Mogami Yoshiaki

Statute of Mogami Yoshiaki mounted for the battle of Hasedo. Within the Ni no Maru area of the old castle grounds near the Great East Gate, in Yamagata Kajou Park. Cast in 1977

Mogami Yoshiaki (最上 義光, February 1, 1546 – November 29, 1614) was a daimyō of the Yamagata Domain in Dewa Province, in the late Sengoku period and early Edo period.

Life

Mogami Yoshiaki was the first son of Mogami Yoshimori (最上 義守), of the Mogami clan and succeeded his father as daimyō of Yamagata. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi came to power, Mogami submitted to his rule, but later became a supporter of Tokugawa Ieyasu following Hideyoshi's death. He was known to hate the Toyotomi because Hideyoshi ordered the execution of Yoshiaki's teenage daughter when purging his nephew Toyotomi Hidetsugu, whom Yoshiaki's daughter was engaged to.

In 1600, he battled Uesugi Kagekatsu, an enemy of Tokugawa's, alongside Date Masamune (his nephew), another lord of the far north. He aided in Date's siege of Shiroishi, and was then attacked in his own home castle of Hataya. Later that year, Mogami and Date supported Ieyasu at the famous battle of Sekigahara, after which Mogami's domain was expanded to 520,000 koku in return for his loyal service. This made the Yamagata domain the fifth largest in Japan at the time, excluding the land held by Tokugawa.

He died at Yamagata Castle in 1614. Yamagata maintains the Mogami Yoshiaki Historical Museum, just outside the rebuilt Great Eastern Gate of Yamagata Castle, which displays his helmet, battle command baton and other implements he actually used.

Legacy

Mogami Yoshiaki laid out and built the castle town, which became the foundation of modern-day Yamagata City. He controlled the "Three Difficult Places" on the Mogami River, making navigation safer from the Sea of Japan to the inland, and bringing the culture of Kyōto and Ōsaka to Yamagata. His dam building projects at Kitadaseki, Inabazeki and other places, and other irrigation control measures helped develop rice cultivation in the Shōnai plain.

In popular culture

Mogami Yoshiaki appears in the video game Sengoku Basara 3 as a non-playable general supporting Date Masamune's forces during Sekigahara. Here, he is portrayed as an arrogant, deceitful dandy.

Sources

• Stephen Turnbull. The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & Co. (1998)
• Dewa no Taishu Mogami Yoshiaki (Japanese)

References