Battle of Hoshigaoka, 28 January 1333

The battle of Hoshigaoka (28 January 1333) saw the revolt against the Shogunate spread onto Shikoku Island (Genko War, 1331-33).

Encouraged by Imperial successes on Honshu two local leaders on Skikoku Island (south of the Inland Sea), Doi Jiro and Tokuno Yasaburo, rose in support of Go-Daigo. Their revolt began in Iyo Province, in the north-west of the island. They then advanced south-east towards Tosa, on the southern side of the island.

The uprising was clearly too big for the Shogunate forces on Shikoku to deal with. The governor of Nagato Province (at the western end of Honshu) led a fleet given in the Taiheiki as containing 300 warships to Skikoku. His army came from Nagato and from the neighbouring Suo Province. 

On the 12th day of the 1st month of 1333 (28 January 1333) the two armies clashed and the Imperial supporters were victorious. The fate of the governor of Nagato and his son was still unknown when the local supporters of the Shogunate sent a warning message to Kyoto.

After their victory the rebels moved north across the island towards the ports of Utatsu and Imahari and prepared to cross to Honshu and advance on Kyoto. They had been joined by most of the warriors of Shikoku, and were reported to be 6,000 strong.

The news of this defeat reached the Shogunate's headquarters in Kyoto, the Rokuhara, on the 4th day of the 2nd month (18 February 1333), just as they were trying to deal with an army that had advanced from Harima toward Kyoto, and was now only twenty leagues to the west.

Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan, trans. Helen Craig McCullough. A modern English translation of the first twelve chapters of the Taiheiki, covering the period of the Genko War, a civil war that saw the Emperor Go-Daigo briefly overthrow the Shogunate and restore direct Imperial rule.
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A History of Japan, 1334-1615, Sir George Sansom. A classic history of Japan, covering the period from the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate in the 1330s to the battle of Sekigahara of 1600 and the end of the civil wars in 1615. A little dated now, but it still provides an excellent narrative history of this period, with more detail on the military events than in most more modern works.
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How to cite this article: Rickard, J (22 October 2012), Battle of Hoshigaoka, 28 January 1333 , http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_hoshigaoka.html

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