Yamazaki: Hideyoshi’s Coalition Defeats Mitsuhide

The Honnōji attacks killed Nobunaga and Nobutada while Hideyoshi was campaigning against the Mōri in Bitchū. Hideyoshi negotiated peace and brought his army east. Reaching Kyoto required movement through the Inland Sea corridor and cooperation from commanders nearer the capital.

His letter to Nakagawa Kiyohide on the tenth day of the sixth Japanese month records that coordination. It discusses his passage through Akashi, the onward route through Hyōgo and Nishinomiya, and contacts involving Niwa Nagahide and Takayama Ukon. The coalition that confronted Mitsuhide included local Oda allies as well as the returning army.

On the thirteenth day, they defeated Mitsuhide near Yamazaki, where hills and waterways narrowed the approaches southwest of Kyoto. Mitsuhide retreated to Shōryūji Castle and then toward his eastern bases, dying during the flight. Later accounts specify an escape through the castle’s north gate; surviving stones do not by themselves verify that route.

The victory broke Mitsuhide’s attempt to rule from Kyoto and gave Hideyoshi military standing as Nobunaga’s avenger. It left the distribution of Oda leadership and territory unsettled. The Kiyosu settlement and subsequent conflict with Shibata Katsuie were further stages in that struggle. Yamazaki supplied Hideyoshi with a victorious coalition and bargaining power, while the Oda relatives and other regional commanders remained participants.