Honda Shigetsugu

Japanese: 本多重次 - ほんだ・しげつぐ

Year of death: July 26, 1596 (August 19, 1596)
Year of birth: 1529
A military commander during the Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was commonly known as Hachizo and Sakujuro, but his name Sakuzaemon was more famous. He was feared as the "Demon Sakuza" for his formidable character and behavior. He was the son of Honda Shigemasa, a Matsudaira clan vassal, and served Matsudaira Kiyoyasu and Hirotada from the age of seven. As a senior vassal of Ieyasu, he became one of the three Mikawa magistrates in 1565. During the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, he wrote a letter to his wife, who was in charge of the castle while he was away, saying, "Please be careful of fires. Don't make Osen cry. Fatten the horses." This letter is famous as a good example of a short letter. Later, after Ishikawa Kazumasa fled, he was put in charge of Okazaki Castle, but was reprimanded by Hideyoshi for treating Toyotomi Hideyoshi's mother, Omandokoro, poorly, and was confined to a 3,000 koku stipend at Furuido in Kazusa after Ieyasu was transferred to the Kanto region.

(Tetsuo Owada)

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

Japanese:

没年：慶長1.7.26(1596.8.19)
生年：享禄2(1529)
戦国・安土桃山時代の武将。通称八蔵,作十郎といったが,作左衛門の名が有名。剛毅な性格とふるまいから「鬼作左」と恐れられたという。松平氏譜代の本多重正の子で7歳から松平清康,広忠に仕え,家康の重臣として,永禄8(1565)には三河三奉行のひとりとなった。天正3(1575)年の長篠の戦のとき,留守を預かる妻に宛てた「一筆啓上火の用心お仙泣かすな馬肥やせ」という手紙は短文の好例として有名である。のち石川数正出奔後,岡崎城を任されたが,そのとき豊臣秀吉の母大政所を冷遇したということで秀吉の咎めをうけ,家康の関東移封後は上総古井戸3000石に閉居された。

(小和田哲男)

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

<<: Honda Seiroku - Honda Seiroku

>>: Honda Kotaro - Honda Kotaro