This bloody division allowed Oda Nobunaga's generals (headed by Shibata Katsuie) to conquer the Uesugi's lands in Kaga, Noto, and Etchu.

When Oda forces under Shibata Katsuie and Sassa Narimasa laid siege to Uozu castle in Etchu, in the course of which a number of important Uesugi retainers were killed, Kagekatsu's fortunes appeared bleak.

As a general under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Kagekatsu took part in the Odawara campaign 1590 under Maeda Toshiie, and rise to prominence to become a member of the Council of Five Elders.

Anticipating this, Ieyasu remained to engage Mitsunari; his generals Mogami Yoshiaki and Date Masamune would fight Kagekatsu in Tōhoku (northern region Honshū, Japan's main island).

Declaring his allegiance to Tokugawa following his defeat in the Sekigahara campaign, Kagekatsu became a tozama (outsider) daimyō; he was given the Yonezawa han, worth 300,000 koku, in the Tōhoku region.

Kagekatsu's remains were laid at Shojoshin-in Temple at Mount Kōya, Koya city, while his ashes and court dress and kabuto were kept at the mausoleum of the Uesugi family located in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture.

Yamatorige (山鳥毛, "feather of a copper pheasant"), equally known as Sanchōmō by its Sino-Japanese reading, is a tachi (Japanese greatsword) forged during the middle Kamakura period (13th century).