Siege of Futamata

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Siege of Futamata
partof=the Sengoku period


caption=
date=1572
place=Futamata fortress, Tōtōmi Province, Japan
result=garrison surrenders; Takeda victory
combatant1=forces of Takeda Shingen
combatant2=forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu
commander1=Takeda Katsuyori
commander2=Unknown
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1=
casualties2=

Futamata fortress was Takeda Shingen's first objective in his campaign against Tokugawa Ieyasu. In 1572 he left the siege of Futamata in the hands of his son and heir Takeda Katsuyori.

The fortress was built on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the Tenryū river; Katsuyori noticed that the garrison's water supply was obtained via a complex system of dropping wooden buckets to the river and pulling them back up. He decided to send unmanned rafts down the river; these smashed into the well-tower and toppled it. Denied of their water supply, the Tokugawa garrison quickly surrendered.

The Takeda would press on past Futamata towards the major Tokugawa fortress at Hamamatsu, where they would fight the Battle of Mikatagahara two months later.

References

*Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.
*Turnbull, Stephen (2002). 'War in Japan: 1467-1615'. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.