(died 1557) or Imagawa Sessai, also known as Taigen Sessai, was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

abbot and mountain ascetic (''

yamabushi are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. They are generally part of the syncretic religion, which includes Tantric Buddhist, Shinto, and Japanese Taoist elements. Their origins can be traced back to the solitary Yama-bito and some (saints or ho ...

''). He was an uncle of

Imagawa Yoshimoto was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the Sengoku period Japan. Based in Suruga Province, he was known as . he was one of the three ''daimyōs'' that dominated the Tōkaidō region. He died in 1560 while marching to Kyoto to become ...

, and served him as military advisor and as commander of Imagawa's forces, despite his lack of any formal battle training or experience. Sessai aided his nephew in consolidating the Imagawa territories, and in a number of political maneuvers which gained Imagawa influence over the

Matsudaira The was a Japanese samurai clan that descended from the Minamoto clan. It originated in and took its name from Matsudaira village, in Mikawa Province (modern-day Aichi Prefecture). During the Sengoku period, the chieftain of the main line of th ...

family. However, Yoshimoto soon came into conflict with the

Oda clan The is a Japanese samurai family who were daimyo and an important political force in the unification of Japan in the mid-16th century. Though they had the climax of their fame under Oda Nobunaga and fell from the spotlight soon after, several ...

, and faced defeat at the 1542 battle of Azukizaka. After this, he left Sessai in command of his armies. By 1551 he had secured a young Matsudaira Takechiyo or Matsudaira Motoyasu -later known as

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

- (a member of the Matsudaira family) as a hostage. In 1552–1554, Imagawa secured a treaty and alliance between his family and those of the Hōjō and

Takeda Shingen , of Kai Province, was a pre-eminent ''daimyō'' in feudal Japan. Known as the "Tiger of Kai", he was one of the most powerful daimyō with exceptional military prestige in the late stage of the Sengoku period. Shingen was a warlord of great ...

. At some point after this, Sessai began to advise Matsudaira Motoyasu, though the extent of his role in Tokugawa's military exploits is unclear, and unlikely to be great. Sessai died in 1557 due to complications from

gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensit ...

, three years before Yoshimoto would die at the

Battle of Okehazama The took place in June 1560 in Owari Province, located in today's Aichi Prefecture. In this battle, the heavily outnumbered Oda clan troops commanded by Oda Nobunaga defeated Imagawa Yoshimoto and established himself as one of the front-running ...

, precipitating the decline of the Imagawa.

References

*West, C. E. and F. W. Seal (2004).
Imagawa Yoshimoto
. ''Samurai Archives''. Accessed 7 July 2005. 1557 deaths Rinzai Buddhists Japanese warrior monks Year of birth unknown {{Japan-reli-bio-stub