[Fukushima Prefecture] Tragic end or Masamune's conspiracy...The life of Date Masamune's father Terumune

Even if you don't particularly like history, many people who have connections to Yonezawa or Sendai will know about the military commander and daimyo Date Masamune.
So, what about Terumune,
Masamune's father It goes without saying that Masamune would not have been born without Terumune, but it can also be said that Terumune was the one who laid the foundation for Masamune's expansion of power.
However, Terumune's end was at least tragic, and it is also thought that it was due to Masamune's conspiracy.

Birth of Terumune Date

Terumune Date was born
in 1544 as the second son of Harumune Date Nishiyama Castle, Date District His childhood name was Hikotaro, which later became Sojiro.
Although he was the second son, it was decided that his older brother, the eldest son, would become the adopted heir of his maternal grandfather, so it was quickly decided that Sojiro would be the heir to the Date family.

Tohoku Rokken trivia media: NEFT

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Date Gunkoori Town, Date District, Fukushima Prefecture is a town located in the northern part of the Nakadori region (central part) of Fukushima Prefecture. "Former Date County Office" designated as an important cultural property of the country The Tosando Road, which connected Mutsu Province (Mutsu Province) and Dewa Province (Dewanokuchi Province), ran through it. Since the Edo period, Tosando has been called Oshu Kaido, and Kuwaori was the junction with Ushu Kaido, which heads towards Akita, so it developed greatly as a post town, Kuwaori-juku. ..

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As a quick aside, it was not uncommon for military commanders to have many children in this era (Oda Nobunaga, his father Nobuhide, Hojo Ujiyasu, Tokugawa Ieyasu, etc.).
However, Terumune Date's father, Harumune, is known for having many children with his legal wife, Princess Kubo.
It is said that Princess Kubo gave birth to 11 children (6 boys and 5 girls), including Terumune wife Matsu (Hoshunin) gave birth to. It is said that there are many
There was a time when a woman could have more children than today, but it was still an astonishing number.

Furthermore, at the time Terumune was born, the Date family was in the midst of the Tenbun no Ran
. The Tenbun Rebellion was an internal conflict that lasted for six years between the head of the Date family, Tanemune, and his eldest son, Harumune.
It is said that the power of the Date family declined due to this rebellion.

The rebellion ended in victory for Harumune's side in 1548, and Harumune became the head of the Date family.
When Harumune moved his residence to Yonezawa Castle (Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture), Terumune also moved there with his mother and siblings.

In 1555, Sojiro reached his Genpuku at the age of 12.
He received a character from Yoshiteru Ashikaga, , and took the name Terumune Date.
Ten years later, around 1565, he became the 16th head of the Date clan when his father, Harumune, retired.
In 1567, his eldest son Bontenmaru, later Date Masamune, was born.

Feud with father Harumune

When Terumune Date became the head of the family, the real power of the family was in the hands of Harumune and the powerful father and son Munetoki Nakano and Hisanaka Makino.
Therefore, Terumune increased his allies outside by marrying off his younger sister to Morioki, the eldest son of the Ashina Mori clan in Aizu, and marrying Yoshihime, the daughter of Mogami Yoshimori in Yamagata.

In 1570, he suppressed the rebellion of father and son Nakano and expelled them, and at this time also punished the vassals who had been uncooperative with Terumune.
He also made sure to engage in diplomacy with powerful feudal lords from far away, such as by sending hawks to Oda Nobunaga.
In December 1578 (January 1578), his father, Harumune, passed away, and the real power of the family was consolidated in both name and reality under Terumune.
Just like his father, Harumune, Terumune also had a conflict with his father, and overcame him.

Restored the power of the Date family

After gaining control of the entire family, Terumune intensified his offensive against the Soma family, which was based around present-day Minamisoma City, Fukushima Prefecture, and took control of the entire Igu District (southern Miyagi Prefecture).
In 1584, he regained most of the Date family's sphere of influence from the time of his grandfather, Tanemune, and was in a position to exert great influence over the entire Minami-Ou area

Around this time, Hashiba Hideyoshi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi) had established himself as the heir to the hegemony of Oda Nobunaga, who had fallen in the Honnoji Incident.
Terumune indicated that if Hideyoshi's power were to extend to Ou, the feudal lords of Ou would cooperate to oppose Hideyoshi.
Terumune's influence and right to speak must have been that great.

Retirement

In October 1584, the head of the Ashina family, Moritaka (an adopted son of the Mori clan), who was an ally of the Date family, was murdered by his vassals, and as a result, one-month-old Kameomaru became the head of the Ashina family. .
Terumune became Kameomaru's guardian, and took this opportunity to hand over the headship of the Date family to Masamune
(there are various theories as to why he handed over the headship of the family, but at least the simple reason that he handed over the headship to Masamune was that he was a great guy). There doesn't seem to be one).

Terumune, who made Tateyama Castle (Yonezawa City) his new residence, intended to oppose Kagekatsu Uesugi in Echigo together with the Ashina and Mogami families, but Masamune, who became the head of the family, ended up making peace with the Uesugi family.
It is not hard to imagine that this difference in foreign policy between Terumune and Masamune caused a feud between father and son.
Following his grandfather, Tanemune, and father, Harumune, Terumune also experienced conflict with his son.

Shot dead at Abukuma River

Due to Masamune's change in foreign policy, the diplomatic order in Minami-Ou began to be disrupted.
As the war spread, Nihonmatsu ( Hatakeyama) Yoshitsugu , was under attack from the Date clan.
In October 1585, he requested Masamune to surrender.
At the time of surrender, Terumune and Sanemoto Date (son of Sanemoto and Date Tanemune, Terumune's uncle) were involved in mediation.

Therefore, on October 8, Yoshitsugu visited Terumune, who was staying at Miyamori Castle (Nihonmatsu City), under the pretext of ``to express his gratitude for the mediation.''
However, when Terumune tried to see Yoshitsugu off at the entrance after the meeting , he was captured by Yoshitsugu and his retainers .
Yoshitsugu kidnapped Terumune, held him hostage, and tried to return to Nihonmatsu Castle.

According to the official records of the Date family, Date Shigezane (son of Shigezane and Sanemoto) and Masakage Rumu (younger brother of Terumune), who were present at Terumune and Yoshitsugu's meeting, took soldiers with them and led Terumune and Yoshitsugu away. to They pursued him, but when they reached Takatawara on the banks of the Abukuma River, which was the border with the Nihonmatsu territory, Terumune yelled for them to shoot him, so it is said that the Date troops fired their guns all at once.
It is said that the Nihonmatsu forces under Terumune and Yoshitsugu were defeated, and by the time Masamune, who was in the middle of falconry, arrived at the scene, everything was already over.

However, this is only an official record, and there are various theories about Terumune's final moments.
As Masamune rushed to the scene, Yoshitsugu, who realized that he could no longer escape, stabbed Terumune to death , and the Nihonmatsu group was then shot by Masamune.As expected, Masamune had arrived at the scene and personally killed Terumune and Yoshitsugu. There is a theory that he shot

There is also a theory that
it was a conspiracy by Masamune to eliminate Terumune as a result of Masamune's dislike of Terumune The records left behind by Date Masamune state that Date Masamune's subordinates, who were supposed to have rushed to the scene from falconry, were for some reason fully armed, and this is considered to be one of the proofs that it was Masamune's conspiracy. I am.

In any case, even though the world was in constant war, Terumune Date's end was tragic, quick, and premature for a man who could be called a hero who laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Date family. It was something.
He passed away at the age of 42.

Also, regardless of the extent to which Masamune is responsible for this incident, Masamune will be seen as the person who killed his father
(in fact, even now, some 440 years later, he is still seen as the person who murdered his father. (It is said that he may have done so.)
With the loss of Terumune, who had excellent diplomatic skills, relations between the Date family and neighboring powers suddenly deteriorated, and Masamune was forced to fight a tough battle over the next few years.

summary

Regardless of whether he had a feud with Masamune or not, Terumune was very enthusiastic about the education of his eldest son, Masamune.
He invited many famous scholars and monks to educate him, and even Katakura Kagetsuna (Kojuro), who was the second son of a Shinto priest, serve Masamune from an early stage.
Also, it is undoubtedly Terumune's great accomplishment that he was able to restore the power of the Date family, which had been declining.
Without Terumune, Date Masamune, the first feudal lord of Sendai, would never have existed as is true in history.

Tohoku Rokken trivia media: NEFT

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Shiroishi City is located in the southern part of Miyagi Prefecture. It is famous for being the land ruled by Katakura Kojuro Kagetsuna, who was active as Date Masamune's right-hand man and was called ``Katakura Kagetsuna of Wisdom'' along with ``Date Tatsumi of War.'' . This time, I would like to introduce some historical sites related to Katakura Kojuro Kagetsuna and the Katakura family! 4 historic sites of Katakura Kagetsuna and the Katakura family Kagetsuna Katakura, the first generation of the Katakura clan of the Sendai domain, is famous as a famous general who served as a military commander for Date Masamune. . Kagetsuna's common name, Kojuro, was continued by successive generations of the family even after Kagetsuna's death.

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