The Kōshū Campaign Destroys the Takeda Domain

The Takeda still held an extensive domain after Nagashino, but later pressure weakened its defenses. Ieyasu captured Takatenjin in 1581, and Katsuyori faced Hōjō attacks as well. He built Shinpu and moved his headquarters there late that year. Surviving document abstracts record labor requisitions for the new base alongside continuing provincial military orders.

In early 1582, Kiso Yoshimasa changed sides and requested Oda assistance. Nobutada’s troops entered Shinano through multiple approaches, while Ieyasu advanced from the Suruga side with Anayama Nobukimi, another former Takeda ally. Some defenders surrendered or withdrew. At Takato, however, Nishina Morinobu’s garrison resisted an assault before the castle fell.

Katsuyori burned Shinpu on the third day of the third Japanese month and fled east, seeking support from Oyamada Nobushige. That refuge failed. Oda pursuers reached his remaining party near Tenmokuzan, where Katsuyori, his wife and his son Nobukatsu died on the eleventh day. Gyūichi’s account also describes the killing of women and other household members during the collapse; the victorious Oda narrator’s description gives no secure total for those deaths.

Nobunaga divided the conquered territories among commanders and allies, including Suruga for Ieyasu. The Takeda domain’s independent leadership ended, but occupation did not create a settled eastern order. Nobunaga’s death at Honnōji later in 1582 disrupted the new assignments and reopened competition in the former Takeda lands. The rapid campaign depended on defections and converging armies, with Takato’s resistance showing that surrender was not universal.