Ōno Harunaga

Ōno Harunaga (1569–1615) was a senior retainer of the Toyotomi family who served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Hideyori. As a close aide to Yodogimi (Chacha), he was deeply involved with Ōsaka Castle. He was suspected of involvement in a plan to assassinate Tokugawa Ieyasu in Keichō 4 (1599) and was exiled, but was pardoned in Keichō 5 (1600). At the Battle of Sekigahara he fought on the Eastern Army side. After the battle he went to Ōsaka Castle as Ieyasu's envoy and remained there. When Katagiri Katsumoto was driven out in Keichō 19 (1614), Harunaga took the lead in the Toyotomi family. While handling diplomatic negotiations with Tokugawa Ieyasu, he sought to preserve the survival of the Toyotomi family. In the Winter Siege of Ōsaka he led peace negotiations with the Tokugawa side and temporarily concluded a settlement. In the Summer Siege of Ōsaka, however, he commanded the defense of the castle and fought valiantly. In the end he took his own life together with Toyotomi Hideyori and Yodogimi, sharing the fate of the Toyotomi family's downfall. His life shows the figure of a loyal retainer whose devotion to his lord and realistic judgment in trying to survive a turbulent age kept wavering between the two.