Siege of Kōzuki

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Siege of Kōzuki

Date	1578
Location	Kōzuki Castle, Harima Province
Result	Siege fails; Mōri victory

Combatants

Mōri clan

forces loyal to Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Commanders

Kobayakawa Takakage, Kikkawa Motoharu

Amako Katsuhisa

Campaigns of Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Kōzuki – Itami – Miki – Tottori – Takamatsu – Yamazaki – Uchide-hama – Shizugatake – Komaki – Nagakute – Kaganoi – Takehana – Kanie – Toyama – Negoroji – Ōta Castle – Shikoku & Ichinomiya – Takajō – Ganjaku – Akizuki – Sendaigawa – Kagoshima – Hachigata – Odawara – Shimoda – Korea

The siege of Kōzuki occurred in 1578, when the army of Mōri Terumoto attacked and captured the castle of Kōzuki in Harima province. Kōzuki had been taken by Toyotomi Hideyoshi the previous year and entrusted to Amako Katsuhisa. When it fell to the Mōri, Amako committed hara-kiri. Amako's loyal and heroic general Yamanaka Shikanosuke Yukimori was captured and killed in the battle.

It is popularly believed in Japan that Yamanaka Shikanosuke, Amako's general, "sold" Amako's life, for the safety of his own men.

The Oda forces were so vastly outnumbered and surrounded in the castle that victory was impossible. Yamanaka Shikanosuke sent a message to the Mōri general offering to surrender, and offerring the ritual suicide of his master (Amako). The offer was accepted, Amako committed suicide, and his forces surrendered.

What precisely happened to Yamanaka Shikanosuke after the battle is unclear. Though some sources say he died in the battle, others state that he became a vassal of the enemy lord, Mōri Terumoto, but was assinated on Mōri's order (along with his new wife).

It should also be noted that Amako Katsuhisa, the Oda vassal lord of Kōzuki Castle, though a member of the samurai class, was not especially experienced or trained as a warrior. Oda Nobunaga was running out of qualified battle-hardened lords to hold his territories, so Katsuhisa was called to Kōzuki from Kyoto, where he was studying to be a Buddhist monk. Katsuhisa was very young, in his early twenties, when he died. A memorial stone stands with his name engraved, along with Buddhist inscriptions, where he took his own life.