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9th month, 1st day, Tenbun 20 (September 30, 1551)
Daineiji temple, Nagato Province (present-day Nagato City, Yamaguchi Prefecture)
Forces
Sue Harukata (rebel forces)
Ouchi Yoshitaka (incumbent lord)
About 13 min read
The Daineiji Incident was a coup in the 8th month of Tenbun 20 (1551), when Sue Takafusa (later Sue Harukata), a senior retainer of the Ouchi clan, rose in revolt and forced his lord, Ouchi Yoshitaka, the foremost daimyō of western Japan, to take his own life at Daineiji temple in Nagato Province (now Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture). Yoshitaka's suicide took place on the 1st day of the 9th month (30 September in the Julian calendar). The incident effectively destroyed the Ouchi clan, and the highly developed cultural sphere centered on Yamaguchi, known as the "Kyoto of the West," suffered a profound rupture.
- When: Tenbun 20 (1551). On the 20th day of the 8th month, Sue Takafusa raised his army. On the 28th day, he advanced from Wakayama Castle in Suō Province into Yamaguchi. On the 1st day of the 9th month, Ouchi Yoshitaka took his own life at Daineiji.
- Who: Sue Takafusa, senior retainer of the Ouchi clan and leader of the military faction. After the incident, he received a character from the name of the new head, Ouchi Yoshinaga, and changed his name to Harukata (this article follows common usage and refers to him as Harukata).
- What happened: Yoshitaka fled Yamaguchi for Nagato but was cornered and took his own life at Daineiji. He was aged 45 by traditional Japanese count.
- Why: Several factors have been pointed to, including Yoshitaka's emphasis on civil governance over military affairs, resentment within the military faction, and a serious conflict with Sagara Taketō, a civil-faction aide.
- Afterward: Harukata installed Ōtomo Haruhide (Ouchi Yoshinaga) as the new head and seized real power. He was defeated and killed by Mōri Motonari at the Battle of Itsukushima in Tenbun 24 (1555). In Kōji 3 (1557), Yoshinaga also took his own life, and the Ouchi clan was finished both in name and in fact.
The Ouchi clan prospered throughout the Muromachi period as the foremost daimyō house of western Japan. Yoshitaka served as shugo (provincial constable) of Suō, Nagato, Iwami, Aki, Buzen, and Chikuzen Provinces. The clan's revenue came from the Iwami silver mine and from the Japan–Ming trade, which was conducted under the kangō (tally) trade system and in which the Ouchi held a monopoly over the envoy ships to Ming. The castle town of Yamaguchi flourished as a cultural city. Yoshitaka himself was known as an aristocratic daimyō who favored letters over arms, and courtiers from Kyoto traveled down to Yamaguchi, the "Kyoto of the West." Under Yoshitaka's rule, the Ouchi reached their greatest territorial extent.
On the 20th day of the 8th month of Tenbun 20 (1551), Sue Harukata, the leading senior retainer of the Ouchi clan, raised his army. On the 28th day, he marched from his castle at Wakayama in Suō Province toward Yamaguchi. Harukata was the foremost of the Ouchi retainers and the spokesman for the military faction, which disliked Yoshitaka's civil policies and his leaning toward courtly tastes. His conflict with Sagara Taketō, the civil-faction aide at Yoshitaka's side, became irreparable and served as a breeding ground for rebellion. When Harukata's great army approached Yamaguchi, Yoshitaka gave up fighting in the city, escaped Yamaguchi, and fled to Nagato. His escape by sea was also blocked by wind and waves. On the 1st day of the 9th month, Yoshitaka entered Daineiji in Nagato Province and received a Buddhist name from the abbot Isetsu Keiju. He then took his own life. He was aged 45 by traditional count.
The death poem handed down from Yoshitaka reads: "Utsu hito mo / utaruru hito mo / morotomo ni / nyoro yaku nyoden / ōsa nyoze kan." Drawing on a verse of the Diamond Sutra, it translates as: "Both the one who strikes and the one who is struck, together, are like dew and like lightning; one should contemplate things thus." The poem is famous as a fitting final verse for Yoshitaka, a daimyō of letters. The second who performed the kaishaku was Reizei Takatoyo, a retainer and warrior-poet. After witnessing his lord's last moments, Takatoyo fought bravely at Daineiji and died in battle. In this incident, Nijō Korefusa, a former kanpaku, and Sanjō Kin'yori, a former Minister of the Left, were also caught up and killed. Both were court nobles who had been staying in Yamaguchi under Yoshitaka's protection. Kin'yori was the father of Lady Sanjō, the wife of Takeda Shingen. The cultural salon of the Kyoto of the West collapsed overnight.
After the rebellion, Harukata brought in Ōtomo Haruhide, a younger brother of Ōtomo Sōrin of Bungo Province, and had him take the name Ouchi Yoshinaga to maintain the Ouchi name. Real power remained with Harukata, but his rule did not last long. In Tenbun 24 (1555), Mōri Motonari of Aki Province lured Harukata into Itsukushima through skilled stratagems and destroyed Harukata's great army at the Battle of Itsukushima. Harukata fled in defeat and took his own life. In Kōji 3 (1557), the Mōri army's Bōchō campaign drove Yoshinaga to suicide as well, and the Ouchi clan was destroyed in name and in fact.
In the Japan–Ming trade, swords were, along with sulfur, copper, and folding fans, among Japan's main export goods. The Ouchi clan had carried this trade, but the Ming regarded the new head, Yoshinaga, as a usurper and did not permit trade to resume. When the Ouchi clan was destroyed in name and in fact in Kōji 3 (1557), the prospects for resuming official trade vanished. From then on, trade centered on private trade and smuggling by merchants and wakō pirates. The former domains of Suō and Nagato came under Mōri control.
In 1551, the retainer Sue Harukata (then Takafusa) staged a coup against his lord, Ouchi Yoshitaka. Yoshitaka took his own life at Daineiji in Nagato, and the Ouchi clan, the foremost daimyō house of western Japan, was effectively destroyed. It is a representative example of gekokujō (the overthrow of superiors by subordinates) in the Sengoku period.
The traditional view is that Yoshitaka distanced himself from the military faction and inclined toward civil governance, and that the conflict between Sagara Taketō, the civil-faction aide, and Harukata, the leader of the military faction, became irreparable. However, recent research has rejected the view that Yoshitaka neglected government after the failure of the Izumo campaign (the siege of Gassan-Toda Castle). Other factors have been pointed out, including tensions between the shugo-dai families and officials serving directly under the head of the clan, and moves related to a plan to move the seat of government to Yamaguchi.
"Utsu hito mo / utaruru hito mo / morotomo ni / nyoro yaku nyoden / ōsa nyoze kan." Translation: "Both the one who strikes and the one who is struck, together, are like dew and like lightning." Based on a verse of the Diamond Sutra, it is a resigned and detached final word, fitting for a daimyō of letters who saw winner and loser alike as equally fleeting beings.
Yes. It still stands in Nagato, Yamaguchi Prefecture, near Nagato Yumoto Onsen, and the grave and memorial tablet of Ouchi Yoshitaka are preserved there. The grounds contain historic sites that mark where Yoshitaka met his end, keeping alive the memory of the glory and fall of a western daimyō.