Everything about Akechi Mitsuhide totally explained
, nicknamed
Jūbei or, was a
samurai who lived during the
Sengoku period of
Feudal Japan.
Mitsuhide was a general under
daimyo Oda Nobunaga, although he later betrayed Nobunaga and caused him to commit
seppuku.
Born in
Mino province (now
Gifu prefecture) as a descendant of the
shugo Toki clan; Mitsuhide began serving Nobunaga after Nobunaga's conquest of Mino province in
1566 and received
Sakamoto (in
Omi, 100,000
koku) in
1571. Although Nobunaga rarely put too much trust in his retainers, he particularly trusted
Katsuie Shibata,
Hideyoshi Hashiba and Mitsuhide Akechi. After Mitsuhide received Sakamoto he moved to pacify the Tamba region by defeating several clans such as the Isshiki of Tango.
In
1579, he captured
Yakami Castle from
Hatano Hideharu by promising Hideharu peace terms. This accomplished Mitsuhide's goal, although Nobunaga betrayed the peace agreement and had Hideharu executed. This displeased the
Hatano family, and a short while later several of Hideharu's retainers murdered Akechi Mitsuhide's mother. The situation was fueled through several public insults Nobunaga had directed at Mitsuhide, that even drew the attention of some Western observers. Mitsuhide blamed Nobunaga for his mother's death and the
attack at Honnōji on
June 21,
1582 (Japanese: 6th month 2nd day) exacted his revenge.
He has been credited with killing Oda Nobunaga; while Mitsuhide didn't execute Nobunaga personally, he did force him to commit seppuku for his betrayal and subsequent murder of Mitsuhide's mother. When they found out about the assassination, both
Hideyoshi and
Tokugawa Ieyasu rushed to be the first to avenge Nobunaga and take his place. Hideyoshi got to Mitsuhide first, and Mitsuhide's allies such as
Hosokawa Fujitaka, who was related to Mitsuhide through a marriage, betrayed him. Mitsuhide survived for 14 days, until he was defeated by Hideyoshi at the
Battle of Yamazaki. Mitsuhide is rumored to have been killed by a peasant warrior with a bamboo spear by the name of
Nakamura. However, there were also rumors that he wasn't killed, but rather started a new life as a priest called Tenkai.
The Akechi family was able to trace their heritage to the
Toki and from there to the
Minamoto. It is noted that Minamoto Yorimoto brought the destruction of the
Taira clan the same way Mitsuhide brought an end to Nobunaga.
The sword of Mitsuhide has Tensho style, in fact, the Tensho Koshirae
Iaito was first designed to be a replica of Akechi Mitsuhide's own sword.
Akechi Mitsuhide in fiction
See
Japanese historical people in popular culture.
Family
Further Information
Get more info on 'Akechi Mitsuhide'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://akechi_mitsuhide.totallyexplained.com">Akechi Mitsuhide Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
