Ishiyama Hongan-ji War
The Ishiyama Hongan-ji War (石山合戦, Ishiyama Kassen) was a ten-year military campaign that took place from 1570 to 1580 in Sengoku period Japan, carried out by lord Oda Nobunaga against a network of fortifications, temples, and communities belonging to the Ikkō-ikki, a powerful faction of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist monks and peasants opposed to the rule of the samurai class.
| Siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Sengoku period | |||||||
The battle of Ishiyama Hongan-ji by Utagawa Yoshifuji (1828-1887) | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| forces of Oda Nobunaga |
Ikkō-ikki monks forces of Ashikaga Yoshiaki Mōri clan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Oda Nobunaga Sakuma Nobumori Niwa Nagahide Akechi Mitsuhide Harada Naomasa † Araki Murashige Takayama Ukon Hosokawa Fujitaka Inaba Yoshimichi Andō Morinari Ikoma Chikamasa |
Kōsa Shimozuma Nakayuki Shimozuma Rairyū Saika Magoichi Ashikaga Yoshiaki Rokkaku Yoshikata Mori Terumoto | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| at least 30,000 | at least 15,000 | ||||||
It centered on attempts to take down the Ikki's central base, the cathedral fortress of Ishiyama Hongan-ji, in what is today the city of Osaka. While Nobunaga and his allies led attacks on Ikki communities and fortifications in the nearby provinces, weakening the Hongan-ji's support structure, elements of his army remained camped outside the Hongan-ji, blocking supplies to the fortress and serving as scouts.