Fukushima Masanori, a samurai from Owari Province, served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and took part in the Battle of Shizugatake, where he distinguished himself so conspicuously that he was awarded the honorary title of one of the “Seven Spears of Shizugatake,” meaning the warriors who had shown the greatest valor in the battle. As a reward for his courage and martial prowess, he was granted land producing an income of 5,000 koku of rice.
During the campaign against the Hōjō clan in 1590, Masanori participated in the attack on Nirayama Castle. Although he was attached to the Tokugawa forces, these troops ultimately failed to capture the fortress. When the Korean War began in 1592–1598, Masanori held lands in Iyo Province on the island of Shikoku and fielded a contingent of about 4,800 men. These troops became part of the so-called Fifth Division, alongside forces from the Chōsokabe clan and Hachisuka Iemasa. During the Korean campaign, Masanori’s contingent was not included in the initial strike forces and was mainly engaged in suppressing guerrilla activity in the occupied provinces.
After the war, Masanori received extensive landholdings in his native Owari Province, yielding an income of 200,000 koku. This provided him with a strong economic foundation and considerable military power. Following the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1598, Tokugawa Ieyasu strengthened his ties with Masanori by giving him his adopted daughter in marriage. When armed conflict broke out in 1600 between Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Masanori, like many other commanders who had fought in the Korean War, sided with Ieyasu. Most of them harbored resentment toward Ishida Mitsunari, who lacked notable military talent and had served during the war primarily as an army inspector.
During the campaign, Fukushima Masanori, together with Ikeda Terumasa, laid siege to Gifu Castle in Mino Province. While preparations for the assault were underway, a notable incident occurred: neither Masanori nor Terumasa was willing to yield the right to launch the first attack on the castle, and the situation nearly escalated into a clash between the two commanders. In the end, a compromise was reached—Ikeda agreed to attack the rear gates of the castle, leaving the main gates to Masanori. After the fall of Gifu, Masanori’s forces joined the main army of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Masanori was given an honorable position in the front ranks. However, his right to open the battle was challenged by Ii Naomasa, who was positioned in the rear guard and who charged the Shimazu forces with a detachment of thirty horsemen. Masanori, known for his hot-tempered and unrestrained nature, undoubtedly took this as an insult, but despite his personal feelings, his troops conducted themselves calmly and honorably, fighting against the army of Ukita Naoie and ultimately breaking its resistance.
After the Battle of Sekigahara, Masanori’s income increased to 498,000 koku. Despite such a generous reward, Tokugawa Ieyasu never fully trusted him, remembering Masanori’s former loyalty to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When, in 1614–1615, Masanori requested permission to take part in the siege of Osaka Castle, his request was denied, and he was kept in Edo, the capital of the Tokugawa domain. After Ieyasu’s death in 1616, his son and successor as shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, accused Masanori of poor governance and exiled him to Kawanakajima in Shinano Province, reducing his income to only 45,000 koku.
See also
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Hattori Hanzo
Hattori Hanzō, also known by the name Hattori Masanari, was the third son of Hattori Yasunaga, a samurai who served the Matsudaira clan. In his childhood he was called Tigachi Hanzō. His father held the highest rank in the shinobi hierarchy, that of jōnin, and Hanzō followed in his father’s footsteps, choosing the same path.
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Hatano Hideharu
Hatano Hideharu was the eldest son of Hatano Harumichi, the head of the Hatano clan. However, in childhood he was adopted by his uncle, Hatano Motohide, and was therefore formally regarded as Motohide’s heir. From the time of Hideharu’s grandfather, Hatano Tanemichi, the Hatano clan had been a vassal of the powerful Miyoshi house, which exerted considerable influence over the Ashikaga shoguns and effectively shaped the political situation in the region. Early in his career, Hideharu served Miyoshi Nagayoshi and, judging by surviving records, held a fairly high position within his lord’s hierarchy, as he was among the select group invited to the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Ōgimachi in 1557.
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Uemura Masakatsu
Masakatsu was a member of the Uemura clan and the son of Uemura Masatada; from an early age he served Tokugawa Ieyasu. During the Ikkō-ikki uprising in Mikawa Province in 1563, having converted from the Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist sect to the Jōdoshū sect, he took part in suppressing the rebels. After these events, Masakatsu was appointed a military governor and was granted land holdings. According to a number of sources, he was one of the so-called “Three Governors of Mikawa” (Mikawa sanbugyō), together with Amano Yasukage (1537–1613) and Koriki Kiyonaga (1530–1608).
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Tomoe Gozen
Gozen is regarded as one of the few historically documented examples of true female warriors of feudal Japan, known as onna-musha or onna-bugeisha. Although Japanese history records countless women who at various times were forced to take up arms—for example, in defense of their castles—Tomoe Gozen was, without any doubt, a genuinely skilled and accomplished fighter. She was the wife of Kiso (Minamoto) Yoshinaka, although The Tale of the Heike describes her more as a female vassal. Yoshinaka rose in rebellion against the Taira clan and, in 1184, captured Kyoto after his victory at the Battle of Kurikawa. After the Taira were driven into the western provinces, Yoshinaka began insistently asserting that he alone was worthy of assuming leadership of the Minamoto clan and taking on the mantle of its head.
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Tachibana Muneshige
Tachibana Muneshige was born the eldest son of Takahashi Shigetane, one of the principal retainers of the Ōtomo clan and commander of Iwaya Castle. In childhood, he bore the name Senkumamaru. His early years coincided with a period of intense military confrontation between the Ōtomo clan and other powerful warrior houses of Kyūshū—namely the Shimazu, Akizuki, and Ryūzōji clans.
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Tachibana Dosetsu
Tachibana Dōsetsu is the name by which Hetsugi Akitsura is more widely known; the name of this lineage is also found read as Hekki or Bekki. For a long period, Akitsura served the Ōtomo clan, the daimyō of Bungo Province, and took part in wars against the Ōuchi family, the principal enemies of the Ōtomo in northwestern Kyushu. In the 1560s, Akitsura seized the castle of the Tachibana clan, which had rebelled against the Ōtomo, and thereafter adopted the surname Tachibana. Around the same time, he took Buddhist vows and assumed the name Dōsetsu, which means “Snowy Road.”
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Taira no Masakado
Taira no Masakado embodied the quintessential samurai of his era—self-assured, harsh, and unyielding. In his youth, he served in the palace guard and repeatedly proved his bravery while suppressing unrest. Thanks to these achievements, Masakado sought the post of chief of the capital’s military-police office (the kebiishi-chō), but he was rejected: by that time, nearly all court positions—now little more than privileged sinecures—were controlled by members of the powerful Fujiwara clan.
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Sakakibara Yasumasa
Yasumasa was the second son of Sakakibara Nagamasa and was born in Ueno in Mikawa Province. From a young age, he began serving Tokugawa Ieyasu and eventually rose to the position of one of his most trusted generals. His wife was the daughter of Osuga Yasutaka. Ieyasu first noticed the young Yasumasa during the suppression of the Ikkō-ikki uprising in Mikawa in 1564. Thanks to his demonstrated abilities, Yasumasa was granted the privilege of using the character “yasu”—the second character of Ieyasu’s own name—in his own. Although he was the second child in his family, he became his father’s heir, though the exact reasons for this remain unknown.
