Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

At this time, in addition to the main family in Aki, the Yoshikawa clan also had branch families in Iwami, Harima, Bingo, Sakai and other places. The most powerful of the branch families was the Iwami Yoshikawa clan, whose capital was Iwami Fukumitsu Castle.

The Iwami Yoshikawa clan and the Yoshikawa main family rely on each other and occupy the border of Iwami and Aki. The current head of the family is Yoshikawa Nobuyasu, who just succeeded to the throne two years ago. However, the position of this head in the family is not solid. The reason is that he is not a direct descendant of the Yoshikawa clan, but the adopted son of the previous head, Yoshikawa Nobuyasu.

Yoshikawa Nobuaki's legitimate son died early and was in poor health, so he adopted his nephew, Kurari Shichiro, the son of Kurari Awaji no Kami, as his adopted son and changed his name to Yoshikawa Nobuyasu. In 1541, he handed over the position of family head to him and chose to retire.

After learning that Yoshikawa Takatsune had succeeded the Yoshikawa main family as the head, the retainers of the Iwami Yoshikawa clan, who were already dissatisfied with Yoshikawa Nobuyasu's succession and worried that the Amago clan would take advantage of the victory to invade, under the inducement and instigation of Moriwaki Yusuke, a senior retainer of the Yoshikawa main family, simply staged a "forcing the emperor to abdicate" drama.

In October of 1543, at the unanimous request of his family's important officials, the rootless Yoshikawa Nobuyasu was forced to abdicate. At the same time, Yoshikawa Takatane married the daughter of Yoshikawa Nobuyoshi as his principal wife, thus succeeding the head of the Iwami Yoshikawa clan, thus achieving the unification of the "two Yoshikavas".

In just half a year, the Takeda clan of Aki used a combination of soft and hard tactics to bring the "two Yoshikawas" under their control, thereby achieving effective rule over northern Aki and southern Iwami.

At this time, Mori Motonari was also not idle. After feeling the threat from the Takeda clan in Aki, he immediately launched an attack on the powerful Hiraga clan in southern Aki.

The Hiraga clan originated from the Fujiwara no Kitaie Yoshifusa school. Their ancestor Matsuba Sukemune was given estates in Dewa-Hiraka County, Aki Takayabo, Kazusa Sakurao-go, and Echū Nippon-jo because of his military achievements in the "Genpei War". Later generations used Hiraga (Pinglu) as their surname.

The Aki Hiraga clan came to prominence during the subsequent "Mongol invasion" and the Nanboku-cho period, and established a firm foothold in southern Aki. They began their expansion under the protection of the Ouchi clan and moved their castle from Hakujo Castle to Tozaki Castle.

During the Tenbun era, Hiraga Hiroyasu, the head of the Hiraga clan, saw that the Amago clan was in its heyday and was about to compete with the Ouchi clan and even change the offensive and defensive positions, so he took the initiative to move closer to the Amago clan. The Amago clan also accepted all comers and wanted to make the Hiraga clan another fulcrum in Aki after the Takeda clan and the Yoshikawa clan in Aki, so they provided Hiraga Hiroyasu with a lot of assistance and support.

Mori Motonari, who was sandwiched between the Amago and Hiraga clans, soon noticed something was wrong. Being in danger, he immediately reported to Ouchi Yoshitaka. The latter felt it necessary to strike first, so he ordered the people of Aki and Bingo who were subordinate to the Ouchi clan to attack Tosaki Castle held by the Hiraga clan, intending to pull out this thorn in the side of southern Aki.

This move by the Ouchi clan gave the Amago clan, who had long wanted to invade Aki, an excuse. Amago Akihisa quickly organized a powerful army and tried to ease the pressure of the Hiraga clan on Tozaki Castle by attacking Yoshida-gunyama Castle.

Thus, the massive Battle of Yoshida-gunyama Castle began. It can be said that the Hiraga clan was the fuse of the war between Ouchi and Amago in recent years, and played a decisive role in the development of Aki.

Later, the Amago clan failed in their siege and fled back to Izumo in a hurry. The Hiraga clan in Tozaki Castle suffered: Ouchi Yoshitaka quickly ordered the troops to attack the city fiercely. In desperation, Hiraga Hiroyasu opened the city and surrendered, and under the persuasion of Mori Motonari, he returned to the arms of the Ouchi clan.

As a punishment, Hiraga Hiroyasu passed the position of family head to his legitimate son Hiraga Okisada, and the Hiraga clan's home castle, Tousaki Castle, was also confiscated by Ouchi Yoshitaka and used as the seat of the Ouchi clan's governance of Aki. The Hiraga clan moved back to their old home castle, Hakusan Castle, which was not far away. Even so, the Hiraga clan still had a strong voice in southern Aki. However, the Hiraga clan did not rest for a few days. After Ouchi Yoshitaka's expedition to Izumo failed, Hiraga Hiroyasu, who was already inclined to the Amago clan, took the opportunity to attack and attempted to seize the voice of his family, and thus clashed with Hiraga Okisada.

After Mori Motonari acquired Tosaki Castle and Kobayakawa Takakage inherited the Takehara Kobayakawa clan, the Hiraga clan had become an obstacle between the Mori and Kobayakawa territories.

The internal strife of the Hiraga clan happened to give Mori Motonari an excuse. Under his instigation and instigation, Ouchi Yoshitaka forcefully intervened in the internal strife of the Hiraga clan. On the grounds that Hiraga Hiroyasu was affecting the stability of Aki, he was arrested in Ouchi-kan. At the same time, on the grounds that Hiraga Okisada could not effectively control his retainers, he demanded that he marry his daughter to Mori Motonari's second son, Mori Motoharu, who had just come of age, and adopt him as his son-in-law. After the wedding, he officially passed the position of family head to him.

Hiraga Hiroyasu naturally refused to sit and wait for death. After learning that he would be taken to Ouchi-kan, he immediately led three or five retainers to flee to Izumo under the cover of night. However, Hiraga Okisada was not so lucky. Soon after he adopted Mori Motoharu as his adopted son and changed his name to Hiraga Motoharu, he officially passed the position of family head to him at the end of December of that year at the repeated urging of Ouchi Yoshitaka and Mori Motonari.

Soon after, Hiraga Okisada and his eldest son Hiraga Takamune were escorted to Misono Castle, nominally in seclusion, but actually under house arrest. Misono Castle was the first castle that the Hiraga clan lived in after arriving in Aki, until Hiraga Hiroyasu became the head of the family and then moved to Hakusan Castle. Putting the father and son under house arrest here was also a kind of fateful reincarnation.

At this point, Mori Motonari had basically completed the occupation of eastern Aki. After that, he relied on Hiraga Motoharu and Kobayakawa Takakage to launch wars against the people and powerful families in Bingo, which greatly accelerated the Mori clan's path of external expansion.

At this time, the only clan left between the Mori clan and the Aki Takeda clan was the Numata Kobayakawa clan, which was located near the sea.

The Numata Kobayakawa clan is the main family of the Kobayakawa clan. However, with the growth of the Takehara Kobayakawa clan in recent years, especially after Kobayakawa Takakage inherited the family headship and received the full support of Mori Motonari, the new head of the Numata Kobayakawa clan, Kobayakawa Shigehira, felt a great panic.

Speaking of which, this Kobayakawa Shigehira was also a pitiful man. When Ouchi Yoshitaka was defeated at the beginning of the year, his father Kobayakawa Masahira and Mori Motonari served as the rear guard together to stop the pursuit of the Amago clan. Unfortunately, Mori Motonari escaped back to Aki with difficulty, but Kobayakawa Masahira died on the way of retreat.

Therefore, the one-year-old Kobayakawa Shigehira inherited the position of head of the Numata Kobayakawa family. But then a greater disaster followed. This year, in the autumn of the 1543th year of Tenbun (), Kobayakawa Shigehira fell seriously ill, causing him to become weak and blind. This bad news caused the already unstable retainers to fall into greater panic and anxiety.

Since Takayama Castle, the home of the Numata Kobayakawa clan, was located near the border between Aki and Bingo, it was an important barrier against the invasion of the Bingo Amago army. Ouchi Yoshitaka believed that it would be difficult for Kobayakawa Shigehira to lead his retainers to resist the Amago army at his age and physical condition, so he began to look for a capable person to replace Kobayakawa Shigehira and inherit the position of family head.

After hearing this news, both Mori Motonari and Takeda Motomitsu took it very seriously and took their own measures to bring the Numata Kobayakawa clan under their control. (End of this chapter)