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Date Masamune

Type Figure Region Japan Time 1567–1636 Also known as One-Eyed Dragon、Date the One-Eyed Dragon、Bontenmaru

Date Masamune (1567–1636) was a daimyo from the late Sengoku period to the early Edo period, and 17th head of the Date clan of Mutsu.…

Timeline

  1. 1567–1570Yonezawa Castle · Dewa ProvinceMasamune was the legitimate son of Date Harumune, with the childhood name Bontenmaru, born in Yonezawa. Around age five he lost his right eye to smallpox and thereafter became known as the 'One-Eyed Dragon'. At this time the daimyō of Ōshū were fragmented and fighting one another, laying the groundwork for his later unification of the region.
  2. 1581–1590Hitotoribashi · Mutsu ProvinceAfter succeeding as clan head in 1581, he suppressed dissent within the clan with decisive force; in 1585 he defeated the Ashina clan at the Battle of Hitotoribashi, and in 1589 conquered the Ashina, Yūki, and other powers, essentially unifying Ōshū and becoming the strongest daimyo in Tōhoku.
  3. 1591–1636Sendai Castle · Mutsu ProvinceAfter submitting to Toyotomi Hideyoshi he took part in the Odawara Campaign and belonged to the Eastern Army at Sekigahara. In the Edo period he was granted the million-koku Sendai Domain, built Sendai Castle and developed the castle town; in 1613 he dispatched the Keichō Embassy to Spain and Rome. He remained active in shogunal politics into his later years and died of illness in 1636.

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