Sanada Yukimura
- Born: 1567
- Died: 1615
- Real name: 真田信繁 (Sanada Nobushige)[1]
- Popular name: 真田幸村 (Sanada Yukumura)
- Other names: 弁丸 (Ben-maru), 左衛門佐 (Saemon-suke)
Sanada Yukimura is probably the most famous of the Sanada clan of Shinano province. He was the second son of Sanada Masayuki and his wife (Kanshô-in 寒松院); his older brother was Nobuyuki.
In 1585 the quarrel between his father Masayuki and Hôjô Ujimasa over Numata castle came to a head, and Tokugawa Ieyasu made plans to attack the Sanada castle of Ueda. In response, Masayuki made overatures to Uesugi Kagekatsu of Echigo province and sent Yukimura as a hostage. A letter of Uesugi's retainer Suda Mitsuchika 須田満親 dated 8/29 mentiones Yukimura's coming and says that a force had been sent to aid the Sanadas. Ieyasu's attack on Ueda Castle ended in utter failure. Towards the end of the year Masayuki made overatures to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Perhaps one result was that Yukimura was able to leave Uesugi, who had become a supporter of Hideyoshi.
Yukimura served under Hideyoshi and married the daughter of Hideyoshi's general Ôtani Yoshitsugu. In 1594 he with his father and brother was ordered to aid in the building of Hideyoshi's Fushimi castle.
In 1600 in the prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara, Yukimura along with his father and brother Nobuyuki followed Ieyasu in his advance against Uesugi (who had moved to Aizu). However, on 7/17 Ishida Mitsunari and those with him issued an indictment against Ieyasu and invited the Sanadas to join them against him. Masayuki immediately withdrew from Ieyasu's army and went back to Ueda, taking Yukimura with him. He left his older son Nobuyuki with Ieyasu, presumably to make sure that at least part of the family survived, whoever won. This was not an unusual move in Japan. (Nobuyuki's father-in-law was a close retainer of Ieyasu's and Masayuki may have guessed on known that Yukimura's father-in-law Ôtani Yoshitsugu would support Mitsunari.) Ieyasu promptly told Nobuyuki he would be given his father's land.
Ieyasu's son Hidetada attacked Masayuki and Yukimura in Ueda Castle on his way attack Mitsunari, but the attack lasted only eight days and ended in failure. It made Hidetada late to the battle of Sekigahara, however.
Having won the battle of Sekigahara, Ieyasu could do as he pleased. Nobuyuki was able to intercede on behalf of his father and brother Yukimura, so their lives were spared, but they were exiled to Kudoyama 九度山 in Mt. Koya in Kii province. They left Ueda castle the end of 1600. Yukimura was then 32 years old (western-style age).
A number of letters from Yukimura's time in Kudoyama exist, written to his brother or family retainers. Among other things, he said he was learning and enjoying renga, "linked poems" composed in turn in a group, though it was difficult as he had started late. His father Masayuki died in Kudoyama in 1611.
Like Masayuki, Yukimura apparently found life in Kudoyama difficult. In 1614 Toyotomi Hideyori started gathering ronin to support him against Ieyasu, and Yukimura responded. He slipped out of Kudoyama in the tenth month and went to Ôsaka Castle, where he became a leader. He built a barricade, the "Sanada-maru" on the southeast corner of the castle (the present Sanada-yama Park), which took the brunt of the fighting in the Osaka Winter Campaign. When Ieyasu attacked the next year during the Osaka Summer Campaign the Osaka position was hopeless. Yukinaga attacked Ieyasu's positon at Tennô-ji and succeeded in getting near, but was beaten back. He finally was killed, exhausted, by 西尾久作 Nishio Hisasaku (?), a retainer of Matsudaira Tadanao of Echizen province on 5/7. Yukimura's son Daisuke, who had lived in Kudoyama with his father, was also killed in the fighting.
Notes
- ↑ Sanada Yukimura's real name was Sanada Nobushige. There is no evidence that he ever used the name Yukimura, but the name is so well known that even books that state this call him Yukimura, and this article follows suit.
