Date Masamune

File:Date Masamune statue.jpg

A modern equestrian statue of Masamune.

Date Masamune (伊達 政宗 Date Masamune, 1567-1636) was a powerful daimyo in the Tohoku region of Japan. He was known as an outstanding tactician.

Dokuganryū: the One-Eyed Dragon

Date Masamune was the eldest son of Date Terumune, born in Yonezawa Castle (in modern Yamagata Prefecture). At the age of 18, Masamune succeeded his father 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 struggle for power that he had with his own father. Terumune's father had also fought his father before him. Shortly afterwards a Date retainer named Ouchi Sadatsuna defected to the Ashina clan of the Aizu region. Masamune declared war on the Ashina for this betrayal.

The Date family was founded in the early Kamakura period 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, 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 Yoshitsune.

The man Masamune

A letter written by Masamune to Pope Paul V.

Masamune is known for a few things that made him stand out from other daimyo of the time. In particular his famous helmet gained him a fearsome reputation. As a child Date Masamune lost his eye from smallpox. He actually pulled his own eye out. Because of his missing eye, his own mother condemned him as being unfit to take over as clan leader and began favoring Masamune's brother as heir. According to some historians, Masamune's own mother tried to poison him one night while serving him dinner. Masamune consequently killed his own brother in order to come to power, stating "I thought that we could get along as brothers, perhaps in the next life..."

In previous generations, Masamune's family had consolidated their power over their domain and fostered a sense of stability in the region by marrying off relatives to neighboring clans. With the rise of Masamune, however, formerly amicable relationships were cast aside as he began to attack and conquer all of the surrounding lands, even those owned by his kin in Mutsu and Dewa Provinces. Shocked by his ruthlessness, a neighboring family, the Hatakeyama, desperately appealed to Date Terumune to rein in his son's military campaigns. Called to dinner by the Hatakeyama, Terumune said that he was unable to control his son. In an unheard of act of desperation, the family kidnapped Terumune and attempted to take him back with them. Masamune, who was out hunting, received word of the kidnapping. Masamune and his men closed in on the kidnappers as they were about to cross a river, and Terumune shouted, "Don't worry about me! Open Fire! Kill everyone!" Masamune's men did as they were told and killed everyone, including Terumune. Masamune continued the war and tortured and killed the families of those who had kidnapped his father.

After defeating the Ashina in 1589, he made 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 him into submission. Masamune expected to be executed, wearing his finest clothes and showing no fear. Not wanting further trouble, Hideyoshi spared his life. After serving Hideyoshi for a time, he was given 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 turned 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 Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Tokugawa Ieyasu awarded Masamune the lordship of the huge and profitable Sendai domain, which made Masamune one of Japan’s most powerful daimyo. Tokugawa had promised Masamune a one million koku domain, but alas, even after substantial improvements 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 what was then 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 remote, backwater region of Tohoku. Although initially faced with attacks by hostile clans, he managed to overcome them after a few defeats and eventually ruled one of the largest fiefdoms 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 possible that Masamune himself was secretly a Christian convert. He established relations with the Pope in Rome, although he was likely motivated at least in part by a desire for foreign technology similar to that of other lords, such as Oda Nobunaga. For 270 years Tohoku was a place of tourism, trade and prosperity. Matsushima, for instance, a series of tiny islands, was praised for its beauty and serenity by the wandering haiku poet Matsuo Basho.

The Japanese-built 1613 galleon Date Maru, or San Juan Bautista, in Ishinomaki, Japan (replica).

Masamune's greatest achievement was funding and backing one of Japan's only journeys of far-flung diplomacy and exploration in this period. Masamune showed sympathy 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 Tokugawa Ieyasu. Date Masamune allowed Sotelo as well as other missionaries to practice their religion and win converts in Tohoku. After a while Date Masamune ordered the building of the exploration ship Date Maru or San Juan Bautista using foreign (European) ship-building techniques. He sent one of his retainers, Hasekura Tsunenaga, Sotelo, and an embassy of 180 people on a successful voyage to establish relations with the Pope in Rome. This expedition 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 had never funded these sorts of ventures so it was probably the first successful voyage. At least 5 members of the expedition stayed in Coria (Seville) of Spain for the rest of their lives to avoid the persecution of Christians in Japan. 600 of their descendants, with the surname Japón (Japan), are now living in Spain.

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 Date Masamune. Toyotomi Hideyoshi reduced the size of his land holdings after his tardiness in coming to the Siege of Odawara against Hojo Ujimasa. Later in his life, Tokugawa Ieyasu increased the size of his lands again but was constantly suspicious of Masamune and his policies. He was suspicious of foreign missionaries, whom he perceived as a threat to his power. Because of this he ordered the death of Padre Sotelo after his journey around the world. Although Tokugawa Ieyasu and other allies of the Date were always suspicious of him, Date Masamune for the most part served the Tokugawa and Toyotomi loyally. He took part in Hideyoshi's campaigns in Korea, and in the Osaka campaigns. When Tokugawa Ieyasu was on his deathbed, Masamune came to visit him and read him a piece of Zen poetry.

Masamune in popular culture

Date Masamune has featured in several video games including Koei's Kessen series (where he is a relatively minor officer), and Inindo: Way of the Ninja as the daimyo of the Rikuchu province.

• Sengoku Musou / Samurai Warriors (where he is a playable character). His weapon in the first game is a pair of bokken.In the second game it is changed to a western-style sabre and a pair of pistols.

• anime/manga series Samurai Deeper Kyo (where he is known alternatively as Bontenmaru). '

• anime/manga series Mirage of Blaze

• He also appears in Capcom's Devil Kings game which is the English version of Sengoku Basara, although he is called Azure Dragon. In Sengoku Basara, he's known to speak some Japanese-style English, or Engrish. This quirky characteristic is absent in Devil Kings, however. His joke weapon is Alastor, formerly used by Dante of Devil May Cry's fame.

• Masmune also appears in the PC game Shogun: Total War as a general in the Uesugi army but not until later in the game (around 1580)

• Date Masamune, leading the Date Clan, appears in the Samurai Warlords Mod (aka the Shogun Mod) for the PC game Medieval Total War

• Date Masamune is the subject of the first 1/6 scale 12 inch samurai action figure produced by DID corporation, due for release in Fall 2006.

Date Masamune was also the main subject of the Japanese network NHK's popular and famous yearly serialized historical drama, often called Taiga, for 1987. It was called Dokuganryu Masamune (One-eyed Dragon, Masamune) and starred the then young Watanabe Ken as Date Masumune in what still is the most popular of NHK's Taiga ever to air.

External links

• The official website of the Date clan
• Zuihoden--The mausoleum of Date Masamune. When he died, twenty of his followers killed themselves to serve him in the next life. They lay in state at Zuihoden
• Aoba-jo (Sendai Castle) website
• An example of Date-influenced architecture