Sengoku Hidenori (仙石秀範)

Hidenori SENGOKU was a busho (a Japanese military commander) from the Azuchi-Momoyama period to the early Edo period. He was the legitimate son of Hidehisa SENGOKU.

He was born as the second son of Hidehisa SENGOKU. In 1599, he was given 3,000 koku (unit of volume) by the Toyotomi family and appointed to Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade), Buzen no kuni no kami (Governor of Buzen Province). Because he sided with the Western Camp at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he became ronin (masterless samurai) after the battle, disinherited and disowned by his father siding with the Eastern Camp. He entered into priesthood and served as a lecturer at terakoya (temple elementary school during the Edo period) in Kyoto.

In 1614, when Osaka no Jin (the Siege of Osaka) started, he entered Osaka-jo Castle and fought on the Toyotomi side. At this time, he was given shoryo (territory) of around 30,000 koku as daimyoshu (feudal lord group) by the Toyotomi family. When the defeat of the Toyotomi clan became clear at Osaka Natsu no Jin (the Summer Siege of Osaka) in the following year, however, he fled to Tanba Province. After that, his whereabouts were unknown. It is also said that he died in Osaka Natsu no Jin.

however, his son, Chotaro aged 10 was captured in Hoki Province, and his head was displayed in public, decapitated together with a child of his menoto (a wetnurse to a highborn baby) in the Rokujo-gawara riverbed on intercalary June 22 after Osaka Natsu no Jin. He also had a daughter named Toku, who was left with her uncle Tadamasa SENGOKU, and then died in 1635.

[Original Japanese]