Ikeda Terumasa

Biography

Terumasa was the second son and heir of Ikeda Nobuteru (Ikeda Tsuneoki). Terumasa held the Ikejiri Castle (Mino Province).

In 1579, during the Siege of Itami (1574), Terumasa was stationed at Settsukura Bridge with his father. Later in 1580, during the Siege of Hanakuma castle, they camped at Kitasuwagamine, and on March 2, Terumasa notably killed six enemies personally during the battle. Due to his military exploits, he was awarded a letter of commendation from Oda Nobunaga.

In 1584 on April 9, during the Battle of Nagakute, Terumasa served under the Ikeda Tsuneoki and Mori Nagayoshi who commanded 3,000 and 2,000 soldiers respectively. During this battle, Nagayoshi was shot and killed in action, while Tsuneoki was killed with spear by Nagai Naokatsu. Terumasa was then persuaded by his vassals to retreat. Eventually, the Tsuneoki and Mori forces were crushed, and the battle ended in victory for the Tokugawa forces.

In 1590, following the move of Tokugawa Ieyasu to the Kanto region, Terumasa was granted Yoshida in Mikawa, a 152,000-koku fief. In 1594 Terumasa married one of Tokugawa's daughters, and after Hideyoshi died in 1598, the Ikeda family drifted into Ieyasu's camp.

In 1592, Terumasa participated in the Japanese invasions of Korea. He stayed in the castle and was in charge of guarding the east of Japan. For the invasion of Korea, Terumasa was ordered to build large ships and transport provisions and rice to Nagoya Castle. He also worked on constructing Fushimi Castle and Toyotomi Hideyasu's Yamatotanai Castle.

In 1594, Terumasa married Tokuhime, the daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, with Hideyoshi's mediation.

Conflict with Ishida Mitsunari

According to popular theory, in 1598, after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the government of Japan was shalen by an incident, when seven military generals—Fukushima Masanori, Katō Kiyomasa, Ikeda Terumasa, Hosokawa Tadaoki, Asano Yoshinaga, Katō Yoshiaki, and Kuroda Nagamasa—conspired to kill Ishida Mitsunari. Supposedly the group was disstatisfied with Mitsunari, as he wrote bad assessments and underreported the achievements of those generals during the Imjin war against Korea and the Chinese empire. However, despite the classical historiographic depiction of the event as "seven generals against Mitsunari", modern historian Watanabe Daimon has pointed out there were more generals involved, such as Hachisuka Iemasa, Tōdō Takatora, and Kuroda Yoshitaka, who also brought their troops and entourage to confront Mitsunari.

At first, these generals gathered at Kiyomasa's mansion in Osaka Castle, and from there moved to attack Mitsunari's mansion. However, Mitsunari had knowledge of the conspiracy through a report from a servant of Toyotomi Hideyori, and hid in Satake Yoshinobu's mansion together with Shima Sakon and others. When the conspirators found out that Mitsunari was not in his mansion, they searched the mansions of various feudal lords in Osaka Castle, and Kato's army also approached the Satake residence. Mitsunari and his party escaped and barricaded themselves at Fushimi Castle. The next day, the seven generals surrounded Fushimi Castle with their soldiers as they knew Mitsunari was hiding there. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was in charge of political affairs in Fushimi Castle tried to arbitrate the situation. The seven generals requested Ieyasu to hand over Mitsunari, which was refused. Ieyasu then negotiated the promise to let Mitsunari retire and to review the assessment of the Battle of Ulsan Castle, which had been the major source of this incident, and had his second son, Yūki Hideyasu, escort Mitsunari to Sawayama Castle.

However, modern historians such as Daimon, Junji Mitsunari, and Goki Mizuno state that, from the primary and secondary sources about the incident, it was more of legal conflict between those generals and Mitsunari, rather than a conspiracy to murder him. The role of Ieyasu was not to protect him from any physical harm, but to mediate the complaints of the seven generals.

Nevertheless, historians viewed this incident not just as simply personal problems between the seven generals and Mitsunari, but rather as an extension of the political rivalries between the Tokugawa faction and the anti-Tokugawa faction led by Mitsunari. After the incident, military figures on bad terms with Mitsunari would support Ieyasu during the Sekigahara campaign between the Eastern Army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Western Army led by Ishida Mitsunari. According to Muramatsu Shunkichi, writer of The Surprising Passions and Desires of the Heroes and Heroines of Japanese History, the reason for Mitsunari failure in his war against Ieyasu was his unpopularity among the major political figures of that time.

Ōkanehira sword

Ōkanehira is a tachi that was once owned by Ikeda Terumasa. It was forged by Kanehira, a member of the Ko-Bizen (old Bizen) school of the Bizen school during the Heian period. Due to the sword's exceptional quality, the prefix "Ō" (meaning "great") was added to the smith's name, resulting in the name Ōkanehira. The sword is often considered the finest Japanese sword from an artistic standpoint and is frequently compared with Dōjigiri, as one of the greatest examples of Japanese sword craftsmanship. Together, they are sometimes referred to as the "yokozuna of Japanese swords," referencing the highest rank in sumo wrestling and implying unmatched excellence. It has been designated a National Treasure and is housed in the Tokyo National Museum.

Family

Wives:

Itohime, daughter of Nakagawa Kiyohide

Tokuhime (Tokugawa)

Concubines:

Manganin

Daughter of Ando clan

Children:

Ikeda Toshitaka (1584–1616) by Itohime

Ikeda Tadatsugu (1599–1615) by Tokuhime

Ikeda Teruzumi (1604–1662) by Tokuhime

Ikeda Masatsuna (1605–1631) by Tokuhime

Ikeda Tadakatsu (1602–1632) by Tokuhime

Ikeda Teruoki (1611–1647) by Tokuhime

Chacha-hime married Kyogoku Takahiro by Tokuhime

Furihime (1607–1659) married Date Tadamune by Tokuhime

Ikeda Masatora (1590–1635) by Manganin

Ikeda Toshimasa (1594–1639) by daughter of Ando clan

Ikeda Terutaka