Hosokawa Fujitaka

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Hosokawa Fujitaka (細川 藤孝; 1534 - 1610) was a Japanese daimyō and military general who later became a renowned tea master and poet. Initially serving under the Ashikaga shogunate, he became Oda Nobunaga's retainer. After the Honnō-ji incident, he served Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Battle of Yamazaki, despite his own son Hosokawa Tadaoki's marriage to Akechi Tama, the daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide.

After the battle and Mitsuhide's defeat, Fujitaka relinquished his title and leadership to Tadaoki, took Buddhist vows, and adopted the name Hosokawa Yūsai (細川 幽斎), but still served Hideyoshi as an advisor. After Hideyoshi's death, he defied the western army's advances and inadvertently aided Tokugawa Ieyasu's victory in the Battle of Sekigahara.

Biography

Early life

In 1541, Fujitaka was adopted into the Hosokawa family at age seven. Within the next three decades, he served under the last of the Ashikaga shoguns, and by 1573, he became a vassal under Oda Nobunaga. In 1571, Nobunaga entrusted him with Shōryū-ji Castle, where he rebuilt its defenses by installing a double moat. In 1578, his son Tadaoki married Akechi Mitsuhide's daughter Tama.

The smuggling ring

In 1582, after Nobunaga's death at Honnō-ji, Fujitaka considered his options on whether to support Mitsuhide or Hideyoshi. Meanwhile, he had trouble dealing with his finances regarding his silver intake and tasked his second-in-command Yoshisada with managing them. However, unbeknownst to Fujitaka, Yoshisada took advantage of his finances and began a silver-smuggling operation. With the help of Akechi clan soldiers and Portuguese traders, Yoshisada stole silver and used it to buy teppō firearms, which he then resold to bandits at a higher price.

Upon discovering the smuggling operation, Fujitaka, unaware of Yoshisade's involvement, enlisted his help to investigate it. This led Yoshisade to frame Mai and her fellow cohorts as the sole perpetrators. When the Kakushiba ikki members Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke arrived at Sukyo-ji Temple and met Fujitaka, he asked them to help him investigate and dismantle the operation altogether. After Naoe and Yasuke assassinated all the conspirators, they learned that Yoshisada was in fact the enterprise's mastermind. They reported back to Fujitaka with their findings, but he demanded proof of Yoshisada's guilt.

Thus, the pair traveled to Miyazu Castle and confronted Yoshisada, who admitted his guilt but reprimanded them for exposing his betrayal and attacked them. Yoshisada was ultimately defeated, and Naoe and Yasuke recovered his written confession from his personal effects. Returning to Sukyo-ji Temple, they gave Fujitaka the confession, much to his dismay. Fujitaka then thanked them for their work, decided not to ally himself with the Akechi clan, and gave Naoe and Yasuke gold as their reward.

Later life and death

After serving with Hideyoshi at the Battle of Yamazaki, Fujitaka later took Buddhist vows and became known as Yūsai. He served under Hideyoshi until his death in 1598. On 19 August 1600, Fujitaka defended his castle from siege by a detachment of Ishida Mitsunari's Western army under Ikoma Chikamasa; his preoccupying of 15,000 soldiers indirectly led to Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern army winning the Battle of Sekigahara. He ultimately retired to a life of mastering the tea ceremony and waka poetry, which played a vital part in establishing the etiquette and rules for the Tokugawa shogunate. He died on 6 October 1610 in Kyoto at the age of 76.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Shadows