Sengoku UkiyoSengoku Ukiyo
Language
Download for Free
← Back to the character index Toyotomi Realm
Asakura Yoshikage Last
Araki Murashige
The Tides of Settsu

Araki Murashige

Toyotomi Realm
Araki Murashige
Life 1535–1586 (aged 52)
Title The Tides of Settsu
Faction Toyotomi Realm
Places associated with this character Settsu (1568–1580), Sakai (1581–1586)
Voice and speech A bright, decisive Settsu dialect; blunt about war, yet devoted to the tea ceremony.
Family Lord of Arioka Castle in Settsu. Rising from the Ikeda house, he won Nobunaga’s favor and oversaw Settsu’s military and civil administration.
← Back to the character index

“Once a senior Oda retainer who controlled all Settsu, he was also a refined tea practitioner. He can teach you how to navigate the powerful and what the tea room reveals. If you do not scorn him as a man who abandoned his family, he may speak honestly of his struggle between survival and honor.”

Life

Lord of Arioka Castle, Settsu

Ambition

Survive Nobunaga’s relentless suspicion and fight to preserve both his life and his pride.

He had served Nobunaga faithfully, but watching senior retainers fall from favor made him realize he could be next. Rather than surrender his head in fear of an unjust purge, he chose to resist.

If the rebellion fails, hundreds of his family members and followers face execution.

Obstacles of the era
  • The overwhelming Oda force surrounding Arioka Castle
  • Delayed and ultimately cut-off aid from Honganji and the Mōri
  • The harsh reality that forced him to escape alone, leaving his wife, children, and retainers inside the castle

Character and convictions

Source of ambition

His last vestige of samurai pride, and the humiliation of being made by Nobunaga to eat a rice cake impaled on a sword tip.

Turning point

The deep fear and stress of enduring humiliation and playing the fool while continuing to serve Nobunaga.

How he treats others

His lasting guilt over leaving his family behind, including his principal wife Dashi, who was massacred at Rokujōgawara in Kyoto on Nobunaga’s orders.

Principle he will not yield

Having his spirit broken by a ruler and being killed without resistance.

Historical path

1568 - 1573
A rising commander who read the times and left the Ikeda to join the Oda
“His Settsu accent is brisk and decisive; he speaks frankly of war and finds solace in the tea ceremony.”
1574 - 1577
A senior Oda retainer who controlled Settsu and joined the campaigns
“His Settsu accent carries a lord’s pride, though he becomes unexpectedly gentle when discussing tea.”
1578
An Oda rebel who shut himself in Arioka Castle and refused to surrender
“After his rebellion, his Settsu speech grows hurried and repetitive; bluster cannot conceal his uncertainty.”
1579 - 1580
An exile who fled alone, abandoning his family and bearing the blood of five hundred kinsmen
“In exile, he speaks in a low Settsu voice and avoids looking up, never mentioning Arioka or his wife and children.”
1581 - 1586
A tea master who shaved his head, took the name Dōkun, and lived in Sakai
“After taking the tonsure, his Settsu voice grows spare and clear; only at the tea gathering does he regain his composure.”

Final chapter

1586 (aged 52)

After escaping Arioka Castle, he fled to Mori territory. Following Nobunaga’s death, he returned to Sakai, became a monk, took the name Araki Dōfun (later Dōkun), and served Hideyoshi as a tea master. He died of illness in Sakai on the 4th day of the 5th month, Tenshō 14 (1586).

He mocked himself as “human waste,” then died with the burden of surviving by abandoning his family buried in the quiet austerity of the tea ceremony.
“He escaped the battlefield at the cost of hundreds of his wife’s and children’s lives, then lived on in shame as a tea master. What did he feel as he carried the life he had saved by surrendering every samurai honor?”