What kind of life did he have? Nikaido Moriyoshi, the military commander famous for his shocking facial graphics [Fukushima Prefecture]

Yuto Ono
2025.02.14
Last updated: 2025.04.01

table of contents

1 High-impact facial graphics
2 What kind of person was Nikaido Moriyoshi?
3 The Fall of the Nikaido Clan of Sukagawa and the Torch Testimony

There was a samurai warrior named Nikaido Moriyoshi who was based in the area around Sukagawa City in the central Nakadori region of Fukushima Prefecture, during the Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods.
...Even those who enjoy Japanese history probably don't know him.
And even if they do know him,know him from the shocking facial graphic in a simulation gameI suspect that
I am one of them.
What kind of warrior was he, exactly?

High-impact facial graphics

If a man in his 40s, like me, were to be asked about the military commander Nikaido Moriyoshi, I think most of them would respond in one of three ways (this is my personal opinion)

I don't know..
Ah, that's the warlord with the face graphics you'll never forget once you've seen him, right?
I don't know...huh, is that the name of that person with the surprised face?

Here is the shocking facial graphic of the general on the bottom left

Limited-edition chat stamps are being distributed to celebrate the 5th anniversary of "Nobunaga's Ambition for 1 Million Players"! Open the "Chat screen" in the smartphone version of Mobage, and press the button on the pop-up screen that appears to get stamps usable in Mobage/Yahoo! Mobage's "Chat"! Available until October 3rd! pic.twitter.com/1MUTEI7rdV
— Koei Tecmo (@koeitecmogames) September 29, 2015

moreif you search onlineYou can find plenty
Some of you may have recognized this character graphic, but are learning its name for the first time now.

The warrior wearing the helmet of "Love" depicted in the upper right corner is Naoe Kanetsugu, who had ties to Yonezawa in Yamagata Prefecture

Tohoku Rokken Trivia Media NEFT

Three Sengoku warlords from Yamagata Prefecture! Mogami Yoshimitsu, Naoe Kanetsugu, and Shimura Mitsuyasu

https://jp.neft.asia/archives/10204#_15681646

During the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, a major battle known as the Keicho Dewa War took place in Yamagata Prefecture. The battle between the Mogami forces of the Eastern Army, based at Yamagata Castle, and the Uesugi forces of Aizu and Yonezawa, who sided with the Western Army, was a fierce battle that has been passed down through generations. What was the other Sekigahara, the "Keicho Dewa War"? After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, on July 24th, while Tokugawa Ieyasu was marching to conquer Uesugi Kagekatsu in Aizu, Ishida Mitsunari raised an army at Osaka Castle, declaring his intention to overthrow Ieyasu. Ieyasu, who was in Shimotsuke (Tochigi Prefecture), returned to Edo, and the Tohoku generals who had gathered for the Aizu campaign also returned to their castles. Ieyasu and Hidetada split up and marched along the Tokaido and Nakasendo roads, setting out for Edo...

Now, the first appearance of these shocking character portraits, which can only be described as "astonishing," was in the game "Nobunaga's Ambition: Soutenroku," released in 2002 by Koei (now Koei Tecmo Games).

To explain "Nobunaga's Ambition" again, it's a game where the player takes on the role of one of the daimyo of the Sengoku period, expanding their territory through battles with surrounding forces, diplomacy, and stratagems.
However, this 10th installment, "Soutenroku," has the unique feature that you can choose not only the daimyo but also the subordinate generals to play as.
It's one of the games I played obsessively when I was a teenager at the time of its release.
And Nikaido Moriyoshi also appears as a general in this game, but for some reason his face has that overly surprised expression.

Now, this game has a useful command called "False Messenger," which allows you to use your ninja allies to send false information to enemy forces, causing them to delay or retreat.
And if you successfully send a false messenger to the army led by Nikaido Moriyoshi, he will make that expression and say the following line
(as an aside, his stats in the game are average, so it's not difficult to successfully send a false messenger).

「What?! My castle is on the verge of falling?! I can't
stay here
! I'm heading back to the castle immediately!」

This line itself is a generic one, and any general can say it if you retreat with a fake messenger, but the line matched the facial graphics so well that it made me laugh out loud at the time..

This character graphic has appeared in several Koei Tecmo Games titles since then.
Therefore, when you search for Moriyoshi Nikaido on Google, the keywords that come up are all along this line.

This shows just how much he is known "by his character graphic in Nobunaga's Ambition."
The real Nikaido Moriyoshi was a relatively unknown warlord, and apparently no portraits of him remain, so it's understandable that he became famous mainly through games (though this is probably not to his liking).

What kind of person was Nikaido Moriyoshi?

Nikaido Moriyoshi became famous (for some reason) for being the military commander in charge of making facial expressions in a simulation game, but what kind of life did he lead?

Nikaido Moriyoshi was born as the son of Nikaido Teruyuki, the sixth head of the Sukagawa Nikaido clan.
One theory suggests that Moriyoshi was born in 1544.
As the name suggests, the Sukagawa Nikaido clan was based at Sukagawa Castle, located in Iwase District, Mutsu Province, in what is now Sukagawa City, Fukushima Prefecture.
It is not certain whether she was Moriyoshi's mother, but Teruyuki's principal wife was the daughter of Date Tanemune (the great-grandfather of Date Masamune).
It is thought that the ties between the Nikaido and Date clans were strong during this period.

Meanwhile, the Nikaido clan was engaged in conflicts with the Ashina clan, who were based in Aizu, and the Tamura clan, who controlled Tamura County.
In 1559, Nikaido Teruyuki lost Imaizumi Castle (present-day Imaizumi, Sukagawa City) to the Tamura clan.
After that, Teruyuki repeatedly attempted to recapture Imaizumi Castle but was unsuccessful, and he died in 1564.
the seventh head of the Sukagawa Nikaido clanbecame

Furthermore, Moriyoshi's principal wife was Ananhime, the daughter of Date Harumune (Masamune's grandfather).
Like his father Teruyuki, Moriyoshi also married a daughter of the Date clan.

After that, the Nikaido clan remained at a disadvantage, and in 1566, Matsuyama Castle and Yokota Castle were captured by Ashina Moriuji and his son Morioki.
Moriyoshi made peace by offering his eldest son as a hostage and submitted to the Ashina clan.

However, an unexpected opportunity arose for Moriyoshi.
Morioki, who had become the head of the Ashina family, died prematurely in 1574.
Since Morioki had no sons, and his father Moriuji also had no other sons besides Morioki, Moriyoshi's son, Ashina Moritaka, who had been given as a hostage, became the successor to the Ashina clan.
This allowed Moriyoshi to rely on the power of the Ashina clan and he attempted to regain his strength.
Then, in the Battle of Miyoda in 1580, Moriyoshi defeated the Tamura clan.
This can be said to be the peak of the Sukagawa Nikaido clan's power.

However,Nikaido Moriyoshi died in August of the following year, Tensho 9 (1581).
If he was born in Tenbun 13, he would have been 38 years old at
the time of his death. It cannot be denied that he did not have any spectacular achievements as a warlord of the Sengoku period.

Furthermore, Yukichika, the son of Moriyoshi who became the eighth head of the family, also died prematurely a few years later. Although
there are various theories about the year of his death, he was still in his teens at the time.

The Fall of the Nikaido Clan of Sukagawa and the Torch Testimony

Further tragedy struck the Nikaido clan after the loss of Moriyoshi.
Moriyoshi's biological son, Ashina Moritaka, who had become the head of the Ashina clan, was assassinated by his retainers in 1584.
Moritaka's son, Kameomaru, was made the head of the clan at just one month old, but he died at the age of three.
As already mentioned, Moriyoshi's son, Yukichika, also died young, so the Nikaido clan effectively became extinct.

Then, due to a dispute over who would succeed Kameomaru as head of the family, relations between the Ashina and Date clans soured, and Masamune, who had become the head of the Date clan, attacked the Ashina clan.
In 1589, the Ashina clan suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Date Masamune at the Battle of Suriagehara, and the Ashina clan fell into decline.

Having overthrown the Ashina clan, Masamune's ambitions turned towards Sukagawa, putting Daijōin (Ananhime), the wife of Moriyoshi, the lord of Sukagawa Castle, in a precarious situation.
Masamune, Daijōin's nephew, repeatedly urged her to surrender, but she refused.
When the fighting began, the town and castle of Sukagawa were engulfed in flames, and in October of Tenshō 17 (1589), Sukagawa Castle fell, andthe Sukagawa Nikaidō clanwas destroyed.
Daijōin, who was about to commit suicide, was stopped by her retainers and fled the castle, eventually moving to Hitachi Province (present-day Ibaraki Prefecture) to live with the Satake clan.
Later, while accompanying the Satake clan on their relocation to Akita, she fell ill and returned to Sukagawa, where she died in Keichō 7 (1602).

every NovemberTaimatsu Akashi, a fire festival called
The Taimatsu Akashi is said to have originated when the retainers and people of the Nikaido clan, who decided to fight to defend Sukagawa Castle, gathered together with torches lit. It has continued to this day as a
memorial for those who lost their lives in the Battle of Sukagawa Castle (including those from the Date forces).

Sukagawa City Official Website

Torch Attestation | Sukagawa City Official Website

https://www.city.sukagawa.fukushima.jp/kanko_sukagawa/kanko_event/taimatsu_akashi/index.html

Sukagawa City Official Website

The Nikaido clan of Sukagawa was swallowed up and disappeared in the midst of a turbulent era of war.
However, the spirit of the Nikaido clan, their retainers, and their people remains in Sukagawa even more than 400 years later, and is being carefully passed down by the people of present-day Sukagawa City.

For more information about Sukagawa City, Fukushima Prefecture today, please see this article

Tohoku Rokken Trivia Media NEFT