Akita Sanesue
秋田実季
Sengoku Daimyō Who Unified the Andō Clan and Founded the Akita House, Remembered Through the Blade Akita Tōshirō
Description
Life
Born in 1576 as the son of Andō Chikasue, a Sengoku-period daimyō of Dewa Province, Sanesue succeeded to the headship of the family at the age of only twelve following his father's death from illness.
Succession and the Battle of Minato
Immediately after his succession, his cousin Andō Michisue rose in rebellion, forcing Sanesue to respond to the so-called Battle of Minato over Minato Castle. He suppressed the uprising in 1589, unifying the divided Andō clan and establishing the base of his own rule.
Subordination to the Toyotomi and Tokugawa
In 1590, he joined Toyotomi Hideyoshi's campaign against Odawara and submitted to him; through the subsequent Ōshū shioki settlement he was confirmed in roughly 52,440 koku of his approximately 78,500 koku of territory in Dewa Province. He also proved a capable administrator, developing his domain through policies such as levies on Akita cedar, and took the title "Akita-jō-no-suke" from his base at Minato Castle. At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 he sided with the Eastern Army, but afterward, on slander from the neighboring lord Mogami Yoshiaki, he was transferred in 1602 to Shishido in Hitachi Province.
Dispossession and Later Years
He also took part in the Siege of Osaka in 1614, but in 1630 he was suddenly ordered into confinement at Asama in Ise Province and dispossessed of his domain. He spent roughly thirty years thereafter in confinement at a temple there, dying in 1660 at the age of eighty-five. The Akita house itself survived, later serving as lords of Miharu domain in Mutsu Province down to the end of the Edo period.
Connection to Swords
The short sword known as "Akita Tōshirō" takes its name from having been in Sanesue's possession; it is attributed to the Kamakura-period swordsmith Awataguchi Yoshimitsu. It is today designated an Important Cultural Property and held by the Kyoto National Museum. After Sanesue's death, the blade passed through the hands of the Ogasawara counts and others, and in 2017 was donated to the museum by the family of a sword collector.
Notable Swords
- Akita Tōshirō