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February 18, 1530 – April 19, 1578, later known as , was a Japanese daimyō (magnate). He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful daimyō of the Sengoku period. Known as the " Dragon of Echigo", while chiefly remembered for his prowess on the battlefield as a military genius and war hero, Kenshin is also regarded as an extremely skillful administrator who fostered the growth of local industries and trade, as his rule saw a marked rise in the standard of living of Echigo.
Kenshin is famed for his honourable conduct, his military expertise, a long-standing rivalry with Takeda Shingen, his numerous defensive campaigns to restore order in the Kantō region as the Kanrei, and his belief in the Buddhism god of war Bishamonten. Many of his followers and others believed him to be the avatar of Bishamonten and called Kenshin the " God of War".
Kenshin was born in the Tiger year (Chinese zodiac) and always kept the word "tora" (虎, tiger) in his names. He is respected as "The Tiger of Echigo" for his intelligence and accomplishments. Kenshin is also referred to as "The Dragon of Echigo" (越後の龍) because of his Kakarimidareryuu (懸かり亂れ龍) ensign displayed on the battlefield.According to the descriptions in Kōyō Gunkan (甲陽軍鑑), Hokuetsu Taiheiki (北越太平記) and Hokuetsu military talk (北越軍談).
His rival Takeda Shingen was called "The Tiger of Kai province". They fought five times at the various Battles of Kawanakajima. In some versions of Chinese mythology (Shingen and Kenshin had always been interested in Chinese culture, especially the works of Sun Tzu), the Dragon and Tiger have always been bitter rivals who try to defeat one another, but neither is ever able to gain the upper hand. Kenshin and Shingen were also known to harbour a deep respect for the other's military prowess and strategic foresight with Kenshin even going so far as to express grief and weep at news of Shingen's death.
His ceremony of departure to war started with praying at the shrine of Bishamonten, a traditional farewell meal with the generals with three dishes (symbolizing good fortune) and three cups, which also symbolized good luck and onmyōdō's heaven, earth and man. It was followed by two shouts "Ei!" (Glory") and "O!" (Yes!) with the assembled troops, also repeated three times, and the army standard lowered to the generals as a way of respect. In the end, Kenshin re-dedicated to the war god with the "bow of Hachiman", and mounted his horse surrounded by three flag banners; first with the first character of the Bishamonten's name, second with the red rising sun on blue (Emperor's gift), and third, the warring dragon flag.
However, in later years, Tamekage found himself at odds with the neighboring Ikkō-ikki of Hokuriku region and, as the political power in the region started to shift in favor of the Ikkō-ikki (due largely to the sudden rise of Hongan-ji), the situation for Echigo Province quickly deteriorated. It came to a peak in 1536, when Kenshin's father gathered up an army and marched westward. However, upon arriving at Sendanno (December 1536) in Etchū, his forces were suddenly attacked by Enami Kazuyori and in the resulting fracas Tamekage himself was slain and his army put to flight.
The impact back at Echigo was immediate. Nagao Harukage, Tamekage's eldest son, immediately made his bid for control of the Nagao and succeeded in this claim after a power struggle which resulted in the death of one of his brothers, Kageyasu. Kenshin was removed from the conflict and relocated to temple, where he spent his life from 7 to 14 dedicated to study, martial arts and Zen.
At the age of 14, Kenshin was suddenly contacted by Usami Sadamitsu and a number of other acquaintances of his late father. They urged the young Nagao clan son to go to Echigo Province and contest his older brother's rule. It would seem that Harukage had not proven the most effective or inspiring leader (probably due to ill health) and his failure to exert control and gain support of the powerful kokujin families had nearly torn the province apart. As the story is told, at first Kenshin was reluctant to take the field against his own brother, but was eventually convinced that it was necessary to the survival of Echigo.
At the age of 15 he was placed in joint command of Tochio Castle, making a reputation for himself by successfully defending it against the rebels who were plotting against the Uesugi clan. Kenshin succeeded in wresting control of the Nagao clan from Nagao Harukage in 1548. Nagao Harukage stepped down from the lead of the clan and provincial government and gave the titles to his younger brother. Harukage died five years later in 1553.
At the age of 19 Kenshin became the head of the Nagao clan and entered the Kasugayama Castle, but still as the retainer of the Uesugi clan.
In the year 1551, Kenshin was called upon to provide refuge in his castle for his nominal lord, Uesugi Norimasa, who had been forced to flee there due to the expansion into the Kantō region by the lord Hōjō Ujiyasu from the Hōjō clan. He agreed to give the warlord shelter, under specific terms, but was not in a position at the time to move against the Hōjō. The terms were Norimasa's adoption of Kenshin as his heir, the title Lord of Echigo, and the Kanrei post as shōguns deputy. Nagao Kagetora became Uesugi Masatora and continued to gain power as the Governor of Echigo.
In 1552, the Uesugi started to wage war against the Hōjō clan. Though his rule over the Nagao and Uesugi clans were now unquestioned, much of Echigo was still independent of this young warlord's grasp. Kenshin immediately set out to cement his power in the region, but these efforts were still in their infant stages when far more pressing concerns appeared.
In 1553, Ogasawara Nagatoki and Murakami Yoshikiyo, two Shinano province lords, both appeared before Kenshin requesting his help in halting the advances of the powerful warlord Takeda Shingen. Around the time Kenshin became the new lord of Echigo, Shingen had won major victories in Shinano Province. With the Takeda family's conquests taking them remarkably close to the borders of Echigo, Kenshin agreed to take the field on two fronts, against Hojo and Takeda. However the conflicts between the three lords were more complex, as shown by the various alliances and treaties between them.
In 1561, Masatora took the name of Uesugi Terutora, upon succeeding as head of the Yamanouchi-Uesugi family and assuming the position of Kanto Kanrei. Later, he changed his name again, finally to 'Kenshin' after he became a Buddhist monk.
Shingen made a counter-attack and the Uesugi army retreated. The result of the fourth battle of Kawanakajima is still uncertain: many scholars are divided on who the actual victor was or if the battle was actually decisive enough to even declare one.
It is considered to be the costliest battle in the Sengoku period, with loss of an estimated 72 percent of Kenshin's army and 62 percent of Shingen's army. Some more conservative estimates place the casualties around 20 percent. Shingen also lost two of his most important generals during the battle, his advisor Yamamoto Kansuke and younger brother Takeda Nobushige.
In 1563, Shingen allied with Hōjō Ujiyasu against the Uesugi clan, they captured Matsuyama Castle in Musashi Province. In 1565, Shingen then took Kuragano Castle and Minowa Castle in Kōzuke province. In 1571, Kenshin attacked Shingen's satellite Maebashi Castle in Kōzuke province, and they again faced each other at the Battle of Tonegawa, to once again disengage.
In addition, after Shingen broke with the Hōjō, there was an incident when the Hōjō clan blocked shipment of salt supplies to Kai Province. When Kenshin heard of Shingen's problem, he sent salt to Shingen from his own province. Kenshin commented that the Hōjō had "performed a very mean act". Kenshin added, "I do not fight with salt, but with the sword".
However, there is doubt that Kenshin's act was purely altruistic as it was recorded that he did not merely send salt, but also allowed the merchants of Echigo to sell their salt in Takeda's territory. Kenshin also saw the economic opportunity for merchants under his rule to prosper by going into Shingen's territories.
Kenshin's respect for Shingen is evident from his reaction to Shingen's death: he privately wept and stated, "I have lost my good rival. We won't have a hero like that again!"
In the year 1559, he made a trip with escort of 5,000 men to pay homage to the shōgun in Kyoto. This served to heighten his reputation considerably, and added to his image as a cultured leader as well as a warlord. This same year he was pushed once again by Uesugi Norimasa to take control of the Kantō back from the Hōjō, and in 1560 he was able to comply. In August of the same year, he put southern Echigo Province under control of a five-man council for broad mobilization, while forming a small investigative council for any kind of unrest.
In 1563, Kenshin saved his ally Ōta Sukemasa, who was under siege by both Hōjō Ujiyasu and Takeda Shingen. In November 1569, when Shingen sieged Odawara Castle, Ujiyasu requested help from Kenshin.
In 1566, after the Yura clan of Kozuke Province changed their allegiance to the Hōjō clan. Later in 1574, Kenshin ordered the Satake clan to attack Yura clan Kanayama Castle, and participated in the siege himself, but Kanayama Castle withstood the attack.
In June 12 of the same year, Kenshin entered into an alliance with Hōjō Ujiyasu and Oda Nobunaga. Later, in same month, Shingen asked shogun Yoshiaki Ashikaga and Nobunaga to mediate a peace agreement with Kenshin, which Nobunaga responded to by asking Kenshin for a peace agreement with Shingen, in a meeting which is called the Koetsu Peace Agreement. However, in March of the next year, Kenshin broke off the negotiations with Shingen and instead reaffirmed his alliance with Hōjō clan.
Meanwhile, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was an ally of the Hōjō clan, also sought an alliance with Kenshin by sending an envoy to the Uesugi clan. In response, Kenshin sent a reply dated August 22 to the Tokugawa clan's senior vassal, Sakai Tadatsugu, and Matsudaira Masanori (son of Yoshinori, 1546-1582), a member of the Matsudaira clan. In the reply, he indicated his intention to come to an agreement.
From this point, concrete alliance negotiations began and on October 8, Ieyasu issued a pledge to Kenshin and also broke his relationship with the Takeda clan. As Ieyasu formed an alliance with Kenshin, he swore to break off relations with Shingen and arranged to have the proposed marriage between relatives of Nobunaga and Shingen to be called off.
The other main area which interested Uesugi Kenshin was Etchū Province in the west; Kenshin would spend nearly half his life involved in the politics of that province. The land was inhabited by two feuding clans, the and the . Kenshin first entered the dispute as a mediator in the early 1560s between rivals Shiina Yasutane and Jinbō Nagamoto, but he later sided with the Shiina and took over the Jinbo clan. Decades later, Kenshin turned against the Shiina clan, taking their main castle in 1570 and having Shiina Yasutane assassinated in 1576 by Kojima Motoshige.
By the 1570s, after Kenshin took Toyama Castle and Matsukura Castle, Kenshin governed Echigo Province, controlled Kōzuke Province, Etchū Province and some adjacent provinces, all Hokuriku region, and routed Oda Nobunaga's forces in Echizen Province.
Through the mediation of Yoshiaki, he reconciled with Kennyo, formed an alliance, and became a member of the forces opposed to Nobunaga. When the death of Hatakeyama Yoshitaka, a lord in Noto Province, sparked confusion and conflict, Kenshin was quick to use the opportunity, taking land from the weakened clan and successfully besieging Nanao Castle, which put him in a position to threaten Nobunaga and his allies. In response, Nobunaga pulled together his own forces and those of his two best generals, Shibata Katsuie and Maeda Toshiie, to meet Kenshin at the Battle of Tedorigawa (1577) in Kaga Province.
Kenshin, who described the opponent's performance as "surprisingly weak", had a false impression to have defeated Nobunaga, as the Oda army was actually led by Shibata Katsuie. Eventually in 1577, Kenshin secured and controlled the Noto province and Kaga Province from the Oda clan.
The cause of Kenshin's death has been questioned throughout the years. The theory accepted by most scholars is the record of his deteriorating health by early sources, such as his complaints of pain in the chest "like an iron ball", and as Kenshin Gunki (1582) records "on the 9th day of the 3rd month he had a stomach ache in his toilet. This unfortunately persisted until the 13th day when he died". However, it is also speculated that he was victim of one of the most famous ninja by a ninja concealed in the cesspool beneath the latrine at Kenshin's camp with a short spear or sword. The theories are not mutually exclusive — the assassin, if he existed, might simply have fatally wounded an already dying man. However, as his anticipation of his own death is recorded in the death poem, the possibility of assassination appears less likely.
Domestically, Kenshin left behind a succession crisis. While he never had any children of his own, Kenshin adopted two boys during his lifetime. His nephew, Uesugi Kagekatsu, was probably adopted to avoid antagonizing Kagekatsu's father, Nagao Masakage, and his relatives and supporters. Another adopted son, Uesugi Kagetora, who was originally the son of Hōjō Ujiyasu, was adopted to secure Echigo's borders. Some suppose that Kagekatsu was intended to be gradually set up as his heir, while others believe that Kenshin decided to divide the estates between the two.
Both sons had external blood ties, and reasonable claims. Kagetora was besieged at Otate in 1578, and although contacted for aid Hōjō Ujimasa and Takeda Katsuyori, the former backed down. Kagekatsu married Takeda's sister, and eventually was able to secure his succession. Kagetora fled to a castle near the Echigo-Shinano border, where he committed suicide in 1579.
The death caused local power struggles, with the result being almost decade-long infighting in Echigo between 1578 and 1587, usually divided into the "Otate Disturbance" (1578–1582) and the "Shibata clan rebellion" (1582–1587). The resistance of Kagetora's supporters continued for a few years in north-central Echigo. In 1582, Shibata Shigeie, who was a vassal of Kagekatsu, led a rebellion in north Echigo, probably due to low rewards for his support of Kagekatsu, but even more due to Kagekatsu's granting control over the toll barriers in the port of Niigata to Takemata Yoshitsuna.
However, in the aftermath of the costly internal struggle, the Oda clan exploited rebellions against Kagekatsu to advance right up to the border of Echigo, having captured Noto and Kaga while the Uesugi brothers were busy with infighting. This, combined with the destruction of the Takeda clan, Uesugi's then-ally and long-time Oda enemy, would come close to destroying the Uesugi clan before Oda Nobunaga's own death once again shattered the balance of power in Japan.
The Echigo Kenshin Sake Festival is held every October and reaches attendance of roughly 100,000 visitors.
The 1990 movie adaptation of Kaionji's novel, Heaven and Earth directed by Haruki Kadokawa, in which Kenshin is portrayed by Takaaki Enoki, covers the rivalry between Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen, focusing mainly on the character of Kenshin, who is referred to by his original name Kagetora. The film has been praised for its realistic depictions of warfare and battles of the period. Being a box office success in Japan, it is also famous for holding the world record for most saddled horses used in one sequence, employing 800 horses in a battle segment. Kaionji's novel was also adapted by TV Asahi for its 50th anniversary as a 2008 TV drama special in which Kenshin was played by Masahiro Matsuoka.
In the 2007 NHK taiga drama, Fūrin Kazan, Uesugi Kenshin is portrayed by Japanese singer-songwriter Gackt. Gackt recalls that Kenshin was always portrayed as a very tough man, but wanted to play him with the female myth in the mind, which presented him clean-shaven and with long hair. Although the show received some harsh criticisms, co-actor Ken Ogata expressed his approval of Gackt's work; the audience demanded the increase of his role in the series.
The 2009 NHK Taiga drama Tenchijin partly re-tells the story of Uesugi Kenshin, played by Hiroshi Abe, although its main focus is on Naoe Kanetsugu, the page and later advisor to Uesugi Kenshin's adopted son and heir Uesugi Kagekatsu.
Kenshin was again voiced by Gackt in the anime of the gag manga, Tono to Issho (2010–2011). The live-action drama cast actress Mayuko Arisue as Kenshin. Gackt participated in the production, but voiced Oda Nobunaga. In Cobra Kai, Season 5 episode 2, Terry Silver shows Chozen a samurai sword that he purchased at an auction, telling Chozen that it was used by Kenshin in the fourth battle of Kawanakajima.
The manga Yukibana no Tora by Akiko Higashimura, serialised in Shogakukan's Seinen manga magazine Hibana from March 2015 to August 2017, also portrays its main protagonist Kenshin as a woman. Tomeo Yagiri's theory, known as the Female Uesugi Kenshin Theory, served as the basis for the portrayal of female versions of Kenshin in popular culture. Yagiri proposed that Kenshin was a woman, inspiring various adaptations and interpretations in media. Various fictional works have used the femininity theory, portraying Kenshin as female or featuring gender-neutral interpretations.
Kenshin has been featured in many video games, such as Koei's Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi and Capcom's Sengoku Basara series. He is a playable character in Pokémon Conquest ( Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition in Japan), where he is the warlord of Illusio with his partner Pokémon being Gallade and Mewtwo. Kenshin also appears in a gender bender parallel universe anime series . A female Kenshin, as Nagao Kagetora, also appears in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order, voiced by actress and singer Nana Mizuki. Similarly appearing as a female character, Kenshin is found in the Rance series, most notably in Sengoku Rance.
Kenshin was portrayed by Japanese Figure skating and two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu in his Olympic Free skating program Heaven and Earth (天と地と), using the soundtrack of the two taiga dramas Ten to Chi to and Shin Heike Monogatari. Hanyu's motivation behind the music choice was his strong resonance with Kenshin's situation as well as his values and approach towards battle. The program was debuted in December 2020 at Big Hat arena in Nagano, near the historical location of the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima in 1961. It earned Hanyu two of his six titles at the Japan Figure Skating Championships, tying Takeshi Honda's record of most national titles in 50 years.
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