Saito Toshimitsu
- Birth: 1534
- Death: 1582
- Title: Kuranosuke
- Distinction: Akechi retainer
- Japanese: 斎藤 内蔵助 利三 (Saitou Kuranosuke Toshizou / Toshimitsu)
Toshimitsu, also known as Toshizô[1] was from Mino province and a long-time retainer of Akechi Mitsuhide, though he at first served Saitô Yoshitatsu. He was considered a competent soldier. According to one version of events, he was captured after the Battle of Yamazaki and executed at the Higashiyama Awata execution grounds[2]. Another theory has that he killed himself the day after the battle.
It is said that his close friends, the painter Kaihô Yûshô and the tea master Tôyôbô Chôsei, took his head to Shinnyodô, a temple in eastern Kyoto, where they buried it.[2]
Toshimitsu's daughter was the well-known Kasuga no Tsubone, who would be a wetnurse for Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun.
References
- Initial text from Sengoku Biographical Dictionary (Samurai-Archives.com) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005
- ↑ An alternate reading of the same characters, 利三.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Explanatory plaque for Tatekawa Sakura on-site at Shinnyodô. Photo taken by User:LordAmeth, 24 June 2010.