was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese daimyo

Daimyo

is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...

 of the Sengoku period

Sengoku period

The or Warring States period in Japanese history was a time of social upheaval, political intrigue, and nearly constant military conflict that lasted roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The name "Sengoku" was adopted by Japanese historians in reference...

. He was the eldest son of Bessho Yasuharu.

In 1578 Oda Nobunaga

Oda Nobunaga

was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...

 called on his retainers to attack the Mori clan

Mori clan

The Mōri clan was a family of daimyō, descended from Ōe no Hiromoto and established themselves in Aki Province. Their name was derived from a shōen in Mōri, Aikō District, Sagami Province. The generation of Hiromoto began to name themselves Mōri.After the Jōkyū War, Mōri was appointed to the jitō...

. Nagaharu almost decided to lead the Oda troops, but after hearing that the low-born general Hashiba Hideyoshi

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...

, whom he did not respect, was allied with the Oda faction he revolted, instead allying himself with Hatano Hideharu

Hatano Hideharu

Hatano Hideharu is the eldest son of Hatano Harumichi and the head of Hatano clan.He was a son of Harumichi but for some unknown reason, he was adopted as a son by Hatano Motohide...

 of Tamba province

Tamba Province

was an old province of Japan. The ambit of its borders encompassed both the central part of modern Kyoto Prefecture and the east-central part of Hyōgo Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Tango Province...

.

This led to Nagaharu being besieged by Hideyoshi's troops on the orders of Nobunaga. Nagaharu took a stand in Miki Castle, starting the Siege of Miki

Siege of Miki

The siege of Miki lasted from 1578 to 1580. Toyotomi Hideyoshi took Miki Castle, located in what is now Miki, Hyōgo, Japan, from Bessho Nagaharu, a retainer of the Mōri clan....

. The siege did not go well for Hideyoshi, and with a revolt by Araki Murashige

Araki Murashige

was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, and daimyō of Itami Castle during the late Sengoku period of the 16th century in Japanese history, in what is now Itami city in Hyōgo Prefecture....

 and the help of the Mōri clan Nagaharu successfully repelled the Oda force. But Hideyoshi returned and this time instead of launching a direct assault, he launched multiple sieges against smaller castles like Kamiyoshi Castle and Sigata Castle to cut off the support from Mori. This led to a rapid depletion of food, and in 1580, with no hope of another reinforcement from Mōri clan, Nagaharu committed seppuku

Seppuku

is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...

in exchange for the lives of the troops in Miki Castle.

Further reading

• Matsubayashi Yasuaki 松林靖明 (1996). Bessho ki: kenkyū to shiryō 别所記: 研究と資料. Osaka: Izumi Shoin 和泉書院.