Asano Yoshinaga (Lord of Hiroshima)

In this Japanese name, the surname is Asano.

Asano Yoshinaga (July 1, 1681 – January 13, 1752) was a Japanese daimyō of the Edo period, who ruled the Hiroshima Domain.

Conflict

According to popular theory In 1598 after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the government of Japan had an accident when seven military generals consisting of Fukushima Masanori, Katō Kiyomasa, Ikeda Terumasa, Hosokawa Tadaoki, Asano Yoshinaga, Katō Yoshiaki, and Kuroda Nagamasa planned a conspiracy to kill Ishida Mitsunari. It was said that the reason of this conspiracy was a dissatisfaction of those generals towards Mitsunari, as he wrote bad assessments and underreported the achievements of those generals during the Imjin war against the Korea & Chinese empire. At first, these generals gathered at Kiyomasa's mansion in Osaka Castle, and from there they moved into Mitsunari's mansion. However, Mitsunari learned of this through a report from a servant of Toyotomi Hideyori named Jiemon Kuwajima, and fled to Satake Yoshinobu's mansion together with Shima Sakon to hide. When the seven generals found out that Mitsunari was not in the mansion, they searched the mansions of various feudal lords in Osaka Castle, and Kato's army also approached the Satake residence. Therefore, Mitsunari and his party escaped from the Satake residence and barricaded themselves at the Fushimi Castle. The next day, the seven generals surrounded Fushimi Castle with their soldiers as they knew Mitsunari was hiding there. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was in charge of political affairs in Fushimi Castle tried to arbitrate the situation. The seven generals requested Ieyasu to hand over Mitsunari, which was refused by Ieyasu. Ieyasu then negotiated to let Mitsunari retire and to review the assessment of the Battle of Ulsan Castle in Korea which became the major source of this incident. He later told his second son, Yūki Hideyasu, to escort Mitsunari to Sawayama Castle. However, historian Watanabe Daimon stated from the primary and secondary sources about the accident that this was more of legal conflict between those generals rather than conspiracy to murder him. The role of Ieyasu here was not to physically protect Mitsunari, but to mediate the complaints of those generals.

Nevertheless, historians viewed this incident not just simply personal problems between those seven generals and Mitsunari, but rather as an extension of the political rivalries between the Tokugawa faction and the anti-Tokugawa faction led by Mitsunari. Since this incident, military figures who didn't like Mitsunari would later support Ieyasu during the conflict of Sekigahara between the Eastern army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Western army led by Ishida Mitsunari. Muramatsu Shunkichi, writer of "The Surprising Colors and Desires of the Heroes of Japanese History and violent women”, gave his assessment that the reason of Mitsunari failure in his war against Ieyasu was due to his unpopularity among the major political figures of that time.

Family

• Father: Asano Tsunanaga
• Mother: Tokugawa Atehime (1666–1683), daughter of Tokugawa Mitsutomo, 2nd Daimyo of Owari Domain
• Wife: Maeda Ushihime, daughter of Maeda Tsunanori, 4th Daimyo of Kaga Domain
• Children:
  • Asano Munetsune by Ushihime
  • Chohime married Sakai Tadayori of Tsuruoka Domain by Ushihime
  • daughter married Matsudaira Masamoto later married Soma Noritane of Sōma Domain
  • daughter married Matsudaira Sadateru of Takada Domain later married Abe Masanao