[3] Masamune with only 7,000 troops prepared a defensive strategy, including a series of forts that guarded the route to Motomiya Castle.

[3] At the opening of battle on the 6th January, Masamune led his forces from Motomiya Castle, crossed the Adatara River, and encamped at Mount Kannondō.

Two Date's detachments were left to protect the rearguard and east flank, under chief retainers Oniniwa Yoshinao and Date Shigezane; both slowed the Satake allies long enough for Masamune to escape to Motomiya.

[5] The next morning, the Date forces found that the Satake clan had withdrawn and its allies had scattered.

In the Satake armies' absence from their home territory in Hitachi Province, Hōjō clan partisans Edo Yoshimichi and Satomi Yoshiyori had attacked; further, in the encampment near Motomiya castle, Satake vassal and senior commander Onozaki Yoshimasa was assassinated.