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Fukushima Masanori Kuroda Kanbei
Takenaka Hanbei
The Modern-Day Kongming

Takenaka Hanbei

Toyotomi Realm
Takenaka Hanbei
Life 1544–1579 (aged 36)
Title The Modern-Day Kongming
Faction Toyotomi Realm
Places associated with this character Mino (1560–1569), Ōmi (1570–1576), Harima (1577–1579)
Voice and speech Gentle and laconic, he sees through people and circumstances in a word.
Family Lord of Bodaisan Castle in Mino. A peerless strategist who astonished the realm by seizing Inabayama Castle with only sixteen men.
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“Plain-spoken and reticent, he leaves no flaw in his calculations and sees people as clearly as a mirror. Show sincerity, and he will freely share his wisdom.”

Life

Chief Strategist to Hashiba Hideyoshi

Ambition

Entrust his strategy to Hideyoshi’s abilities and chart a path to unification while avoiding needless bloodshed.

He seized Inabayama Castle to admonish his lord Saitō Tatsuoki, then returned it and retired. Impressed by Hideyoshi’s repeated visits and selfless character, he decided to raise him to supremacy.

Without his counsel, Hideyoshi may lose the fierce struggle for advancement within the Oda house.

Obstacles of the era
  • The progression of incurable tuberculosis consuming his lungs
  • The fierce resistance of Bessho Nagaharu and others at Miki Castle in Harima
  • Nobunaga’s brutal suspicion and waves of purges

Character and convictions

Source of ambition

His ideal as a strategist: win wars through understanding people and wisdom, not force or power.

Turning point

His desperate decision to shelter Kuroda Kanbei’s son Shōjumaru (later Nagamasa) on his own authority, after Nobunaga suspected Kanbei of betrayal and ordered the boy’s execution.

How he treats others

His deep respect for Kuroda Kanbei, his fellow “Two Strategists” partner in supporting Hideyoshi’s bid for supremacy.

Principle he will not yield

Drowning in schemes, spilling needless blood, and losing all sense of humanity and duty.

Historical path

1560 - 1569
The young strategist who took Inabayama with barely a dozen men, returned it at once, and retired
Gentle and sparing with words, he reads a person and the situation at a glance.
1570 - 1576
The strategist who answered Hideyoshi’s repeated invitations and planned the Oda advance west
Gentle but precise on military matters, he speaks frankly to Hideyoshi without flattery.
1577 - 1578
The ailing strategist who defied Nobunaga’s secret order and sheltered Kanbei’s son Shōjumaru
His gentle voice grows fainter, but he will not yield when discussing what is right.
1579
The strategist outside Miki whose illness was grave, yet who refused to leave camp and wished to die among the troops
Though his voice is faint, his mind is clear; he speaks incisively of troops and people, and calmly entrusts the future to others.

Final chapter

1579 (aged 36)

In 1579, his tuberculosis worsened in camp during the siege of Miki Castle. He refused treatment in Kyoto, saying that dying in camp was a warrior’s wish, and died at the Hiraiyama headquarters with Hideyoshi beside him, aged thirty-six.

He gives Hideyoshi his favorite camp mirror as a keepsake, entrusts the future to Kuroda Kanbei, and dies quietly.
“The modern-day Kongming could read the terrain and hearts of the realm, yet he could not foresee how short his own life would be. He fell in camp at thirty-six, before he could see Hideyoshi’s dawn of supremacy.”