was a Japanese

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

of the Azuchi-Momoyama period, he was a third son of

Shimazu Takahisa , the son of Shimazu Tadayoshi, was a ''daimyō'' during Japan's Sengoku period. He was the fifteenth head of the Shimazu clan. Biography In 1514, he is said to have been born in Izaku Castle. On 1526, Takahisa was adopted as the successor to Shim ...

, who served as a general officer and senior retainer of the

Shimazu clan The were the ''daimyō'' of the Satsuma han, which spread over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga provinces in Japan. The Shimazu were identified as one of the '' tozama'' or outsider ''daimyō'' familiesAppert, Georges ''et al.'' (1888). in contrast ...

Satsuma Province was an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Satsuma" in . Its abbreviation is . History Satsuma's provincial capital was Satsumasendai. Durin ...

. He was fought in

Battle of Mimigawa The Battle of Mimigawa was a battle, fought in Japan, between the Ōtomo clan and the Shimazu clan in 1578. The Ōtomo force was led by Sorin's brother-in-law Tawara Chikataka, while the Shimazu clan was led by Shimazu Yoshihisa. Prelude In May ...

(1578),

Siege of Minamata Castle The siege of Minamata Castle was a short siege of the castle of Minamata. Minamata was the entry point for the Ōtomo lands in Higo province, the castle was guarded by Sagara Yoshihi with 700 soldiers. When Shimazu Toshihisa and Shimazu Iehisa, ...

(1581) during

campaign to conquer

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

and also the commander of Shimazu clan against

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

, when Hideyoshi invaded Kyushu (1587). He didn't surrender to Hideyoshi and kept on fighting even after his brother Yoshihisa surrendered. Later in 1592, at the time of uprising against Hideyoshi, the incident at Taihei-ji Temple was raised as an issue; this led Hideyoshi to issue an order to track down and kill Toshihisa which made him commit suicide by

seppuku , sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...

at Ryugamizu.

References

Samurai 1537 births 1592 deaths Shimazu clan Deified Japanese people People from Kagoshima Prefecture {{samurai-stub