Otomo Sorin
Otomo Yoshishige was born the eldest son of Otomo Yoshiaki, lord of Funai. Yoshiaki - or Yoshinori - was the Daimyo of a clan that traced its roots to a certain Fujiwara Hidesato, the adopted son of Nakahara Chikayoshi. Fujiwara served Minamoto Yoritomo during the Gempei War and fought in Mutsu (1189). In 1193 he was named Shugo of Buzen and Bungo, and took the name Otomo.
Otomo Sadamune, the 5th head of the family, sided with Ashikaga Takauji during the latter’s struggle for power and in 1336 joined him in marching on Kyoto. Sadamune was involved in fighting with Nitta Yoshisada and later that same year lost his son Sadanori in a struggle with Yuki Chikamitsu.
Later in the Nambuchuko Period, Sadamune’s great-grandson Chikayo fought against his neighbors the Kikuchi, who supported the Southern Court. As a result of Sadamune’s activities, Otomo influence was extended into Chikuzen, Hizen, and Higo. During this period he assisted the Chinzei (Kyushu) Tandai Imagawa Sadayo, but once the fighting was over, he banded with the Ouchi to have Sadayo removed. In 1396 Sadamune replaced Sadayo as Kyushu Tandai.
The Otomo weathered the Onin War (1467-1477) and entered the 16th Century in a stronger position than many other old Shugo clans. Tensions with the Ouchi of Suo and Nagato brought a war in 1501, and a victory for the Otomo in Buzen at Uma-ga-take. Other feuds with other local clans followed, and at various points over the next five decades the Otomo clashed with the Shoni, Tawara, and Tachibana-the last two eventually becoming Otomo vassals. The Hoshino family of Chikuzen also submitted but later revolted, their bid for independence dragging the current Daimyo, Otomo Yoshinori (Yoshiaki) into a bitter civil war. In 1550 Yoshinori was murdered by one of his own retainers, a certain Tsukuni Mimasaka, and his son Yoshishige became the 21st head of the Otomo. As it was said that Yoshinori had planned to disinherit Yoshishige, rumors circulated that patricide had claimed the old Daimyo. Regardless, Yoshishige proved a capable enough leader, and moved to expand the Otomo’s borders deeper into Kyushu. In 1551 Yoshishige fought and defeated the rebellious Kikuchi Yoshimune of Higo; in 1557 he invaded Chikuzen and forced Akizuki Kiyotane into submission. In September of 1559 he led an assault that recaptured Moji Castle, which had been lost to the Mori in 1558. The Mori retook Moji soon afterwards and in October 1561 Yoshishige attempted to reclaim this strategic prize with an all-out assault that included a number of cannon-equipped Portuguese warships. The warships were used to credible effect, but Yoshishige’s subsequent attack failed, and Moji remained in Mori hands.
In 1562 Yoshishige took the name Sambisai Sorin, and it is as Otomo Sorin that he is best remembered by. That same year, the Otomo accepted an alliance with the Mori’s enemies to the east, the Amako, and attacked the Mori holdings in Buzen. Mori Takamoto, assisted by the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru, managed to arrange a peace treaty. One of Sorin’s daughters was arranged in marriage to Mori Terumoto, Takamoto’s young son, though it does not appear that this union ever actually took place.
In 1564 Otomo Sorin had to quell a rebellion by the rebellious and fiercely independent Akizuki of Chikuzen. In 1568 the Otomo moved against the Ryuzoji of Hizen, an operation that prompted the interference of the Mori clan. The Otomo vassal Hetsugi Akitsura was defeated at the Battle of Tatarahama and in 1569 lost Tachibana Castle (Chikuzen) to the powerful Mori expeditionary force. Sorin responded by threatening the Mori’s Buzen foothold, and forced the Mori to retreat.
By this point, Sorin could claim control of Bungo, most of Buzen, Chikuzen, Chikugo, and considerable influence over Higo and Hizen. Otomo banners even flew over forts in Iyo, taken from the hostile Kono clan. The Otomo army was known as the Otomo shichikakoku no zei, or the Seven-Province Host of the Otomo. On paper, Otomo Sorin was a mighty Daimyo, and led a powerful clan seemingly destined for regional supremacy. Yet two factors were to undermine Sorin’s ambitions, both of which may well have proved fatal in and of themselves - the Shimazu clan and internal weakness within the Otomo itself. To touch on the latter problem first, the Otomo do not appear to have ever achieved the sort of control over their retainers that other successful Sengoku Daimyo managed. Some of their most important vassals, notably the Tachibana (formerly known as the Hekki) and Tamura, were hardly vassals at all, rather allies who operated with a degree of independence that all but made them daimyo themselves.
Sorin’s embracement of Christianity no doubt created dissension in the Otomo lands. In 1551 Sorin entertained Francis Xavier and allowed the establishment of a Jesuit mission in Bungo. Sorin was exceedingly friendly to the advocates of the new religion, and while this was no doubt motivated in part by the weapons and commercial opportunities the westerners offered, it is not unreasonable to suppose that Sorin was taken by Christianity. Certainly, the advantages offered by the missionaries were outweighed by the difficulties Christianity incurred. Sorin’s own wife, a woman known to us by the nickname ‘Jezebel’ (a tag assigned the lady, of course, by the Jesuits) was an ardent opponent of Christianity and many of the Otomo retainers complained at the activities of the missionaries, which included the desecration of Buddhist and Shinto sites. Sorin indulged most of the missionaries’ requests and in 1575 had a son baptized. In 1578 Sorin divorced his wife and was himself baptized, assuming the name Francisco. Two years previously he had retired, and handed over the reins of government to his son Yoshimune, also a Christian known as Constantinho). By this point, the Shimazu clan had entered the picture, and created a crisis in Hyuga.
After nearly a decade of fighting, Shimazu Yoshihisa had defeated the Ito clan and forced the daimyo, Ito Yoshisuke, to flee north and take shelter in the Otomo’s domain. Otomo Yoshimune, perhaps looking to prove himself as a leader, decided to attack Hyuga before the Shimazu had an opportunity to consolidate their gains. Yoshimune called up an army and prepared to take the field, ignoring the objections of his retainers who felt this sort of campaign would only encourage the Otomo’s other enemies to attack. With as many as 40,000 men under arms, Yoshimune marched into Hyuga, to be followed by his father, who was said to have desired the founding of a model Christian town in Hyuga.
The first resistance they encountered was that of Tsuchimochi Chikanari, lord of Matsuo Castle (present day Nobeoka). A warrior of some ability who had earlier betrayed Ito Yoshisuke and joined the Shimazu, Chikanari was overwhelmed by the Otomo host and his lands earmarked by Sorin for the planned Christian paradise. At this point, Sorin and Yoshimune sent the main army on ahead, under the command of Tawara Chikataka. Tawara, a man who had in the past showed himself at least reasonably capable, was Sorin’s brother-in-law (through Sorin’s new wife) and politically sound. In the meantime, Sorin and Yoshimune set about destroying all of the Buddhist and Shinto shrines in the Tsuchimochi lands, an activity that angered the local population and caused disquiet among the Otomo retainers.
Tawara crossed the Omaru River and paused before Taka-jo, the only Castle aside to offer resistance thus far. The 3,000-man garrison was under the command of the skilled Shimazu Iehisa, who was determined to hold out as long as possible, giving his elder brother Yoshihisa time to prepare the Shimazu army. Tawara, not unwisely, decided to bypass Taka-jo, leaving a screening force to keep Iehisa pinned down and, hopefully, to wither on the vine. At the same time, it seems that Tawara was confident that the Shimazu, whose reputation was traditionally none too impressive, posed little threat. Consequently little effort was made to gather intelligence on what was transpiring beyond the southern Hyuga hills that lay before the Otomo army. In fact, Yoshihisa had rallied an army and driven north, executing a series of maneuvers that led to the Battle of Mimigawa. The battle ended in a complete disaster for the Otomo - thousands of troops were killed and thousands of others scattered, with the ‘Seven-Province Host’ in pell-mell retreat. Sorin and his son joined the flight and returned to Bungo crest-fallen. The fortunes of the Otomo had taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse, and declined with every year thereafter. The following year the Otomo were largely driven from Chikugo by the Ryûzoji, and suffered another rebellion by Akizuki Tanezane. In Bungo itself, dissension was rife, in many cases as a result of Sorin’s continued support of Christianity. In fact, the Otomo were in such poor shape that Shimazu Yoshihisa saw fit to call for a cease-fire. The beleaguered Otomo readily agreed, freeing Yoshihisa to fight an enemy he considered a much more dangerous opponent – Ryûzoji Takanobu.
By 1586 the fortunes of the Otomo had reached their nadir. Ryûzoji Takanobu had been killed fighting the Shimazu, allowing Yoshihisa to return his attentions to Bungo. In May Sorin left Usuki, his place of retirement, and traveled to Osaka to see Toyotomi Hideyoshi, from whom he pleaded assistance against Shimazu. Hideyoshi had no doubt planned to march on Kyushu any way, but Sorin provided a convenient excuse made all the more substantial when the Shimazu refused to agree to a Toyotomi-brokered peace deal. In December 1586 the first Toyotomi troops landed on Kyushu and while these men joined Otomo Yoshimune in a defeat at the Battle of the Hetsugigawa, the massive army that followed swept the Shimazu all the way back to Satsuma.
Sorin passed away later that year, his family seemingly secure in their hereditary fiefdom of Bungo if no longer independent. Unfortunately, Otomo Yoshimune had one further mistake to make. Tasked with leading 6,000 men to Korea as part of Hideyoshi’s invasion in 1592, Yoshimune displayed cowardice during fighting with Chinese troops near Pyongyang. Learning of a sizable Chinese force moving into the area, Yoshimune abandoned an important fort, an action that caused him to be sent home in disgrace and then stripped of his lands. He sided with Ishida Mitsunari during the Sekigahara Campaign and was exiled afterwards. He died in 1605, the last head of the Otomo family.
Yoshimune’s father Sorin was in many ways an enigma, a figure that defies easy explanation. Was Sorin, the most important Japanese ever to be baptized, sincere in his new faith and a crusader of the Christian cause? Or was he merely pragmatic, an opportunist who saw something to be gained by paying lip service to the foreigners and their religious ideas? Little studied in the west, Otomo Sorin and his clan stand, if nothing else, as an interesting chapter in the Sengoku period.