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Uesugi Kenshin

A Echigo daimyo of the Warring States period. He is known for his battles against Takeda Shingen in the Battles of Kawanakajima

1530-1578

       Uesugi Kenshin was a general of the Warring States period. He was a son of Nagao Tamekage, acting military governor of Echigo Province. His childhood name was Torachiyo, at his coming of age ceremony he was given the name Kagetora, and he later took the name Masatora and Terutora. His Buddhist sobriquet was Soshin at first, but he used Fushiki-in Kenshin after 1570. His father, Tamekage, was the de facto head of Echigo Province, and after his death, his legitimate son and heir, Harukage, succeeded him, but rivalry continued in the Nagao family. Harukage's younger brother, Kagetora (Kenshin), was entrusted to the care of Tenshitsu Koiku of Rinsen Temple on Mt. Kasuga (present-day Joetsu city in Niigata Prefecture), a temple belonging to the Rinzai School of Buddhism. Later he moved to Tochio Castle (in present-day Nagaoke, Niigata Prefecture), a castle held by his maternal family, the Koshi Nagaos, having control over the Chuetsu region. After struggles with Harukage and Nagao Masakage, Kagetora, toward the end of 1548, took control of Kasugayama Castle, succeeding his brother Harukage, and in 1551 he suppressed Masakage, uniting the Joetsu and Chuetsu regions. To cement relations, he adopted Masakage's son Kiheiji (later known as Uesugi Kagekatsu), bringing under control the powerful Agakitashu landowners of the Kaetsu region and thereby uniting all of Echigo Province.

       Thereafter Kagetora turned his attention to external expansion. In 1552 he sent forces into the Kanto region to support Uesugi Norimasa, shogunal deputy for that region, who was being pursued by Hojo Ujiyasu of Odawara. In the same year he was awarded the rank junior fifth rank, lower grade, and served as junior assistant judge in the Imperial Investigation and Prosecution Office, and the following year, 1553, he entered the capital and had an audience with Emperor Go-Nara. From then to 1559 he continued to send forces into the Kanto region. During this same period, from 1553 to 1564, he repeatedly sent forces into northern Shinano Province. He is especially famous for the Battles of Kawanakajima, in which he aided Ogasawara Nagatoki and Murakami Yoshikiyo against Takeda Shingen of Kai Province, which raged on from 1553 to 1564.

       In 1559 he again entered the capital, this time to have an audience with Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru. Then in 1561 he attacked Hojo Ujiyasu of Odawara, but he withdrew without taking Ujiyasu's castle. Soon thereafter, he began using the name Uesugi Masatora, adopting Uesugi Norimasa's family name to accept the title of shogunal deputy for the Kanto region, and he made Umayabashi Castle (in present-day Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture) his base for forays in that region. In 1569 he reached a peace agreement with Hojo Ujiyasu and formed the Echigo-Sagami Alliance, united against Takeda Shingen. In 1573, after Shingen died, he advanced into Etchu, Noto, and Kaga, where he faced Oda Nobunaga. Then in the lunar Third Month of 1578, he passed away in Kasugayama Castle. There are memorial stelae to him at Rinsen Temple and Shojoshin Temple on Mt. Koya, and early in the Meiji period (1868-1912) his grave was moved to the Uesugi family mausoleum in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture. He never married over the course of his life. After his death a dispute broke out between his two adopted sons, Kagekatsu (whose birth father was Nagao Masakage) and Kagetora (whose birth father was Hojo Ujiyasu), over who should succeed Kenshin, and this conflict led to the Siege of Otate. The victor, Kagekatsu, became the head of the Uesugi family and the first lord of the Yonezawa Domain in Dewa Province.

享禄3年(1530)出生
天正6年(1578)没
天文17年(1548)春日山城に入る
天文21年、関東管領上杉憲政を支援して関東出兵
天文22年-永禄7年、北信濃で武田信玄と川中島の戦い
永禄4年(1561)小田原城を攻撃。上杉憲政から上杉の姓と関東管領職を譲られる
元亀元年(1570)謙信を号す
享禄3年(1530)出生

Related People, Things and Events

Books

Related Works

Depictions of Kenshin Uesugi in musha-e (portraits of warriors) and yakusha-e (portraits of actors)

Rinsen-ji, family temple of Kenshin Uesugi

Kasugayama Castle

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Past Exhibitions

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External Links

  • 上越観光Navi(公益社団法人 上越観光コンベンション協会)

  • 長野県長野市にある。

  • 上杉家文書(国宝)はじめ、関連史資料を所蔵。

  • 長野県長野市若里1-1-4に所在。

  • 新潟文化物語

  • 新潟県のホームページ

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  • 武田信玄と上杉謙信の戦いを通して戦国時代を知る。

  • 上杉謙信像(江戸末、写)を見ることができる。

References

  1. サンプルページ「上杉謙信」の項。
  2. サンプルページ「上杉謙信」の項。
  3. サンプルページ「上杉謙信」の項。