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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Ouchi Yoshioki
Ouchi Yoshioki, the ruler of the provinces of Suo, Nagato, and Iwami, was one of the most capable military commanders and politicians of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The son of Ouchi Masahiro, he governed from his residence in Yamaguchi in the province of Suo. In 1499, Yoshioki gave refuge to Shogun Ashikaga Yoshitane, who had been driven out of Kyoto by Hosokawa Masamoto. Shogun Yoshizumi, Masamoto’s protégé, ordered the lords of Kyushu to unite their forces against Yoshioki; however, they did not dare to do so, fearing the power of a man who by that time controlled six provinces. Having gathered a substantial army, Yoshioki marched from his native Suo toward Kyoto in order to restore Shogun Yoshitane to power.
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Otomo Sorin
Ōtomo Yoshishige came from a noble lineage, being the eldest son of Ōtomo Yoshiaki, the ruler of Funai Province. The roots of the Ōtomo family traced back to Fujiwara Hidesato, the adopted son of Nakahara Chikayoshi. Fujiwara served Minamoto Yoritomo during the Genpei War and took part in battles in Mutsu Province in 1189. In 1193, he was appointed shugo of Buzen and Bungo Provinces, after which he adopted a new surname—Ōtomo.
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Okudaira Sadamasa
Sadamasa was the son of Okudaira Sadayoshi and took part in several battles under Tokugawa Ieyasu, distinguishing himself in the Battle of Anegawa in 1570, where he took two heads. Around 1572 he was forced to enter the service of the Takeda clan, but after the death of Takeda Shingen in 1573 he returned to Tokugawa, leaving Tsukude Castle together with his men. As a result of this defection, Takeda Katsuyori ordered the execution of Sadamasa’s wife and brother, who were being held as hostages.
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Okubo Tadatika
Tadatika, the son of Okubo Tadayō, entered the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the age of eleven, and took his first head in battle when he was sixteen. After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, he was appointed as a rōjū — a senior bakufu official — and was regarded as one of Ieyasu’s most trusted advisors, alongside Honda Masanobu. He is also known for his military chronicle Mikawa Monogatari, which describes Ieyasu’s rise to power and the early years of the Tokugawa shogunate.
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Okubo Nagayasu
Nagayasu was the second son of Okura Nobuyasu, a sarugaku theater actor from the Takeda clan. Takeda Shingen recognized the young man’s potential and took him into service, appointing him as a vassal to his general, Tsuchiya Masatsugu. During this period, Nagayasu changed his family name to Tsuchiya. He was entrusted with developing the Takeda clan’s gold mines as well as handling matters related to taxation.
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Nitta Yoshisada
Nitta Yoshisada was a loyal soldier of Emperor Go-Daigo, who in the 1330s attempted to restore direct imperial rule in Japan. The Nitta family was related to the Ashikaga house and was older in lineage. However, they did not join Minamoto Yoritomo at the start of his war with the Taira, as the Ashikaga did, and therefore did not receive high positions in the Kamakura shogunate. This may have been one of the reasons why Yoshisada rose against the Hōjō clan in 1333.
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Natsume Yoshinobu
Yoshinobu, a long-time vassal of the Matsudaira and Tokugawa clans, governed Hamamatsu Castle on behalf of the Tokugawa house. During the clashes between the Imagawa, Takeda, and Matsudaira clans, he served in the garrison of Nagasawa Castle and in 1562 took part in raids under the command of Itakura Shigezane. When, in 1563, a revolt of the Sōtō-shū sect followers broke out in Mikawa Province, Yoshinobu joined the rebels together with Honda Masanobu and Hachiya Sadatsugu.
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Nambu Nobunao
The Nambu clan was an ancient and powerful family that traced its lineage back to the Minamoto shoguns and had controlled a significant part of the Tohoku region in northern Honshu since the 12th century. Nobunao was born in Ikatai Castle, located in what is now the city of Iwate. He was the second son of Ishikawa (Nambu) Takanobu, the 22nd head of the Nambu clan. In 1565, Nobunao’s uncle, Nambu Harumasa, adopted him, brought him to Sannohe Castle, and named him his heir, later giving his daughter in marriage to him.
