Confusing battle scene

The little colored flags (sashimono) actually help tell you who's who. The three main units with red and black flags (cavalry) and green (infantry) are all Takeda units. They were introduced in the beginning of the film. ALL units with flags in the nighttime battle are Takeda.

In the night time battle scenes, we don't see any of the enemy with flags at all. The enemy is only heard in the dark attacking from all sides. One by one, the Takeda units charge into the night to attack the enemy hidden in the dark, until the Kagemusha is left only with the headquarters bodyguard units.

The enemy are seen only twice. A small unit of enemy cavalry attacks the main headquarter. They are difficult to see, because they have removed their own flags to infiltrate the Takeda. They are driven out by the Takeda bodyguards.

The next enemy unit appears near the end of the battle, coming out of the dark. They have also removed their flags for a nightime infiltration raid. Only their leader Honda Tadakatsu wears a sashimono, a black and white flag with 'Hon' in kanji.

Director Akira Kurosawa actually simplified the Takeda heraldry in the film to minimize confusion, limiting it to red, black, green and white flags which are historically inaccurate. The real Takeda army had over 24 main sets of flags of dazzling and dizzying designs. 24 separate army divisions made up the whole Takeda army, each with their own sets of flags, with different flag variations for different units within each division! The Takeda fought other armies with equally colorful and confusing heraldry. It's arch nemesis, the Uesugi clan had an army composed of 28 separate divisions!

It's supposed to be confusing. Stephen Prince, on his DVD commentary, points out that the Kagemusha would also be confused, and we're supposed to be identifying with him.

In fact, this is the battle in which Takeda Katsuyori (Shingen's son) took Takatenjin Castle from Tokugawa Ieyasu.

We get the idea about who won in the next couple of scenes.