Nobunaga Battles the Takeda

1572

Takeda Shingen, the formidable warlord of Kai province, marched his army toward Kyoto to challenge Nobunaga and defeated Tokugawa Ieyasu at Mikatagahara. Had Shingen not died of illness the following spring, the course of Japanese unification might have turned violently against Nobunaga. Shingen's death from illness was one of Japanese history's great might-have-beens, as his military genius was Nobunaga's only serious rival.