, also known as Shima Tomoyuki and Shima Katsutake, was a Japanese samurai of the late

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

. His nickname was (Shima Nearby on the Left). Sakon eventually left the service of the Hatakeyama clan, Tsutsui Junkei,

Toyotomi Hidenaga , formerly known as or . He was a half-brother of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the most powerful and significant warlords of Japan's Sengoku period and regarded as 'Hideyoshi's brain and right-arm'. Life Hidenaga was also known by his court tit ...

and eventually joined and serve under

Ishida Mitsunari was a Japanese samurai and military commander of the late Sengoku period of Japan. He is probably best remembered as the commander of the Western army in the Battle of Sekigahara following the Azuchi–Momoyama period of the 16th century. He ...

Biography

Sakon was born in the

Yamato province was a province of Japan, located in Kinai, corresponding to present-day Nara Prefecture in Honshū. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric (2005). "Yamato" in . It was also called . Yamato consists of two characters, 大 "great", and 和 " Wa". At first, th ...

to Shima Matsukatsu, a local lords of Yamato Province. The Shima clan was considered to be a resident landholder around present-day Heguri-cho, Ikoma County,

Nara Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the ...

. Sakon served the Hatakeyama clan who were the

Shugo , commonly translated as ' ilitarygovernor', 'protector', or 'constable', was a title given to certain officials in feudal Japan. They were each appointed by the shogun to oversee one or more of the provinces of Japan. The position gave way to th ...

(Governors) of

Kawachi Province was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the eastern part of modern Osaka Prefecture. It originally held the southwestern area that was split off into Izumi Province. It was also known as . Geography The area was radically different in th ...

. In 1562, Sakon took part in the Battle of Kyokoji in which Hatakeyama Takamasa fought Miyoshi Nagayoshi, but Takamasa was defeated. Later in 1577, Sakon became one of the two primary samurai officers under Tsutsui Junkei alongside Matsukura Shigenobu. Since he fought under command of Junkei during this time, he became one of the local lords belonging to the Tsutsui clan, gradually distinguished himself as a ''samurai taisho'' or ''samurai commander'' (a samurai who gives battle orders and maneuvers troops). After the death of Junkei, It has been said that in January 1586, Sakon hired by

and was convinced to serve the

Toyotomi clan The was a Japanese clan that ruled over the Japanese before the Edo period. Unity and conflict The most influential figure within the Toyotomi was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the three "unifiers of Japan". Oda Nobunaga was another primary ...

under

( Hideyoshi’s brother) at

Kyushu Campaign is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

. In 1591, after Hidenaga died,

recruited him into his army as a leading strategist. Later in 1598 after Hideyoshi died, Sakon proceeded to help Mitsunari as he struggled against

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

Battle of Sekigahara

In 1600, a few days before the battle of Sekigahara, Sakon led an assault on Ieyasu's Eastern army at

Battle of Kuisegawa The was a decisive battle during the Sekigahara Campaign, this battle gave Ishida Mitsunari's Western Army the initial advantage at the Battle of Sekigahara while Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern Army suffered heavy losses and had to retreat to S ...

with great success. As always, he was one of the bravest generals of

on the battlefield. On October 21, 1600, at the

Battle of Sekigahara The Battle of Sekigahara (Shinjitai: ; Kyūjitai: , Hepburn romanization: ''Sekigahara no Tatakai'') was an important battle in Japan which occurred on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) in what is now Gifu Prefecture, ...

, Shima served as one of Ishida's higher-ranking officers, commander of

forces, he commanding a unit of 1,000 men. Some sources suggest Shima led musketmen and that his position had cannons. He fought against Hosokawa Tadaoki and was shot by riflemen led by Kuroda Kanbei's son, Nagamasa, and forcing him to retreat. His fourth son, Shima Kiyomasa, fighting within Otani Yoshitsugu's ranks, was killed by an 'Eastern' samurai named Takagi Heizaburō. His fate remains somewhat of a mystery since neither he nor his body was on the battlefield after the battle. Some say he died of his wounds after the battle or escaped and died a few years later.

References

External links

Portraits of the Samurai: Sakon Shima
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shima, Sakon 1543 births 1600 deaths Samurai Japanese warriors killed in battle Battle of Sekigahara People of the Sengoku period Hatakeyama clan Toyotomi clan

Biography

Battle of Sekigahara

See also

References

External links