[Akita Prefecture] 3 Sengoku military commanders from Akita Prefecture! Aiki Ando, ​​Moriyasu Tozawa, Keimichi Onodera

During the Sengoku period, Akita Prefecture was divided by a number of military commanders, and the influence of the central rulers Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu was intertwined in a complex manner.

Among them, we would like to introduce three military commanders who are highly regarded for their wisdom and courage.

"Ugo's Big Dipper" Chikasue Ando (1539-1587)

The Ando clan was a feudal lord from the Sengoku period, whose castles were Hiyama Castle in Noshiro City and Wakimoto Castle in Oga City, and whose territory covered nearly half of Akita Prefecture. Aiki unified the Hiyama Ando clan and the Minato Ando clan, expanding his reach to the maximum extent possible, and was praised as the ``Star of the Northern Sky'' as a military commander with outstanding wisdom and courage.

Aiki Ando (Collected by Tohoku University Library)
Aiki Ando (Collected by Tohoku University Library)

He was also good at territorial management, and in addition to developing Tsuchizaki Port (Akita Port) into the largest trading port in northern Japan, he also displayed a talent for diplomacy, paying tribute to Nobunaga with an eye on the situation in the central government, and establishing good relations with Hideyoshi. did.

From Andong to Akita

When the Hiyama family and the Minato family were merged, the Minato family changed their gender to Akita because they had been calling themselves ``Akita Josuke'' for generations, and their eldest child Sanesue adopted the Akita gender. By the way, Akita Josuke is the name given to the provincial governor who was in charge of Akita Castle in Dewa Province.

In his final moments, he died of illness in battle.

After unifying the northern coast of Dewa, he invaded the inland and fought against Moriyasu Tozawa of Kakunodate, but during the battle, he died of illness in the camp at Semboku Yodogawa (Semboku District, Akita Prefecture).

Mr. Ando after Aiki's death

Sanesuki, who took over as head of the family, joined the Mogami and Date allied forces as part of the eastern army at the Battle of Sekigahara, and participated in the Keicho Dewa Battle against the western army and the Uesugi army. However, Ieyasu was sued by Yoshimitsu Mogami for her actions in following Ieyasu's orders as a violation of military orders, and her territory was exchanged with the Satake clan in Hitachi (Ibaraki Prefecture), and then transferred to Miharu in Iwaki (Fukushima Prefecture), and Akita. He remained as the lord of the Miharu domain until the Meiji era.

INFORMATION

  • Name: Hiyama Ando Clan Castle Ruins Hiyama Castle Ruins
  • Address: Hiyama Kiriyamashita, Noshiro City, Akita Prefecture 016-0151
  • URL: Noshiro City HP

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“Onikuro, the man with wisdom and courage” Moriyasu Tozawa (1566-1590)

The 18th head of the Tozawa clan, Moriyasu, who is said to be descended from the Kanmuhei clan, made Kakunodate Castle his residence.

Moriyasu Tozawa (Past portraits of the Tozawa family)
Moriyasu Tozawa (Past portraits of the Tozawa family)

As a general, he always stands at the front of the line and cuts into enemy forces with a single horse.Although he is feared as ``Onikuro'', he is also talented in diplomacy and other tactics, and is a compassionate man who helps captured enemy soldiers escape and takes good care of his subordinates. It is said that he was a military commander with a combination of

Disguised as a merchant and marched into Odawara

In 1590, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the generals of the Tohoku region to attack Odawara, Moriyasu left Kakunodate and headed for Odawara, but on the way he encountered the enemy territory of Onodera, and was attacked by a small number of six vassals and three foot soldiers. It is said that he disguised himself as a merchant and passed through the area.

When they traveled west on the Tokaido and arrived at Kanaya-juku (Shizuoka Prefecture), Hideyoshi was in Shimada to the east and they ended up in the wrong place. Moriyasu tries to return immediately, but is unable to cross the Oigawa River due to heavy rains, so he swims across the river holding up a lantern and saying, ``I must not be late even for a night,'' without even listening to his vassals stop.

It is said that Moriyasu caught up with Hideyoshi and met him, still wet, and Hideyoshi was satisfied with Moriyasu's participation and gave him Bizen Kanemitsu's long sword.

Moriyasu's untimely death and the Tozawa clan afterwards

Moriyasu, who had an audience with Hideyoshi and was relieved of his territory, called his troops and joined in the attack on Odawara Castle, but before the castle fell, he suddenly died of illness at the young age of 25 in the camp.

Since Moriyasu's eldest son, Kurōgoro, was only four years old, his younger brother Mitsumori succeeded him, but Mitsumori also died two years later. The vassals gave Kuro Goro an audience with Hideyoshi, received approval for the inheritance, and the 20th head of the family, Masamori, was born.

At the Battle of Sekigahara, the Tozawa forces sided with the eastern army and captured the castle of the Uesugi side, but Ieyasu deemed them passive, and in 1602 they were transferred to Hitachi, replacing them with the Satake clan. It's gone.

INFORMATION

  • Name: Kakunodate Castle Ruins (Komatsuyama Castle Ruins/Koshiroyama)
  • Address: Kojoyama, Kakunodate-cho, Semboku-shi, Akita 014-1115
  • URL: Semboku City HP

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"The people of the territory hold a memorial service with the Bon dance" Onodera Kagemichi (1534-1597)

With the support of his family, he regained his home, Yokote Castle, which had been taken away after his father was killed in a rebellion by his vassals.He further expanded his power and established the Onodera clan at its peak by stationing members of his family in branch castles such as Nishimaonnai. Ta.

Yokote Castle, the residence of the Onodera clan
Yokote Castle, the residence of the Onodera clan

He went to Kyoto and had an audience with Nobunaga Oda, but due to the death of his eldest son due to illness, he handed over the headship of the family to his second son, Yoshimichi, retired, and died in 1597.

Nishiba Onnai Bon Odori was born from the downfall of the Onodera clan.

During Yoshimichi's reign, the generals in the Senboku region who had been following him defected, and he joined the western army at the Battle of Sekigahara, leading to the post-war reform in 1601 and the demise of the Onodera clan.

Nishiba Onnai, which was once a territory, is said to be the ``Nishiba Onnai Bon Odori'', which is a fusion of traditional dances and the dance of the deceased, which was performed by the Onodera clan's indigenous subjects after their demise in memory of their lord.

INFORMATION

  • Name: Yokote Castle
  • Address: 29-1 Shiroyama-cho, Yokote City, Akita Prefecture 013-0012
  • URL: Yokote City HP

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summary

All of the samurai families introduced here left Akita, and the Satake clan that comes to mind as the lord of Akita was the Seiwa-Genji clan, a direct descendant of the Hitachi-Genji clan.

Yoshinobu, the 19th head of the clan, did not participate in the Battle of Sekigahara as a neutral (there is a theory that he was allied with Kagekatsu Uesugi in the Western army), and after the war he was transferred to the Akita/Senboku region and became the lord of the Kubota domain. .

Kubota (later renamed Akita Domain) had a difficult feudal government with 200,000 koku, less than half of Hitachi's 540,000 koku, but it continued to exist until the Meiji era, and the current governor of Akita Prefecture, Takahisa Satake, is a member of the Satake clan, which was divided into four families. He is the 21st head of the Iekita family.

Links to articles about famous military commanders from other prefectures

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