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← Back to the character index Ōshū and Kantō
Naoe Kanetsugu Hōjō Ujimasa
Date Masamune
One-Eyed Dragon

Date Masamune

Ōshū and Kantō
Date Masamune
Life 1567–1636 (aged 70)
Title One-Eyed Dragon
Faction Ōshū and Kantō
Places associated with this character Dewa, Aizu, Mutsu, Edo
Voice and speech His decisive commands are sharp and youthful, edged with ambition in an Ōshū dialect.
Family A great lord of Dewa and Mutsu, known as the “One-Eyed Dragon.” Founder of Sendai, a domain of 620,000 koku, he was a bold figure who eyed the realm.
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“He has no one to whom he can speak of his regrets. If he trusts you as a confidant, he may reveal the ambition for supremacy he kept hidden for seventy years.”

Life

The One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshū

Ambition

Unify all of Ōshū, overcome the regret of being born after Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu, and make a bid for supremacy.

He lost his right eye to smallpox, was nearly poisoned by his mother, and killed his younger brother to secure his inheritance. He answers the regret that “Had I been born ten years earlier, the realm would have been mine” with unmatched ambition and talent.

If he mishandles his participation in Hideyoshi’s campaign against Odawara, he risks losing all his Ōshū lands and the extinction of his clan.

Obstacles of the era
  • The coalition of Ōshū rivals, including the Ashina, Satake, and Mogami
  • The overwhelming military might of ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his strict peace edict
  • Ieyasu’s suspicion, since Masamune’s ambition is plain to see

Character and convictions

Source of ambition

His black armor crowned with a brilliant crescent-moon crest, and the black Western-style ship San Juan Bautista.

Turning point

The wounds of losing his right eye to smallpox as a child, being shunned by his mother Yoshihime, and watching her favor his younger brother Kojirō.

How he treats others

His absolute trust in his childhood companion Katakura Kojūrō Kagetsuna, who removed his ruined right eye and supported him throughout his life.

Principle he will not yield

Following in another’s footsteps and disappearing into a dull, ordinary life.

Historical path

1584 - 1588
The young lord who inherited his house at eighteen and began to conquer Ōshū by force
“His young, sharp Ōshū voice carries ambition and decisive command.”
1589 - 1590
The Ōshū ruler who took Aizu at Suriagehara and risked his life at Odawara in white robes
“His Ōshū speech is bold in triumph and very low when pleading for his life.”
1600 - 1620
Founder of the Sendai domain, who built the city and sent an embassy overseas while keeping his own ambitions close
“In public, his Ōshū voice is deferential to the Tokugawa; in private, he hides neither regret nor cunning.”
1621 - 1636
The old dragon, who nursed his ambition for supremacy through seventy years of restraint and died at his Edo residence
“His Ōshū speech bears the weight of change and resignation; he entrusts his aspirations to tea, poetry, and Noh.”

Final chapter

1636 (aged 70)

He built Sendai and its port, and pursued grand designs such as dispatching the Keichō embassy to Europe through Spain. He died at his Edo residence in Sakurada on the 24th day of the 5th month, Kan'ei 13 (1636), aged seventy.

He left a death poem: “I send the moon of an unclouded heart before me, to light the darkness of this floating world,” then died peacefully.
「“A stylish man of the age, he kept his ambition for the realm alive while using theatrical white robes—even a mock death shroud—to allay Hideyoshi’s and Ieyasu’s suspicions. He ended his days as a senior shogunate figure.”」