Siege of Itami (1579)

This second siege of Itami Castle during the Sengoku period of Japanese history, occurred in 1579, five years after it was seized by Oda Nobunaga from a lord named Itami, and entrusted to Araki Murashige.

Accused of sympathizing with the Mōri clan, enemies of Nobunaga, Araki shut himself in his castle and withstood siege by the armies of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Though his defense held out that long, he did not lead any men in sallying forth from the castle or otherwise attacking the besieging army. Over the course of the year, Hideyoshi's men gradually filled in the moat, making the castle's fall inevitable. Araki escaped, and lived the rest of his life in obscurity.