Maeba Yoshitsugu
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Maeba Yoshitsugu (前波吉継? 1541-February 11, 1574) was a retainer beneath the clan of Asakura throughout the late Sengoku period of Feudal Japan. He was also known as Katsurada Nagatoshi (桂田長俊). Yoshitsugu served valiantly under Asakura Yoshikage--the initial head over the Asakura--but seeing that his respective lord was incapable against the powerful and influential figure, Oda Nobunaga, Yoshitsugu's relations began to sour at a dramatic extent, greatly encouraged to defect to the Oda clan as a result. And as Yoshikage left to support the Azai clan in their mutual defense of the Odani Castle against Nobunaga in 1572, Yoshitsugu, seeing that his lord had already suffered a defeat at 1570 and will ultimately lose his life if he were to suffer defeat again, defected to Nobunaga by means of secretly leaving his present encampment, conjectively assisting the Oda in their initial attack upon Odani. A year following this incident, Yoshitsugu would willingly act as the Oda army's leading guide during their invasion of the Uesugi clan's Echizen Province, and was thus rewarded with a fief in this province, following Nobunaga's success. Authoritizing his position by changing his name from Maeba Yoshitsugu to Katsurada Nagatoshi, Yoshitsugu remained within this province, but was consistently assaulted by ravaging ikko rebels of Echizen. With the former assailants being mutually assisted by secretarian groups from the province of Kaga Province a year following, Yoshitsugu would unfortunately become overwhelmed, and thus killed.
[edit] References
- Katsurada Nagatoshi - SamuraiWiki. (Samurai Archives) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005
