The death of Nakamura’s first son during the siege of Odawara turns a private bereavement into a demand for vengeance and a decisive moment in the campaign. Recalled as the siege reaches its tenth month, the loss helps explain why Toranaga was made to lead the attack—and why the fall of Odawara remains associated with a terrible human cost.

Circumstances of the Death

The child died in the tenth month of the siege. The account offers no certain diagnosis: fever, bad blood, or the work of malevolent Kami are all given as possibilities. That uncertainty leaves the death without a clear human cause, even as it becomes the focus of political blame.

Ochiba’s Demand for Vengeance

Ochiba accused Toranaga of bringing the family to Odawara and of causing their son’s death. She demanded that Nakamura put Toranaga to death or make him lead the attack, so that his life might answer for the child’s. Her grief becomes a political ultimatum: Toranaga is assigned responsibility for the loss and sent into the assault.

The Fall of Odawara and Its Cost

Toranaga led the attack and captured Odawara Castle by mining its walls and making a frontal assault. After the fall, the grief-stricken Nakamura reduced the city to dust and pursued the Beppu; the account presents the castle’s fall and the destruction of the Beppu as the subduing of the Empire, after which Nakamura became first Kwampaku and then Taikō. The campaign’s success is inseparable from its losses. Later, on the Anjiro shore, Toranaga thinks that too many had died at Odawara, placing the dead son within a wider toll that victory could not undo.