Bessho Nagaharu

In this Japanese name, the surname is Bessho.

Bessho Nagaharu portrait in Hyogo Prefectural Museum of History.

Bessho Nagaharu (別所 長治, 1558 – February 2, 1580) was a Japanese daimyō of the Sengoku period. He was the eldest son of Bessho Yasuharu.

In 1578 Oda Nobunaga called on his retainers to attack the Mōri clan. Nagaharu almost decided to ally with the Oda clan, but after hearing that the low-born general Hashiba Hideyoshi, whom he did not respect, was leading the troops, he revolted and instead allied himself with Hatano Hideharu of Tanba province.

Nagaharu took a stand at Miki Castle, and was besieged by Hideyoshi's troops on the orders of Nobunaga. The Siege of Miki did not go well for Hideyoshi, and with a revolt by Araki Murashige and the help of the Mōri clan, Nagaharu successfully repelled the Oda force.

In 1579, Hideyoshi returned and instead of launching a direct assault, he launched multiple sieges against smaller castles like Kamiyoshi Castle and Sigata Castle to cut off the support from Mōri. This led to a rapid depletion of food, and in 1580, with no hope of another reinforcement from Mōri clan, Nagaharu committed seppuku in exchange for the lives of the troops in Miki Castle.

Related Pages

• Miki Castle

References

• (in Japanese) Japanese Wiki article on Bessho (20 Sept. 2007)

Further reading

• Matsubayashi Yasuaki 松林靖明 (1996). Bessho ki: kenkyū to shiryō 别所記: 研究と資料. Osaka: Izumi Shoin 和泉書院.