his strategy into effect. Within a week he retook Sakurao Castle and played his trump card – the Murakami pirates. Gathering the pirates' naval strength, he set out to surprise Sue on Miyajima, and picked a perfect night on which to do so. On October 1, after dark and in a driving thunderstorm, Motonari and his sons put to sea. So the Battle of Miyajima began. As a diversion, Kobayakawa Takakage sailed straight past the Sue positions on To-no-oka while Motonari, Mōri Takamoto, and Kikkawa Motoharu landed just to the east and out of sight. Takakage doubled back and landed at dawn, attacking the Sue forces practically in the shadow of Miyajima's great torii gate. Motonari then assaulted the confused Sue troops from behind, and the result was a rout for Sue Harukata, who committed suicide at Oenoura, a small island inlet. Many of his troops followed suit, and for Motonari, the battle was utterly decisive. Motonari had annihilated the Sue who had aspired to take the place of the Ōuchi clan. While it would take the Mōri until 1557 to force Ōuchi Yoshinaga to commit suicide and years longer to completely bring Suo province and Nagato province under Mōri's control, Motonari was now the most powerful lord in western Japan. In the same year 1557, Motonari once again announced his retirement and Takamoto inherited the formal leadership of the clan. Even after Motonari's retirement, he continued to wield actual control over the clan's affairs. Conflict with Amago In 1554, Motonari's intrigues led to the death of Amago Kunihisa in battle with Amago Haruhisa. Kunihisa, the son of Amago Tsunehisa, led a faction named the Shingūtō (新宮党) after the town, Shingu, where it was based. He had been trusted with military matters by his father Tsunehisa but he often looked down upon those who did not do well on the battlefield and was obnoxious from time to time. Supposedly, Motonari tricked Haruhisa into believing that Kunihisa and Era Fusahide (江良房栄) intended to take over the Amago clan. The circumstances may have been aggravated by Kunihisa's arrogance towards young Haruhisa. The death of Kunihisa and the purge of the Shingūtō weakened the Amago clan considerably. In 1556, Yamabuki Castle (山吹城) was captured by the leader of the Amago clan, Amago Haruhisa, and Motonari lost control of the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine. When Haruhisa died in 1560, his son, Amago Yoshihisa, succeeded