Masanori Akamatsu

Japanese: 赤松政則 - あかまつ・まさのり

Year of death: April 25, 1496 (June 6, 1496)
Year of birth: Kōsei 1 (1455)
A military commander in the Muromachi period. Shugo of half of Kaga Province, later Shugo of Harima, Bizen and Mimasaka. Son of Tokikatsu. Childhood name Jiro Hoshimaru. Hyobu Shoyu, Sakyo no Daibu. When Harima Castle fell during the Kakitsu Rebellion, his father Tokikatsu was 9 years old, but he escaped the castle in the care of Akamatsu Mitsumasa and grew up hidden in Amagakure Tatsuzawa. After Tokikatsu's early death, the surviving retainers of the Akamatsu clan supported his surviving son Jiro Hoshimaru (Masanobu) in a plot to restore their master's family, attacking the Southern Court's imperial heirs in Yoshino in 1458, and recapturing the sacred seal that had been stolen from the Imperial Palace in 1443. As a result, Jiro Hoshimaru was given the position of Shugo of half of Kaga Province and the Bizen Shinden Manor. Behind this dramatic revival were the efforts of Inryoken no Kami Suenari Shinzui, a member of the Kozuki clan of Harima who was deeply involved in the shogunate at the time, and Hosokawa Katsumoto, who was not happy with the growing power of the Yamana clan that had acquired the former territory of the Akamatsu clan, and who had put in a good word for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. From then on, the Akamatsu clan consistently maintained a close relationship with the Hosokawa clan. In 1465 (Kansho 6), Tonoro Hoshimaru came of age and took the name Masanori. He fought on the eastern side (Hosokawa's side) during the Onin War, and soon afterwards, he chased the Yamana army from Harima, Bizen, and Mimasaka and regained his position as shugo (military governor) for the three provinces. He also had a good relationship with Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa and Yoshihisa, and in 1477 (Bunmei 9), he was appointed head of the Samurai Department. However, in 1482 (Bunmei 9), the Yamana clan began their invasion of Harima, and at the end of the same year, they suffered a major defeat at Mayumi Pass on the Bantan border. For this reason, at one point, his senior vassals Uragami Norimune and Kodera Norimoto tried to depose him. A settlement was somehow reached with the mediation of Kameizumi Shusho (a descendant of the Goto clan of Harima), the head of the Inryoken, but the attacks by the Yamana clan continued, with fierce battles in Fukuoka, Bizen, and Katashima, Harima. In 1488 (Chokyo 2), he finally defeated the Yamana clan, and in 1493 (Meio 2), he married Katsumoto's daughter Meshi (Toshoin), further strengthening his relationship with the Hosokawa clan. In leap February of the same year, he was awarded the highest rank of Junior Third Rank for the Akamatsu clan, but he suddenly died in April of the same year at Choenji Temple in Sakata Manor, Harima.

(Masaharu Enohara)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：明応5.4.25(1496.6.6)
生年：康正1(1455)
室町時代の武将。加賀半国守護,のち播磨・備前・美作守護。時勝の子。幼名次郎法師丸。兵部少輔,左京大夫。嘉吉の乱で播磨城山城が落城したとき父時勝は9歳であったが,赤松満政に託されて城を脱出,天隠竜沢に匿われて成長した。時勝の早世後,赤松氏の遺臣たちはその遺児次郎法師丸(政則)を担いで主家再興を企て,長禄2(1458)年吉野に南朝の皇胤を襲い,嘉吉3(1443)年に内裏から奪い去られたままになっていた神璽を奪還した。これにより次郎法師丸には加賀半国守護職と備前新田荘が与えられた。この再興劇の裏には,播磨の国人上月氏の出身で当時幕政に深く関与していた蔭凉軒主季瓊真蘂や,赤松氏の旧領を得て強大化した山名氏の勢力を快く思わない細川勝元による将軍足利義政への口添えがあった。以後赤松氏は一貫して細川氏と親しい関係を保つことになる。寛正6(1465)年次郎法師丸は元服して政則と名乗り,応仁の乱では東軍(細川方)に属して戦い,まもなく播磨・備前・美作から山名軍を追って3カ国守護職を回復した。将軍足利義政・義尚との関係も良好で,文明9(1477)年には侍所頭人に任じられている。しかし同15年から山名氏の播磨進攻が始まり,同年暮れには播但国境の真弓峠で大敗を喫した。このため一時は重臣浦上則宗や小寺則職に廃立を企てられるほどであった。蔭凉軒主亀泉集証(播磨後藤氏の出身)の斡旋で何とか和解がなされたが,山名氏の攻撃はなおも続き,備前福岡,播磨片島などで激戦があった。長享2(1488)年ようやく山名氏を撃退,明応2(1493)年には勝元の娘めし(洞松院)と結婚して細川氏との関係は一層深まった。同5年閏2月,赤松氏としては最高の従三位に叙せられたが,同年4月播磨坂田荘の長円寺で急逝した。

(榎原雅治)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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