Hatakeyama Takamasa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hatakeyama Takamasa (畠山高政, Hatakeyama Takamasa^? 1527 - November 5, 1576) was a head of the Hatakeyama clan of Kawachi Province during the late Sengoku period of Japanese history.

A son of Hatakeyama Masakuni, Takamasa inherited the clan's power around the 1550's, at which point he claimed an anonymous castle as his domain within Kawachi. Presently clashing against the Miyoshi clan during his initial rulership over Hatakeyama, Takamasa continued in like manner up until 1568, at which point he was granted Takaya castle by Ashikaga Yoshiaki as a gesture of thanks for his assistance to Oda Nobunaga in driving the Miyoshi from the province of Yamashiro. However, internal influence within the Hatakeyama began to disrupt itself as the years passed, possibly by means of Yoshiaki's secret communication to other neighboring clans^{[citation needed]}, for the ultimate sake of tearing Nobunaga from his power over the capital of Kyoto. It is highly probable that Takamasa did not intend on acting against Nobunaga^{[citation needed]}, considering that the latter now controlled the province of Yamashiro which closely neighbored their Kawachi, and surely no mutual communication of rebellion could ever come across as successful in such poor circumstances. Even with this reasoning, a certain retainer by the name of Yuza Nobunori rose up in 1573, successfully taking over the castle of Takaya in an attempt to seize some means of power, but was consequently destroyed by Nobunaga shortly following, additionally putting forth the jurisdiction that by means of the Hatakeyama's threatful gestures, Takamasa would not be reinstated over the castle, therefore losing his clan's power. Takamasa then died three years following this incident, either by means of an attempt at power, or of old age.