Siege of Edo
Encyclopedia
In the 1524 Siege of Edo, also known as the Battle of Takanawahara, the Hōjō
Late Hojo clan
The ' was one of the most powerful warrior clans in Japan in the Sengoku period and held domains primarily in the Kantō region.The clan is traditionally reckoned to be started by Ise Shinkurō, who came from a branch of the prestigious Ise clan, a family in the direct employment of the Ashikaga...

, led by Hōjō Ujitsuna
Hojo Ujitsuna
was the son of Hōjō Sōun, founder of the Go-Hōjō clan. He continued his father's quest to gain control of the Kantō ....

, besieged Edo castle
Edo Castle
, also known as , is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is located in Chiyoda in Tokyo, then known as Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate here. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also...

, which was held by Uesugi Tomooki
Uesugi Tomooki
was a lord of Edo Castle and enemy of the Hōjō clan, who seized the castle in 1524. He was the son of Uesugi Tomoyoshi, who was among the first to oppose the Hōjō's rise to power....

. Though Edo has since become the Japanese metropolis of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, it was then a more or less insignificant fishing village in the Kantō region
Kanto region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....

.

Eager to repel the attackers, Uesugi Tomooki led his warriors out of the castle to meet the Hōjō in battle at the Takanawa river crossing. However, Ujitsuna led his men around the Uesugi force and attacked them from the rear. Retreating back to his castle, Tomooki found that the commander of his garrison, Ōta Suketaka, had betrayed him and opened the gates to the Hōjō.

This battle would mark the beginning of a seventeen-year struggle between the Hōjō and Uesugi clans for dominance of the Kantō.
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