Asano Nagamasa

was the brother-in-law of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and one of his chief advisors. Asano also fought for Oda Nobunaga and Hideyoshi in a number of campaigns during the Sengoku period of the 16th century in Japan. He was sent to Korea as one of the Three Bureaucrats with Ishida Mitsunari and Mashita Nagamori. Biography He was the son of Yasui Shigetsugu, Lord of Miyago castle (Owari province), a descendant of Hatakeyama Iekuni, Shugo (Governor) of Kawachi province, descending from Ashikaga Yoshikane (1154-1199). Yoshikane was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshiyasu, also called Ashikaga Yoshiyasu (1127-1157), founder of the Ashikaga clan, grandson of the Chinjufu-shōgun (Commander-in-chief of the defense of the North) Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039-1106), and a descendant of the Emperor Seiwa (850-881), the 56th Emperor of Japan. He was adopted by his maternal uncle, Asano Nagakatsu, Lord of Asano castle, his mother's younger brother. He succeeded him as the fourteenth head of the Asano clan. Until Nagakatsu, the Asano descended directly from the Toki clan and Minamoto no Yorimitsu (948-1021). After Nagamasa, the Asano are direct descendants of the Hatakeyama clan and the Ashikaga clan.