Mōri Terumoto (毛利 輝元, January 22, 1553 – June 2, 1625) was a Japanese daimyō. The son of Mōri Takamoto, and grandson and successor of the great warlord Mōri Motonari, he fought against Oda Nobunaga but was eventually overcome. He participated in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Korean Campaign (1592) and built Hiroshima Castle, thus essentially founding Hiroshima.
Early life
Mōri Terumoto was born 'Kotsumaru' in 1553., as the eldest son of Mōri Takamoto at Aki Yoshida Koriyama Castle, the residence of the Mōri clan. His mother, Ozaki no Tsubone, was a daughter of Naito Okimori, a senior vassal of the Ouchi clan and Nagato Shugodai, and was also the adopted daughter of Ouchi Yoshitaka. From May 1554 until October 1555, the Mōri clan defeated Sue Harukata in the Battle of Itsukushima. After that, the Mōri clan annihilated the Ouchi and Sue clans. Therefore, his father, Takamoto, was constantly on the battlefield and never settled down with Terumoto.
When his father, Mōri Takamoto, suddenly died in 1563, Terumoto was selected as his heir. However, conflict with Oda Nobunaga, who sought to expand his dominion, began, within three years after Motonari's death.
In December 1573, Nobunaga acknowledged Uragami Munekage, a key figure in anti-Mōri forces, with control over Bizen, Mimasaka, and Harima. This decision provoked resistance from influential local figures such as Bessho and Kodera. When Munekage's vassal, Ukita Naoie took advantage of this situation and initiated a rebellion, the Mōri supported him.
Furthermore, the Mōri clan intervened in the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War and gradually escalated their confrontation with Nobunaga.
Terumoto turned to the vaunted Môri navy. In 1576, First Battle of Kizugawaguchi Nobunaga's 'admiral', Kuki Yoshitaka, had cut the Honganji's sea-lanes and sat in blockade off the coast. Terumoto ordered his fleet, commanded by Murakami Takeyoshi, to make for the waters off Settsu and, once there, the navy inflicted an embarrassing defeat on Kuki and opened the Honganji's supply lines.
In 1577, Hideyoshi captured Kozuki Castle in Harima and gave it to Amago Katsuhisa, who, supported by the famed Yamanaka Shikanosuke, hoped to restore the defunct Amago clan to power in Izumo. Perhaps goaded by the mere name of the new defender of Kozuki as much as anything else. In 1578, Terumoto sent his uncles to laid Siege of Kōzuki Castle. This they did, and both Katsuhisa and Shikanosuke were killed.
Later in 1578, Second Battle of Kizugawaguchi, Kûki Yoshitaka defeat Takeyoshi and drove the Mōri away. A further attempt by the Mōri to break the blockade the following year was turned back, and in 1580 the Honganji surrendered.
After Hongan-ji surrender, this allowed Nobunaga to concentrate on the Mōri and he sent two sizable contingents westward into the Chugoku region. Hashiba Hideyoshi was to march along the southern portion of the arm (the Sanyodo) while Akechi Mitsuhide moved into the upper provinces (the Sanindo).
By this time, Ukita Naoie had already defected to the Oda clan, and the Mōri clan found themselves in a difficult military situation.
By 1582 a Mōri defeat seemed inevitable. Hideyoshi had forced his way into Bitchu province and laid siege to Takamatsu Castle. Shimizu Muneharu (a former Mimura retainer) defended Takamatsu stoutly, but its loss would all but open the way into Bingo and Aki, the Mōri homeland. Hideyoshi knew that Takamatsu would be a tough nut to crack and that heavy losses would only benefit the Mōri, so he resorted to a stratagem. Diverting the waters of a nearby river, he flooded the castle grounds, making Takamatsu a soggy island. By now Terumoto had brought up a relief force, but hesitated to attack Hideyoshi directly. Shimizu, for his part, responded to an offer by Hideyoshi that would spare the lives of his men, and committed suicide after ordering his men to surrender.
Service Under Hideyoshi
After the death of Nobunaga at Honnoji Incident in 1582, and probably most relieved at Hideyoshi's evident generosity, Terumoto agreed, to make peace and allowing Hideyoshi to speed home and defeat Akechi Mitsuhide before anyone else was the wiser for it. As frustrated as the Mōri may have been by their discovery of the truth, they did not break the truce, and in time became Hideyoshi's closest supporters.
In 1583 he became a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. and Kyushu Campaign (1587). He sent ships to assist Hideyoshi in his reduction of the Hojo at Siege of Odawara (1590).
When Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592, Terumoto himself led the "7th Division" with 30,000 troops there, although much of his time seems to have been taken up fighting Korean partisans at Gyeongsang Province.
In 1599, Terumoto made a Kishômon (blood oath ritual) with Ieyasu to pledge loyalty each others, the content of the oath that both Terumoto and Ieyasu "would never betray each others and act as if they both are biological brothers".
Terumoto was a member of the council of Five Elders appointed by Hideyoshi. On November 9, Kikkawa Hiroie, daimyo of Iwakuni, Suō Province, informed Terumoto's aide Motoi Ihara of the situation in the Kamigata region and urged Terumoto to march out. The following day, on November 10, Terumoto entrusted the management of his home province to Masuda Motoyoshi and Yamada Motomune,[note 9] and marched out of Hagi on November 11, traveling eastward by sea from Mitajiri, Suo Province. Later, when Tokugawa Hidetada arrived at Fushimi on November 10, Sakai Tadayo, Doi Toshikatsu, and Ando Shigenobu, who were following Hidetada, requested Hidenari and Hidemoto in Edo to march out, and the Mōri clan joined the attack on Osaka Castle from both the home province and Edo.
During the Summer Siege of Osaka, some of the former vassals of the Mōri clan, such as Naito Motomori (Sano Michika), Karasuda Tsuji, Koda Masatane, and Kasai Shigemasa, joined the Toyotomi side. After the Siege of Osaka and the fall of the castle, Motomori was arrested in the outskirts of Kyoto in May. He was interrogated by Yagyū Munenori, an Ometsuke official in charge of the investigation, about the suspicion that Motomori had entered Osaka Castle on Terumoto's orders, but Motomori claimed that he had entered the castle on his own initiative, and committed suicide on the 21st, which resulted in the suspicion against the Mōri clan being dropped. After that, Naito Motomori's sons Naito Motochika and Awaya Mototoyo met with Ieyasu, and were allowed to return to Japan after explaining that they had no connection with Motomori. However, Terumoto forced the two to commit suicide and imprisoned Naito Motochika's son Motonobu.
In 1616, on July 19, Terumoto married his only daughter, Takehime, to Kikkawa Hiromasa. Two days before, on July 17, two days before the wedding of Yoshikawa Hiromasa and Takehime, Terumoto sent a letter with the following contents to Kikkawa Hiroie, and upon receiving the letter, Hiroie immediately replied to Ihara Motoi and Enomoto Motoyoshi that he accepted the gist of the letter: