Tsuchiya Masatsune
土屋昌恒
The Loyal Retainer Who Stayed with Takeda Katsuyori to the End — Remembered for the Legendary "One-Handed Thousand-Man Slaying" at Tenmokuzan
Description
Life
Tsuchiya Masatsune was born in 1556, the fifth son of Kanamaru Chikuzen-no-kami. He is said to have fought in his first battle at the age of 13 in 1568. After his elder brother Masatsugu and his adoptive father Tsuchiya Sadatsuna were killed at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, Masatsune inherited the Tsuchiya family name.
Position within the Takeda Clan
He served as a hereditary senior retainer under both Takeda Shingen and his son Takeda Katsuyori, and is said to have taken part in campaigns along the Tōkaidō region and in the Kantō region.
The Battle of Tenmokuzan and Death
In 1582, as the Takeda clan collapsed under the invasion of the combined Oda-Tokugawa forces, most of Katsuyori's retainers abandoned him, but Masatsune remained loyal to the end. During the flight toward Tenmokuzan, Masatsune is said to have gripped a wisteria vine with one hand to keep from falling off a cliff path while wielding his sword with the other to hold off the pursuing Oda troops, buying time for his lord Katsuyori to take his own life with dignity. This feat became known by the legendary epithet "the one-handed slayer of a thousand men."
Anecdote
Tradition holds that so many enemy soldiers fell into the nearby river during Masatsune's stand that its waters ran red for three days, giving rise to the name "the river of three days' blood."
Later Reputation
Tsuchiya Masatsune is especially honored among the Takeda retainers as a warrior who remained loyal even as his lord's house fell and most others defected, and the legend of his "one-handed slaying of a thousand" endures as a symbol of the bond between lord and retainer.
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