Ogasawara Hidekiyo (小笠原秀清)
Hidekiyo OGASAWARA was a military commander and a scholar of ancient courtly traditions and etiquette in the Warring States period and the Azuchi-Momoyama period. He was a retainer of the Hosokawa family, which was a vassal of the Muromachi bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) and became the lord of Higo Province later. Hidekiyo was generally known by the name Shosai OGASAWARA and as a person who assisted Hosokawa Garasha in dying.
Before the Battle of Sekigahara
In the middle of 16th century, Hidekiyo was born to Tanemori OGASAWARA (also known as Tanekiyo). The Kyoto Ogasawara family, the house he was born, was branched from the Shinano Ogasawara family, the head family of the Ogasawara clan, in the early Muromachi period, and served the Muromachi bakufu as a palace guard in Kyoto for generations. On June 27, 1565, his father Tanekiyo died in the Eiroku Battle with the lord Yoshiteru ASHIKAGA as Yoshiteru's attendant. Hidekiyo became a lordless warrior after the battle, and later, he was received as a guest by Yusai HOSOKAWA (also known as Fujitaka) in Tango Province and granted a stipend of 500 koku of rice (1 koku weighs about 150kg). After that, he took tonsure and assumed a Buddhist name Shosai, presumably in 1582 or 1596, about the same time as Yusai's tonsure.
His End
When Tadaoki HOSOKAWA took part in conquering the Aizu region in July 1600, Hidekiyo, who was a chief retainer to Tadaoki, was ordered to keep the Tadaoki's Osaka residence with Kazunari KAWAKITA IWAMI, Sukenao INADOME and others during the absence of the lord. On July 16, a messenger was sent from Mitsunari ISHIDA to prompt them to have a wife of Tadaoki, Hosokawa Garasha, come to Osaka-jo Castle, but Hidekiyo rejected that. He consulted with Garasha and decided that if they were requested again, they would commit suicide. On July 17, the next day, when the army of Ishida enveloped the Osaka residence, Hidekiyo took a long sword and stabbed Garasha in the chest to death. Then, he set fire to the residence and committed suicide with Kawakita and others. Sukenao INADOME, on the other hand, escaped from the residence led by his disciples in artillery who were in the Ishida's army; this aroused the displeasure of Tadaoki HOSOKAWA later.
Protocols for military family
The Kyoto Ogasawara family, Hidekiyo's home, was the archery and horsemanship instructor to shogun for generations in the Muromachi period and played a main role in the study of ancient courtly traditions and etiquette. It is supposed that Hidekiyo was engaged in the study of protocols for military families, which is proved by Ninagawa family documents that contain a transcription of a record of the oral transmission from Hidekiyo as one of the documents about the protocol for military families. Documents including the book transmitting the essence of archery in the Heki-ryu Sekka-ha school describe that the founder Sekka YOSHIDA received instruction in protocol for military families from Hidekiyo. The descendants of Hidekiyo had transmitted the protocols for military families until the Meiji Restoration.
Descendants
The sons of Hidekiyo became relatives through marriages with close relatives and the like of Tadaoki HOSOKAWA.
Nagasada (also known as Nagamoto), the heir of Hidekiyo, married Tama, who was a niece of Tadaoki and a daughter of Kaneharu YOSHIDA by her real mother Iyo, who was a daughter of Yusai HOSOKAWA. His descendants received a fief yielding 6,000 koku of rice. The descendants assumed important positions like the head of army and chief retainer through marriages with the clan of the lord.
Nagayoshi (also known as Kunai), another son of Hidekiyo, married Sen, who was a daughter of Yusai HOSOKAWA and a wife of Takayuki NAGAOKA. He was a Christian but abandoned his belief.
Nagasada (also known as Yosaburo and Gyobu Nyudo Genya), another son of Hidekiyo, married Miya, who was a daughter of Okiyoshi KAGAYAMA, a chief retainer of the Hosokawa family. Okiyoshi was martyred on November, 20, 1619 in Kitaku in Kokura as a Christian. The family of Nagasada was Christian, which had been kept secret for a long time, while they had been forced to abandon their beliefs. When the domain of the Hosokawa family was transferred, the family of Nagasada moved to Kumamoto City; however, the fact that the family of Nagasada was Christian was reported to bakufu through the Nagasaki magistrate that received the information from a betrayer--after all, Nagasada was martyred with his family and followers in Zenjoji Temple in Kumamoto on January 30, 1636. On June 1, 2007, it was decided that Nagasada, his family and followers were to be beatified.