Battle of Tatarahama

"Forward! Carry my palanquin into the very middle of the enemy!" — The order of Betsuki Akitsura, in substance, as given in Yoshinaga Masaharu's Kyushu Sengoku Kassenki The Tatara River in Chikuzen. In the spring of Eiroku 12 (1569), Kikkawa Motoharu and Kobayakawa Takakage, sons of Mori Motonari, crossed to northern Kyushu with forty thousand men and surrounded the Otomo castle on Mount Tachibana. The Otomo garrison has been cut off from its supplies and its water. Otomo Sorin recalled Betsuki Akitsura, Usuki Akisumi and Yoshihiro Akimasa from the fighting in Hizen, and thirty-five thousand men now face the Mori across the Tatara River. It is 6 a.m. on the 18th day of the 5th month. The Mori are drawn up in fifteen lines, and their vanguard has crossed the river as far as the Hakozaki pines. The river mouth is a tidal flat running out to the sea, and the lower river cannot be crossed. Upstream at Nagao stands Kobayakawa Takakage's left wing. The Otomo vanguard is in three bodies under Betsuki, Usuki and Yoshihiro, flanked by the troops of Buzen and Bungo and of Chikuzen and Chikugo. Betsuki, unable to walk, leads from a palanquin. [How the Otomo win] Twelve units may be activated each turn. The Otomo begin holding Tachibana castle (30 points, with three garrison units inside) and Hakozaki shrine (10); taking the Mori positions at Nagao (20), the Tatara crossing (10) and Kashii shrine (10) widens the margin. West of Tatara the river is tidal flat and cannot be crossed. Break through at the shallows of Nagao and the road to Tachibana castle opens. The victory line is 0. If the margin from the Otomo side exceeds 0, they have done better than history. [How the Mori win] Ten units may be activated each turn (a heavy army set in fifteen lines). Hold the line on the north bank and do not let the siege of Tachibana castle be lifted. The vanguard in the Hakozaki pines is too far forward on the south bank. [Commanders] Otomo: Betsuki Akitsura (later known as Tachibana Dosetsu), Usuki Akisumi, Yoshihiro Akimasa. Betsuki's retainers Yufu Korenobu and Ono Shigeyuki and Akimasa's son Yoshihiro Shigenobu are also on the map. Tachibana castle is held by its garrison commander Tsuruhara and others. Sorin himself is not on this field. Mori: Kikkawa Motoharu, Kobayakawa Takakage, Shishido Takaie, Kumagai Naonobu, Nomi Munekatsu. Fukubara Sadatoshi and Kuchiba Michiyoshi are also present. The positions of Narasaki and Tagayama of Bingo and of Mukunashi under Kobayakawa, which bore the brunt of the attack, appear as band units. Motonari, aged seventy-three, was at Chofu in Nagato with his grandson Terumoto. [Decisions this board poses] - (Otomo) Avoid the tidal flats downstream and mass at Nagao upstream, or first press the centre at Tatara to draw in the Mori reserves? - (Otomo) Send the garrison of Tachibana castle out? Its food and water are nearly gone. - (Mori) Pull back the vanguard on the south bank? If Kobayakawa goes to support it, Nagao is left thin. [Outcome] Betsuki fell hard on the positions of Kumagai, Narasaki, Tagayama and Mukunashi, and when they began to give way Kobayakawa Takakage went himself to support them. Betsuki used that moment to throw fresh troops against Nagao, Kobayakawa's weakened left wing. The left fell back to the east, and the whole Mori line was pushed back some three hundred metres. The sight of Betsuki in his palanquin, ordering his bearers into the middle of the enemy, is said to have stayed with Takakage, then thirty-seven, for the rest of his life. Even so, Tachibana castle surrendered to the Mori in the intercalary 5th month, and the standoff went on until autumn through eighteen engagements. The decision came from off the board. Sorin sent Ouchi Teruhiro into Yamaguchi in Suo, former Amago retainers rose in Izumo, and Motonari recalled his army from Kyushu. The Mori left northern Kyushu, and the next year Tachibana castle returned to the Otomo. Betsuki Akitsura was given the castle and took the name Tachibana Dosetsu. Beyond the tidal flats, the Mori in fifteen lines The general in his palanquin said: forward Kobayakawa ran to hold the line, and Nagao lay open The Mori were pushed back three hundred metres The castle surrendered, and the standoff lasted into autumn The battle was decided across the sea The course of the fighting follows Yoshinaga Masaharu's Kyushu Sengoku Kassenki and the war chronicles it draws on, such as the Otomo Kohaiki. The sources disagree on whether Tachibana castle was still in Otomo hands on this day (surrender in the intercalary 5th month) or had already fallen to the Mori in the 4th month; this board takes the former. The armies are given as thirty-five thousand Otomo against more than forty thousand Mori, but these are chroniclers' figures. 1 hex = 400 m, 1 turn = 60 minutes, 1 CS = about 1,000 men. Turn 1 = 6 a.m. on the 18th day of the 5th month; Turn 12 = 5 p.m.