Kawanakajima 1553–64

This extract is taken from the chapter entitled 'The Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, 1561'

The enemy had by now reached the Takeda headquarters … and Shingen's personal bodyguard. … there came bursting into the curtained enclosure a single mounted samurai wearing a white headcowl, and with a green kataginu over his armour. The figure is believed to have been Uesugi Kenshin himself … Kenshin: 'struck at him three times, just missing each time as Shingen stopped the blows with his war fan, but he received two wounds to his side. His chief retainer and the head of the twenty-man bodyguard … fought back furiously while keeping him surrounded….' Hara Osumi-no-kami, one of Shingen's retainers, came to his aid and attacked the horseman with Shingen's own spear…. The blade glanced off … making the spear shaft strike the horse's rump. This caused the beast to rear and bolt … and Kenshin was driven off.As the wheel wound on Yamamoto Kansuke realised that his carefully made plans had failed. He accepted full responsibility for the disaster that his error of judgement had brought upon them, and resolved to make amends by dying like a true samurai. Taking a long spear in his hands he charged alone into the midst of the Uesugi samurai, where he fought fiercely until, overcome by bullet wounds and arrows. Wounded in 80 places on his body, he retired to a grassy knoll and committed hara-kiri.