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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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.
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Hosokawa Sumimoto
Sumimoto came from the Hosokawa clan: he was the biological son of Hosokawa Yoshiharu and at the same time the adopted son of Hosokawa Masamoto, the heir of Hosokawa Katsumoto, one of the principal instigators of the Ōnin War. Masamoto was homosexual, never married, and had no children of his own. At first he adopted Sumiyuki, a scion of the aristocratic Kujō family, but this choice provoked dissatisfaction and sharp criticism from the senior vassals of the Hosokawa house. As a result, Masamoto changed his decision and proclaimed Sumimoto as his heir, a representative of a collateral branch of the Hosokawa clan that had long been based in Awa Province on the island of Shikoku. Almost immediately after this, the boy became entangled in a complex and bitter web of political intrigue.
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Honda Masanobu
Masanobu initially belonged to the retinue of Tokugawa Ieyasu, but later entered the service of Sakai Shōgen, a daimyo and priest from Ueno. This shift automatically made him an enemy of Ieyasu, who was engaged in conflict with the Ikkō-ikki movement in Mikawa Province. After the Ikkō-ikki were defeated in 1564, Masanobu was forced to flee, but in time he returned and once again entered Ieyasu’s service. He did not gain fame as a military commander due to a wound sustained in his youth; nevertheless, over the following fifty years he consistently remained loyal to Ieyasu.
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Honda Masazumi
Masazumi was the eldest son of Honda Masanobu. From a young age, he served Tokugawa Ieyasu alongside his father, taking part in the affairs of the Tokugawa house and gradually gaining experience in both military and administrative matters. At the decisive Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Masazumi was part of the core Tokugawa forces, a clear sign of the high level of trust Ieyasu placed in him. After the campaign ended, he was given a highly sensitive assignment—serving in the guard of the defeated Ishida Mitsunari, one of Tokugawa’s principal enemies—an obligation that required exceptional reliability and caution.
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Hojo Shigetoki
Hōjō Shigetoki, the third son of Hōjō Yoshitoki, was still very young—only five years old—when his grandfather Tokimasa became the first member of the Hōjō clan to assume the position of shogunal regent.
