Suzuki Shigeoki
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Suzuki Shigeoki (鈴木重意? 1511 - 1585) was a prominent and reputed leader of the Saiga Ikki throughout the latter years of the Sengoku period of Feudal Japan. He was also referred to as Suzuki Sadayū (佐大夫). Rising to control the arquebusier-based fanatical warrior monks of both Kii and Kawachi Province provinces, Shigeoki initially used Saiga Castle as his primary domain of power, making contracts with the local religious leaders of Negoro-ji, who specialized in the use of firearms. Around 1577, Shigeoki assisted both the monks of Ishiyama Hongan-ji and Hatakeyama Sadamasa in their mutual resistance against the power and influence of Oda Nobunaga. To reinforce such means of assistance, Shigeoki supplied the present leader over Ishiyama--Kōsa--with a large sum of arquebusiers for protecting the latter's domain that laid within Settsu Province, which had been presently attacked from 1576 to the initial of year Shigeoki's support. However, by 1585, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was resolved to ensure that his late lord's aspirations--Oda Nobunaga--would be fulfilled, and thus Shigeoki was heavily stricken by the former in a crucial attack upon the Kii Province--an attack that caused him to commit suicide, conjectively by means separate from the traditional method of ritual suicide. Considering that Shigeoki was, in essence, a mercenary--including the greater majority of the men that served under him--the actions of Shigeoki can be rightfully stated as a means of obtaining greater profit, in which he did not act in a manner that directly benefited the Suzuki Domain, but caused consistent warring outside of this respective territory, being one of primary means as to why Hideyoshi was to easily penetrate into his head and tear him apart.
[edit] References
- Suzuki Sadayu - SamuraiWiki. (Samurai Archives) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005
