Asano Yoshinaga (Lord of Hiroshima)

In this Japanese name, the surname is Asano.

Asano Yoshinaga (July 1, 1681 – January 13, 1752) was a Japanese daimyō of the Edo period, who ruled the Hiroshima Domain.

Conflict with Ishida Mitsunari

According to popular theory In 1598 after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the government of Japan have an accident when seven military generals consisted of Fukushima Masanori, Katō Kiyomasa, Ikeda Terumasa, Hosokawa Tadaoki, Asano Yoshinaga, Katō Yoshiaki, and Kuroda Nagamasa planned a conspiracy to kill Ishida Mitsunari. It was said that the reason of this conspiracy was dissatisfaction of those generals towards Mitsunari as he wrote bad assessments and underreported the achievements of those generals during the Imjin war against Korea & Chinese empire. At first, these generals gathered at Kiyomasa's mansion in Osaka Castle, and from there they moved into Mitsunari's mansion. However, Mitsunari learned of this through a report from a servant of Toyotomi Hideyori named Jiemon Kuwajima, and fled to Satake Yoshinobu's mansion together with Shima Sakon and others to hide. When the seven generals found out that Mitsunari was not in the mansion, they searched the mansions of various feudal lords in Osaka Castle, and Kato's army also approached the Satake residence. Therefore, Mitsunari and his party escaped from the Satake residence and barricaded themselves at Fushimi Castle. The next day, the seven generals surrounded Fushimi Castle with their soldiers as they knew Mitsunari was hiding there. Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was in charge of political affairs in Fushimi Castle trying to arbitrate the situation. The seven generals requested Ieyasu to hand over Mitsunari, which refused by Ieyasu. Ieyasu then negotiated the promised to let Mitsunari retire and to review the assessment of the Battle of Ulsan Castle in Korea which became the major source of this incident, and had his second son, Yūki Hideyasu, to escort Mitsunari to Sawayama Castle. However, historian Watanabe Daimon stated from the primary and secondary sources text about the accident this was more of legal conflict between those generals with Mitsunari, rather than conspiracy to murder him. The role of Ieyasu here was not to physically protect Mitsunari from any physical harm from them, but to mediate the complaints of those generals.

Nevertheless, historians viewed this incident were not just simply personal problems between those seven generals against Mitsunari, as it was viewed as an extention of the political rivalries on greater scope between Tokugawa faction and anti-Tokugawa faction which led by Mitsunari. Since this incident, those military figures who had bad terms with Mitsunari would support Ieyasu later during the conflict of Sekigahara between Eastern army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and Western army led by Ishida Mitsunari. Muramatsu Shunkichi, writer of "The Surprising Colors and Desires of the Heroes of Japanese History and violent womens”, gave his assessment that the reason of Mitsunari failure in his war against Ieyasu was due to his unpopularity among the major political figures of that time.

Family

• Father: Asano Tsunanaga
• Mother: Tokugawa Atehime (1666–1683), daughter of Tokugawa Mitsutomo, 2nd Daimyo of Owari Domain
• Wife: Maeda Ushihime, daughter of Maeda Tsunanori, 4th Daimyo of Kaga Domain
• Children:
  • Asano Munetsune by Ushihime
  • Chohime married Sakai Tadayori of Tsuruoka Domain by Ushihime
  • daughter married Matsudaira Masamoto later married Soma Noritane of Sōma Domain
  • daughter married Matsudaira Sadateru of Takada Domain later married Abe Masanao