Nagashino, battle of (1575). The celebrated battle of Nagashino was fought between the army of Oda Nobunaga, who came to raise the siege of Nagashino castle, and the army of Takeda Katsuyori, son of the late Shingen, who was attacking it. The Takeda army that laid siege to Nagashino castle consisted of 15, 000 men, of whom 12, 000 took part in the subsequent battle. They were therefore well outnumbered by the Oda and Tokugawa Ieyasu force of 38, 000 which advanced to meet them, whose positions looked across the plain of Shidarahara towards the castle. About 328 feet (100 metres) in front flowed the little Rengogawa, which acted as a forward defence for the positions Oda Nobunaga had chosen.
Oda Nobunaga also had the advantage of a unit of 3, 000 matchlock men, but realized that they would need some form of physical protection, so his army built a palisade halfway between the forested edge of the hills and the river. It was a loose fence of stakes, staggered over three alternate layers, and with many gaps to allow a counter-attack. Nobunaga's plan was for the matchlock men to fire rolling volleys as the Takeda cavalry approached. For the majority of the Takeda troops, their first sight of the enemy came when they moved out of the woods to the east of Shidarahara. From this point it was 656 feet (200 metres) at its narrowest to the Oda/Tokugawa line, and at its broadest only 1, 312 feet (400 metres). There were three matchlock men in the Oda lines for every four Takeda mounted samurai charging at them, but Takeda Katsuyori hoped that his horsemen would be upon the ashigaru as they tried to reload, to be followed within seconds by the Takeda foot soldiers.
At 06.00 on 28 June 1575, Takeda Katsuyori ordered the advance. The three vanguards of the Takeda cavalry under Yamagata, Nait, and Baba swept down from the hills on to the narrow fields. Horses and men carefully negotiated the shallow riverbed, to pick up speed again as they mounted the far bank. At this point, with the horsemen within 164 feet (50 metres) of the fence, the volley firing began. All along the line his horsemen in the vanguards, and the attendant foot soldiers who had advanced with them, were falling in heaps. The samurai, with their shorter spears, took the fight to the Takeda in small group actions. The battle lasted until mid-afternoon, when the Takeda began to retreat, and were pursued. Takeda Katsuyori left behind him on the battlefield 10, 000 dead, a casualty rate of 67 per cent. Out of 97 named samurai leaders of the Takeda at Nagashino, 54 were killed and two badly wounded. Eight of the veteran ‘Twenty-Four Generals’ of the Takeda were killed.
— Stephen Turnbull
