Matsunaga Hisahide

Matsunaga Hisahide ( Japanese 松 永 久 秀 ; * 1510 ; † November 19, 1577 ) was a daimyo in Japan .

He had connections with Miyoshi Chōkei and had been a follower of Miyoshi Masaga since the 1540s . He led the conquest of Yamato Province in the 1560s and had built a sufficient power base himself in 1564 to be de facto independent. It is believed that he colluded against Chōkei during this period. From 1561 to 1563, three of Chokei's brothers and son died. This resulted in Miyoshi Yoshitsugu taking over the inheritance as the adopted son when Chōkei died in 1564. He was too young to rule, so three men took over his guardianship: Miyoshi Nagayuki , Miyoshi Masayasu and Iwanari Tomomichi .

In 1565 these three and Hisahide worked together and sent an army to capture the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru . He was then murdered or forced to commit suicide, in any case he was replaced as Shogun by the child Ashikaga Yoshihide and the brother of the old Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki , fled. In 1566 fighting broke out between Hisahide and the Miyoshi. Hisahide's powers were initially unsuccessful and the attributed destruction of a Buddhist temple in Nara was viewed as an infamous act.

In 1568 Oda Nobunaga attacked Hisahide with Yoshiaki as legitimation. Nobunaga took Kyoto in November and Hisahide was forced to surrender. Yoshiaki was made a shogun and stayed in this position until he tried to make himself independent from Nobunaga in 1573. Hisahide maintained control of Yamato Province and served Nobunaga for a time in its extensive campaigns against the Miyoshi and others. In 1573 Hisahide allied himself with the Miyoshi for a short time, but since the hoped-for success did not materialize, he returned to Nobunaga and turned against the Miyoshi again.

In 1577 he fell out again with Nobunaga, this time Nobunaga turned against him and besieged him in Shigisan Castle . Defeated, but still reluctant, Hisahide committed suicide, ordering that his head should be destroyed so as not to serve as a trophy. He also destroyed a priceless tea kettle ( hiragumo ) that Nobunaga would have liked to have owned. According to reports, he blew himself and the kettle with sacks of gunpowder, becoming the first Japanese to commit suicide by an explosion. His son, Matsunaga Hisamichi, also died of suicide during the siege.

Hisahide often appears in fictional representations as a shriveled, weak old man. This image may come from his murders and the possible destruction of the Tōdai-ji . Indeed, he was a tall, handsome, educated man and a patron of the arts. He is said to have converted to Christianity.