was a Japanese warlord 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 ...

of western

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. He was a son of

Amago Tsunehisa was a powerful warlord who gained the hegemony in Chūgoku region, Japan starting as a vassal of the Rokkaku clan.__He_ruled_the_domains_of_">DF_53_....__He_ruled_the_domains_of_ Inaba,_Hōki_Province.html"__"title="Inaba_Province.html"_;"title=" ...

. A principle Amako general under Tsunehisa, he led a force that came to be nicknamed the "Shingū army". Kunihisa's faction was named Shingūtō (新宮党) after the town, ''Shingū'', which was based in a valley north-east of Gassan-Toda where Kunihisa built his residence. Under his father, he fought in campaigns in Aki and

Bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

provinces during the 1520s and alongside Amago Haruhisa at the Siege of Koriyama Castle in 1540. In 1544 he defeated a Mōri army but lost his second son, Toyohisa, at the bitterly fought Battle of Hashizugawa in 1546 against Takeda Kuninobu of

Inaba Province was an old province of Japan in the area that is today the eastern part of Tottori Prefecture. It was sometimes called . Inaba bordered on Harima, Hōki, Mimasaka, and Tajima Provinces. The ancient capital, and the castle town, were at Tott ...

. After

Amago Masahisa Amago (尼子) is a Japanese word meaning "child of a nun", and has various other uses: People * Amago clan, a Japanese daimyō clan * Amago Haruhisa (1514–1561), Japanese daimyō * Amago Katsuhisa (1553–1578), Japanese daimyō * Amago Kunih ...

was killed in 1518 Kunihisa acted as a guardian for the former's son, Amako Haruhisa (Akihisa). He had been called "On the military matters, he is like a

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

and an

oni An is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. Oni are mostly known for their fierce and evil nature manifested in their propensity for murder and cannibalism. Notwithstanding their evil reputation, oni possess i ...

" from his father, Tsunehisa. But he often looked down on those who did not do well on the battlefield and was obnoxious from time to time. In spite of his many services to the Amako clan, Kunihisa came to be distrusted by Haruhisa, his nephew and the ''daimyō'' after Tsunehisa's death. One possible reason for Haruhisa's hostility towards Kunihisa and his Shingu faction is that they displayed increasing arrogance as their fame from their war service grew. In 1554, Kunihisa was killed by

Amago Haruhisa was a ''daimyō'' warlord in the Chūgoku region of western Japan. He was the second son of Amago Masahisa. Initially named Akihisa (詮久), he changed his name to Haruhisa in 1541 after Ashikaga Yoshiharu offered to let him use a ''kanji'' chara ...

on the suspicion of treason on 25 November 1554 along with his eldest son Sanehisa and two grandsons, including a number of his retainers. His third son Takehisa would commit suicide the next day. The act was supposedly carried out after

Mōri Motonari was a prominent ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) in the western Chūgoku region of Japan during the Sengoku period of the 16th century. The Mōri clan claimed descent from Ōe no Hiromoto (大江広元), an adviser to Minamoto no Yoritomo. Motonari w ...

tricked Haruhisa into believing that Kunihisa intended to take over the

Amago clan Amago (尼子) is a Japanese word meaning "child of a nun", and has various other uses: People * Amago clan, a Japanese daimyō clan * Amago Haruhisa (1514–1561), Japanese daimyō * Amago Katsuhisa (1553–1578), Japanese daimyō * Amago Kun ...

but one of the reasons may be that Kunihisa had been too arrogant towards the young Haruhisa. Regardless of the motive for the act, the death of Kunihisa and the purge of his faction significantly damaged the Amago clan and arguably contributed towards the clan's fall to their rival, 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 ...

, in the 1570s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amago, Kunihisa 1492 births 1554 deaths Daimyo Amago clan

See also

References