Takeda Katsuyori

Takeda Katsuyori (武田 勝頼?, 1546 – 3 April 1582) was a Japanese daimyo of the Sengoku Period, who was famed as the head of the Takeda clan and the successor to the legendary warlord Takeda Shingen. He was the son of Shingen by the Suwa goryōnin (諏訪御料人?, real name unknown), the daughter of Suwa Yorishige. Katsuyori's children included Takeda Nobukatsu and Katsuchika.

Katsuyori, first known as Suwa Shirō Katsuyori (諏訪四郎勝頼?), succeeded to his mother's Suwa clan and gained Takatō Castle as the seat of his domain. After his elder brother Takeda Yoshinobu died, Katsuyori's son Nobukatsu became heir to the Takeda clan, making Katsuyori the true ruler of the Takeda clan. He took charge of the family after the death of Shingen and fought Tokugawa Ieyasu at Takatenjin in 1574 and at Nagashino in 1575. He captured Takatenjin, which even his father could not; this gained him the support of the Takeda clan, but he suffered a terrible loss at Nagashino, succumbing to one of the earliest recorded uses of volley fire (Oda Nobunaga's 3000 guns), in which he lost a large part of his forces as well as a number of his generals.

Katsuyori incurred the wrath of the Hōjō family by helping Uesugi Kagekatsu against Uesugi Kagetora who was Hōjō Ujiyasu's seventh son, adopted by and heir to Uesugi Kenshin.

He lost Takatenjin in 1581 and this led clans like Kiso and Anayama to withdraw their support. His forces were destroyed by the combined armies of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu at Temmokuzan in 1582, after which Katsuyori, his wife, his son Nobukatsu and several maids of their retinue committed suicide.

There has been rumours that Oda Nobunaga had great pleasure in seeing Katsuyori's severed head, since the Takeda clan had always been his biggest rival.

The nun Rikei wrote an account of his wife's suicide and, pitying them, wrote several verses in their honour.