Kanetsugu Naoe (1559-1620) was a strategist of the Uesugi clan, and later, the Tokugawa clan. He was best known for defeating the Tokugawa at the Battle of Hasedo in 1600, defeating the enemy under Yoshiaki Mogami and Masamune Date.
Biography[]
Kanetsugu Naoe was the son of Kanetoyo Higuchi, but took the name of his wife when he came of age. He was from Echigo Province, the territory of the Uesugi clan of Kenshin Uesugi. Kanetsugu became a strategist for the Uesugi in 1577 when he was eighteen, leading the Uesugi armies to victory at the Battle of Tetorigawa against the Oda clan of Nobunaga Oda. He continued to serve as an Uesugi retainer afterwards, but volunteered to fight alongside the Sanada in 1585 at the Battle of Ueda Castle, seeing the invading Tokugawa as a possible future threat to the Uesugi clan.
Toyotomi strategist[]
By 1590, however, the Uesugi were all but conquered by the Toyotomi, and Kanetsugu was forced to submit to Hideyoshi Hashiba. In 1590, he participated in the Siege of Oshi Castle, assisting Mitsunari Ishida in the capture of Oshi Castle, as a part of the Odawara Campaign. In 1598, after Hideyoshi died, he assisted Mitsunari, as the Uesugi were compelled to assist Mitsunari in reuniting Japan under the Toyotomi banner once more. He took part in the Siege of Kyoto that year, aiding Mitsunari against a coalition of enemies led by Masanori Fukushima, and joined his "Western Army" in 1600 when the time came to fight the Tokugawa's Eastern Army.
Hasedo and later life[]
Kanetsugu in 1600
Kanetsugu led the invasion of Ugo Province, home to the Mogami clan, who were allies of Tokugawa, as a diversion to prevent an attack on the Western Army rear by the Date and Mogami, aligned with the Eastern Army. He besieged Hasedo Castle, and, aided by Keiji Maeda, he defeated the enemy. Kanetsugu's great victory was negated by the loss at Sekigahara in Kyoto, where Mitsunari's army was crushed by the Tokugawa, and Kanetsugu was forced to surrender. He was perhaps lucky that the Date were in the Eastern Army, as his career would have been ruined if he had served at Sekigahara. Afterwards, he became a Tokugawa general and fought the Toyotomi rebels in the Osaka Campaign, which ended the Sengoku period, in 1615. Kanetsugu died in Fukushima Province after governing his fief.