Kikkawa Hiroie was a master of strategy and diplomacy. He made his battlefield debut aged nine alongside his father, Kikkawa Motoharu, in 1570 against Amago Katsuhisa. In 1587 he became head of the Kikkawa clan following the deaths of both his father and elder brother.
Kikkawa Hiroie’s weapons of choice were diplomacy and strategy, and, like Hideyoshi, preferred these tactics to combat. Despite this, he was a more than able general on the battlefield, showing his true mettle in the Cattle of Ulsan Castle during the Korean Campaign, where he defeated a numerically superior Ming army. He was highly praised by Hideyoshi, particularly for his loyalty to the Mori clan. It was this loyalty that led him to create a secret pact with the Tokugawa prior to Sekigahara, promising that the Mori forces would refrain from entering the battle on either side, providing Ieyasu allowed the clan to retain its land and titles afterwards. It was an effort to ensure the survival of the Mori clan. Kikkawa for his part, upheld the deal, providing Ieyasu with respite from his rear flank.
Had Kikkawa and the Mori forces engaged in the battle, Ieyasu would have been sandwiched in and most probably defeated.
Because of this, and Ieyasu later renegotiating the deal based on letters apparently revealing Mori Terumoto to have been much more involved in the Western plans than first believed, Kikkawa Hiroie was seen by many within the Mori clan as a traitor. Apart from being the leading general of the huge Mori clan forces at Sekigahara, Kikkawa Hiroie is best remembered for having written the Kikawashi Hatto, a set of laws with some 188 clauses created to further the prosperity of the domain.
Kikkawa Hiroie died 25 years and one day after the Battle of Sekigahara, on October 22, 1625. He was 63 years old.
See also
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Yamagata Masakage
Masakage was one of Takeda Shingen’s most loyal and capable commanders. He was included in the famous list of the “Twenty-Four Generals of Takeda Shingen” and also belonged to the inner circle of four especially trusted warlords known as the Shitennō.
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Yagyu Munenori
Yagyū Munenori began his service under Tokugawa Ieyasu while his father, Yagyū Muneyoshi, was still at his side. In 1600, Munenori took part in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara. As early as 1601, he was appointed a kenjutsu instructor to Tokugawa Hidetada, Ieyasu’s son, who later became the second shogun of the Tokugawa clan.
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Yagyu Muneyoshi
A samurai from Yamato Province, he was born into a family that had been defeated in its struggle against the Tsutsui clan. Muneyoshi first took part in battle at the age of sixteen. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he was forced to enter the service of the Tsutsui house and later served Miyoshi Tōkei. He subsequently came under the command of Matsunaga Hisahide and in time became a vassal first of Oda and later of Toyotomi.
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Endo Naozune
Naozune served under Azai Nagamasa and was one of the clan’s leading vassals, renowned for his bravery and determination. He accompanied Nagamasa during his first meeting with Oda Nobunaga and at that time asked for permission to kill Nobunaga, fearing him as an extremely dangerous man; however, Nagamasa did not grant this request.
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Hosokawa Sumimoto
Sumimoto came from the Hosokawa clan: he was the biological son of Hosokawa Yoshiharu and at the same time the adopted son of Hosokawa Masamoto, the heir of Hosokawa Katsumoto, one of the principal instigators of the Ōnin War. Masamoto was homosexual, never married, and had no children of his own. At first he adopted Sumiyuki, a scion of the aristocratic Kujō family, but this choice provoked dissatisfaction and sharp criticism from the senior vassals of the Hosokawa house. As a result, Masamoto changed his decision and proclaimed Sumimoto as his heir, a representative of a collateral branch of the Hosokawa clan that had long been based in Awa Province on the island of Shikoku. Almost immediately after this, the boy became entangled in a complex and bitter web of political intrigue.
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Honda Masanobu
Masanobu initially belonged to the retinue of Tokugawa Ieyasu, but later entered the service of Sakai Shōgen, a daimyo and priest from Ueno. This shift automatically made him an enemy of Ieyasu, who was engaged in conflict with the Ikkō-ikki movement in Mikawa Province. After the Ikkō-ikki were defeated in 1564, Masanobu was forced to flee, but in time he returned and once again entered Ieyasu’s service. He did not gain fame as a military commander due to a wound sustained in his youth; nevertheless, over the following fifty years he consistently remained loyal to Ieyasu.
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Honda Masazumi
Masazumi was the eldest son of Honda Masanobu. From a young age, he served Tokugawa Ieyasu alongside his father, taking part in the affairs of the Tokugawa house and gradually gaining experience in both military and administrative matters. At the decisive Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Masazumi was part of the core Tokugawa forces, a clear sign of the high level of trust Ieyasu placed in him. After the campaign ended, he was given a highly sensitive assignment—serving in the guard of the defeated Ishida Mitsunari, one of Tokugawa’s principal enemies—an obligation that required exceptional reliability and caution.
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Hojo Shigetoki
Hōjō Shigetoki, the third son of Hōjō Yoshitoki, was still very young—only five years old—when his grandfather Tokimasa became the first member of the Hōjō clan to assume the position of shogunal regent.
