Posted: 22 July 2005 at 10:08pm | IP Logged

Date Masamune

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A modern equestrian statue of Masamune.

Date Masamune (伊達 政宗 Date Masamune, 1567-1636) was one of leading daimyo in the Tohoku region of Japan.

DOKUGANRYU --THE ONE EYED DRAGON

Born the oldest son of Date Terumune in Yonezawa Castle, modern Yamagata Prefecture, he succeeded his father, Date Terumune, at the age of 18 when Terumune retired from the position of daimyo. His father stated that he would award power to his son Masamune at an early age to avoid the costly stuggle for power that he had with his own father. Terumune's father had also fought his grandfather before him. Shortly afterwards a Date retainer named Ouchi Sadatsuna defected to the Ashina of the Aizu region. On that, Masamune declared war on the Ashina for this betrayal.

The Date family was founded in the early Kamakura period (1185-1333) by Isa Tomomune who originally came from the Isa district of Hitachi Province (now Ibaraki Prefecture). The family took its name from the Date district (now Fukushima Prefecture) of Mutsu Province which had been awarded to Isa Tomomune by Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) the first Kamakura shogun, for his assistance in the Minamoto-Taira War (1180-85) and in Minamoto no Yoritomo’s struggle for power with his brother, Minamoto no Yosh*tsune (1159-1189).

The man Masamune

A letter written to Masamune by Pope Paul V.

Masamune is known for a few things that made him a special daimyo of the time. In particular his famous helmet gained him some clout in this period. As a child Masamune Date lost his eye in a bout with smallpox. He actually pulled his own eye out. Because he had lost an eye, his own mother condemned him as unfit to take over as clan leader and began to favor Masamune's brother as heir. According to history books, Masamune's own mother tried to poison him one night while serving him dinner. Masamune killed his own brother in his rise to power, stating "I thought that we could get along as brothers, perhaps in the next life....."

Masamune's family had consolidated power in their domain and cemented a sense of stability in the region by marrying off relatives to the neighboring clans. With the rise of Masamune, relationships were cast aside as Masamune began to attack and conquer all of the surrounding lands, even those owned by relatives in Mutsu and Dewa Provinces. Shocked by his ruthlessness, a neighboring family, the Hatakeyama, desperately appealed to Terumune Date to reign in his son's military campaigns against the neighboring domains. Called to dinner by the Hatakeyama, Terumune said that he was not able to control his son's actions. In an unheard of act of desperation, the family kidnapped Terumune and began to transport him home. Masamune, who was out hunting received word of the kidnapping. As Masamune and his men closed in on Terumune and his kidnappers, about to cross a river, Terumune shouted out "Don't worry about me! Open Fire, Kill everyone!" Masamune's men opened fire and killed everyone including Date Terumune. Masamune continued on and tortured and killed the families of those involved in the kidnapping of his father.

After defeating the Ashina in 1589, he made the Aizu domain his base of operations.

In 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to see Masamune as a threat to his power and seized Aizu. It is said that Hideyoshi had to surround Masamune's army with 100,000 troops to force his submission to him. Masamune expected to be executed and so he wore his finest clothes and showed no fear. Not wanting further trouble, Hideyoshi spared his life. After serving Hideyoshi for a time, he gave Masamune Iwatesawa castle and the surrounding lands as his home domain. Masamune moved there in 1591, rebuilt the castle, renaming it Iwadeyama, and encouraged the growth of a town at its base. Masamune stayed at Iwadeyama for 13 years and while he turning the region into a major political and economic center. Masamune and his men served with distinction in the Korean Invasions under Hideyoshi and after Hideyoshi's death, began to support the Tokugawa.

Tokugawa awarded Masamune the lordship of the huge and profitable Sendai domain which made Masamune one of Japan’s most powerful daimyo. Tokugawa had promised Date Masamune a one million koku domain, but alas, even after substantial improvments were made, the land only produced 640,000 koku, most of which was used to feed the Edo Region. In 1604 Masamune, accompanied by 52,000 vassals and their families, moved to the small fishing village of Sendai. He left his fourth son, Date Muneyasu, to rule Iwadeyama. Masamune would turn Sendai into a large and prosperous city.

Masamune expanded trade in the otherwise bland, backwater province of Tohoku. Although initially in his career he was faced with hostile clans attacking him, he managed to overcome these clans after a few defeats and eventually ruled the largest fief of the later Tokugawa shogunate. He built many palaces and worked on many projects to beautify the region. He is also known to have encouraged foreigners to come to his land. It is also possible that Masamune Date himself was secretly a Christian convert although most likely he wanted foreign technology similarly to other lords like Nobunaga Oda. For 270 years Tohoku was a place of tourism, trade and prosperity. Matsushima for instance, a series of islands was praised for its beauty and serenity from the Haiku poet Basho.

Masamune Date's greatest achievement was funding and endorsing one of Japan's only journeys of exploration in this period. Masamune sympathized with Christian missionaries and traders in Japan. In addition to allowing them to come and preach in his province, he also released the prisoner and missionary Padre Sotelo from the hands of Ieyasu Tokugawa. Masamune Date allowed Sotelo as well as other missionaries to practice their religion and win converts in Tohoku. After a while Masamune Date ordered the building of the Date Mura an explorer ship. Masamune constructed this ship using foreign (European) ship-building techniques. He sent one of his retainers and Sotelo on a voyage to Rome. This voyage visited such places as the Philippines, Mexico, Spain and Rome making it the first Japanese voyage to sail around the world. In prior times Japanese lords never funded these sorts of ventures so it was probably also the first successful voyage period.

Although Masamune was a patron of the arts and sympathized with the foreign cause he also was an aggressive and ambitious daimyo. When he first took over the Date clan he suffered a few major defeats from powerful and influential clans such as the Ashina. These defeats were arguably caused by recklessness on Masamune's part. No lord fully trusted Masamune Date. Hideyoshi Toyotomi reduced the size of his land after his tardiness to participate in the siege of Odawara against Ujimasa Hojo. Later in his life Ieyasu Tokugawa increased the size of his lands again but constantly was suspicious of Masamune and his policies. He was suspicious of foreign missionaries, as he perceived them as a threat to his power. Because of this he ordered Padre Sotelo to death after his journey around the world. Although Ieyasu Tokugawa and other allies of the Date were always suspicious of him, Masamune Date served the Tokugawa and Toyotomi loyally for the most part. He took part in the Korean campaigns, Hideyoshi's campaigns for expansion in Korea and the Osaka campaigns. When Tokugawa was on his deathbed Masamune came to visit him and read a piece of Zen poetry to him.

External links

The official website of the Date clan

Aoba-jo (Sendai Castle) website

An example of Date-influenced architecture