Ｇassan Toda Castle

　Gassan Toda Castle, which was the main residence of the Amago clan and became a base for the Sanin and Sanyo domination, is one of the most important impregnable fortress in the Sengoku period. Yoshitaka Ouchi and Mouri Motonari attacked, but it was impossible to make it surrender by the force attack, and the Amago clan surrendered because of the starving strategy.

Gassan Toda Castle is a mountain castle in Hirose, Nogi-gun, Izumo Province. Toda Castle is the original name, and “Gassan Castle was named after to sound elegant. It is located on Mt. Katsumoku (192m) located at the top of the flat portion of the Iinashi River basin, and it was a natural fortress that separated the north and southwestern by deep valleys.

The Attack of Mouri and the Fall of the Amago Clan

　Although geographical features of Gassan Toda Castle helped the Amago clan to keep them power,and the crisis finally came due to the total attack of the Mouri clan, which attempted to invade from the three sides of Okomoriguchi, Shiotaniguchi, and Sugataniguchi in April 1565. The Amago clan fought well, and they rallied in strength , however Mr.Mouri changed his strategy from surrounding strategy to starving strategy. Finally, in 1566, the Amago clan gave up to lack of food, and also there were a lot of suicides, Yoshihisa Amago surrendered to the Mouri clan.

The Re-emergence of The Amago Clan

　Finally the Amago clan surrendered to the Mouri clan, their history ended there as the Sengoku period. The Amago clan who were besieged to the end was admired by Mouri Motonari that they were role model of samurai. Retainers of Amago were allowed to see off the three brothers of Amago, and they drunk sake. This is their last farewell. These three brothers were escorted to Aki, and the retainers such as Shikanosuke left Izumo.

After the fall of the Amago clan, Yamanaka Shikanosuke Yukimori, Tachihara Gentaibei, and Hisatsuna etc., who had gone to Kyoto, returned Ishi who was in Tofukuji Temple, and welcomed as the captain, and in June 1569, he entered Shimane Peninsula Chikumi,  and landed on the ground of battle. They set up a team in Chuuyama. More than 200 old vassals gathered around Katsuhisa. And, there were about 3,000 people when they heard that the Amago clan was rebuilt. Many of them were the people who were in the castle opening of Toda in the 9th year of Eiroku.

The Amago clan moved the main management to Shinyama Castle, attacked Toda Castle, but they were not able to retake it, and in February(1570), the approaching the Mouri clan 25,000 fought at Mt. Fube near Gassaan with 7,100 of the Amago clan. However, it was defeated because of a lot of the Mouri clan, and one of the Amago ten warriors, Yokomichi Hyogosuke was killed. Akiage Ansuke, one of the Amago ten warriors surrendered to teh Mouri clan and some warriors died because of battle with the Mouri clan.

The Amago clan, complete destruction

　the place of the warring states was showing rapid development by Oda Nobunaga. With Nobunaga’s help, Yamanaka Shikanonsuke and others will advance to Inaba Province and plan the second round of revitalization.However, the plan from Inaba to Houki and the recapture of Izumo collapsed, and it was a setback again, and they came back to Kyoto.

The place of the third round of the Amago clan revival is moved from Sanin to Sanyo, and Banshu Kouzuki Castle became the main battlefield. In other words, this was a once-in-a-generation showdown between Hideyoshi Sogo Hatake and ,Motoharu Yoshikawa and Takakage Kobayakawa, who assisted Mouri Terumoto. Kouzuki Castle, where was stayed the Akamatsu clan of Mouri side, was surrounded by hideyoshi clan, and instead, Katsuhisa Amago and Shikanonsuke Yamanaka took the front line of the Hashiba clan and entered Kouzuki castle. However, Kouzuki castle was surrounded by a large army of 30,000 Mouri clan, and Hideyoshi infiltrated Kamei Yoshinori (YushinJuro) who was under Hideyoshi who was a former subordinate of Sadako into Kouzuki Castle, but after all, Kouzuki castle fell in front of the attack of the Mouri clan, Katsuhisa was self-harmed (aged 26). Here, Izumo’s lord, the Amago clan, completely ended.

　On the other hand, Yamanaka Shikanosuke was caught, and on the way to the west, he was killed at pass at the foot of Bicchu Matsuyama castle. On July 17, 1966, the his life was finished with the age of thirty-four. In the end, Shikanosuke’s ambition to revive the Amago clan was blocked twice and three times because of the Mouri clan, which led the large army.