Akamatsu Norihide (赤松則英)
Norihide AKAMATSU (year of birth unknown - November 6, 1600) was a person in the Azuchi-Momoyama period and he was believed to be the last family head of the Akamatsu clan, a distinguished family in Harima Province. He was a ryoshu (feudal lord) with 10,000 koku (approximately 1.8 million liters of crop yield) in Awa Province, Sumiyoshi region (Itano-gun 23 villages). He was a child (the second son) of Norifusa AKAMATSU. He was Kazusa no suke (Assistant Governor of Kazusa Province). However, the presence of Norihide was not confirmed by historical materials.
In 1598, he took over as head of the family upon the death of his father, Norifusa. In the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he took sides with the West squad and took charge of guarding Hirano-guchi gateway from Tennoji, Osaka. Before decisive battles, he holed up in Honmaru (the keep of a castle) of the Sawayama-jo Castle, which was the residential castle of Mitsunari ISHIDA. However, the Sawayama-jo Castle was attacked by Hideaki KOBAYAKAWA and others who switched to the East squad and it fell. Norihide was believed to run away just before the fall of the castle.
After his runaway, he asked Masanori FUKUSHIMA for help, but he was not pardoned and he was forced to kill himself at Kaiko-ji Temple in Kyoto.