Yoshihisa Shimazu (9 February 1533 – 5 March 1611) was the daimyo of the Shimazu clan who ruled Satsuma Province from 1566 until his death.
Biography[]
Yoshihisa was the eldest son of Takahisa Shimazu, the daimyo of the Shimazu clan and lord of Satsuma Province. He married his own aunt, and after her death married into the Tanegashima clan. In 1566 he became the 16th clan head of the Shimazu clan and launched a campaign to unify Kyushu. He defeated the Otomo at the Battle of Mimigawa in 1578 and by 1585 controlled all of Kyushu except for the Otomo clan's domains. But in 1587 his 40,000 Shimazu troops were overrun by the 200,000 troops of the Toyotomi Shogunate regent Hideyoshi Hashiba (Toyotomi), and he was forced to become a vassal of the Toyotomi. In 1590 he took part in the campaign against the Hojo, subduing the last resistance to Toyotomi Japan.
He was a friend and admirer of Ieyasu Tokugawa, who praised his unification efforts in Kyushu in a meeting at Fushimi Castle, but he joined the Western Army after he was locked out of Fushimi by Mototada Torii; he wanted to join the Eastern Army there. His brother Yoshihiro Shimazu fought the Eastern Army at the Battle of Fushimi Castle, Battle of Otsu Castle, the Battle of Sekigahara, and the Battle of Ishigaki Plains in 1600 and won the first two and lost the second two. He died in 1611, having been given the Satsuma Domain.
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