Sasaki Hidetsuna (佐々木秀綱)
Hidetsuna SASAKI was a busho (Japanese military commander) who lived in the late Kamakura period and the beginning of the Muromachi period.
Biography
He was born the first son of Doyo SASAKI, who served Takauji ASHIKAGA and greatly contributed to formation of the Muromachi bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun).
In 1338, he worked as a kokushi (provincial governor). When Akiie KITABATAKE, after capturing Kamakura which was guarded by Yoshiakira ASHIKAGA, closed in on Kyoto from Mutsu Province, Hidetsuna went to the border between Omi Province and Mino Province together with KO no Moroyasu, KO no Morofuyu, Yoriharu HOSOKAWA, Ujinobu SASAKI and his father, Doyo SASAKI, and stopped Akiie's march.
In 1340, he got angry when his retainer was beaten by a sohei (armed priest) of the gosho (Imperial Palace) of Myohoin, who was a younger brother of the Emperor Kogon, and set fire to the palace together with his father and burnt Kennin-ji Temple by spread of fire. Enryaku-ji Temple required the Imperial Court and the bakufu to sentence both of them to death, but the bakufu left the matter as it was; after Enryaku-ji Temple made a stronger protest, both of them were temporarily exiled to Yamabe-gun, Kazusa Province (Kazusa Province). On their way, they gave a drinking party on every road and played with beauty in every inn and therefore they did not look like exiles.
In 1345, he served as kebiishi (a police and judicial chief) and was in charge of security when a memorial service was held at Tenryu-ji Temple for mourning the Emperor Godaigo.
In 1351, Takauji and his younger brother, Tadayoshi ASHIKAGA, had a conflict between them in the Kanno Disturbance, and Hidetsuna joined together with his father, leading more than three thousand mounted warriors, in the army of Takauji with less than three hundred mounted warriors, which Takauji took up their position in Omi after obtaining an Imperial order to send a punitive force against Tadayoshi,
On July 22, 1353, when he served as Samurai-dokoro no tsukasa (officer of the Board of Retainers) and was guarding the Emperor Gokogon and Yoshiakira ASHIKAGA who had been forced out from Kyoto and were escaping to Higashi-omi (eastern Omi), he was attacked by Sadasuke HORIGUCHI, who was the remnant of the Nitta clan, at Mano no ura near Katata and was killed in the battle.