The 1587 siege of Akizuki, also known as the siege of Oguma, was undertaken by Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

 against the Akizuki clan

Akizuki clan

The Akizuki clan is a Japanese noble family from prehistoric age. In the Sengoku period, the Akizuki clan was a king of samurai on Japanese "Akizuki-country" in the Kyūshū island. From after the Sengoku period to end of the World War II, the Akizuki family was a Japanese contemporary noble again...

's Oguma castle, as part of his campaign to conquer Kyūshū

Kyushu Campaign

The Kyūshū Campaign of 1586-1587 was part of the campaigns of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who sought to dominate Japan at the end of the Sengoku period...

.

After seizing the nearby Ganjaku castle

Siege of Ganjaku

The 1587 siege of Ganjaku was part of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign to seize Kyūshū during Japan's Sengoku period. While his half-brother attacked Taka castle on the island's east coast, Hideyoshi made his own initial landfall on the island's north coast, in Chikuzen province, and made his way...

, controlled by a retainer to the Akizuki, Hideyoshi turned his attention to the Akizuki clan's home castle. As his army approached and prepared for the siege, however, Akizuki Tanezane

Akizuki Tanezane

was a samurai warrior who was defeated by the Ōtomo clan. Later he joined the Shimazu clan and fought with them against Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Kyūshū, an island of Japan....

, the lord of the castle, escaped and fled in the night.

Taking the castle, Hideyoshi is said to have covered the walls in white paper, to give the illusion that he had the resources to replaster the entire castle overnight. Seeing this, Tanezane surrendered without a fight.