The warlord was born in 1521 CE in the Kai province as Katsuchiyo, the first son of Takeda Nobutora, head of the Takeda clan.
When he came of age, he was given the name Takeda Harunobu.
He proved himself an able warrior at a young age, but his father planned to have his second son, Nobushige, succeed him.
Shingen did not buy that and in 1541 CE rebelled with the help of some Takeda samurai, took over the clan and banished his father.
Throughout his life he was plagued by more family troubles, like the early the death of his wife and several conspiracies against him.
The young daimyo immediately set out to conquer the neighboring province of Shinano.
This was achieved in a series of battles and sieges that lasted a decade.
In 1551 CE he took buddhist vows, though his life resembled nothing of that of a monk's.
He also took the name Shingen, meaning 'compassionate eye'.
This signaled that he had an eye for the interests of all parties.
In many ways he had: he taxed his constituents fairly instead of squeezing them and applied the law consistently.
He also dammed the Fuji river, the only project that would truly outlast him.
The conquest of Shinano bought the Takeda into conflict with Nagao Kagetora (also called Uesugi Terutora / Kenshin).
Between 1553 CE and 1564 CE the two warlords faced each other in battle no less than five times, though these were mostly formalized skirmishes.
The fourth seems to have been a real battle.
In it, according to legend, Kagetora managed to cut through the Takeda ranks and attack Shingen in person,
who barely managed to ward off a fatal sword strike with his "tessen" (war fan).
In war, Shingen did not rely so much on castles like other warlords.
Instead he maintained a flexible and mobile force, which earned him the nickname 'Tiger of Kai'.
He managed to inspire loyalty in his ashigaru, his foot soldiers, elevating their effectiveness.
He was famous for his war banner that contained the phrase "Fu-Rin-Ka-Zan", 'wind, forest, fire, mountain'.
This referred to Sun Tzu's The Art of War: swift as the wind, silent as a forest, fierce as fire and immovable as a mountain.
In 1564 CE took the Kozuke province from Uesugi Kenshin, finally subduing Shinano completely.
After these battles he engaged in raids and small conquests for five years.
In 1568 CE the Takeda army was on the move again, fighting against the Imagawa and the Hojo.
Two years later Shingen was master over central Japan, the only warlord powerful enough to stop Oda Nobunaga from conquering all of the country.
He attacked Nobunaga's ally Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1572 CE at the Battle of Mikatagahara.
The battle was won and the Tokugawa were saved from destruction only by troubles between Shingen and the shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki,
who had failed to keep the pressure on Nobunaga.
In the next year Shingen laid siege to Noda castle, where he suddenly died in unclear circumstances.
One story says that he died from a gunshot wound; another from pneumonia.
His rise to power and possible shogunate was abruptly stopped.
Some remember him for his cruelties, like the cauldron that he used to boil criminals in alive;
others for his beneficial government;
all for his military valor and skill.
After Shingen's death, Takeda Katsuyori became head of the clan.
He attacked the castles of the Tokugawa, but was decisively defeated by Nobunaga's arquebusiers at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 CE.
Katsuyori and the Takeda clan lingered on for six more years and then were taken over by other clans.
War Matrix - Takeda Shingen
Age of Discovery 1480 CE - 1620 CE, Generals and leaders