Ataka Fuyuyasu

Ataka Fuyuyasu was a Sengoku-period warrior and head of the Ataka, a naval family of Awaji Province. His birth year is unknown; one theory gives his age at death as 39, which would put his birth in 1526. He died on the 9th day of the 5th month of Eiroku 7 (17 June 1564). His childhood name was Chichiyo, he was commonly called Jintaro, and he held the title Settsu-no-kami. The third son of Miyoshi Motonaga, a leading retainer of Hosokawa Harumoto, he was a brother of Miyoshi Nagayoshi, Miyoshi Jikkyu and Sogo Kazumasa, and was adopted into the Ataka of Awaji.

As a naval commander

He led the Awaji forces and was involved in controlling Osaka Bay. He served in the Battle of Kitashirakawa in 1558 and the Battle of Kumeda in 1562. After Jikkyu fell in battle he withdrew to Awa to regroup, and in the 5th month of that year he is said to have defeated Hatakeyama Takamasa in Kawachi (the Battle of Kyogyoji). After his brothers and nephew died one after another, he supported Nagayoshi as a surviving member of the Miyoshi family.

Character and poetry

He is described as gentle, mild-mannered and widely respected. In one anecdote he gave Nagayoshi a bell cricket to remind him against needless killing. Excelling at waka, he was called a master of the way of poetry, and Hosokawa Yusai praised his verse. Several war chronicles record exchanges of poems with Jikkyu.

His death

On the 9th day of the 5th month of 1564 he was summoned to Nagayoshi's castle of Iimoriyama and made to take his own life; 18 attendants who accompanied him were also killed. Yamashina Tokitsugu's diary records hearsay that he was killed for disloyalty. Chronicles such as the Zoku Onin Goki blame slander by Matsunaga Hisahide, but the Ashikaga Kiseiki and the Hosokawa Ryoke-ki say only that there was slander, without naming Hisahide. Other theories hold that Nagayoshi killed him out of paranoia caused by depression, or purged him to secure the position of his heir Miyoshi Yoshitsugu. Nagayoshi is said to have regretted it on learning of his innocence, and died of illness soon after.

Afterwards

A son called Jintaro is confirmed in primary sources. At the end of the Genki era Jikkyu's third son Jingoro succeeded to the Ataka house and later served Oda Nobunaga. In 1584 Toyotomi Hideyoshi transferred him to Akashi District in Harima, and he lost his position as leader of the naval force.