Lord Ueda ordered his army forward, commanding his general on the right flank to engage the enemy in a holding action with his troops.
 
His men surged forward, although a couple of his Tai (or corps) were held up due to some confusion with their orders, and one refused to move until his breakfast was satisfactorily digested.
 
 

Tomada was content to order his men to hold their line.
 
Lord Gomo, while deploying his men around the hill he had chosen, had run into difficulties.  His brother, Gomo Ujitsu, had decided that he was tired of playing second koto in the family, and was refusing to follow his older brother's orders.  Realizing that his messages were being ignored, Lord Gomo spurred his horse over to Ujitsu's banner, and confronted his younger brother.
 
Some harsh tempered words were spoken, and the glint of the morning sun shining on quickly drawn steel could be seen from several hundred yards away.  The two brothers faced each other squarely and begin to fight a duel!  The winner would be the master of the Gomo clan, and would probably decide the course of the battle on this day.

The duel lasted for many minutes, and it was only when the younger Ujitsu started to tire that Lord Gomo gained the upper hand and took his brother's head.  This was too much for Ujitsu's men, who decided to leave the battlefield.

Lord Gomo was a man of strong will and charisma, however, and he grabbed his personal uma-jirushi and, riding back and forth in front of the fleeing samurai, was able to stop their withdrawal and bring them back into his army.
 
Meanwhile the two Tsukai (messengers) from Lord Tomada and Ueda arrived almost simultaneously in the presence of Lord Gomo.  They both presented their Lords' proposals in turn.  Gomo, still winded from his recent exertions, stated that the two Tsukai should duel right there and then.  The winner would determine on who's side Gomo would enter the battle.
 
The tension was palpable as the two messengers faced off.  Both of them experienced and strong warriors, the fate of thousands were resting on their shoulders.  Lord Tomada's man, a renowned fencer, came in with two swords, hoping to overwhelm his opponent, but Lord Ueda's Tsukai was skilled with the spear, and, fending off the other's attacks, managed to lance him through the throat.

At this Lord Gomo pointed his war fan in the direction of the monks sitting on front of his left flank and cried, "We shall attack the monks of Daifukuji immediately!"

Meanwhile, the ronin who were placed on the extreme right flank of the Tomada army, and therefore the closest to Lord Gomo's army, realized what had happened.  Not waiting to be attacked by Gomo's cavalry, they surged forward in a berserk charge, taking a small unit of cavalry in the flank.  In the fierce melee that followed, they managed to catch the cavalry by surprise and send them fleeing back up the hill.
 
Not ones to know when to quit, the ronin tried in vain to pursue the fleeing cavalry, shouting insults and waiving their swords in the air.  They finally stopped only when they were too tired to continue, and it was then when a large body of samurai spearmen charged them.
 
Although they managed to hold out for several minutes, eventually numbers and their fatigue began to tell, and the ronin turned and attempted to flee the Gomo samurai.
 
The Gomo samurai were thrilled to finally be in the battle, and chased the ronin all the way back to the Tomada lines, and perilously close to the other 1,000 ronin who had come to fight for the monks of Daifukuji.
 
 
 
On the other side of the battlefield, the Ueda army had finally come within arquebus and bow range of the Tomada.

Some of the commanders began to argue amongst themselves.  Some opinioned that an immediate assault on the Tomada would be the best course of action, while others voiced that to attack piecemeal would be tantamount to suicide.  Eventually, it was the voice of reason that won out, and the two armies settled down into a contest of missile weapons.
 
 
 
As the crackle of arquebus volleys could be heard from one end of the battlefield, on the other it was the sound of fierce hand-to-hand combat.  The remaining ronin had charged the Gomo samurai spearmen.

At first it appeared that the more heavily armored samurai would be able to hold against the ronin, but in the end it was the ronins' superior numbers that won the day.
 
 
 
So far, the Tomada were holding their own, but the Ueda were only now pulling into position for a general assault.  Lord Tomada called forward his reserves for Lord Ueda's big push. . .