Part II: Toki Yorinobu
Chapter 1: Fall of the Old Guard (1490-1496)
In This Episode:
Code:
Hosokawa Iesada - Taira Clan Daimyo (1477-1487)
Toki Yorinobu - Taira Clan Daimyo (1490-)
Imagawa Mitsunaka - Fujiwara Clan Daimyo (1477-1491)
Imagawa Naritsune - Fujiwara Clan Daimyo (1492-)
Yamana Tadastune - Minamoto Clan Daimyo (1477-), Shogun (1477-1481)
Shoni Ronin - Tachibana Clan Daimyo (1477-1491)
Shimazu Kamatari - Tachibana Clan Daimyo (1491-)
Toki Motohiro - see Toki Yorinobu
Asakura Yoshitada - Taira Clan General
Toki Yorimichi - Taira Clan General
Go Tsuchimikado - Emperor
[b]Families:[/b]
Minamoto: Yamana, Ashikaga (also Taira), Mori
Fujiwara: Uesugi, Mogami
Tachibana: Amago (formerly Minamoto)
[b]Terms:[/b]
sensei - loosely: wise elder - a teacher or other professional wako - pirate
buke - nobles - in this era usually samurai bushi - warrior
War to the North
When Imagawa Mitsunaka, Daimyo of his house and the Fujiwara Clan as a whole, declared war in late 1490 he hoped one of two things would happen: Either the Minamoto, eager to enforce their claim on Settsu province, would attack from the south or the Tachibana wouldn't fight. Even if the Tachibana should honor their alliance, he anticipated their copying his tactic of agitating at the border and not really helping the Taira.
Subterfuge did not burn in the heart of Shoni Ronin, the Tachibana daimyo, hnoblowever. He committed fifteen thousand to their ally's defense. As for the Minamoto, if nothing else they knew how to repay treachery and so the Fujiwara stood alone.
Initial Troop Dispositions
Mitsunaka's rash attack spurred the great lords of the Taira clan into action: They couldn't go to war without a leader, so even as armies mobilized along the border envoys, samurai and their lords descended on Winter Court at Inabayama Castle in Mino province. There they debated who should lead the clan going forward.
Asakura Yoshitada, the clan's highest ranking general, was busy fighting and so could not gather followers to support his claim. Indeed, given his past tendency to avoid offices and the responsibility and prestige that went with them, it's doubtful he even wanted to be daimyo. This left competing claims from the incumbent Hosokawa house and their powerful Toki rivals.
After a time Toki Morohito emerged as the only viable candidate. As we've written Morohito perhaps paid too much attention to money and mercantile enterprises, but he had, for all intents, led the clan even before his ascension. The family daimyo paid homage to him and he took the name Yorinobou in honor of his deceased father.
Not much better
As I've written, the Tachibana campaign changed warfare during the Sengoku period. As they avoided battle, so did the Taira and Fujiwara. Mitsunaka struck down the center and attacked Shinano province. Taisho Yoshitada and his deputy, Toki Yorimichi
(Both generals are F2 S3 M0 Sg1) counterattacked along the west and east coasts and began reducing castles.
Tachibana support came swiftly. In late November, barely a month since the first skirmishes, Shoni Ronin's army descended on Shinano. At the time his army numbered some 8,500 infantry and 5,700 cavalry, while Mitsunaka's army boasted 5,700 of each. Quick-marching through Taira territory robbed the Tachibana of much of their vigor, while steep hills nullified their advantage in numbers. Further, while Mitsunaka may have chosen his wars poorly, he was a decent tactician.
(F1 S3 M2 Sg0) His spearman pierced the Tachibana center and entire units turned their backs to flee. In turn they ran into their fellows in back leading to great slaughter. At the end of the day the Fujiwara lost 800 wounded and killed, while Lord Shoni lost over six thousand.
Yet it did not signify, for in February Echigo province fell.
That spring the Tachibana returned, but now returned to their tactic of avoiding battle. Izu, Totomi and Kozuke provinces surrendered by June. Mitsunaka seized Shinano, but whereas he should have either sought to crush one or more sieging armies or broke his own force apart to attack more provinces, he instead commited his entire army to retaking Echigo.
There was little glory to be had, and when Edo Castle fell in September after less than a year of war Yoshitada imposed terms on behalf of the Taira clan.
In the aftermath the 'rebel' Uesugi who troubled Mitsunaka's early reign (as opposed to loyalists in the interior) broke and joined with the Taira. Toki Yorinobu dispossessed the Mogami family and gave their holdings in Dewa province to Yoshitada in recognition of his bravery and service.
Within the month Mitsunaka died of a severe stomach illness. Some thought he couldn't live with his decisive failure, while others suspected poison. After several months his younger brother, Naritsune, replaced him.
Shoni Ronin received nothing other than thanks and continued promises of aid should they require further assistance. As fate would have it he never returned made it home. While resting at a shrine the attendant monk, no doubt maddened by the loss of his kin, solemnly informed him that the shrine's
kami wanted him dead. He then pierced Ronin's flesh with a poisoned knife. The monk turned assassin died several days later. Once home, the Tachibana turned to Shimazu Kamatari who would call on the Taira's promise to help sooner than anticipated.
Interbellum
Similar to his predecessor, Toki Yorinobu was content to let his soldiers do the fighting (and dying) while he pursued personal interests. Unlike Lord Hosokawa, he had more than spiritual interests to bring to bear. Yorinobu continued his ambitious plan to have a 'cushion' of resources to maintain personal comforts in the event of protracted war. He then used some of this cushion to requisition two more warships.
(Completed mission: Accumulate money. New mission: Win Naval Race vs. Manchu) He wrote his former
sensei expressing his doubts about the Tachibana:
Toki Yorinobu said:
...and so you see, we have proven we can defeat the (Fujiwara). The Minamoto are of no account. No, I imagine that so long as our alliance holds, we (the Tachibana and Taira) will continue to strengthen. Then comes the climax, and with their greater fleet they can raid at will while we can do nothing. It will require money and ships to maintain our trade, keep our ports from siege (blockade), and so ensure victory.
As you know, Japan has little naval tradition. It has long been associated with
wako and other unsavory elements. Other than coastal fishing there is little to be gained from the sea except for trouble in the form of a slumbering dragon or marauding barbarians. The Bushido Code is silent regarding naval warfare. Some samurai within the Taira noticed Yorinobu's obsession and asked him to recant. He sternly rebuked them.
Indeed he began to rely more on the commoner merchants he used to associate with before becoming daimyo. When they complained that the Dragon shut them out of Nanjing's wealthy markets and they must go bankrupt, he gave them money and bid them try closer to home.
(Like Kyoto.) When they cried that samurai did not give them proper respect, rather than have the complainers hung Yorinobu upset the social order by siding with them.
I do not need to tell you how unhealthy this became. Yorinobu's trusted officials quieted whispers and smothered newborn plots while urging Lord Toki to reconsider. He refused, still certain that only in economic alliance with his lessers would he have the resources to deal with the Tachibana. Taisho Toki Yorimichi spoke with his superior, Asakura Yoshitada, and counseled a coup.
Yoshitada refused, but before he could stop the plot a revolt at his new estates in Dewa province called him away. Yorimichi marched on Inabayama Castle with two thousand samurai. Rather than attempt to seize the castle however, he sought an audience with his lord.
No record survives of what transpired at that meeting, though Yorinobu emerged pale and shaken while Yorimichi returned to his army. The next day he
'reiterated' his 'long held' respect for the
buke in general and
bushi in particular. He praised those who fought in the Fujiwara campaign and promised renewed support for 'martial pursuits.'
(Completed mission: Naval race. New Mission: Bushido Code. I forget the benefits, but the prerequisite is Military Tradition 25%. I was at 22.8 at the time.)
For over a year, Taira samurai marched up and down Honshu looking for an excuse to show their prowess while Yorinobu refused to leave his castle and avoided friend and foe alike. It seemed to be an unhappy impasse until the Tachibana intervened.
War to the South
Shimazu Kamatari, the new daimyo of the Tachibana, worried about his Taira 'allies.' He did not appreciate his predecessor being left out of negotiations during the last war, nor did he care for their annexing virtually the entire western coast. This left him with two options:
First, he could repudiate the alliance and perhaps even turn on the Taira. This carried its own hazards, for it would isolate his clan. He managed to reforge an alliance with the Fujiwara, but even should that hold (an unlikely possibility) the Taira proved they could fight on two fronts if need be. Anyway, a bitterly fought contest must necessarily allow the Minamoto more time to recover, strengthen, and perhaps retake their lost land. Having seized the valuable Amago family lands, there was no hope whatsoever of bringing the Minamoto on board
The second possibility was to go after the weaker target and take more land from the Minamoto and their hapless daimyo, Yamana Tadatsune. Here the Tachibana proved their superiority twice, and a greater hold on the island of Honshu would no doubt benefit them during the eventual showdown. By maintaining the alliance with the Taira, Lord Shimazu made it difficult for Lord Toki to consider betraying him and impossible for the others to even consider.
At the last minute Lord Shimazu requested help from his 'allies' both to reassure them and bring more pressure to bear on the Minamoto. He hoped this would be a reversal of the northern war, with the Taira and Minamoto armies breaking each other while he snapped up the southern provinces including Choshu
(Nagato), one of the greatest prizes in all Japan.
This time it would be the Taira left out of negotiations, and if by chance they arranged something on their own, the Emperor's wrath might come to bear. Go-Tsuchimikado's stance towards appointing either Asakura Yoshitada or Toki Yorinobu
kampaku cooled considerably after the war over what he felt an unnecessary, and potentially dangerous land grab.
The first part of his plan fell through when it became clear that Lord Yamana preferred to take back lost provinces than try to stop the Taira onslaught. Caught in a hopeless position, Tadatsune chose to play spoiler and harass the clan who brought his such grief. He commited to a southern campaign even as Taishos Asakura Yoshitada and Toki Yorimichi invested his family's ancestral lands.
For Toki Yorinobu, the Tachibana 'request' was a blessing from the kami simply because it gave his restless samurai something to do and a chance to gain the prestige and honor they craved. Territorial considerations were secondary from his point of view, but in truth the decision was no longer his to make.
I have written it was a hopeless position for the Minamoto, for once more the Tachibana avoided battle while the Taira never had the opportunity to decide one way or the other. Lord Yamana successfully retook Iwami province, but by now every major clan holding was under siege or direct assault. In November he learned of an attack on the Ouichi holdings in Choshu leading to the war's only battle.
In November 1495, with much of his clan's holdings overrun, Yamana Tadatsune descended from the foothills in northern Nagato with thirteen thousand men. There he ambushed and slaughtered two thousand Tachibana in a battle not worthy of the title. This taught Lord Shimazu caution at least, and he spent the next several months actively avoiding Lord Yamana's army.
By January 1496 the two Taira commanders and their armies overran Yamana and Ashikaga territory advancing to the border of the Mori. Here they paused and negotiated.
By now Lord Yamana welcomed any treaty that would allow him to focus on the Tachibana, even a humiliating one.
Aftermath
While this would seem a decisive victory, it only complicated Toki Yorinobu's life.
First, Go-Tsuchimikado issued a stern warning and demanded Yorinobu come to Kyoto to pay homage. It might be true that the Emperor was nearly powerless in day to day affairs, and for all intents and purposes was the weakest contender for his own throne, but tradition and honor demanded he be obeyed. All he had to do was command Yorinobu's death, and if by some outrageous betrayal he didn't commit
seppuku, the other clans would happily deal with the outcast and traitor.
(My infamy is 14.3/31.6. By my house rules I can't go above 15.8)
Second, the lack of battle meant his samurais' gain in honor and prestige fell short of expectations.
(I don't know if it's a bug, intentional design because I'm 'only' a daimyo, or what, but I'm getting very little prestige or land tradition out of these wars.) Taisho Toki Yorimichi, in particular, wondered if it was time for a change.
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COMMENT:
I'm not going to lie. I'm disappointed.
Some of you have watched me struggle with the AI for years. I've grown to the point where in Vanilla I'm competent, but can still suffer a nasty reverse or two.
It looks like I've broken the combat AI. Since it creates one big stack and fights a war of maneuver, all I have to do is let it have its one siege, then swarm his territory. By the time he takes my province, I've taken two or three of his. Duck out of the AI's way as he moves his army back to take one I've stolen. Siege two or three more. Sooner or later I win.
I just gained four provinces without fighting a single battle or losing a man except maybe to careless attrition.
Unless there's signs of a massive upgrade, I may have to finish conquering Japan then go back to HttT. I like to win as much as the next person, but I expect to be challenged.
