* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Amago Katsuhisa
尼子勝久
Supreme Commander of the Amago Restoration Army
Description
Life and Origins
Amago Katsuhisa was a samurai active from the Sengoku period through the Azuchi-Momoyama period. He was born in Tenbun 22 (1553) as the fifth son of Amago Sanehisa. He was a great-grandson of Amago Tsunehisa, a powerful figure of San'in. In Tenbun 23 (1554), when Amago Haruhisa carried out a purge of the clan that struck the Shingūtō, including Katsuhisa's grandfather Amago Kunihisa and his father Sanehisa, the young Katsuhisa was rescued by Ogawa Shigetō, sent to Tōfuku-ji in Kyoto, and entered the Buddhist priesthood.
Fall of the Amago Family and Return to Lay Life
In Eiroku 9 (1566), Amago Yoshihisa surrendered and capitulated to the large army of Mōri Motonari, and the Amago family, an illustrious house of San'in, was effectively ruined. In or around the following year, Eiroku 10 (1567), Yamanaka Yukimori (commonly known as Shikanosuke), a former Amago retainer, located Katsuhisa, who was then a monk at Tōfuku-ji in Kyoto, and strongly urged him to take up arms to restore the Amago family. Katsuhisa agreed, returned to lay life, and was installed as the commander-in-chief of the Amago restoration army.
Uprising of the Amago Restoration Army and Invasion of Izumo
From Eiroku 11 (1568) to Eiroku 12 (1569), Katsuhisa and Shikanosuke, lord and retainer, rallied former Amago retainers and began an invasion of Izumo Province. The response from the former Amago retainers spread more widely than expected, and the size of the restoration army is said to have reached 6700 men. They successively captured the castles within Izumo Province and at one point came close to recovering the former Amago domain. However, in the Battle of Fubeyama in Genki 1 (1570), they were defeated by a large army led by Mōri Terumoto, were eventually driven out of Izumo, and fled to Kyoto.
Alliance with Oda Nobunaga and Renewed Rise
Afterward, Katsuhisa and Shikanosuke continued their political maneuvering at the center and eventually sought an alliance with Oda Nobunaga, who was in conflict with the Mōri clan. In Tenshō 2 (1574), with the support of Yamana Toyokuni of Inaba Province, they attempted to invade Izumo from Inaba Province, but this also ended in failure. They then came under the banner of Oda Nobunaga and were placed under Hashiba Hideyoshi in the Chūgoku campaign army. When Hideyoshi captured Kōzuki Castle in Harima Province in Tenshō 5 (1577), they were entrusted with its defense.
The Siege of Kōzuki Castle and Final Days
In Tenshō 6 (1578), the combined forces of the Mōri and Ukita clans surrounded Kōzuki Castle. Hashiba Hideyoshi ordered a withdrawal to respond to another front, but Katsuhisa and Shikanosuke refused to retreat and remained in the castle. The isolated Kōzuki Castle eventually ran out of provisions, and in the 7th month of the same year it surrendered and capitulated. Katsuhisa, together with his eldest son Toyowakamaru, his brother Amago Ujihisa, and his senior retainer Jinzai Mototomi, took their own lives. He was 26 years old. Yamanaka Yukimori was also killed at around the same time while under escort, and the two men's violent lives came to an end.
Later Reputation
Despite his brief life of only 26 years, he is remembered as the last standard-bearer of the Amago family, and his story is told together with Yamanaka Shikanosuke's anecdote of 'shichinan-hakku' ('seven hardships and eight sufferings'). He is deeply inscribed in history as a symbol of the loyalty with which he fought to restore his lord's house, and in the San'in region he is still revered today as one of the central figures honored for the Amago family.