Kikkawa Tsuneie

Kikkawa Tsuneie (1547-1581) was a Mōri retainer who served as castellan of Tottori Castle during Hashiba Hideyoshi's siege of 1581. After Yamana Toyokuni of Tottori surrendered during Hideyoshi's Inaba campaign in 1580, the Mōri men in the castle brought Tsuneie in as castellan, and he held out for about four months with roughly 4,000 defenders against Hideyoshi's army of about 20,000. Food ran out so completely that, it is said, the starving ate the flesh of the dead.

On 25 October 1581 he took leave of his retainers over cups of sake and committed seppuku, reportedly remarking that for lack of practice his cut would be clumsy; Shizuma Genbei served as his second. His death poem is preserved. Hideyoshi is said to have wept on seeing his head, calling him a pitiable man of righteousness, and Oda Nobunaga reportedly had him buried with respect. No sword associated with him was found in the sources checked.