Battles & Wars › Gunpowder empires › Sengoku period (Japan's Warring States)
Battle of Nagashino
June 28, 1575· Battle· Asia & Pacific
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
Oda Nobunaga's massed arquebusiers, behind wooden palisades, shattered the attacks of the Takeda clan.
See it on the Battles & Wars map →What happened
Takeda Katsuyori, heir of the famous warlord Takeda Shingen, besieged Nagashino Castle with about 15,000 men. Oda Nobunaga and his ally Tokugawa Ieyasu came to relieve it with perhaps 38,000. They built wooden palisades behind a stream and lined them with arquebusiers, traditionally 3,000. Takeda's repeated attacks were shot down, then finished by spearmen. Many of Takeda's senior commanders died, and the clan was destroyed seven years later.
Why it matters
It became the classic example of guns behind field defenses beating brave assaults, and it cleared the way for Nobunaga's drive to unify Japan.
How we know
The Shinchō Kōki, a chronicle by Nobunaga's retainer Ōta Gyūichi; Takeda and Tokugawa family records; and painted folding screens of the battle made decades later.
Still debated
The famous rotating three-rank volley and the 3,000 gunners are doubted by many historians, and the Takeda attack may not have been mainly cavalry.
Connections (2)
▸Battle of Nagashino was a turning point of Sengoku period (Japan's Warring States)Mostly agreed
The connection
Nagashino destroyed much of the Takeda clan's leadership, removing one of Oda Nobunaga's most dangerous rivals in eastern Japan. It freed Nobunaga to push west and showed that guns and field works could beat even famous warrior clans.
When and how
Shitaragahara, near Nagashino Castle, Mikawa province, June 28, 1575; Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu against Takeda Katsuyori.
How sure are we?
Chronicles record many senior Takeda commanders killed, and the clan's continued decline until its destruction in 1582.
Debates and open questions
Some historians argue the Takeda were already weakening and that the battle's fame was inflated by later storytelling and films such as Kurosawa's Kagemusha.
▸Battle of Nagashino showed the power of massed The gun: arquebus and musketMostly agreed
The connection
Nobunaga massed perhaps 1,000–3,000 matchlock gunners behind palisades and a stream, protected by spearmen. Repeated Takeda attacks broke under their fire. It became Japan's best-known demonstration that guns, used in mass with field defenses, could beat skilled warriors.
When and how
Nagashino, 1575, three decades after Portuguese traders brought matchlocks to Tanegashima island in 1543.
How sure are we?
Ōta Gyūichi's chronicle gives the number of gunners, and the painted battle screens show gunners behind fences.
Debates and open questions
The famous rotating three-rank volley is not in the earliest sources and is doubted; estimates of gunner numbers range from 1,000 to 3,000.