Alt-Onin: Saionji-Ichijo War of Spring 1468

The center of the region is the castle town of Uwajima, the population of 10,000 or so. The Saionji Clan rules the area from Marugushi Castle in Uwajima. They are busy fending off the Mongols, the encroaching Kono Clan, and the Ichoji and have retained the estate’s incomes to bolster their defenses. Most of the area's population is focused along the courses of the Suka and Raimua Rivers or concentrated in small villages. Most of the region is rugged and isolated, with only a single road (Hwy 56) leading from Uwajima to the cities to the south. The Saionji are battling in the south against the Ichijo for control over the fifteen-mile-long river valleys between Shimanto and Sukumo. This has most of their forces away from the villages, save for the defenses along the border with the Kono and the garrison in Uwajima. Combined with the extremely high taxes to pay for the two-way struggle, the peasantry is over a barrel, and banditry is widespread.

 

Lord Saionji Kindaijo is the current head of the Iyo-Saionji Clan. He is serious, reserved, dignified in demeanor, but easily swayed by flattery. He is responsible and sober-minded with his clan finances but generous to his family and trusted allies. Lord Saionji’s family includes a son and two daughters, but he is a widower. While the PC’s were at their new fort, attending to mundane matters, a rider from Uwajima arrived. He bore a request from Lord Kindaijo that the PC’s go to Nakamura Castle and join the fight against the Ichijo Clan. Recompense can be negotiated by the lord of Sumanjo, depending on how many people come with the PC's. 

There is an ongoing fight against the Ichijo Clan in the Nakasuji River valley twenty miles to the south, between the towns of Sukumo in the west and Shimanto in the east. There is frequent skirmishing on the Kochi Plain, near the village of Arioka, about once a month. The Ichijo Clan is headquartered in Shimanto, in Nakamura Castle. They have uneasy relations with their neighbors to the east, the Motoyama, Aki, Kira, Tsuno, Chōsokabe and Kosokabe Clans. They wish to expand their territories to the west, at the expense of the Saionji. Eventually, this will lead them to the PC's lands. The Ichijo head is their patron is Ichijō Norifusa, a kuge of high rank who resides in Kyoto. 

CONTESTED NAKASUJI RIVER REGION - First battle was at the red star on the bridge