Akechi Mitsuhide

Akechi Mitsuhide (明智 光秀; 10 March 1528 – 2 July 1582) was a general under the daimyō Oda Nobunaga during the Sengoku period of Japan. He is best remembered for his rebellion against Nobunaga, leading an attack against his lord at the Honnō-ji temple in June 1582, which resulted in the daimyō's death.

Secretly, Mitsuhide's rebellion came as a result of his affiliation with the Shinbakufu, a group that sought to overthrow Nobunaga and restore the Ashikaga shogunate. Mitsuhide served the group under the alias The Two-Faced, and was influenced to betray Nobunaga by the Portuguese Templars, who financed the Shinbakufu's operations and took his children Tama and Mitsuyoshi to ensure his loyalty.

Following Nobunaga's death, Mitsuhide and his co-conspirators were hunted down by the Kakushiba ikki, culminating in Mitsuhide's defeat at the Battle of Yamazaki after failing to raise enough support to his cause, and his death at the hands of Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke.

Biography

Early life

Akechi Mitsuhide was born on 10 March 1528 at Tara Castle in Mino Province to Akechi Mitsutsuna and Omaki no Kata. He was betrothed to Tsumaki Hiroko in 1545, and fathered at least three children with her: a daughter named Tama, a son named Mitsuyoshi, and a second daughter.

Originally serving Asakura Yoshikage, Mitsuhide later entered the service of Oda Nobunaga as a retainer and gradually rose in the ranks to become one of his lord's most powerful and influential generals. He fought in multiple campaigns in Tamba and other regions, and was rewarded for his loyal service by being granted the fief of Sakamoto Castle near Lake Biwa.

In 1579, Nobunaga attacked Hatano Hideharu at Yakami Castle for breaking his surrender to the Oda clan. According to an unproven yet popular anecdote, Mitsuhide sent his mother to Yakami as part of a hostage exchange. However, when Hideharu brazenly requested an audience with his rival, Nobunaga killed him, an act which made the Hatano clan execute Mitsuhide's mother in retaliation. Holding Nobunaga responsible for his mother's death, Mitsuhide began to resent his lord, something the Templars Nuno Caro and Duarte de Melo soon took notice of and planned to use to their advantage, as Nobunaga's ambitions to unify Japan posed a threat to their plans.

Joining the Shinbakufu

By 1581, Mitsuhide had joined the Shinbakufu, a secret organization founded by the former shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiaki that aimed to eliminate Nobunaga and restore the Ashikaga shogunate. The Shinbakufu allied with the Templars, who promised them their support in exchange for the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, which were safeguarded by the Kakushiba ikki. The group had managed to retrieve two of the regalia years earlier, when they decimated the Kakushiba ikki, and focused on tracking down the third and final one.

Mitsuhide meeting the Jesuits and Diogo

Aware of the risks of betraying Nobunaga, Mitsuhide continued to serve his lord while secretly plotting behind his back, awaiting the right moment to strike. On 8 March 1581, when European Jesuits arrived in Kyoto seeking an audience with his lord, Mitsuhide personally greeted Alessandro Valignano and Luís Fróis and informed them that Nobunaga wished to see them, before adding that Nobunaga had requested that their African servant, Diogo, join them. Valignano protested the request, insisting that Diogo did not speak Japanese, but Mitsuhide made it clear that Nobunaga was not to be turned down.

During the audience, Mitsuhide sat at Nobunaga's side as Valignano requested free movement for his Christian priests throughout Japan. Nobunaga took particular interest in Diogo, noting how the man observed every threat in the room. Mitsuhide then ordered all of Nobunaga's retainers and the Jesuits out of the room so the daimyō could speak with Diogo in private. Mitsuhide continued to sit silently as Nobunaga spoke to Diogo and then re-invited the Jesuits back in to grant their request, on the condition that Diogo be transferred into his service.

Siege of Iga

"Your life's work is undone tonight."

―Mitsuhide preparing to finish off the mortally wounded Nagato, 1581.

Six months later, following a shinobi attack on Azuchi Castle, Nobunaga called all his generals to the war room, where Mitsuhide criticized the attack and the absence of Hashiba Hideyoshi. Tokugawa Ieyasu responded that while they drank and debated, Hideyoshi was out securing their lord's victory. Mitsuhide barely had time to react indignantly when Nobunaga entered with Diogo—by now a samurai known as Yasuke. Mitsuhide protested the presence of a foreigner in the council, but Nobunaga asserted Yasuke's loyalty and claimed that he made for an invaluable advisor due to possessing an outsider's perspective.

Hideyoshi soon entered, carrying a box with the head of Bessho Nagaharu, who gave his life after a long siege to spare his followers. Nobunaga commended Nagaharu's actions and urged Mitsuhide to be strategic like Hideyoshi and humble like Yasuke. Though the daimyō boasted of their victory over the Ikkō-ikki monks in the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War and the Bessho clan, Ieyasu reminded them that the province of Iga remained a problem after Oda Nobukatsu's failed assault. Mitsuhide concurred with Hideyoshi's suggestion to attack Iga, but proposed an assault where the Igans would least expect it. Nobunaga chose to defer to Yasuke, who supported Mitsuhide's strategy.

On 30 September 1581, Nobunaga's forces laid siege to Iga. Taking advantage of the invasion, a masked Mitsuhide accompanied the rest of the Shinbakufu as they infiltrated the province to search for the last Imperial Regalia. Ido Yoshihiro successfully retrieved the regalia's box from Mihata Kofun, but was assassinated by the kunoichi Fujibayashi Naoe inside Katano Castle while awaiting his compatriots' arrival.

After Yaita Wakasa and Wada Koretake ambushed Naoe outside the castle and recovered the box, Mitsuhide and the remaining Shinbakufu members arrived and were confronted by Naoe's father, Nagato. Although he initially put up a strong fight, Nagato was eventually overwhelmed by the Shinbakufu, and Mitsuhide delivered the final blow as he stabbed Nagato through the abdomen with his sword.

With the Assassin at his mercy, Mitsuhide taunted him that the Kakushiba ikki's life work was undone, and raised his sword to finish him off. However, Koretake intervened and asked that their enemies be left to die in pain, a request that Ashikaga Yoshiaki granted. Having achieved their primary objective, the Shinbakufu departed with the box, leaving Nagato and Naoe to succumb to their wounds.

Betraying Nobunaga

Naoe: "What do you get from this?"

Mitsuhide: "I am among those who might succeed him. I might even become Shogun. But this is not about any one of us. If we do nothing, Lord Nobunaga's madness will destroy everything. Our country will fall. Will you help me kill him?"

—Mitsuhide requesting Naoe's help to eliminate Nobunaga, 1582.

In June 1582, Mitsuhide began making the final preparations for his betrayal of Nobunaga, planning to attack the daimyō while he was at the Honnō-ji temple in Kyoto, unprotected due to having sent all of his generals away. Before the attack, Mitsuhide, as a precaution and a gesture of good faith, sent his children Tama and Mitsuyoshi to Tada in Tamba under Nuno Caro's discretion, promising to retrieve them once he knew it was safe to do so. However, in sending his children to the Templars, the general unknowingly doomed them, as Tama was forced to join the Order and Mitsuyoshi was taken hostage by Caro to ensure his sister's loyalty.

After learning that Naoe had survived the events in Iga and began hunting down the Shinbakufu as revenge for killing her father, Mitsuhide saw an opportunity to use the kunoichi's vendetta to his advantage. Following Naoe's assassinations of Yaita Wakasa and Wada Koretake, Mitsuhide had one of his messengers carry a letter addressed to her in an area frequented by Naoe's spies, knowing that the spies would intercept the note and it would reach its intended recipient.

In the letter, Mitsuhide asked Naoe to come see him at the place where she had killed her first Shinbakufu target, Ido Yoshihiro. Awaiting Naoe's arrival at Katano Castle, Mitsuhide calmly prepared himself tea and greeted the kunoichi once she entered his chamber. After revealing his knowledge of the Shinbakufu and claiming that he had also been hunting the group, the general showed Naoe the mask of the Shinbakufu's leader and told her that the leader was none other than Nobunaga. He then asked for Naoe's help in eliminating the daimyō before his "madness" destroyed all of Japan.

When a skeptical Naoe asked what he would gain from Nobunaga's death, Mitsuhide claimed that he also sought revenge on the daimyō for his mother's death and that he could succeed Nobunaga, perhaps even becoming shōgun. He then reminded Naoe that Nobunaga would not be unguarded forever and that they had a small window to succeed. After the kunoichi agreed to assist him, Mitsuhide introduced her to his son-in-law Ise Sadaoki, whom he told Naoe to meet in Kyoto for more instructions before she left.

After Naoe retrieved a series of documents meant to help smuggle her inside Honnō-ji, Mitsuhide met with her and Sadaoki at a village north of Shōryū-ji Castle, where he informed her that his forces would attack once she was inside the temple. However, while Mitsuhide's forces engaged Nobunaga's, his plan went horribly awry. When Naoe came close to killing Nobunaga, she was thwarted by the intervention of Yasuke and was convinced by the daimyō of Mitsuhide's deceit. Nobunaga subsequently committed seppuku before Yasuke decapitated him, leaving his head unsalvageable. In the aftermath, Mitsuhide's soldiers brought Yasuke before him. Declaring that the black samurai did not belong in Japan, Mitsuhide ordered Luís Fróis to take Yasuke back to his homeland and departed.

Death

Ironically, Mitsuhide's attempt to use Naoe ended up backfiring on him, as she later formed an alliance with Yasuke and re-established the Kakushiba ikki to hunt down the Shinbakufu. His ambitions to replace his lord and conquer Japan also ended in failure, as none of Nobunaga's generals took his side and branded Mitsuhide a traitor, forcing him to go into hiding.

On 2 July 1582, Mitsuhide was holed up in Shōryū-ji Castle when it was besieged by Hashiba Hideyoshi's army. In the chaos, Mitsuhide found that Yasuke had breached the tenshu. Remarking that he should've had him killed back at Honnō-ji, Mitsuhide left three of his samurai to deal with his pursuer while he fled on horseback to Ōyamazaki Village. Though one of his guards offered to cover his retreat, Mitsuhide considered his surroundings and instead chose to make his last stand, dismissing the guard.

Soon confronted by both Naoe and Yasuke, Mitsuhide first addressed the latter, remarking that he once bore the same level of loyalty to Nobunaga as him, before they massacred thousands of women, children, and monks in Enryakuji, claiming his betrayal was to stop Nobunaga's warmongering. In turn, Yasuke called him out on his hypocrisy. Turning to Naoe, Mitsuhide admitted that the Shinbakufu had used him just like he had used her, and remained shameless over her father Nagato's death. He then condemned his opponents for supporting Hideyoshi, whom he labeled an unworthy peasant, as Nobunaga's successor and declared that their actions would destroy Japan before fighting them.

Despite his best efforts, Naoe and Yasuke managed to grievously wound him. With nothing left to lose, Mitsuhide identified Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the leader of the Shinbakufu and revealed that he was in possession of the Imperial Regalia stolen from Iga. He then acknowledged Yasuke as the greatest of all the Oda clan's samurai. With his foes refusing to listen to him anymore, Mitsuhide requested that he be allowed to die as a samurai and laid down his sword. However, Naoe spitefully declared that his life's work was undone, the same words he had used against Nagato, before stabbing him in the throat with her Hidden Blade.

Behind the scenes

Akechi Mitsuhide is a historical figure and character who was first mentioned in the 2014 mobile card game Assassin's Creed: Memories before featuring as a major antagonist in the 2025 game Assassin's Creed: Shadows, where he is voiced by Canadian actor Kevan Ohtsji.

Historically, after his army was defeated at the Battle of Yamazaki, Mitsuhide fled from the fighting and was killed soon afterwards under uncertain circumstances. The most widely accepted account has him being murdered by bandit leader Nakamura Chōbei while passing through Ogurisu, a small village near Yamazaki.

Gallery

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  Close-up of Akechi Mitsuhide
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  Mitsuhide with Alessandro Valignano, Luís Fróis, and Diogo outside Honnō-ji
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  Mitsuhide standing at Nobunaga's side during his meeting with the Jesuits
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  Mitsuhide armored

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Memories (first mentioned)
• Echoes of History – Shadows (mentioned only)
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows (first appearance)