mitsuhide

Updated: June 29, 2025

When, in after years, this same Mitsuhide treacherously compassed Nobunaga's death, men said that the opening of the Demon's Gate had entailed its due penalty. It was not in Settsu and at Hiei-zan only that the Buddhist soldiers turned their weapons against Nobunaga.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

But Nobunaga, disregarding this promise, put the Hatano brothers to the sword, and the latter's adherents avenged themselves by slaughtering Mitsuhide's mother. The best informed belief is that this incident converted Mitsuhide into Nobunaga's bitter enemy, and that the spirit of revenge was fostered by insults to which Nobunaga, always passionate and rough, publicly subjected Mitsuhide.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Accordingly the withdrawal was allowed to take place unmolested. The life of the Tokugawa chieftain was placed in great jeopardy by the Mitsuhide incident. After being brilliantly received by Nobunaga at Azuchi, Ieyasu, at his host's suggestion, had made a sightseeing excursion to Kyoto, whence he prolonged his journey to Osaka and finally to Sakai.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

The choice would have fallen naturally on Samboshi, eldest son of Nobunaga's first-born, Nobutada, who, as already described, met his death in the Mitsuhide affair. But Hideyoshi was well understood to favour Samboshi's succession, and this sufficed to array in opposition several of the barons habitually hostile to Hideyoshi.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Mitsuhide attempted to destroy him on the way, and the details of this attempt have been magnified by tradition to incredible dimensions. All that can be said with certainty is that Hideyoshi was, for a moment, in extreme danger but that he escaped scathless.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

Mitsuhide, well aware of the Tokugawa baron's unfriendliness, made strenuous efforts to waylay Ieyasu on the way, and with great difficulty the journey eastward was accomplished by avoiding all the highroads. Nobunaga perished at the age of forty-nine.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

A scion of the illustrious family of Seiwa Genji, Mitsuhide had served under several suzerains prior to 1566, when he repaired to Gifu and offered his sword to Nobunaga. Five years afterwards he received a fief of one hundred thousand koku and the title of Hyuga no Kami.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

This rapid promotion made him Nobunaga's debtor, but a shocking event, which occurred in 1577, seems to have inspired him with the deepest resentment against his patron. Mitsuhide, besieging the castle of Yakami in Tamba province, promised quarter to the brothers Hatano, who commanded its defence, and gave his own mother as hostage.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era