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Nihonmatsu Yoshitsugu

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Hatakeyama Yoshitsugu (二本松義継, 1552-1586) was the son of Hatakeyama Yoshikuni and the 14th head over the Hatakeyama clan of Mutsu--appropriately deemed as the 'Nihonmatsu Hatakeyama'--during the latter Sengoku period of Feudal Japan. Ascending to headship by the 1560's, Yoshitsugu consistently clashed against two other clans stationed within the province of Mutsu: the Date and Ashina. Obtaining a high level of power after consecutively defeating his primary rival, Date Terumune, the leading head over Date, Yoshitsugu was able to firmly establish himself as a powerful figure among others in the face of his ancestors, who traditionally fought against the Date's control of the land for many generations. As Terumune allowed his son, Masamune to succeed as his clan's new head in 1584, Yoshitsugu showed signs of desperation against this new ruler and, after many failed attempts to make peace with Masamune, resolved that it would be best to form an offensive strategy against the Date then to be destroyed by such an unreasonable foe.

In resolution, Yoshitsugu willingly turned to mediate with Terumune by feasting with him at the castle of Nihonmatsu--a castle that was under the jurisdictional control of the Hatakeyama--on the 28th of November, 1585. As the two lords parted with eachother that same night, Yoshitsugu personally approached Terumune in his residence the following day, for the sake of thanking him for dinner, and then followed by holding the former by swordpoint and carrying him off to Nihonmatsu with a large entourage of Hatakeyama soldiers to essentially back his retreat. At this critical moment in time, Masamune obtained word of such a drastic incident as he was presently hunting falcons with a large group of arqubusiers, and immediately took pursuit, evidently approaching the hostage party during their arrival before the Abukuma River. Opening fire upon the enemy force after his father had declared that death to him was nothing, Terumune and the vast majority of the party was either cut down or gunned to death, while Yoshitsugu managed to return to Nihonmatsu castle with less than a handful of soldiers remaining under his protection. Managing to defend his primary base of power from besiegement for many months following the incident involving Terumune's death, Yoshitsugu became convinced by the sympathetic clan of Soma to surrender, as opposed to being humiliated through an eventual defeat by the exceedingly influenced Masamune, who possessed far more power than he did to all means. Thus giving in during the year of 1586, Masamune did not possess the slightest of intentions to allow the treacherous Yoshitsugu to live when not only facing the rationality of the situation, but additionally the unresolved vengeance of his father, and thus cut off Yoshitsugu's head, exposing it before the entire populace.

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