Kobayakawa Hideaki

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In this Japanese name, the surname is Kobayakawa.
Kobayakawa Hideaki
小早川秀秋
Head of Kobayakawa clan
In office
1597–1602
Preceded byKobayakawa Takakage
Succeeded bynone
Personal details
Born1577
Siege of Fushimi (1600)
Battle of Sekigahara (1600)
Siege of Sawayama
(1600)

Kobayakawa Hideaki (小早川 秀秋) (1577 – December 1, 1602) was the fifth son of

genpuku and held the court title of Chūnagon
(中納言), Hideaki was also called Kingo Chūnagon (金吾中納言).

Biography

Ukiyo-e of Kobayakawa Hideaki

He was adopted by Hideyoshi and called himself Hashiba Hidetoshi (羽柴 秀俊). He was then again adopted by Kobayakawa Takakage, becoming Kobayakawa Hidetoshi (小早川 秀俊). He then renamed himself Hideaki (秀秋) after Takakage's death. Shortly after the Battle of Sekigahara, he renamed one last time to Kobayakawa Hideaki (小早川 秀詮).

During the

Chikugo when he returned to Japan. Kobayakawa, angered by this, he believed the rumor circulated by Tokugawa Ieyasu that this had been the doing of a jealous Ishida Mitsunari
. He never forgot nor forgave Mitsunari and worked to undermine his position.

Kobayakawa was known to attack women and children during the

campaigns in Korea, an act that was despised by many of his fellow commanders.[citation needed
]

Battle of Sekigahara

Main article: Battle of Sekigahara

Before the

kampaku (until Toyotomi Hideyori
grew old enough to rule) if he helped them to victory.

Even after the battle began, Kobayakawa kept his intentions hidden. Ieyasu's force (east) was not faring well against Mitsunari's force (west); Ukita Hideie was winning against Fukushima Masanori and Ōtani Yoshitsugu was also winning against Tōdō Takatora. Kobayakawa was hesitant to participate with either side. According to some later historial accounts of the battle, Ieyasu ordered troops to fire blanks against the Kobayakawa troops to force them into action. Kobayakawa then ordered an attack on the Otani troops, and while this attack was beaten back temporarily, his action forced the other armies who had pledged betrayal to also turn. However, more recently, some historians have argued that "the earliest accounts of Sekigahara show that Hideaki's so-called treachery happened when the battle began, not halfway through",[1] and that the "story about Ieyasu ordering ‘probing shots’ to be fired into his ranks is therefore a complete myth."[1] The battle was over within a day.

Kobayakawa also experienced success in the mopping up operations that followed, defeating Mitsunari's father, Ishida Masatsugu in the Siege of Sawayama.

Kobayakawa Hideaki Battle standard

Death

Kobayakawa Hideaki is scared of Ōtani Yoshitsugu's ghost. Ukiyo-e by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1868)

Once the dust had settled, Kobayakawa was given the defeated Ukita clan's former fiefdoms of

Mimasaka, for a total of 550,000 koku. However, Kobayakawa drank himself to death two years later after supposedly going mad, and with no one to succeed him, the Kobayakawa clan disbanded, and his fiefdoms were absorbed by the neighboring Ikeda clan
.

References

  1. ^ a b Turnbull, Stephen (28 August 2019). "The battle of Sekigahara – what went right?". Osprey Publishing. Retrieved 25 April 2024.

External links

Media related to Kobayakawa Hideaki at Wikimedia Commons

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