The Battles of Kawanakajima were a series of battles fought in the Sengoku period of Japan between Takeda Shingen of Kai Province and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province from 1553 to 1564. Shingen and Kenshin contested each other for control of the plain of Kawanakajima between the Sai River and Chikuma River in northern Shinano Province, located in the present-day city of Nagano. The battles were triggered after Shingen conquered Shinano, expelling Ogasawara Nagatoki and Murakami Yoshikiyo, who subsequently turned to Kenshin for help.

The Sengoku period, also known as Sengoku Jidai is the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although the Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467) or Meiō incident (1493) are generally chosen as the Sengoku period's start date, there are many competing historiographies for its end date, ranging from 1568, the date of Oda Nobunaga's march on Kyoto, to the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638, deep into what is traditionally considered the Edo period. Regardless of the dates chosen, the Sengoku period overlaps substantially with the Muromachi period (1336–1573).