Amako Kunihisa

• Birth: 1492?
• Death: 1554
• Dinstiction: Amako retainer
• Title: Kii no kami
• Children: Amako Masahisa and Amako Toyohisa

Kunihisa was a son of Amako Tsunehisa and was known in his youth as Magoshirô. He was a principle Amako general while Tsunehisa was alive, leading a force that came to be nicknamed the 'Shinju army' (after the area where Kunihisa's lands were located). He fought under his father in campaigns in Aki and Bingo provinces during the 1520's and alongside Amako Haruhisa at Koriyama in 1540. He defeated a Môri army in 1544 but lost his second son, Toyohisa, at the Battle of Hashizugawa in 1546. Despite his many services, Kunihisa came to be distrusted by Haruhisa, his nephew and the daimyô after Tsunehisa's death. For reasons unclear, Kunihisa was executed at Gassan-Toda by Haruhisa on the suspicion of treason in December 1554, along with his eldest son Masahisa and two grandsons. His death is often represented as a contributing factor in the eventual fall of the Amako. Kunihisa had been married to the daughter of Amako retainer Tako Tadashige. He was a grandfather of Amako Katsushige.

References

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