Database: Azai Nagamasa

General and warlord of the Sengoku period, Azai Nagamasa inherited the leadership of the Azai clan in 1560 at the age of 15 and became the lord of Odani Castle in Ōmi. He consolidated his vassalage and strengthened his power in the south of the province by integrating the local barons of the province and taking advantage of the region's commercial boom where he was established. He attacked and pursued his neighbor Rokkaku Yoshitaka, which allowed him to seize almost the entire province. After his marriage to the younger sister of Oda Nobunaga, who had himself considerably strengthened his power over Owari and Mino, he became an ally of the latter. But, faced with Nobunaga's rise to power, he decided to ally with the Asakura established in Echizen, as well as the forces of the Hongan-ji of Ishiyama and stand against Nobunaga. The latter, allied with Tokugawa Ieyasu, inflicted a heavy defeat at the Battle of Anegawa in 1570. Nagamasa temporarily rallied to Nobunaga but took up arms against him again in 1573 after allying with the Asakura and the monastery of Mount Hiei. After the destruction of the Asakura by Nobunaga, the latter turned against Nagamasa who found himself besieged in Odani Castle in 1573. Nagamasa had to commit suicide. Before his death, Nagamasa sent his wife to Nobunaga and entrusted him with his three daughters: the eldest, Yodo-gimi, became the official concubine of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then his wife, and eventually bore him a son. As for the youngest, she was married to the future 2nd shōgun, Tokugawa Hidetada, the son of Ieyasu.