Born in 1521 as the eldest son of Takeda Nobutora, the 18th head of the Kai Takeda. In 1541, he worked with his retainers to exile his father to Suruga and seized control of Kai. He then launched sustained campaigns into Shinano, subduing the Ogasawara, Suwa, and Murakami clans in turn. His rivalry with Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo produced five battles at Kawanakajima (1553–1564), none decisive. An accomplished administrator as well as general, he enacted the Koshu Hatto no Shidai legal code, built the Shingen levees for flood control, and maintained retainer loyalty with the dictum "People are the castle, people are the walls." In 1572 he launched his western campaign with 30,000 troops and crushed the combined Tokugawa-Oda forces at Mikatagahara—a victory that left Nobunaga so shaken he dispatched emergency aid to Ieyasu. Shingen was the figure closest to seizing the realm. But in the fourth month of 1573, he died of illness (some accounts say a gunshot wound) at Komaba in Shinano, aged 53. His "Furinkazan" battle standard—"swift as the wind, quiet as the forest, fierce as fire, immovable as the mountain"—became an enduring symbol of his legend.