Chōsokabe Morichika

Chōsokabe Morichika (1575-1615) was the fourth son of Chōsokabe Motochika, a Sengoku-period daimyō of Tosa (present-day Kōchi Prefecture), and became the last head of the Chōsokabe family. He sided with the Western Army at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), was defeated, and had Tosa confiscated. Still dreaming of recovering his former domain, he later took part in the Osaka Campaigns (1614-15). He fought bravely on the Toyotomi side but was ultimately captured and executed. His turbulent life is handed down as a tragedy that symbolizes the end of the Sengoku era.

Morichika was born in 1575 (Tenshō 3) as the fourth son of Chōsokabe Motochika. When his eldest brother, Nobuchika, was killed at the Battle of Hetsugigawa (1586), Morichika, with his father's backing, pushed aside his elder brothers Kagawa Chikakazu and Tsuno Chikatada and was named heir (1588). In 1599 (Keichō 4), after Motochika's death, he became head of the Chōsokabe family. However, at the Battle of Sekigahara (1600) he sided with the Western Army (Ishida Mitsunari's faction) and took position on Mount Nangū (Nangūsan). Because the Mōri forces ahead of him did not move, he did not join the fighting, and the Western Army was defeated. After the war, all of Tosa was confiscated from him.

After his dismissal, Morichika lived as a rōnin in Kyoto, and it is said that he also worked as a master of a terakoya (temple school). However, when the Winter Campaign of Osaka broke out in 1614 (Keichō 19), he received a promise that he would be granted all of Tosa Province and entered Osaka Castle on the Toyotomi side together with his former retainers. In the Summer Campaign the following year, he again fought bravely, leading the elite warriors of Tosa of old against the Tokugawa forces. After Osaka Castle fell, he attempted to flee but was captured and executed at the Rokujō riverbank (Rokujō-gawara). He was 41 years old.