Hirate Kiyohide

• Born: 1493
• Died: 1553
• Other name: Hirate Masahide
• Title: Nakatsukasa

Kiyohide served three generations of the Oda family (Nobusada, Nobuhide, and Nobunaga). He was regarded as a man of culture and learning and during Nobunaga's time was concerned primarily with economic and diplomatic matters. Among other things, he arranged the marriage of Nobunaga to a daughter of Saitô Dosan in 1549. After admonishing Nobunaga many times for what he felt was unbecoming and unreasonable behavior, he committed suicide in 1553 as a final protest. In regret over Masahide's death, Nobunaga built a temple in the Hirate fief (in Owari's Kasugai District), which was nicknamed the 'Masahide-ji'.

References

• Initial text from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary (Samurai-Archives.com) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005