Hosokawa Takakuni

• Death: 1531
• Title: Kanrei
• Distinction: Deputy Shôgun

Takakuni was a son of Hosokawa Masaharu. He was adopted by Hosokawa Masamoto, though how formal this adoption was is unclear. After Masamoto was assassinated in 1507, Takakuni fled the capital and went to Suo province, where he enlisted the aid of Ôuchi Yoshioki. Ôuchi, already a patron of deposed shôgun Yoshitane, gathered an army in 1508 and marched on Kyoto. Takakuni assisted Ôuchi Yoshioki at the Battle of Funaokayama, where Hosokawa Masataka and Hosokawa Sumimoto suffered a defeat (1511). In 1518 Ôuchi returned to Suo and Takakuni was afterwards constantly busy with threats and plots against him, from both within and without his own family. He was forced out of Kyoto on a number of occasions. In response to Takakuni's heavy-handed treatment, Yoshitane called on the Hatakeyama clan for assistance, an act for which Takakuni ordered the shôgun into exile. Once Yoshitane was gone, Takakuni made a son of Yoshizumi, Yoshiharu, the shôgun and proceeded to rule through him. His nephew Harumoto proved his greatest opponent, and handed him a decisive defeat at Amagaseki in 1531. Takakuni committed suicide soon afterwards.

References

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