KENSHIN

In 1567, the warlord Takeda Shingen's enemies cut off his supply of salt. The story goes that his greatest rival refused to join them: "I fight with bows and arrows, not with salt."

That rival was Uesugi Kenshin, the lord of Echigo. He fought Shingen five times at Kawanakajima and never beat him. He said he fought not for land, but for what was right. He prayed to the god of war, carried the god's name on his banner, never married, and drank sake on horseback. And when he died suddenly at forty-nine, he left two adopted sons and a civil war.

Raised in a Zen temple as a younger son, he became master of Echigo at eighteen. He fought for refugees from Shinano and for the lords of the Kantō, crossing the mountains more than ten times. He besieged the Hōjō at Odawara, took the great name of Uesugi at Kamakura, beat Nobunaga's army at the Tedori River — and gained remarkably little land for any of it.

Told as a narrative history from beginning to end, with a cast of characters, a map, and a travel guide to the places you can still visit today, this book says plainly what the records show, what historians still debate, and which famous stories are only legends — including the salt and the duel at Kawanakajima.

Inside, you'll find:

- A younger son raised in a Zen temple, and the god of war
- How he took his brother's place without a battle
- Refugees from Shinano, and the first battles with Takeda Shingen
- The siege of Odawara, and the Uesugi name at Kamakura
- The great battle of Kawanakajima in 1561, and the famous duel
- More than ten campaigns over the mountains — and what they really were
- The salt, and his long rivalry with Shingen
- Two adopted sons, and a gift of screens from Nobunaga
- The Tedori River, one cup of sake, and the war he left behind
- A guide to visiting the places in this story today, from Kasugayama and Kawanakajima to Kamakura, Odawara, and Yonezawa

If you want an invincible god of war, this is not your book. If you want the real story of the man behind the legend, turn the page and meet the real Kenshin.