, also known as , was a military commander during the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

. He served the

Mōri clan The Mōri clan (毛利氏 ''Mōri-shi'') was a Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power ...

(one of the powerful clans in Bitchu Province) as a retainer to

Kobayakawa Takakage was a samurai and daimyō (feudal lord) during the Sengoku period and Azuchi–Momoyama period. He was the third son of Mōri Motonari who was adopted by the Kobayakawa clan and became its 14th clan head. He merged the two branches of the Koba ...

and took part in the expedition to unify the

Chūgoku region The , also known as the region, is the westernmost region of Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It consists of the prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, and Yamaguchi. In 2010, it had a population of 7,563,428. History '' ...

. He was lord of Shimizu castle at Bitchu Province, and became the lord of the Bitchu Takamatsu Castle after he captured it in 1565. His father was Shimizu Munenori. Hashiba Hideyohi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi), a retainer of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

, went on an expedition to the

to reunify

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1582. Muneharu resisted Hideyoshi, locking himself in Bitchu Takamatsu Castle. Hideyoshi advised Muneharu to surrender on the condition that Muneharu give him Bitchu Province, but Muneharu refused. Takamatsu Castle was flooded by Hideyoshi and nearly fell. In June, during the flooding, Nobunaga died in the Incident at Honnōji in Kyoto. Having heard about Nobunaga's death, Hideyoshi made peace overtures on the condition that Muneharu commit

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 ...

(suicide). Shimizu's grave is at Seikyō-ji,

Hikari may refer to: Places *Hikari Station, a station on Sanyō Main Line in Hikari, Yamaguchi * Hikari, Chiba, a former town in Sousa District, Chiba, Japan *Hikari, Yamaguchi, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan People *Hikari (name), people and ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). Y ...

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shimizu, Muneharu 1537 births 1582 deaths Samurai Shimizu clan Mōri clan Suicides by seppuku 16th-century suicides