The Greatest Commanders of Feudal Japan

1 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 1537 to 1598

Lived

1537 to 1598

Served

Oda Nobunaga, from 1554 a servant and later his commander in the west; ruler of Japan as imperial regent from 1585

Greatest victory

Yamazaki, 1582: about 26,000 men against about 16,000 under Akechi Mitsuhide, by the Nipponica encyclopedia’s count

Record

Won Yamazaki (1582) and Shizugatake (1583); took Takamatsu (1582) and Odawara (1590); conquered Kyushu (1587); a detachment of his beaten at Nagakute (1584)

Legacy

Completed the unification of Japan; his sword hunt and land survey shaped the order of the Edo period

Hideyoshi was born a commoner in Owari in 1537, the son of a peasant by one encyclopedia and of a foot soldier by another account. In 1554 he entered Oda Nobunaga’s service, and by 1577 he commanded Nobunaga’s war against the Mori in the west.²

In 1582 he had about 30,000 men around Takamatsu castle, which he flooded behind a dyke some 3 km long, when word came that Nobunaga had died at Honno-ji. He made peace with the Mori, raced east and beat the traitor Akechi Mitsuhide at Yamazaki 11 days after Nobunaga’s death. In 1583 he broke Shibata Katsuie at Shizugatake. Only at Nagakute in 1584 did his side come off worse: Ieyasu trapped a raiding force under Hideyoshi’s nephew and killed about 2,500 men, the generals Ikeda Tsuneoki and Mori Nagayoshi among them, yet Hideyoshi won the peace that followed.³

In 1587 he took more than 200,000 men to Kyushu, 250,000 by another count, and the Shimazu submitted; in 1590 a siege of about 100 days at Odawara destroyed the Hojo and left Japan united. Myth vs fact: Hideyoshi never fought in Korea. He directed the invasions of 1592 and 1597 from Nagoya in Hizen while his generals fought, and they were abandoned after his death in 1598.⁴

Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, consequence and legacy, and record 5: his one serious setback, Nagakute, was a painful blow that cost two of his generals, but it fell on a detachment he was not leading, while Nobunaga and Ieyasu each carry a defeat of their own; certainty is 4. His 49 points are two more than anyone else’s, which makes him No. 1.

Read the full story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi ›

2 Oda Nobunaga, 1534 to 1582

Lived

1534 to 1582

Served

Head of the Oda of Owari from 1551; master of Kyoto and central Japan from 1568

Greatest victory

Nagashino, 1575: about 38,000 Oda and Tokugawa troops with some 3,000 guns against about 15,000 under Takeda Katsuyori

Record

Won Okehazama (1560), Anegawa (1570) and Nagashino (1575); pulled out of Echizen when the Asai rose behind him (1570); fought the Ishiyama Hongan-ji from 1570 to 1580

Legacy

Ended the Ashikaga shogunate in 1573 and began the unification of Japan

Nobunaga took over his father’s lands in Owari in 1551 and had the whole province by 1559. In 1560 Imagawa Yoshimoto invaded with about 25,000 men; the Shincho koki, the chronicle of Nobunaga’s retainer Ota Gyuichi, gives 45,000. Nobunaga gathered about 3,000, fell on the Imagawa headquarters at Okehazama and killed Yoshimoto.⁵

In 1568 he entered Kyoto with Ashikaga Yoshiaki and made him shogun, then drove him out in 1573 and ended the Ashikaga shogunate. Not every campaign went his way. In 1570 he had to abandon an invasion of Echizen when his brother-in-law Asai Nagamasa rose behind him, though he beat the Asai and Asakura at Anegawa that summer. The fortified temple of the Ishiyama Hongan-ji at Osaka held out from 1570 to 1580 and gave up only on terms brokered by the emperor.⁶

At Nagashino in 1575 he and Ieyasu brought about 38,000 men against Takeda Katsuyori’s 15,000, and some 3,000 guns behind a palisade broke the Takeda attacks; Takeda dead are put at about 10,000. Myth vs fact: the famous three ranks of gunners firing in turn is a tradition, and some historians doubt it could have been done. In 1582 his general Akechi Mitsuhide turned on him, and he died at Honno-ji.⁷

Why it ranks here: Recognition, consequence and legacy all score 5, judged for Japan rather than against the world as in our by-era guide; the retreat from Echizen and ten years against the Hongan-ji keep his record at 4, and chronicle numbers such as the Shincho koki’s 45,000 keep certainty at 4. He ties Tokugawa Ieyasu on 47 points, on recognition and on consequence, and goes ahead as the older man.

Read the full story of Oda Nobunaga ›

3 Tokugawa Ieyasu, 1543 to 1616

Lived

1543 to 1616

Served

Lord of Mikawa and Nobunaga’s ally from 1562; Hideyoshi’s greatest vassal; shogun from 1603

Greatest victory

Sekigahara, 1600: about 80,000 men on each side, by the counts of the National Park Service and the Nipponica encyclopedia

Record

Won Anegawa (1570) and Nagashino (1575) with Nobunaga, Nagakute (1584), Sekigahara (1600) and Osaka (1615); routed at Mikatagahara (1573)

Legacy

Founded the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan until 1868

Born at Okazaki castle in 1543, Ieyasu spent years of his childhood as a hostage, the price of his family’s alliances. After Okehazama he broke with the Imagawa and in 1562 allied himself with Nobunaga, beside whom he fought at Anegawa and Nagashino.⁸

His worst day came at Mikatagahara, late in 1572 by the Japanese calendar and January 1573 by ours. He led about 8,000 men out of Hamamatsu against a Takeda army put at 30,000 to more than 50,000 and was routed. In 1584 he got even with Hideyoshi in part, trapping a raiding force at Nagakute and killing about 2,500 men.⁹

On 21 October 1600 at Sekigahara his Eastern Army of about 80,000 met roughly as many under Ishida Mitsunari; when Kobayakawa Hideaki’s 15,600 men turned on their own side, the Western Army broke. Myth vs fact: the tale that Ieyasu had his gunners fire on Kobayakawa’s hill to force his hand is a myth, argues the historian Shiramine Jun in a reading Stephen Turnbull finds persuasive: the earliest reports have Kobayakawa attack as the battle began. Named shogun in 1603, Ieyasu destroyed Hideyoshi’s heir at Osaka in 1615, and his shogunate ruled until 1868.¹⁰

Why it ranks here: Recognition 5, judged for Japan rather than against the world as in our by-era guide, with full marks for consequence and legacy; the rout at Mikatagahara holds his record at 4, and certainty is 4. His 47 points, his recognition and his consequence all equal Nobunaga’s, so the tie goes to the older man and leaves Ieyasu here.

Read the full story of Tokugawa Ieyasu ›

4 Minamoto no Yoshitsune, 1159 to 1189

Lived

1159 to 1189

Served

The Minamoto in the Genpei War, 1180 to 1185, under his half-brother Minamoto no Yoritomo

Greatest victory

Dan-no-ura, 1185: 840 to 3,000 Minamoto ships against 500 to 1,000 Taira, by the differing counts of the sources

Record

Won Uji and Ichi-no-Tani (1184), Yashima and Dan-no-ura (1185); his rising against Yoritomo collapsed (1185)

Legacy

Japan’s great tragic hero; the phrase hogan-biiki, sympathy for the doomed underdog, comes from his story

Yoshitsune was a younger half-brother of Minamoto no Yoritomo, who rose against the ruling Taira in 1180. In 1184 he and another half-brother, Noriyori, crushed their cousin Yoshinaka at Uji and then attacked the Taira position at Ichi-no-Tani. The Heike monogatari, the war tale written down long after, gives the Minamoto main body some 50,000 horsemen and Yoshitsune 10,000, and has him lead 3,000 of them down the cliff of Hiyodori-goe into the Taira rear. Encyclopedias tell the charge as the tale tells it, and where it happened is disputed.¹¹

In 1185 he crossed to Shikoku in a gale, with only five ships in the Heike monogatari’s telling, and drove the Taira from Yashima. A month later he met their fleet at Dan-no-ura: more than 840 Minamoto ships against more than 500 by one count, 3,000 against 1,000 in the Heike monogatari. The child emperor Antoku drowned and the Taira were destroyed.¹²

Then Yoritomo turned on him. Outlawed, Yoshitsune fled to Hiraizumi, where Fujiwara no Yasuhira attacked him in 1189 and he took his own life. Pity for his fate gave Japan the phrase hogan-biiki, siding with the doomed underdog. Myth vs fact: he did not escape to become Genghis Khan. That Meiji-era story, like the older one of his flight to Ezo, grew from fairy tales read as history.¹³

Why it ranks here: Full marks for record, consequence and legacy; recognition 4, because outside Japan he is less known than the three unifiers, and certainty 3, because the cliff charge and the army sizes come from the Heike monogatari, as for Dan-no-ura in our naval guide.

5 Takeda Shingen, 1521 to 1573

Lived

1521 to 1573

Served

Lord of Kai from 1541, after deposing his father; conqueror of Shinano

Greatest victory

Mikatagahara, 1573: a Takeda army put at 30,000 to more than 50,000 against about 8,000 under Tokugawa Ieyasu

Record

Beaten by Murakami Yoshikiyo at Uedahara (1548) and again in 1550; five campaigns against Uesugi Kenshin at Kawanakajima (1553 to 1564); won Mikatagahara (1573)

Legacy

The Tiger of Kai; his Fu-rin-ka-zan banner is still famous

Takeda Harunobu, who took the Buddhist name Shingen in 1559, seized Kai from his father in 1541 and spent the next twelve years conquering Shinano. It did not come easily: Murakami Yoshikiyo beat his army at Uedahara in 1548 and again in 1550 before Shingen took his castle in 1553. His banner carried a line from Sun Tzu, shortened to Fu-rin-ka-zan: wind, forest, fire and mountain.¹⁴

Murakami fled to Uesugi Kenshin, who fought Shingen five times at Kawanakajima between 1553 and 1564. In the fiercest battle, in 1561, Shingen’s brother Nobushige was killed, but the Uesugi withdrew and Shingen went on to hold nearly all of northern Shinano. Myth vs fact: Kenshin’s ride into Shingen’s camp to cut at him in single combat is unproven, and historians such as Thomas Conlan treat it as a literary invention. Much of Shingen’s legend rests on the Koyo gunkan, a chronicle of the early Edo period that often departs from the facts.¹⁵

In 1572 he marched west. Near Hamamatsu he drew Tokugawa Ieyasu out onto the plateau of Mikatagahara and routed him, but in the spring of 1573 he fell ill while besieging Noda castle and died on the way home. Two years later his son Katsuyori lost the Takeda army at Nagashino.¹⁶

Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition and legacy, but the defeats by Murakami keep his record at 4, and he died before Mikatagahara could change anything, so consequence 3; certainty 3, because so much of his story rests on the Koyo gunkan.

Read the full story of Takeda Shingen ›

6 Uesugi Kenshin, 1530 to 1578

Lived

1530 to 1578

Served

Lord of Echigo from 1548; Kanto kanrei, the shogun’s deputy for the Kanto, from 1561

Greatest victory

Tedorigawa, 1577, over an Oda army under Shibata Katsuie

Record

Five campaigns against Takeda Shingen at Kawanakajima (1553 to 1564) without a decision; failed to take Odawara (1561); took Nanao and won Tedorigawa (1577)

Legacy

Remembered as the war god of Echigo; Kawanakajima festivals are held every year in Nagano and Yamanashi

Born Nagao Kagetora, son of the deputy governor of Echigo, Kenshin took over the province in 1548 and soon united it. When Takeda Shingen drove Murakami Yoshikiyo and other lords out of northern Shinano, they turned to him, and from 1553 to 1564 he met Shingen five times at Kawanakajima. In the bloodiest battle, in 1561, he came down from his hill by night and fell on the Takeda army, killing Shingen’s brother, but withdrew when the Takeda detachment returned. Festivals in Yamanashi and Nagano still mark the battles every year.¹⁷

He also fought the Hojo. In 1561 he led the armies of the Kanto against Odawara but could not take it, and on the way back he received the Uesugi name and the office of Kanto kanrei. For all his campaigning, one encyclopedia notes, his power stayed largely within Echigo. Late in life he turned west: in 1577 he took Nanao castle in Noto and beat an Oda army under Shibata Katsuie at the Tedorigawa, one of the few open clashes between the two houses. He died of a stroke in 1578, before the campaign he planned against Nobunaga.¹⁸

Myth vs fact: the story that he sent salt to his enemy Shingen when others cut off supplies is a tradition, and no record proves it.¹⁹

Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition and legacy, but Kawanakajima and Odawara brought no decision, so record 4, and his wars won Echigo little that outlived him, so consequence 2; the duel with Shingen and much of his legend come from later tales, so certainty 3.

7 Minamoto no Yoritomo, 1147 to 1199

Lived

1147 to 1199

Served

Leader of the Minamoto from 1180; first shogun of Kamakura from 1192

Greatest victory

The Oshu campaign, 1189, which destroyed the Fujiwara of the north

Record

Routed at Ishibashiyama (1180); the Taira fled before him at the Fuji River (1180); destroyed the Fujiwara of Oshu (1189); left the war against the Taira to his brothers

Legacy

Founded the Kamakura shogunate, the first warrior government of Japan

Son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, Yoritomo was exiled to Izu after his father’s defeat in 1159 and spent 20 years there, marrying Hojo Masako. In 1180 he answered Prince Mochihito’s call to rise against the Taira.²⁰

His first battle went badly. At Ishibashiyama he had about 300 riders against more than 3,000 under Oba Kagechika, by one encyclopedia’s count, and his force was destroyed; he escaped through the Hakone hills and crossed by sea to Awa. The warriors of the east then flocked to him. When a Taira army came against him at the Fuji River that autumn, it fled in the night without a fight, by tradition at the sound of waterbirds, as the Kai Genji moved on its rear. Yoritomo turned back to secure the east from Kamakura and left the war against the Taira to his half-brothers Noriyori and Yoshitsune.²¹

In 1189 he led a great army north himself, beat the Fujiwara of Oshu at Atsukashiyama and took their capital at Hiraizumi. Named shogun in 1192, he left behind a warrior government; the shogunate, in its several forms, lasted into the 19th century. Myth vs fact: the famous waterbirds at the Fuji River belong to the story as it is told; the encyclopedias give the credit for that victory to the Kai Genji, not to Yoritomo.²²

Why it ranks here: Founding the Kamakura shogunate earns consequence 5, but in person he lost his first battle and left the great victories to his brothers, so record 2; recognition, legacy and certainty are 4. He ties Mori Motonari on 38 points and stays ahead on recognition.

8 Mori Motonari, 1497 to 1571

Lived

1497 to 1571

Served

Lord of Koriyama in Aki from 1523; master of ten provinces of western Japan by 1566

Greatest victory

Itsukushima, 1555: more than 20,000 under Sue Harukata against a Mori force of a few thousand, about 3,000 by one count

Record

Held Koriyama against the Amago (1540 to 1541); won Itsukushima (1555); destroyed the Amago (1566)

Legacy

The parable of the three arrows; the subject of NHK’s historical drama of 1997

Motonari inherited a small domain at Yoshida in Aki province in 1523, wedged between the great houses of Ouchi and Amago. In 1540 a large Amago army under Amago Haruhisa besieged his castle of Koriyama, and he held out until it withdrew the next year. He then placed his sons Motoharu and Takakage at the head of the Kikkawa and Kobayakawa families, binding the leading houses of Aki and Bingo to his own.²³

In 1551 Sue Harukata overthrew his lord Ouchi Yoshitaka, and in 1555 Motonari fought him on the island of Itsukushima. Sue landed with more than 20,000 men. The Mori, a few thousand strong, about 3,000 by the Nipponica’s count, crossed in rough weather, fell on his camp before dawn on the first day of the tenth month and destroyed his army; Sue killed himself. Motonari then took Suo and Nagato, attacked the Amago from 1562 and destroyed them in 1566, which left him master of ten provinces in western Japan. The story of his life became NHK’s historical drama for 1997.²⁴

Myth vs fact: the tale that he showed his three sons that three arrows bound together cannot be broken is not history. It grew from his letter of advice to the three, which urges the family to hold together but says nothing about arrows.²⁵

Why it ranks here: Record 5 for Itsukushima and a career with no defeat of his own to match it, and consequence 4 for the Mori state that ruled western Japan; outside Japan he is known mainly for the three arrows, so recognition 3. He has the same 38 points as Minamoto no Yoritomo and stands below him on recognition.

9 Kusunoki Masashige, about 1294 to 1336

Lived

About 1294 to 1336 (some reference works leave his birth year open)

Served

Emperor Go-Daigo, against the Kamakura shogunate and then against Ashikaga Takauji

Greatest victory

The defense of Chihaya Castle, 1333

Record

Lost Akasaka (1331); won at Tennoji and held Chihaya (1333); helped drive Takauji from Kyoto (1336); beaten and killed at Minatogawa (1336)

Legacy

Japan's model of loyalty: a bronze statue outside the Imperial Palace (1900) and the Minatogawa Shrine in Kobe

Kusunoki Masashige was a warrior of obscure origins from Akasaka, south of today's Osaka; Japanese encyclopedias call him an akuto, an outlaw, and suggest he once served the Hojo regents he went on to fight. In 1331 he answered Emperor Go-Daigo's call to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate and rose at Akasaka, which the shogunate's army took.²⁶

He came back late in 1332, recovered his home ground and early in 1333 beat a Rokuhara force at Tennoji. Then he held the mountain castle of Chihaya for about 100 days, by the war tale's account rolling rocks down the slopes and setting armored straw dummies on the walls. The Taiheiki, finished around the 1370s, makes the besiegers dozens of times the garrison, and a total of a million is quoted for them; a modern castle dictionary puts the defenders at about 1,000. Meanwhile Go-Daigo escaped from exile and Kamakura fell. In 1336 Kusunoki helped drive Ashikaga Takauji from Kyoto, but when Takauji returned from Kyushu with a far larger army, Kusunoki met him at Minatogawa, near Kobe, was surrounded and took his own life.²⁷

Myth vs fact: the selfless loyalist of the statue presented to the Imperial Household in 1900 was largely built by Edo-period Confucians and modern nationalism; the historian Amino Yoshihiko called the image taught until 1945 an illusion.²⁸

Why it ranks here: With legacy 5, he ties Date Masamune and Ashikaga Takauji on 36 points, ranks above Takauji on recognition and above Date on consequence, 3 against 2, because Chihaya helped topple a shogunate; Akasaka and Minatogawa hold his battlefield record to 3, and certainty is 2 because the Taiheiki tells most of his war.

10 Date Masamune, 1567 to 1636

Lived

1567 to 1636

Served

Head of the Date clan from 1584; submitted to Hideyoshi in 1590; on Tokugawa Ieyasu's side from 1600

Greatest victory

Suriagehara, 1589, over Ashina Yoshihiro

Record

Won Suriagehara (1589); lost Aizu to Hideyoshi without a battle (1590); fought the Uesugi (1600) and at Osaka (1615)

Legacy

Founder of Sendai; the NHK drama of 1987 with the highest average audience of any in its series

Date Masamune, heir to the Date of northern Honshu, lost his right eye to smallpox as a boy, hence his name Dokuganryu, the One-Eyed Dragon. He took over the clan in 1584, at 17, and after his father's violent death the next year turned to conquest.²⁹

In 1589 he routed Ashina Yoshihiro at Suriagehara, below Mount Bandai, and took Kurokawa, the Ashina seat in Aizu; at 22 he was master of southern Tohoku, with the largest domain the Date ever held. A year later Hideyoshi, already master of almost all Japan, summoned the lords to his siege of Odawara. Masamune came late, in death robes by the Samurai Museum Berlin's account, kept his life and lost Aizu. In 1600 he fought for Ieyasu against Uesugi Kagekatsu in the north, and in 1615 his troops clashed with Sanada Yukimura's at Domyoji outside Osaka. He then built Sendai, a domain of 620,000 koku, and in 1613 sent an embassy to Spain and Rome.³⁰

Myth vs fact: the saying that he could have ruled Japan had he been born twenty years earlier is a popular what-if; in fact Hideyoshi undid his conquests with one summons. His fame on screen is real: NHK's drama of 1987 drew an average audience of about 40 percent, still a record for its historical dramas.³¹

Why it ranks here: Legacy 5 and recognition 4: few warlords appear more often on Japanese screens. He ties Kusunoki Masashige on 36 points and on recognition but ranks below him on consequence, 2 against 3, because Hideyoshi took his conquests within a year, and above Ashikaga Takauji on recognition. One great battle keeps his record at 3.

11 Ashikaga Takauji, 1305 to 1358

Lived

1305 to 1358

Served

The Kamakura shogunate, then Emperor Go-Daigo, then the Northern Court; shogun from 1338

Greatest victory

Minatogawa, 1336, over Kusunoki Masashige and Nitta Yoshisada

Record

Took Rokuhara in Kyoto (1333); beat Nitta Yoshisada (1335); driven from Kyoto to Kyushu (1336); won Tatarahama and Minatogawa (1336)

Legacy

Founded the Ashikaga shogunate, 1338 to 1573; taught in schools as a traitor until 1945

Ashikaga Takauji, head of a leading Minamoto branch, marched west in 1333 as a Kamakura general to crush Emperor Go-Daigo's rising. On the way he changed sides and destroyed the shogunate's Kyoto headquarters at Rokuhara. Go-Daigo gave him a character of his own name, but not the title of shogun.³²

In 1335 he broke with the emperor, beat Nitta Yoshisada at Takenoshita near Hakone and entered Kyoto early in 1336, only to be beaten by Kitabatake Akiie and Kusunoki Masashige and driven to Kyushu. At Tatarahama he routed the Kikuchi; the Taiheiki and the chronicle Baishoron give the Kikuchi 40,000 to 50,000 horsemen against 300 for Takauji, figures that cannot be taken at face value. Before the battle, one Japanese encyclopedia records, he was so shaken that he spoke of suicide until his brother Tadayoshi talked him out of it. He came back east, crushed Kusunoki at Minatogawa and retook Kyoto; Go-Daigo fled to Yoshino and the war of the two courts began. Named shogun in 1338, he founded the shogunate that lasted until Oda Nobunaga drove out the last Ashikaga shogun in 1573.³³

Myth vs fact: Takauji the arch-traitor is a verdict, not a finding. It grew up in the Edo period, became official in 1911, when the Southern Court was declared legitimate, and was taught in state textbooks until 1945.³⁴

Why it ranks here: Consequence 5: his victories founded a shogunate that ruled for over two centuries. He ties Kusunoki Masashige and Date Masamune on 36 points but ranks below both on recognition, 3 against 4; legacy 3, because Japan long taught him as a traitor, and certainty 3, since the Taiheiki is still the main narrative.

12 Sanada Yukimura, 1567 to 1615

Lived

1567 to 1615

Served

The Sanada of Shinano and the Toyotomi; last for Toyotomi Hideyori at Osaka

Greatest victory

Throwing back the Tokugawa attack on the Sanada-maru, Osaka, winter 1614

Record

Held Ueda against Hidetada's army with his father (1600); held the Sanada-maru (1614); killed in his charge at Osaka (1615)

Legacy

A national hero of the noble last stand; NHK's drama Sanada Maru (2016)

Sanada Nobushige, the name the reliable sources use, was the second son of Sanada Masayuki, lord of Ueda in Shinano. In 1600 he and his father took the Western side and held Ueda Castle against Tokugawa Hidetada's army, blocking its march west; after the defeat he spent 14 years in exile below Mount Koya.³⁵

In 1614 Toyotomi Hideyori called him to Osaka Castle. Japanese encyclopedias give the besieging Tokugawa army as 200,000 to 300,000 men against about 100,000 in the castle. Nobushige built the Sanada-maru, an earthwork outpost at the south-east corner, and threw back the attack on it. In the summer of 1615 he covered the retreat from Domyoji against Date Masamune's troops, and the next day he led his men out from Chausuyama, near Tennoji, charged Tokugawa Ieyasu's headquarters and put Ieyasu in danger before he was killed fighting Matsudaira Tadanao's soldiers; Osaka fell. One Japanese encyclopedia records that even the Eastern side praised him as the finest warrior in Japan.³⁶

Myth vs fact: no reliable source of his lifetime calls him Yukimura, and much of the legend, including the ninja band of the Ten Brave Sanada, comes from Edo-period popular fiction and the Tachikawa storybooks of the early 20th century; the record shows two stubborn defenses and one brave, failed charge, not a campaign won.³⁷

Why it ranks here: Legacy 5 and recognition 4: a national hero whose last charge Japan still retells on screen. But he fought on the losing side twice and his battles changed nothing that lasted, so consequence 1, and with a record of 3 for two defenses and a fatal defeat, he stays below every commander whose victories built something.

13 Taira no Kiyomori, 1118 to 1181

Lived

1118 to 1181

Served

The retired emperors Toba and Go-Shirakawa; head of the Taira from 1153

Greatest victory

The Heiji Disturbance, 1159, over Minamoto no Yoshitomo

Record

Won the Hogen (1156) and Heiji (1159) fighting in Kyoto; left the Genpei War of 1180 to his sons

Legacy

The first warrior to rule the court; the proud villain of the Heike monogatari

Taira no Kiyomori took command of the Taira warriors in 1153 from his father Tadamori, a favorite of the retired emperors. In the Hogen Disturbance of 1156, a succession quarrel in Kyoto, he fought for Emperor Go-Shirakawa beside Minamoto no Yoshitomo; their attack on the rival camp settled it in half a day.³⁸

Three years later Yoshitomo and Fujiwara no Nobuyori struck while Kiyomori was on pilgrimage to Kumano, seized the retired emperor and killed Kiyomori's ally Shinzei. Kiyomori hurried back: Nobuyori was executed, Yoshitomo was killed in flight in Owari, and his young son Yoritomo was exiled to Izu. In 1160 Kiyomori became the first warrior among the high court nobles, in 1167 Grand Minister of State, and in 1179 he shut Go-Shirakawa away and ruled outright; his grandson Antoku became emperor in 1180. His sons fought the Genpei War that followed. Kiyomori died of fever in 1181, and his clan was destroyed at Dan-no-ura in 1185.³⁹

Myth vs fact: the Heike monogatari makes him the arrogant villain who had the temples of Nara burned and died raving with fever. Its tale that he was the secret son of the retired emperor Shirakawa sits in passages said to be later additions, though Japanese encyclopedias still repeat that story of his birth, and one sees him as the necessary evil of a turning point.⁴⁰

Why it ranks here: Record 3 and consequence 3: two short fights in the capital opened the way to warrior rule, but he led no great campaign and his clan fell four years after his death. He ties Shimazu Yoshihiro on 32 points and on recognition and ranks above him on consequence, 3 against 2.

14 Shimazu Yoshihiro, 1535 to 1619

Lived

1535 to 1619

Served

The Shimazu of Satsuma under his brother Yoshihisa; under Hideyoshi from 1587; the Western Army in 1600

Greatest victory

Sacheon, Korea, 1598, over a Ming and Joseon army

Record

Won Kizaki (1572), Mimikawa (1578) and Sacheon (1598); beaten by Hideyoshi (1587); on the losing side at Sekigahara (1600)

Legacy

“Oni-Shimazu”; the breakout through the enemy at Sekigahara

Shimazu Yoshihiro spent his early wars on the frontiers of the Shimazu domain in southern Kyushu; one Japanese encyclopedia credits him with 52 feats of arms. In 1572 he beat the Ito at Kizaki, near today's Ebino, a defeat from which the Ito never recovered. In 1578 he helped destroy the Otomo army in the Mimikawa campaign, before Hideyoshi forced the Shimazu to submit in 1587.⁴¹

In Korea he held Sacheon in 1598 against a Ming and Joseon army under Dong Yiyuan. A Japanese reference work gives 100,000 attackers against 2,000 Japanese; Korea's national encyclopedia counts about 30,000 allied troops, says a fire in their own lines turned the assault into a disaster costing thousands of lives, and records that the victors cut noses from the dead to send to Japan. In 1600 he joined the Western Army with few men because, as letters quoted by the historian Takahashi Yosuke show, the clan at home held its army back. When Sekigahara was lost he cut his way out forward through the Eastern Army while his nephew Toyohisa and others died covering him; the clan kept its lands.⁴²

Myth vs fact: in Korea the Ming came to fear him as Oni-Shimazu, the demon Shimazu, by Waraku magazine's account; but Sacheon's 100,000 attackers are a Japanese figure, and the Korean count is under a third.⁴³

Why it ranks here: Record 4 and legacy 4, but the Shimazu submitted to Hideyoshi and he fought for the losers in 1600, so consequence 2; he ties Taira no Kiyomori on 32 points and on recognition and ranks below him on consequence, and the inflated Satsuma counts keep certainty at 3.

15 Kuroda Kanbei, 1546 to 1604

Lived

1546 to 1604

Served

The Kodera of Harima; Hideyoshi's staff officer from 1577; the Tokugawa side in 1600

Greatest victory

Ishigakibaru, 1600, over Otomo Yoshimune

Record

Won Ishigakibaru and took Kokura (1600); at the sieges of Tottori (1581) and Takamatsu (1582); a prisoner of Araki Murashige for about a year (1578 to 1579)

Legacy

Founder of the Kuroda house of Fukuoka; the model strategist of Japanese popular history

Kuroda Yoshitaka, better known as Kanbei and later as Josui, was born at Himeji in 1546 into a family serving the Kodera of Harima. Fukuoka Prefecture credits him with beating a force said to be ten times larger at Aoyama in 1569. In 1577 he welcomed Hideyoshi into Himeji Castle and became his staff officer for the conquest of western Japan; sent in 1578 to talk the rebel Araki Murashige back to obedience, he was held prisoner for about a year.⁴⁴

He was at Hideyoshi's side at the starvation siege of Tottori in 1581 and the water siege of Takamatsu in 1582, and served in the Kyushu campaign of 1587, which won him six districts of Buzen. In 1600, while his son Nagamasa took the Kuroda army to Sekigahara, Kanbei raised troops in Kyushu, beat Otomo Yoshimune at Ishigakibaru near Beppu and took him prisoner, then took Kokura and received the surrender of Kurume and Yanagawa. After the war Nagamasa received Chikuzen, rated at 520,000 koku, where Kanbei helped found Fukuoka.⁴⁵

Myth vs fact: Fukuoka Prefecture credits him with proposing the dam that flooded Takamatsu, but the Japanese encyclopedias describe the water siege as Hideyoshi's plan and Kanbei as a staff officer who served in it; the master strategist behind all of Hideyoshi's wars is the popular image.⁴⁶

Why it ranks here: He scores 3 on every count: more adviser than field commander, with one campaign of his own, in 1600. He ties Honda Tadakatsu on 30 points and on recognition and takes this last place on consequence, 3 against 2, since he helped win Hideyoshi the west and Kyushu.