Ikeda Tsuneoki (池田恒興)
Tsuneoki IKEDA was a warlord during the Sengoku period (Period of Warring States) and Azuchi-Momoyama period.
He was a retainer of the Oda clan in Owari Province. He served Nobunaga ODA and Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI (Hideyoshi HASHIBA). He was the Lord of Inuyama-jo Castle. He was one of the four major chief vassals at the Kiyosu Conference. He was also known as Shozaburo. He called himself Governor of Kii Province, and he later became a lay priest, taking the name Shonyu. His formal name (imina) was reported to be Nobuteru in some military epics, but is not found in any reliable historical data in the same period. The name may have been given because Nobunaga was his foster brother and because he was the father of Terumasa.
His days as a Retainer of the Oda Family
There are several stories about where he was from, including Owari, Mino, Settsu, and Omi Provinces. His mother was a foster mother of Nobunaga, so he and Nobunaga were foster brothers. He served the Oda family as a pageboy from an early age.
He participated in the Battle of Okehazama and the capture of Mino, and in 1570 he actively fought against the Azai and Asakura clans in the Battle of the Anegawa and became the Lord of Inuyama-jo Castle. He took part in the major battles by Nobunaga, including the Battle of Nagashino against the Takeda clan from Kai Province.
In 1580, he beat Murashige ARAKI, who stood against Nobunaga and locked himself in Hanakuma-jo Castle (the Battle of Hanakuma-jo Castle) and was given Murashige's domain.
In 1582, when Nobunaga was assassinated by Mitsuhide AKECHI in the Honnoji no Hen (Conspiracy of Honno-ji Temple), he joined Hideyoshi HASHIBA, who came back from the attack in the Chugoku region; and in the Battle of Yamazaki, he lead 4000 troops, acted as the spearhead in the right wing, beat Mitsuhide, and became the chief vassal of Oda family.
In the same year, at the Kiyosu conference for deciding a successor of the Oda family, he and Hideyoshi supported the Nobunaga's heir Sanboshi (Hidenobu ODA) in opposition to Katsuie SHIBATA and others; and in the following year, he fought against Katsuie in the Battle of Shizugatake and in 1583, he was given 130000 koku in Mino Province and became the Ogaki-jo Castellan.
His Last Days
In the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute in 1584, his behavior received attention, and he finally took part on the side of Hideyoshi against Ieyasu TOKUGAWA from Mikawa Province and Nobukatsu (Nobuo) ODA. At the beginning of war, he attacked Inuyama-jo Castle, and then he attempted to attack Ieyasu's home province of Mikawa together with Hidetsugu MIYOSHI (Hidetsugu TOYOTOMI), Nagayoshi MORI (husband of a Tsuneoki's daughter), and Hidemasa HORI, but he met with a misfortune of receiving a shot in the saddle and falling from a horse during the early part of the war (the misfortune doubled as he let himself become furious and lost freedom to move due to injury), he died in Nagakute together with Nagayoshi. He is reported to have died after being stabbed with a spear by Naokatsu NAGAI, while he was The situation of his death was reported to have occurred after receiving a spear from Naokatsu NAGAI while he was rebuilding camp by sitting on a Shogi camp stool. He was 49 years old at the time of his death. His dead body was once interred in Arai in Totomi Province but was reinterred later in Gokokuin in Myoshin-ji Temple in Kyoto.
He was in tune with the times and was brave, but his impulsive nature was reported to have caused him harm.
At that time, his first son Motosuke IKEDA also died, so his second son Terumasa IKEDA succeeded him as the head of Ikeda family.