The Siege of Kurokawa the Siege of Kurokawa was a battle during the Azuchi-Momoyama period

Azuchi-Momoyama period

The came at the end of the Warring States Period in Japan, when the political unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate took place. It spans the years from approximately 1573 to 1603, during which time Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, imposed order...

 (16th century) of Japan.

Following the assassination of Ashina Moritaka

Ashina Moritaka

was a Japanese samurai and lord of Kurokawa Castle in the early Sengoku period. He was the 14th generation lord of the Ashina family. He is also known as ....

, Ashina Morishige --son of Satake Yoshishige

Satake Yoshishige

was a Japanese daimyo of the Sengoku period. He was the 18th generation head of the Satake clan. He was renowned for his ferocity in battle; he was also known by the nickname of . He often fought against the Late Hōjō clan, who were extending their power into southern Hitachi. One such encounter...

-- was chosen to inherit the throne. Many vassals under the Ashina clan

Ashina clan

The , descended from Taira clan through the Miura clan, was a Japanese clan during the Sengoku period. Sometimes the kanji characters "芦名" and "葦名" are used also. The name came from the area called Ashina in the city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture....

 began to defect to the Date due to this fact. Date Masamune

Date Masamune

was a regional strongman of Japan's Azuchi-Momoyama period through early Edo period. Heir to a long line of powerful daimyo in the Tōhoku region, he went on to found the modern-day city of Sendai...

, who had been a rival of the Ashina clan for many a year, seized the chance to invade the territorites of the Ashina. Throughout his invasion, Masamune took the castle of Kurokawa with little effort.