Who Is Saito Tatsuoki (Isshiki Tatsuoki)?
Dosan's grandson, who lost Inabayama Castle
Saito Tatsuoki was the son of Saito Yoshitatsu, the grandson of Dosan, and the last head of the Saito clan of Mino. He succeeded young after his father's sudden death and fought Nobunaga from Inabayama Castle, high on a steep mountain, but in the end he lost both the castle and his province.
In the first half of Episode 5, he drives Nobunaga back at hard-to-pass places such as Shinkano and holds Mino for years. But his retainers go over to Nobunaga one after another, and when the three great warlords of Mino defect, the tide suddenly turns. With the castle surrounded, he surrenders and withdraws by boat to Kawachi-Nagashima. The fall of Inabayama Castle is usually dated to 1567.
He went on resisting Nobunaga in various places and is said to have died in battle on the Asakura side in 1573. Nobunaga renamed the captured land of Inokuchi "Gifu" and made it his new base on the road to ruling Japan. The story of Takenaka Hanbei briefly seizing the castle is also famous, but it does not appear in the Shincho Koki.
