Ōtomo Chikaie

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Ōtomo Chikaie (大友親家? 1561 - May 4, 1641) was the second son of Ōtomo Sōrin during the latter years of the Sengoku period of Feudal Japan. By some variable means--likely nothing more than immature selfishness--Chikaie was considered as having a bad personality, and thus deemed as unfit for being the succeeding head over the Ōtomo clan. In effect to this, Sōrin forced his son into priesthood, in which Chikaie eventually managed to mend his ways and become baptized into his father's religion by the year of 1575, ascending to heirship beneath the Towara family -- an action more than likely willingly carried out in effect to his elder brother--Yoshimune--having already taken headship over the Ōtomo and thus sullying any remaining chance for Chikaie to obtain power. As an eventual result, Chikaie aspired to become the new head of Ōtomo regardless of the position of his elder brother, and thus began to widely feud with the former, causing many retainers beneath the Ōtomo to use this as an opportunity to declare that Chikaie was conspiring with the Shimazu and that he should be eliminated -- considering that such circumstances were highly probable, even though Chikaie wasn't initially calling upon the help of such a clan. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi had followed by driving away the Shimazu at a later point in time, he was encouraged to execute Chikaie in order to ensure the safety of both the allied clan of Ōtomo and the Toyotomi, but as Sōrin was naturally a man of filial sympathy, he suggested that Chikaie should be deprived of his domain, as opposed to confronting death by the sword. This being carried out, Chikaie managed to remain alive even deeply into the Edo period, more than likely not succumbing to any level of position or manner of influence, by means of his religious beliefs; but such circumstances may have been different, for Chikaie was forced into Christianity by will of his father, and would more than likely dispose of such beliefs if it benefited him.

[edit] References

  1. Otomo Chikaie - SamuraiWiki. (Samurai Archives) FWSeal & CEWest, 2005
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