Japanese Daimyo Takeda Shingen
Takeda Shingen was born on the year 1521, in the strategic province that is located in the center of Japan’s main island- Kai. Takeda Harunobu or mostly known as Takeda Shingen was the eldest son of Takeda Nobura which is the ruler of Kai. Takeda Shingen was also known to be called as “taro” for this means that he is the eldest son of a Japanese family.
At a young age, Takeda Shingen had helped his father together with his older relatives and vassals of the Takeda family. His family has a lot of problems especially when it is involved in politics. However, when Takeda Shingen is getting older, he started to rebel from his father. At the age of 21, he finally had control the Takeda clan successfully. But, the retirement of his father was quite miserable and was sent his son and supporters to Suruga Province, which is in the southern border of Kai to be kept in custody which was led by Imagawa Yoshimoto (daimyo of Suruga) under the scrutiny of the Imagawa clan.
To gain a hold of the area around him was Takeda Shingen’s first act. To own Shinano Province was his goal. After he had already conquered Shinano, he had another rival with Nagao Kagetora or Kenshin of Echigo. At the battlefield of Kawanakajima, they had faced 5 times and the battle had been almost a legendary. Kenshin attacked Shingen with sword while Shingen used his iron war fan or also called as tessen. Both of them had lost many of their men in this fight. In addition, Shingen had also lost 2 of his generals, Yamamoto Kansuke and Takeda Nobushinge, which is his younger brother. Takeda clan had suffered 2 internal setbacks after the fourth battle of kawanakajima. After the incident where shingen’s son died in tokoji, shingen decided to give the leadership of the clan after himself to his fourth son, Takeda Katsuyori.
After the battle of Imagawa Yoshimoto against Oda Nobunaga, Yoshimoto was killed then, Shingen started to plan an invasion of Suruga which is controlled by Yoshimoto’s son, Ujizane. The remaining Imagawa lands were shared between Shingen and Tokugawa with in an agreement. However, they had still fought against Yoshimoto’s heir. Shingen had finally got invaded the province of suruga after he had defeated the forces of Hojo Ujimasa. In 1572, shingen planned to challenge the oda-tokugawa alliance with his force of over 30,000 in the territories in totomi, mikawa and mino provinces.
Takeda shingen’s death was not that clear and was not that known by the many. There are a couple of different stories made, just like when shingen was at 49 years old, he was the only daimyo with the power to stop oda nobunaga’s plan to rule Japan. After he had defeated tokugawa leyasu’s forces in 1572, shingen stopped his advance temporarily which had made tokugawa to prepare for a battle again. Shingen had died in the camp of mikawa province. Some say he suffered to an old war wound, some believed that he was shot with a sniper, while some said that he had died due to pneumonia. He was buried at Erin temple which is now known as koshu, yamanashi.
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