Date Terumune

Date Terumune (伊達 輝宗, 1544 – November 29, 1585) was a Japanese samurai clan leader of the Sengoku period.[1] He had close relationship with Oda Nobunaga, one of the leading figures of the period.

In this Japanese name, the surname is Date.

Date Terumune
伊達輝宗
Head of Date clan
In office
?–1585
Preceded byDate Harumune
Succeeded byDate Masamune
Personal details
Born1544
DiedNovember 29, 1585(1585-11-29) (aged 40–41)
Resting placeYonezawa, Yamagata
NationalityJapanese
Spouse(s)Yoshihime
ChildrenDate Masamune
Date Masamichi
Date Hideo
Chiko-hime
Parents
RelativesOnamihime (sister)
Mogami Yoshiaki (brother-in-law)
Military service
Allegiance Date clan

Biography

Terumune's childhood name was Hikotaro (彦太郎) later Sojiro (総次郎). He was born a warrior since his family is often in conflict with its neighbors.[2] Records show that Nobunaga cultivated a close relationship with Terumune. The daimyo often confided in him affairs of the state through letters.[3] During his ucampaigns unifying Japan, he sent Terumune a letter boasting how he annihilated tens of thousands in Echizen and Kaga.[4]

Death

An account cited him as party to the negotiation with a local rival called Hatakeyama Yoshitsugu.[5] At this time, his son Date Masamune appear to be leading the clan. Yoshitsugu was invited to a feast after an alliance was forged. A day after, when Masamune took the guest hunting, the latter's men abducted the undefended Terumune.[6][5] Yoshitsugu stabbed Terumune to his death when he panicked as Masamune and his men caught up with him by the banks of the Abukuma River.[5] A version of this account stated that Terumune was taken to the kidnapper's fort, where he was slain during Terumune's siege.[2]

Family
  • Father: Date Harumune
  • Mother: Kubohime (1521-1594)
  • Wife: Yoshihime (1548-1623)
  • Sister: Onamihime
  • Children:
    • Date Masamune by Yoshihime
    • Date Masamichi (1568-1590) by Yoshihime
    • Chikohime by Yoshihime
    • Senshihime by Yoshihime

Daimyo

Terumune succeeded his father Harumune; and he became the sixteenth head of the Date clan of Mutsu Province.[7]

When Oda Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582, Terumune gave his clan's support to Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the power struggle which followed.[8]

Terumune was the father of Date Masamune,[1][9] who succeeded him as clan leader in 1584.[10]

The emblem (mon) of the Date clan

In fiction

In NHK's 1987 Taiga drama Dokuganryū Masamune, Terumune was played by Kin'ya Kitaōji.[11]

References
  1. Turnbull, Stephen. (2012). Samurai Commanders: 1577-1638, Vol, 2, p. 52.
  2. Hartshorne, Anna C. (1902). Japan and Her People. Philadelphia, PA: H. T. Coates & Company. p. 312.
  3. McMullin, N. (1984). Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan. Guildford, Surrey: Princeton University Press. p. 75. ISBN 0-691-07291-4.
  4. Turnbull, Stephen (2012). Japanese Fortified Temples and Monasteries AD 710–1602. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-84908-033-0.
  5. Turnbull, Stephen (2012). Samurai Commanders (2): 1577–1638. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78200-015-0.
  6. Japan, Asiatic Society of (1893). Transactions. Yokohama: R. Meiklejohn & Co. p. 11.
  7. "Date Terumune" at The Japan Biographical Encyclopedia & Who's Who, Issue 3 (1964), p. 121.
  8. Meriwether, Colyer. (1898). "Life of Date Masamune," Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. XXI (1893), p. 11.
  9. Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & Co. p. 236. ISBN 9781854095237.
  10. Meriwether, p. 8.
  11. "大河ドラマ 独眼竜政宗" (in Japanese). NHK. Retrieved July 25, 2019.


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