Date Masamune was a warrior of the Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1568-1600) and the early part of the Edo Period (1600-1868) and one of the greatest daimyō of northern Japan. Succeeding his father at the age of 17, he defeated most of his rivalling neighbours and thereby significantly expanded his territories. Supporting the hegemons Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu he consolidated his power base and established the fiefdom of Sendai, one of the largest in the Edo Period. He showed interest in Christianity and despatched an embassy to Europe; he died renowned as an unconventional warrior, one of the most powerful military leaders of his age and a patron of the arts.
Date Masamune (伊達政宗,1567-1636) was the eldest son of Date Terumune (d. 1584), lord of Yonezawa Castle (modern-day Yamagata Prefecture) and Yoshihime, the daughter of Mogami Yoshimori, the
daimyō of Dewa Province. First known as
Botenmaru (梵天丸), his...