Battle of Anegawa The Sengoku period ( 30 July 1570 ) occurred near Lake Biwa in Ōmi Province , Japan , between the allied forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu , against the combined forces of the Azai and Asakura clan s . It is notable as the first battle that involved the alliance between Nobunaga and Ieyasu , liberated the Oda clan from its unbalanced alliance with the Azai , and saw Nobunaga ' s prodigious use of firearms . Nobunaga ' s loyal retainer , Toyotomi Hideyoshi was assigned to lead troops into open battle for the first time . The battle came as a reaction to Oda Nobunaga ' s sieges of the castles of Odani and Yokoyama , which belonged to the Azai and Asakura clans . It was also referred to as the Battle of Nomura ( 野村合戦 " Nomura Kassen " ) by the Oda and Azai clans and the Battle of Mitamura ( 三田村合戦 " Mitamura Kassen " ) by the Asakura clan . There is a battlefield memorial marker in Nomura - cho , Nagahama city , in Shiga prefecture . Description . As warriors sallied forth from the castles , the battle turned into a melee fought in the middle of the shallow ane river . For a time , Nobunaga ' s forces fought the Azai , while the Tokugawa warriors fought the Asakura a short distance upstream . After the Tokugawa forces finished off the Asakura , they turned and hit the Azai right flank . Inaba Ittetsu , who had been held in reserve , then came forward and hit the Azai left flank . Many of the besiegers of Yokoyama even left their task to aid in the battle . The Azai and Asakura forces were soon defeated . It is perhaps interesting to note that Nobunaga used 500 arquebus iers in this battle . He was famous for his strategic use of firearms but would find himself on the opposite end of skilled arquebus tactics in his Siege of Ishiyama Honganji that year . Meanwhile , no reliable source exists to reconstruct the battle . The battle of Anegawa is vividly presented in the books compiled in the middle or the end of the Edo period . Many of the stories are pure fiction . The only valuable source is the " Shinchōkō - ki " , describing it very briefly without any notes concerning tactics or details of the battle . The exact number of the casualties in this battle is unknown . However , the " Shinchōkō - ki " mentions 1 , 100 Samurai from Asakura clan being killed in battle . An army of this period had at least several times more " ashigaru " ( commoner footmen ) than samurai , so it would be reasonable to assume at least several thousand men were killed . According to A . L . Sadler in " The Life of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu " there were 3 , 170 heads collected by the Oda camp . A good portion were taken by Mikawa men , the Tokugawa force . The " Mikawa Fudoki " gives a very real picture of the battle : The retainers fighting in groups and the decapitation of soldiers in the confused mingling of armies among the clouds of smoke and dust . In popular culture . The battle has been featured in all games of the Samurai Warriors series . However , because Azai Nagamasa was made playable in Samurai Warriors 2 , as opposed to the first game where he was a unique non - playable character , the battle had a larger significance . The battle has also fictionally appeared in revamped form in the Warriors Orochi series as well , in particular Warriors Orochi 3 is where its most famous revamp takes place . The story of the build - up to the battle and the brilliant tactics used by Tokugawa Ieyasu is retold in Volume 12 of the Dark Horse Comics ' series " Path of the Assassin " , titled " The Three Foot Battle . " In this narrative , Hattori Hanzō consults with Takenaka Shigeharu and thus is provided with the superior tactics . This Battle is also featured in Total War : Shogun 2 , as part of the historical battles when you download ' Rise of the Samurai '