Hanabusa Masayuki

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Hanabusa Masayuki (花房正幸, Hanabusa Masayuki^? 1524-1605) was a senior retainer of the Ukita clan throughout the latter Sengoku period of Japanese history.

Initially serving the Hanabusa clan at the time at which he came of age, at which time he resided in Harima Province, Masayuki came under the influence of the Ukita and later joined Ukita Naoie of Buzen Province. Becoming regarded by Naoie as one of his most respected and skilled warrior retainers, Masayuki justified such praise by means of his notable skill with the bow and arrow, consistently unleashing this skill in many various conflicts beneath the Ukita. The most notable of these incidents involved a certain pirate commander, who challenged an Ukita passenger boat to pierce his neck with an arrow, despite the enormous distance that separated the two boats. Masayuki stood independently from the group, firmly fitting an arrow to his bow and twanging it with his fingers, piercing the throat of the pirate in a single shot. Masayuki was greatly praised for this showing of evidential skill, obtaining a further amount of land as the years passed on with continued service beneath the Ukita. Masayuki's fate following the Ukita's loss of their domain in the aftermath of the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 remains unclear, but it is probable that Masayuki willingly attempted to become an official beneath Tokugawa Ieyasu's shogunate, continuing to support his respective country with martial prowess^{[citation needed]}.