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Saito Tatsuoki was killed on this day, August 14, 1573

Saito Tatsuoki was the third generation Daimyo of Mino, following his grandfather, Saito Dosan, and father, Saito Yosh*tasu. He was also a nephew of Oda Nobunaga, as Nobunaga’s first wife, Nohime, was Saito Dosan’s daughter.

Tatsuoki was born in 1548, and succeeded his father, aged 14, in 1561. The following year he developed a rivalry with Mino based warlord, Akechi Mitsuhide of nearby Kani. Mitsuhide had sided with Tatsuoki’s grandfather, Dosan, when Saito Yosh*tatsu had turned against Dosan and ousted him. In 1564, Tatsuoki’s forces and those of the Akechi clashed. The Saito samurai were soundly defeated, and the loss effectively removed the Saito clan from being a viable player on the Sengoku period stage.

Gifu Castle, originally known as Inabayama Castle, was said to have been one of the strongest, most impregnable castles in Japan, yet there was a time when it fell to Takenaka Hanbei and just 16 of his samurai!

Takenaka Hanbei was a military advisor to the lord of Gifu Castle, Saito Tatsuoki and his father, Saito Yosh*tatsu before him. Hanbei was a brilliant tactician, although a sickly, and effeminate man. Once, a samurai of Gifu Castle gravely insulted the strategist by urinating on him as he passed below one of the castles’ defensive turrets. His complaints to the lord of the castle, Tatsuoki, to have the perpetrator punished went unheeded, and so some time later, Hanbei entered the castle with his band of 16 samurai on the pretext of visiting his sick brother, and used the entrance to make an faux-attempt on the life of Saito Tatsuoki.

The confused Tatsuoki, thinking a much larger army of attackers had entered the castle, fled for his life, abandoning the castle and his men. Hanbei took the castle easily. Having heard of the coup, Oda Nobunaga then requested Hanbei give the castle to him, however Hanbei refused, instead returning the property to Tatsuoki, and then left the service of the Saito clan. The greatly embarrassed Tatsuoki, who had lost a great deal of reputation and honor from the cowardly retreat would not keep the castle for long.

When Oda Nobunaga attacked the castle in 1567, many of the troops under Tatsuoki remembered his cowardice and either fled themselves, (just like Tatsuoki did when he heard Nobunaga's forces were approaching) or defected to the Oda forces. Nobunaga then relocated his headquarters from Komaki Castle to the centrally located fortress and renamed it “Gifu.”

Saito Tatsuoki would remain in exile, occasionally taking part in a number of battles against Nobunaga under the banners of the Asakura and Asai clans until his death on August 14, 1573, aged just 26. Tatsuoki was apparently cut down during the Battle of Tonezaka, also known as the Siege of Ichijodani Castle.