Episode 519 – The Low Conquers the High, Part 2

February 9, 2024

This week, we look at the flip side of the chaos of the Sengoku era in the form of two clans that rose to prominence from obscurity during the age of civil war. The first half is focused on the Mori family of western Honshu, while the second is focused on the Date, from the island’s remote north.

Sources

Mass, Jeffery P. The Bakufu in Japanese History.

Sansom, George B. A History of Japan, 1334-1615.

Gedacht, Anne Giblin. Tohoku Unbounded: Regional Identity and the Mobile Subject in Prewar Japan

Images

Portrait of Motonari from his later years. The motif on his clothing is the kamon, or family emblem, of the Mori clan.
Depiction of the Battle of Miyajima by Utagawa Sadahide, from 1855.
Mori Motonari attacking Sue Haruchika. From a series on Japan’s famous generals by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, late Edo period.
Date Masasmune, This portrait is from decades after his death and was commissioned by his descendants from a member of the famous Tosa school of painting (Tosa Mitsusada).