27 Facts About Ishida Mitsunari

Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan.

Ishida Mitsunari is known by his court title, Jibu-no-sho.

Mitsunari was born in 1559 at the north of Omi Province, and was the second son of Ishida Masatsugu, who was a retainer for the Azai clan.

The Ishida withdrew from service after the Azai's defeat in 1573 at the Siege of Odani Castle.

In 1577, Ishida Mitsunari met Toyotomi Hideyoshi, when the former was still young and the latter was the daimyo of Nagahama.

When Hideyoshi engaged in a campaign in the Chugoku region, Ishida Mitsunari assisted his lord in attacks against castles like the Tottori Castle and Takamatsu Castle.

Ishida Mitsunari was appointed one of the five bugyo, or top administrators of Hideyoshi's government, along with Asano Nagamasa, Maeda Gen'i, Mashita Nagamori and Natsuka Masaie.

In 1592, Ishida Mitsunari participated in the Japanese invasions of Korea as one of the Three Bureaucrats with Mashita Nagamori and Asano Nagamasa.

In 1597, Ishida Mitsunari was ordered by Hideyoshi to persecute Christians.

Ishida Mitsunari had high status among the bureaucrats of Hideyoshi's government, and was known for his unbending character.

Ishida Mitsunari had many friends; two of the most notable being the famous samurai Otani Yoshitsugu and Shima Sakon.

However, Ishida Mitsunari was on bad terms with some daimyo that were known as good warriors, including Kuroda Nagamasa and Hachisuka Iemasa, as well as Hideyoshi's nephew Kobayakawa Hideaki.

Ishida Mitsunari's support came largely from the three of Hideyoshi's regents: Ukita Hideie, Mori Terumoto, and Uesugi Kagekatsu, who came from the south and west of Japan, with the addition of the Uesugi clan in the north.

Ishida Mitsunari's remains were buried at Sangen-in, a sub-temple of the Daitoku-ji, Kyoto.

Ishida Mitsunari had three sons and three daughters with his wife.

However, other records based on documented correspondence of the operation have stated that the water flooding attack was actually an instruction from Toyotomi Hideyoshi himself, which was relayed by Asano Nagamasa and Kimura Shigekore, while Ishida Mitsunari only executed the strategy and actually did not have freedom to devise his own initiatives.

Ishida Mitsunari's reputation has somewhat recovered since then, with later historians note his skill in planning and earlier battlefield victories, and that Sekigahara could easily have gone his way had a few more lords remained loyal.

However, Ishida Mitsunari had learned of this from a report by a servant of Toyotomi Hideyori named Jiemon Kuwajima, and fled to Satake Yoshinobu's mansion together with Shima Sakon and others to hide.

The next day, the seven generals surrounded Fushimi Castle with their soldiers as they knew Ishida Mitsunari was hiding there.

Ieyasu then negotiated a promise to let Ishida Mitsunari retire and to review the assessment of the Battle of Ulsan Castle in Korea which had been a major source of this incident.

Ishida Mitsunari had his second son, Yuki Hideyasu, to escort Mitsunari to Sawayama Castle.

The one who led and examined the remains of Ishida Mitsunari was archaeologist Buntaro Adachi.

Adachi restored Ishida Mitsunari's damaged skull, made a plaster cast, and recorded measurements of his upper arm bone and other bones.

In 1943, a student of Adachi, Kenji Seino took further investigation, relying on photographs of Ishida Mitsunari's remains to conduct interviews with Adachi.

When Seino completed his investigation, he discovered that Ishida Mitsunari's head was long from front to back and he had crooked teeth, and it was estimated that Ishida Mitsunari's age at the time of his death was about 41.

Seino reported that the height of Ishida Mitsunari was estimated to be 156 centimeters.

Ishida Mitsunari gave this sword to Fukuhara Nagatake [the husband of his younger sister]; the sword was taken by Eastern army general named Mizuno Katsushige after the Western army defeated battle of Sekigahara.