Nagaharu Bessho's Rebellion, Clarified by New Historical Materials (1) [Discovery of New Historical Materials]
──The fuse called "castle destruction" illuminated by 2024 new historical materials
──The depths of the Miki Battle deciphered from the newly discovered "castle destruction issue" materials
──The miscalculation of the prestigious Bessho Nagaharu of Harima
In the late Sengoku period, the "Battle of Miki," which occurred during Oda Nobunaga's campaign in the Chugoku region, has carved its name into history as the gruesome starvation tactic carried out by Hashiba Hideyoshi, known as the "starving of Miki." The conclusion of the battle, in which the head of the clan, Nagaharu Bessho, committed ritual suicide in exchange for the lives of his castle soldiers and subjects after a siege lasting approximately one year and ten months, has given rise to many tragic narratives in later generations. However, what has remained a mystery for many years is the "true cause of the rebellion": why the Bessho clan, which had maintained an extremely good relationship with the Oda regime until then, suddenly defected in the spring of Tensho 6 (1578).
Conventionally, military chronicles and the like have treated "emotional arguments" or "accidental conflicts" as established theories, such as the emotional quarrel between Hideyoshi and Bessho Yoshichika (Nagaharu's uncle) at the "Kakogawa Conference," or the resentment of the prestigious Bessho clan toward Hideyoshi, who rose from the peasantry. However, with the discovery of new historical materials announced in February 2024, a groundbreaking new theory has emerged that the conflict over "castle destruction (shiro-wari)," a harsh pioneering measure for centralization by the Oda regime, was the structural trigger for the rupture. In this content, after organizing the background of Nagaharu Bessho and the development of the Battle of Miki, we will develop a multifaceted historical analysis of the reality of the "castle destruction policy" theory indicated by the new materials, the dissatisfaction arising from the status gap between the prestigious clan and the vassal, and the secret pact with the anti-Oda encirclement and strategic miscalculations.
The figure of Nagaharu Bessho—the young head of the "prestigious Harima clan"
The Bessho clan is the largest local lord in eastern Harima, a branch of the Akamatsu clan, the shugo of the Muromachi Shogunate. They are a prestigious family that served as shugo-dai (deputy shugo) for the eight districts of eastern Harima, with Miki Castle (Miki City, Hyogo Prefecture) as their base.
There are theories that Nagaharu was born in Eiroku 1 (1558) or Koji 1 (1555). In any case, at the time he defected from Nobunaga's side in February of Tensho 6 (1578), Nagaharu was a young man around twenty years old. The fact that the common name "Bessho Kosaburo" appears in historical materials and that he did not have a formal official title or recipient name suggests that he was still young and may not have fully established his authority within the family.
His father, Yasuharu, died around Eiroku 11 (1568), and Nagaharu became the head of the Bessho family at a young age. Practical affairs were handled by a council of senior retainers centered on his uncles, Shigemune Bessho and Yoshichika Bessho (Yamashiro-no-kami Nagaharu). In other words, Nagaharu's "rebellion" was an event that strongly reflected the dynamics of family politics, not just the decision of one young man.
Overview of the Battle of Miki—Two years of offense and defense in the "starving of Miki"
In late March of Tensho 6 (1578), Hashiba Hideyoshi advanced his troops to Miki Castle, and a full-scale siege began. The strategy Hideyoshi adopted was not a frontal attack, but the cutting off of food supplies by building numerous "tsukijiro" (field castles) in the surrounding area—the so-called "starving of Miki."
There were about 8,000 soldiers and officers holed up in the castle (the number varies by theory). Hideyoshi chose a long-term battle to slowly starve them out rather than attacking the impregnable Miki Castle, which was sandwiched between the Mino River and the mountains. During this time, attempts were made to break the siege through reinforcements from the Mori clan and cooperation with the Osaka Hongan-ji Temple, but none bore fruit.
After a siege lasting about two years, deaths from starvation occurred one after another inside the castle. Nagaharu finally accepted the condition from Hideyoshi to "spare the lives of the castle soldiers" and ended the battle with his own death. It is said that his final moments moved even his enemy, Hideyoshi.
The young head of the family, Nagaharu Bessho, and his clan: The honeymoon period until the first half of Tensho 5
The Bessho clan is a prestigious family of shugo-dai rank that ruled the eight districts of eastern Harima (Miki, Akashi, Kato, Kasai, Kako, Inami, Taka, and Shikito), said to be descended from a branch of the Akamatsu clan, the shugo of Harima. Since the first head of the family, Noriharu Bessho, became the head of the senior retainers for his contribution to helping Masanori Akamatsu restore his power, and built Miki Castle on the current site in 1492, the Bessho clan established absolute local power in eastern Harima.
With Oda Nobunaga's entry into Kyoto in Eiroku 11 (1568), the Bessho clan severed its relationship with the Miyoshi Triumvirate and quickly submitted to Nobunaga. Nagaharu Bessho succeeded Yasuharu and became the head of the family at a young age. The theory that Nagaharu was born in Eiroku 1 (1558) is considered influential, and if this theory is followed, Nagaharu was only a young man of about 21 years old when he raised the flag of rebellion against Nobunaga in February of Tensho 6 (1578).
The relationship between Nagaharu and Nobunaga was very good and cooperative until the beginning of Tensho 5 (1577), which is significantly different from the understanding that "he was anti-Nobunaga from the beginning" that was sometimes discussed in some quarters. Nagaharu first appears in reliable historical materials during Nobunaga's order for various provincial warriors to come to Kyoto in January of Eiroku 13 (1570), and it is believed that Nagaharu (then 13 or 16 years old) went to Kyoto with his uncle Shigemune and met Nobunaga for the first time. Even after that, Nobunaga treated Nagaharu well, and the Bessho clan did not spare any major military cooperation as the most important local clan on the western defense line of the Oda regime. The main negotiations between Nobunaga and Nagaharu until just before the rupture are summarized below.
December, Tensho 1 (1573) -Nobunaga has Nagaharu Bessho and Munekage Uragami meet in Kyoto and reconciles them. - Nobunaga mediates the conflict between the local clans of Harima and Bizen and builds an anti-Mori alliance.
July, Tensho 3 (1575) -Nagaharu and his uncle Shigemune have an audience with Nobunaga at Shokoku-ji Temple in Kyoto and receive horses and other gifts. - Confirmation of the Bessho clan's status and preferential treatment under the Oda-led ruling order.
October, Tensho 3 (1575) -Nagaharu and others go to Kyoto and have an audience with Nobunaga at Myokaku-ji Temple, accompanied by a report of their war achievements. - Report on the completion of military operations against the Mori, such as the subjugation of the Ukita army under the command of Murashige Araki.
January 1576 (Tensho 4) - Nagaharu presents a long sword, a horse, and fabric as a New Year's greeting, and receives a black-seal letter from Nobunaga. This is the only surviving letter of thanks from Nobunaga to Nagaharu. It is a gentle message urging him to visit Kyoto in the near future.
January 1577 (Tensho 5) - While Nobunaga is in Kyoto at Myokaku-ji Temple in Nijo, Nagaharu is also in Kyoto to offer New Year's greetings. This is evidence that an extremely good and stable alliance was maintained between the two from the beginning of the year.
February 1577 (Tensho 5) - Nagaharu and Shigemune join Nobunaga's Kii Saika campaign (Saika Gojin) as part of the Oda army. They played a major role, breaking in and burning down areas as part of the mountain unit alongside Sakuma Nobumori, Hashiba Hideyoshi, Araki Murashige, and others.
Since there are other versions (Ikemoto) that do not list Nagaharu Bessho's name at the time of the 1577 Saika campaign, there is historical speculation that Nagaharu may have been leaning toward anti-Nobunaga sentiment in his heart as early as 1577, but at least in terms of official relations, Nagaharu was thoroughly obedient to Nobunaga and fulfilled his military obligations.
"Castle Destruction (Shirowari)" in the Sengoku Period: The Difference Between Peacetime Control and Wartime Hegemony
To understand the core of the new historical materials discovered in 2024, one must carefully examine the essential difference between "castle destruction as peacetime control of the realm," represented by the Edo period's One Castle Per Province Law (1615), and "castle destruction (shirowari)" during the Sengoku and Oda-Toyotomi periods.
In the late Sengoku period, "shirowari" was a heavy-handed policy of "disarmament" and "dismantling of regional control" carried out by Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, who aimed to establish a unified government, in the regions they brought under their control. Until then, local kokushu (provincial lords) and jizamurai (local samurai) had used their respective residences, branch castles, and fortresses as bases for military and governance to practice "self-help (self-defense)." The castle destruction ordered by Nobunaga and his associates included the political intent to completely deny self-help by forcibly demolishing countless branch castles and fortresses other than the main castle, thereby depriving local forces of their immediate ability to continue fighting. In fact, Nobunaga energetically ordered this castle destruction in regions that came under his control, such as during the pacification of Ise in 1569, the pacification of Kawachi in 1575, and the destruction of the Izumi Ikki temple town in 1577, stripping away the military power of the regions.
On the other hand, there was also a practice called "autonomous castle destruction," where the defeated party would voluntarily destroy part of their castle (such as the corners of stone walls, gates, or earthworks) as a ritual of surrender (the "principles of the bow and arrow"—the logic, duty, and honor of a warrior that a samurai must risk his life to protect) to show the victor that they had abandoned their military nature. In any case, in the Sengoku period, a castle was a "symbol of land control (to-chigyo)," and having it destroyed meant not only the deprivation of honor but also the fundamental dismantling of the right to control the territory itself. For the prestigious Bessho clan, having their branch castles destroyed by Hideyoshi, a "newcomer lord," was perceived not merely as the loss of military facilities, but as a desecration of their autonomous regional control in East Harima that had lasted for generations.
The New Historical Material "Hideyoshi's Statement of Explanation" and the "Castle Destruction Problem": The Trigger for the Sudden Rupture
The "Copies of Letters from Hideyoshi's Himeji Castle Period" (35 letters in total), which were won at auction via an online auction in January 2022 by Associate Professor Yuki Murai of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo and investigated jointly with curator Toru Maeda of the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History, were first-class historical materials showing that this "castle destruction (shirowari)" was the decisive factor in the Bessho clan's defection.
Conventional wisdom held that the Oda administration's full-scale castle destruction policy was developed after the end of the Miki Campaign (after the pacification of Harima), but the new historical materials highlight the fact that castle destruction had already begun before the battle, that is, immediately after Hideyoshi's invasion of Harima (from the end of 1577 to the beginning of 1578).
In a statement of explanation believed to have been written in 1578, immediately after the battle, Hideyoshi was reprimanded by Nobunaga for not reporting the Bessho clan's defection immediately, and he wrote an excuse saying, "The delay in reporting was by no means due to negligence. I was gauging the Bessho's movements (intentions)." In this context, it is stated that Hideyoshi had "destroyed (shirowari)" several Bessho-affiliated castles in East Harima, or had discussed doing so, which bought the Bessho side's backlash and anger, and that this led directly to the defection.
As curator Toru Maeda of the Prefectural Museum of History points out, "If the letters are to be believed, Hideyoshi sowed the seeds of trouble. It becomes a factor to consider as a reason for the defection," the new historical materials prove that the "actual damage" of the Hideyoshi side's hasty and coercive demands for castle destruction was the spark that drove the Bessho clan to a dead end. Furthermore, after the major blunder of the Bessho defection, Hideyoshi sent a large number of exaggerated letters of military merit, accompanied by diagrams of the siege of Miki Castle, to Nobunaga's close associates to appeal to Nobunaga. The fact that eight close associates sent a joint reply to Hideyoshi that was both sycophantic, saying "The Bessho have no way to escape other than growing wings and flying away," and perplexed, speaks to the reality of Hideyoshi's intense self-promotion habit and his political maneuvering to conceal his own policy failures (inciting rebellion through forced castle destruction).
For more on this new historical material, please refer to the article below.
Internal Division: The Shift in Diplomatic Leadership and the Rise of Yoshichika (Kaso)
The physical pressure from the outside, "castle destruction," shown by the new historical materials, became a catalyst that accelerated the political conflict within the Bessho family (internal division) all at once.
At the time, the Bessho family was in the midst of a power struggle among relatives surrounding the young head of the family, Nagaharu. Originally, it was his uncle, Bessho Shigemune (pro-Hideyoshi faction), who was in charge of the Bessho clan's practical affairs and diplomacy, but from the autumn of 1577, the rise of another uncle, Bessho Yoshichika (Kaso, anti-Hideyoshi faction), became prominent. The fact that in a letter sent by the monk Kori of Joraku-ji Temple in Kako District to Kajiwara Juemon in September 1577, he requested confirmation of "the intentions of both Nagaharu and Yoshichika," not Shigemune, proves the process by which Shigemune's diplomatic leadership in the family was rapidly declining and power was shifting to Yoshichika.
According to the records of "Banshu Go-Seibatsu no Koto," when Hideyoshi set up camp at the Harima Kokuga on March 7, 1578, Yoshichika accompanied him, but he felt a growing sense of crisis as he watched Hideyoshi "act as he pleased (freely)" in the land of Harima and bring the local lords into submission. Yoshichika left the camp midway and returned to Miki Castle, where he persuaded Nagaharu, saying, "Hideyoshi is doing as he pleases, and in the end, disaster will befall us too," and urged him to raise an army.
Shigemune subsequently tried to mediate between Hideyoshi and the Bessho clan, attempting to persuade Nagaharu dozens of times and pleading for him to stop the siege, but he was rejected by the fierce opposition of Yoshichika and others who had seized the initiative. This internal division can be understood as the "castle destruction policy" and "demands for the submission of hostages" that Hideyoshi forced upon the Harima lords giving the hardliners like Yoshichika the persuasiveness and legitimacy to argue that "if things continue like this, the Bessho clan will be destroyed."
Marriage and the 'Preferential Treatment of Kuroda Kanbei': The Sense of Existential Crisis Brought About by Disparities in Social Status
Another significant factor in the background of the Bessho clan's 'rebellion against Hideyoshi' was the 'disparity in social status with Kuroda Kanbei (Yoshitaka)' and 'Hideyoshi's heavy reliance on Kuroda'.
On December 10, Tensho 5, Hideyoshi ordered a marriage between Bessho Shigemune's daughter and Kuroda Yoshitaka's eldest son, Matsuchiyo (later Nagamasa), commanding their unity and future cooperation. At first glance, this was a political marriage aimed at stabilizing Harima, but for the Bessho clan, it was an insulting decree.
At the time, the Bessho clan was the largest local power (kokushu, equivalent to a deputy shugo) in Eastern Harima, possessing traditions dating back to the Muromachi period. In contrast, the Kuroda family was merely a 'vassal of a vassal' to the Kodera clan, a powerful local lord in Harima and lord of Gochaku Castle. From the perspective of the Kodera family, the Kuroda were vassals of their vassals, and from the perspective of the traditionally prestigious Bessho clan, there was a clear disparity in social status. Despite this clear gap in status, Hideyoshi favored the vassal Kuroda Yoshitaka as his closest aide in the conquest of Harima, allowing him to handle substantive administrative matters. Below is a summary of the twisted power structure surrounding the Bessho clan and the complex pressures placed upon them.
Bessho Nagaharu - Deputy shugo of the eight districts of Eastern Harima, a prestigious branch of the Akamatsu clan - The largest lord who should have been the vanguard of the Oda side - A strong sense of humiliation at being placed below the Kuroda, who should have been under his own control.
Bessho Shigemune - Nagaharu's uncle, in charge of practical affairs and diplomacy - Promoter of a pro-Hideyoshi, conciliatory line - Forced to betroth his daughter to Kuroda Matsuchiyo (the eldest son of a vassal).
Bessho Yoshichika - Nagaharu's uncle, a hardliner within the clan - Promoter of an anti-Hideyoshi, independent line - Excluded Shigemune's conciliatory policy and led the rejection of 'castle destruction' and 'hostage demands'.
Kuroda Yoshitaka - Vassal of the Gochaku Kodera clan (= a vassal of a vassal from the Bessho perspective) - Hideyoshi's confidant, the direct contact point for Oda's vermilion-seal letters - The emergence of a composition where a lower-status, emerging power gives orders to the Bessho clan against the backdrop of Oda's authority.
The dissatisfaction of 'Why is the vassal Kuroda standing above us?' was an undercurrent throughout the Bessho household. However, this was not merely emotional jealousy. With the addition of Hideyoshi's 'destruction of Bessho-side branch castles (hajo)' and 'strict demands for the submission of hostages,' it sublimated into a substantial sense of existential crisis: 'If we continue to follow Hideyoshi, we will be incorporated under emerging powers like the Kuroda, and the political autonomy and territorial order of the prestigious Bessho clan will be completely dismantled.'
The 'Secret Agreement' of the Anti-Oda Encirclement and Miscalculations: Ashikaga Yoshiaki's Maneuvering and the Death of Uesugi Kenshin
The background to Bessho Nagaharu's decision to defect was not an emotional 'outburst,' but rather a careful political secret agreement with the anti-Oda encirclement and the strategic calculations based upon it.
The Bessho clan had maintained a certain diplomatic route with the Mori clan since the time of Motonari, and they utilized their position as a buffer zone between the Mori and Oda, such as by exchanging documents guaranteed by Kobayakawa Takakage to ensure good relations with Nobunaga. Also, because they had many devout believers and followers of the Jodo Shinshu (Ikko sect) within their territory, they were tied to the Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple by deep religious bonds. Furthermore, the call to participate in the 'anti-Oda encirclement'—which brought together the Mori, Hongan-ji, and Saika-shu—by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who was in exile in Tomonoura, was the 'final push' that encouraged the Bessho clan, as is clear from letters of the time.
The Bessho clan, having responded to Yoshiaki's maneuvering, overestimated the Mori's military and logistical support and the religious alliance with Hongan-ji, and was convinced of the 'success of the anti-Oda encirclement' to catch the Oda army in a pincer movement from the east and west. In fact, on March 8, Tensho 6, Kokubu Ietaka, a close aide to Yoshiaki, arrived at Hongan-ji from Iwaya to inform them of the Bessho clan's defection, and on the 19th of the same month, Yoshiaki issued a private letter to Kikkawa Motoharu ordering him to send reinforcements to Harima to support the Bessho.
However, this strategy, which staked the survival of a prestigious family, was followed by a series of decisive miscalculations. The biggest miscalculation was the sudden death of Uesugi Kenshin, the hero of the north, on March 13, Tensho 6, immediately after the Bessho clan defected. Kenshin's death was reported to the Oda side by March 23 through information from Kaga, but the Mori side (Kobayakawa Takakage and Kikkawa Motoharu) had not grasped this even by late April, and continued to issue requests for operations based on the premise of Kenshin's departure for the Hokuriku region. As a result, the Oda side was freed from the fatal threat from behind (Hokuriku) and was able to concentrate overwhelming mobilized forces on the conquest of the western provinces. Due to the delay in the Mori clan's military actions and discord with the Saika-shu, the anti-Oda forces were not necessarily monolithic, and the expected reinforcements for Miki Castle did not appear in a scale sufficient to break the blockade.
Conclusion: The Conflict Between the Autonomy of a Prestigious Family and the Dismantling of Regional Rule by a Unified Power
Bessho Nagaharu's rebellion and the outbreak of the Miki Campaign were neither a mere emotional outburst by a young head of the family, nor the 'contempt for Hideyoshi, who rose from a peasant,' as depicted in popular theories. It was an inevitable structural conflict between the Oda regime's (and its executor Hashiba Hideyoshi's) high-handed 'castle destruction (hajo) policy,' which sought to rapidly advance 'peace under heaven' and 'separation of warriors and farmers/centralization,' and the 'Bessho clan, the heroes of Harima,' who sought to protect their local autonomy, prestigious order, and the privilege of self-help since the Muromachi period.
Hideyoshi's hasty destruction of branch castles (hajo) before the battle gave the anti-Hideyoshi faction (Yoshichika and others) within the Bessho family decisive influence, and combined with the sense of crisis over the status disparity with the vassal Kuroda family and hostage demands, drove the clan to the 'final gamble' of defecting to the Mori side. While the major strategic errors, such as Ashikaga Yoshiaki's maneuvering and Uesugi Kenshin's sudden death, led that gamble to a tragic end (the starvation of Miki), their resistance can be said to have been a life-or-death 'self-defense battle' that staked the pride of a local prestigious family and the maintenance of their territorial rule.
The discovery of new historical materials in 2024 overturns the micro-perspective of past popular theories and interpersonal conflicts, and still vividly conveys to us the reality of the enormous friction that the 'forced reorganization of governance infrastructure (castle destruction)' at the turning point of Sengoku history had on the ground.
<Sun TV News: 34 new historical documents discovered, including a new document addressed by Hideyoshi to Nobunaga's close aide>
This content was created based on Gemini through repeated dialogue with the contributor.
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