Amako Kunihisa

• Birth: 1492?
• Death: 1554
• Dinstiction: Amako retainer
• Title: Gyoubu Shosuke (刑部少輔), Kii no kami
• Children: Amako Masahisa and Amako Toyohisa
• Japanese: 尼子 国久 (Amako Kunihisa)

Kunihisa was a son of Amako Tsunehisa and was known in his youth as Magoshirô [孫四郎]. He was a principle Amako general while Tsunehisa was alive, leading a force that came to be nicknamed the 'Shinju [新宮] army' (after the area where Kunihisa's lands were located). He also acted as the guardian for Amako Haruhisa (Akihisa) after the latter's father, Masahisa, was killed in 1518. He fought under his father in campaigns in Aki and Bingo provinces during the 1520's and alongside Amako Haruhisa at Koriyama Castle in 1540. He defeated a Môri army in 1544 but lost his second son, Toyohisa, at the Battle of Hashizugawa [橋津川] 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 on 25 November 1554 (Tembun 23 11/1), 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