Saimura Masahiro (斎村政広)
Masahiro SAIMURA (1562 - December 3, 1600) was a busho (Japanese military commander) of Azuchi-Momoyama period. His father was Masahide AKAMATSU and his mother was a daughter of Harumasa AKAMATSU. Originally he used Akamatsu as his surname, so his original names were Hiromichi, Hirohide (広秀) and Hirohide (広英) AKAMATSU. He resided in Tatsuno-jo Castle in the Harima Province, and later in Takeda-jo Castle in the Tajima Province. His common name was Yasaburo. His government post was Jugoinoge (Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade), Sahyoe no suke (Assistant Captain of the Left Division of Middle Palace Guards). His wife was a daughter of Naoie UKITA (She was a younger sister of Hideie UKITA). He had sons named Jiroemon and Zenemon.
Biography
In 1570 his father then followed by his older brother, Hirosada AKAMATSU, died young, so he succeeded to the family estate. The bloodline of the Akamatsu clan of the Masahiro's family line was the main lineage of the clan rather than that of the Yoshisuke AKAMATSU family, the head family. In the Chugoku Conquest by Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI in obedience to Nobunaga ODA's orders, he fought against them at the early stage but later surrendered. Following Hideyoshi, he put himself under Masakatsu HACHISUKA's command. Thereafter he achieved military exploits, joining the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute, and so on, and was awarded 22,000 koku of Takeda-jo Castle in the Tajima Province. He also joined the Kyushu Conquest, the Siege of Odawara, the Bunroku-Keicho War, and so on.
Besides, there was another aspect about him, a man of letters; for example he took lessons from Seika FUJIWARA, a Confucianist.
In 1600 he took the Western side in the Battle of Sekigahara and attacked Tanabe-jo Castle in the Tango Province which was the castle of Yusai HOSOKAWA (the Battle of Tanabe-jo Castle). However, when the Western side lost the Battle of Sekigahara, he went over to the Eastern side and attacked Tottori-jo Castle in the Inaba Province, the castle of Nagafusa MIYABE who sided with the Western side. Later, however, this fire attack against the castle town came into question, and when the battle was over he was ordered to commit seppuku (suicide by disembowelment) by Ieyasu TOKUGAWA, for which he committed suicide with a sword in Shinkyo-ji Temple of Tottori. However, there has been a view that this fire attack was a plot of Korenori KAMEI who commanded the troops to attack Tottori-jo Castle and Kamei laid the blame on Masahiro alone who put the plot into practice.
By the way, the surname of Saimura comes from Sai-mura Village (才村) (or Sai-mura Village佐江村) where Masahiro was evacuated for a while after his father, Masahide, died.