Yuki Hideyasu

Yūki Hideyasu (1574–1607) was born as the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu and was a warrior and daimyō who, after serving the Yūki and Toyotomi families, was transferred to Kita-no-shō in Echizen (present-day Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture). As the first lord of the Echizen Matsudaira domain (Fukui Domain) commanding 680,000 koku, he became renowned as a great power in the Hokuriku region. Though an outstanding general of exceptional martial prowess, he suffered political disadvantage when his younger brother Hidetada assumed the shogunal position; nevertheless, his achievements in laying the foundation of domain governance were substantial.

Hideyasu was born in Tenshō 2 (1574) to Tokugawa Ieyasu and a concubine (Oman-no-kata). From youth he excelled in martial arts, but following the peace settlement after the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute in Tenshō 12 (1584), he was sent as a hostage to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He subsequently became the adopted son of Yūki Harutoyo, a distinguished family of the Kantō region, and inherited the Yūki house. At the Battle of Sekigahara in Keichō 5 (1600), serving as part of the Eastern Army, he held back Uesugi Kagekatsu from the north, and afterward was granted 680,000 koku in Kita-no-shō, Echizen.

Hideyasu extensively rebuilt Kita-no-shō Castle as the forerunner to Fukui Castle and devoted himself to developing the castle town. However, from around Keichō 11 (1606) he fell gravely ill, and in Keichō 12 (1607) he died young at the age of 34. His death is said to have been caused by syphilis, and many mourned the untimely passing of this young general.

In the realm of Japanese swords, Hideyasu is a figure whose connection to the "Dōjigiri Yasutsuna" is passed down through tradition. The Dōjigiri Yasutsuna is one of the five great swords (Tenka-goken), forged by the master craftsman Yasutsuna of the Heian period, and renowned as "the sword that cut down Shuten-dōji." This celebrated blade is said to have been transmitted through the Yūki family to the Echizen Matsudaira family, with a tradition that Hideyasu possessed it. It is currently housed as a National Treasure at the Tokyo National Museum, receiving special veneration from sword enthusiasts as one of Japan's oldest celebrated blades. The connection between Hideyasu's character as a warrior and this incomparable great sword marks an important page in the history of Japanese swords spanning from the Sengoku period through the Edo period.