Who Is Takeda Shingen (Tiger of Kai)?
The great general known as the Tiger of Kai
Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) was a Sengoku-period daimyo of Kai Province (today's Yamanashi Prefecture). Known as "the Tiger of Kai," he expanded his power into Shinano Province (today's Nagano Prefecture), where he clashed again and again with Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo at Kawanakajima. Late in life he marched west with a large army, but fell ill and died along the way.
In Episode 3, Shingen appears as Yamamoto Kansuke's lord. He hires Kansuke without judging him by his looks, and at Kawanakajima he adopts Kansuke's plan and splits his army in two. He is also the main character of Episode 4. At dawn on the plain of Hachimanbara, he is commanding from his shōgi (a folding camp stool) when the fog lifts and reveals the entire Uesugi army right in front of him. Even as news arrives of the deaths of his brother Nobushige and of Kansuke, he survives the attack of a mounted warrior who charges into his command post.
A well-known story says Shingen blocked the warrior's sword with his war fan (gunbai). This scene is one of the most famous moments of Kawanakajima and has even been made into statues.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 3
The Perfect Plan, Betrayed by Dinner SmokeBattle of Kawanakajima (the Woodpecker Gambit)
The enemy won't come down from the mountain, so the strategist Kansuke plans to drive them out with a "woodpecker" trick. But the enemy commander saw through it from one thing: the cooking smoke rising from the castle at suppertime. When the fog lifts, the whole enemy army is standing right in front of him.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 4
Who Was the Rider Who Struck the Warlord?Battle of Kawanakajima (Shingen vs. Kenshin)
Kawanakajima, autumn 1561. The fog lifts, and the entire Uesugi army is right in front of them. As word comes that Shingen has lost his brother and his strategist, he still won't leave his camp stool. Then a rider who never gives his name charges straight into the command camp.
19 pages