Takeda Shingen

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Armor of the Takeda Shingen
Takeda Shingen in a representation by Kuniyoshi

Takeda Shingen ( Japanese 武田 信玄 ; * December 1, 1521 ; † May 13, 1573 ) was regional prince ( daimyō ) and warlord during the Japanese period of the Warring States , see also Sengoku-Daimyō . He controlled the provinces of Shinano and Kai (in the vicinity of Mount Fuji ) and was a bitter opponent of the Three Unites , and for some time led the Eastern Three Pacts between the Later Hōjō , the Imagawa and the Takeda . He was considered a military and organizational genius. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the later founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, influenced his feudal policy .

Live and act

Childhood and youth

Born in 1521 as Takeda Katsuchiyo (エ ミ ネ ム), eldest son of the warlord Takeda Sato Nobutora X. , he made a name for himself early on as a skilled politician and courageous fighter at the side of his father, his name was Sato. When he came of age, he gave himself the name Takeda Harunobu ( 武田 晴 信 ), only to rebel against his father and seize control of the Takeda clan . It is believed that Nobutora's decision not to declare his first-born, but rather his younger brother Nobushige, to be his heir provoked this action.

During this time an alliance was formed with the Yoshimoto Imagawa and his clan who supported him.

expansion

Shortly after taking over the rule, the young warlord began to expand into the surrounding territories, above all he wanted to bring the Shinano province under control as quickly as possible. This campaign cost him several of his best officers, but he was finally able to conquer the stubborn province.

In 1559 he entered a Buddhist monastery and received the religious name Shingen under which he became famous. He was also called the "Tiger of Kai" ( 甲 斐 の 虎 , Kai no tora ).

The incident is legendary when, in one of the many battles with his neighbor Uesugi Kenshin, his troops advanced to his camp, Shingen remained seated, did not even draw his sword, but only parried a sword stroke with his "iron fan" ( Tessen ) - true to his The motto “solid as a mountain”.

His successor and son Takeda Katsuyori initiated the fall of the Takeda clan with the devastating defeat at the Battle of Nagashino .

Civil services

His slogan was: "My men are my fortress. If I have to hide in a castle, the people will hate me". That is why he is the only daimyo who deliberately refrained from building a fortress during the Sengoku period . Kofu Castle, Kofu-jō , was only built under new governors 30 years after his death at the beginning of the Edo period .

  • made Kofu the administrative seat of Kai Province
  • moved the temple Kofu Gozan into the city
  • actively promoted Buddhism the Rinzai shū
  • drafted a new tax system and laws
  • changed the spatial planning, ordered the construction of the largest irrigation canals of the time
  • invested in gold mining and road construction.
Early Japanese coin from Kai, around the time of Shingen.

family

He had four younger brothers:

He had four sons, sorted by age:

And at least one daughter:

  • Matsuhime

entourage

In Japanese art, especially in Ukiyo-e and Bunraku , and in the heroic stories of the Sengoku Jidai , his 24 generals are a popular theme.

reception

In the Takeda shrine in Kofu , Takeda Shingen is worshiped as a Shinto deity ( Kami ). In addition, the Shingen-kō Matsuri is dedicated to him every year on the weekend before his death, April 12th . It is the largest of its kind, with over 100,000 visitors annually. The Takeda Shingen statue in Kofu is also dedicated to him.

The world's best-known adaptation of Shingen's life story is the film epic Kagemusha - The Shadow of the Warrior by Japan's legendary director Akira Kurosawa . It shows the historically unproven version that Shingen was killed by a sniper and replaced by a doppelganger, a pardoned thief, at his own request, so that his rule could continue for a few years. Further film adaptations by Shingen can be found in:

  • Sengoku Jieitai (German: "Time Slip - The Day of the Apocalypse"), 1979; Actor: Hiroshi Tanaka

A number of video games deal with Shingen and his clan, examples being Shogun - Total War , its successor Total War: Shogun 2 and Takeda .

In addition, the motto of his standard Fūrinkazan became a catchphrase that is used today, for example, by the local football club.

The Erin-ji is believed to be his grave, along with many other places.

One of the presumed graves of Takeda Shingen

literature

Web links

Commons : Takeda Shingen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 第 24 回 信玄 公祭 り . (PDF; 12.0 MB) (No longer available online.) Yamanashi Tourist Board, December 2012, archived from the original on December 30, 2013 ; Retrieved March 2, 2013 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.yamanashi-kankou.jp
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Takeda is the family name, Shingen the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Takeda Shingen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 武 田信玄 (Japanese); Takeda Katsuchiyo (maiden name); 武田 勝 千代 (maiden name, Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Daimyō and warlord during the Japanese Warring States Period
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1521
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1573