Magara Jurōzaemon Naotaka was a vassal of Asakura Yoshikage from the province of Echizen, and very little is known about his life, including even the exact year of his birth. Magara gained his renown through his heroic death at the Battle of Anegawa in 1570. In this battle, the combined forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu confronted the armies of Asai and Asakura, with Ieyasu taking command of the left flank and fighting against the Asakura forces. After crossing the shallow Anegawa River, which separated the two armies, Tokugawa’s finest generals — Honda Tadakatsu and Sakakibara Yasumasa — launched an assault on the headquarters of Asakura Kagetake, the commander-in-chief of the Echizen army. The attack by Honda Tadakatsu was so swift that Kagetake found himself almost completely surrounded by enemy troops.
At this critical moment, one of the samurai volunteered to cover the retreat of the Asakura forces. Nobunaga-ki, a chronicle of Oda Nobunaga’s deeds written during the Edo period based on the memoirs of Ota Ushikazu, a vassal of Nobunaga, recounts the event as follows: “In the heat of battle, a lone warrior from the Asakura camp named Magara Jurōzaemon spurred his horse forward and, spinning above his head a sword nearly as long as he was tall, as if it were the wheel of a watermill, charged straight into the center of the enemy ranks, shouting: ‘Those among you who have the courage, step forward and face me one-on-one!’” In this way he challenged any Tokugawa samurai willing to confront him. This bold maneuver not only ensured that his feat would be remembered, but also bought precious time for his comrades to withdraw.
The first to accept his challenge was a vassal of the Ogasawara clan named Nagatada, whom Naotaka killed after a brief clash. Soon afterward, his son, Magara Jūrōsaburō Naomoto, joined him, and together they retreated alongside the withdrawing Asakura forces, covering each other and repelling the fierce attacks of the Tokugawa warriors. At one point, four opponents struck at father and son simultaneously: the three Kosaka brothers — Shikibu, Gorōjirō, and Rokurōgorō — and a samurai named Yamada Muneroku. With a single powerful strike of his massive sword, Magara Jurōzaemon wounded Kosaka Shikibu in the thigh; with a second swing, he knocked off Shikibu’s helmet, cutting through the cords that held it in place, and finally he even sliced through Shikibu’s spear. The younger brother, Gorōjirō, rushed to help but was struck in the side. Yamada Muneroku, a sixty-year-old veteran, also joined the fight, but his spear too was cut in half. The third brother, armed with a jumonjū-yari — a spear with a cross-shaped blade — managed to strike Magara Naotaka and knock him from his horse. Before he could recover from the blow, Jurōzaemon was killed and beheaded. His son Naomoto attempted to break through to the retreating Asakura troops, but he was intercepted by a samurai who called himself Aoki Jōzaemon, and after a fierce duel he was also killed.
Nevertheless, the sacrifice of the Magara father and son was not in vain. Their desperate resistance allowed Asakura Kagetake to gather the scattered troops and bring them home in relatively good order. However, Asakura Yoshikage himself managed to remain in power for only three more years before suffering final defeat.
See also
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Takeda Nobuyoshi
Takeda Nobuyoshi (1128–1186 or later) was a prominent Japanese samurai lord of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods and the founder of the Takeda clan.
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Tokugawa Iemochi
Tokugawa Iemochi (1846–1866) was the fourteenth shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate and ruled from 1858 until his death. His reign came during the turbulent final years of the shogunate, when Japan faced growing Western pressure and serious internal political conflict.
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Tokugawa Ienari
Tokugawa Ienari (1773–1841) was the eleventh shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate and ruled from 1787 to 1837, making him the longest-serving Tokugawa shōgun. He was a great-grandson of the eighth shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshimune.
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Matsudaira Nobuyasu
Matsudaira Nobuyasu was only twenty years old when his father ordered him to commit seppuku. The reason was not a defeat in battle, but a crisis inside the Tokugawa family that had become too dangerous to ignore.
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Yamagata Masakage
Masakage was one of Takeda Shingen’s most loyal and capable commanders. He was included in the famous list of the “Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen” and also belonged to the inner circle of four especially trusted warlords known as the Shitennō.
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Yagyu Munenori
Yagyū Munenori began his service under Tokugawa Ieyasu while his father, Yagyū Muneyoshi, was still at his side. In 1600, Munenori took part in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara. As early as 1601, he was appointed a kenjutsu instructor to Tokugawa Hidetada, Ieyasu’s son, who later became the second shogun of the Tokugawa clan.
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Yagyu Muneyoshi
A samurai from Yamato Province, he was born into a family that had been defeated in its struggle against the Tsutsui clan. Muneyoshi first took part in battle at the age of sixteen. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he was forced to enter the service of the Tsutsui house and later served Miyoshi Tōkei. He subsequently came under the command of Matsunaga Hisahide and in time became a vassal first of Oda and later of Toyotomi.
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Endo Naozune
Naozune served under Azai Nagamasa and was one of the clan’s leading vassals, renowned for his bravery and determination. He accompanied Nagamasa during his first meeting with Oda Nobunaga and at that time asked for permission to kill Nobunaga, fearing him as an extremely dangerous man; however, Nagamasa did not grant this request.
