotomi Nagahide Niwa Tadatsugu Sakai Yasumasa Sakikabara Kazumasu Takigawa |
Kagetake Asakura Sadayuki Atsuji Kazumasu Isono Keijun Miyabe Naotsune Endo Naoyori Shinjo |
The battle of Anegawa began in August 9th, 1570. It was fought between the allied armies of Nobunaga Oda and Ieyasu Tokugawa and the allied armies of Nagamasa Azai and Yoshikage Asakura.
Before the battle
Earlier in 1570, Nobunaga, the master of Kyoto since 1568, had felt compelled to march against Yoshikage Asakura of Echizen province. The Azai, long-time allies of the Asakura broke their alliance with the Oda and threatened the Oda army from the rear. A skillful retreat minimized the immediate danger brought about by this surprise development and soon Nobunaga was ready to punish Nagamasa for this treachery.[1]
Nobunaga Oda's troops had advanced against the Azai's Odani castle and faced the allied forces across Anegawa, while some of his force laid siege to Yokoyama castle. The battle was effectively a huge hand to hand melee in the middle of the shallow river, fought in blazing son.[2] Across this river, the Allied Forces 29,000 of the Nobunaga Oda and the Ieyasu Tokugawa forces stood face to face against on the south side, and the Allied Forces 18,000 of the Nagamasa Azai and the Yoshikage Asakura forces stood face to face against on the north side.[3]
Battle
At first it was almost as thought there were two seperate battle being fought: the Tokugawa army against the Asakura army and the Oda army gainst the Azai army. The Tokugawa made better progress, but a samurai of the Azai, Kizaemon Endo had resolved to take Nobunaga's head, and was cut down by a samurai of the Oda, Kyusaku Takenaka, when he was very close to his target. Seeing the Oda's army in dire straits, the Tokugawa army, who were now relieved of the presure from the Asakura, attacked the Azai's right flank. Ittetsu Inaba, who up until then had held in reserve, fell on to there left. Even the besiegers of Yokoyama castle left their lines to join in.[4]
Aftermath
The result was a victory to the Oda - Tokugawa forces.[5] Some 1,000 Azai and Asakura men had been killed, as well as a number of commanders. At the same time, Odani was for the time being saved, as Nobunaga withdrew his weary army from the area soon afterwards. A few months later the Azai and Asakura retaliated by defeating an Oda army near Otsu, an action that saw the deaths of Yoshinari Mori and Nobuharu Oda.[6]