Uesugi Kagekatsu (8 January 1556 – 19 April 1623) was a daimyo during the Sengoku and Edo periods of Japanese history. The son of Nagao Masakage (the head of the Ueda Nagao clan) and husband of Uesugi Kenshin's elder sister, Aya-Gozen. After his father died, he was adopted by Kenshin. Upon Kenshin's death in 1578, Kagekatsu battled Kenshin's other adopted son Uesugi Kagetora for the inheritance, defeating him in the 1578 Ōtate no Ran. He forced Kagetora to commit seppuku, and became head of the Uesugi clan. Kagekatu was married with Takeda Katsuyori's sister (Takeda Shingen's daughter) after Ōtate no Ran.
As a general under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Kagekatsu took part in the Odawara and Korea campaigns, and rose to prominence to become a member of the council of Five Elders. Originally holding a 550,000 koku fief in Echigo province, Kagekatsu received the fief of Aizu, worth a huge 1.2 million koku when Hideyoshi redistributed holdings in 1598. After Hideyoshi's death, that year, Kagekatsu then allied himself with Ishida Mitsunari, against Tokugawa Ieyasu, as the result of some political dispute.
The Sekigahara Campaign could be said to have begun, at least in part, with Kagekatsu, who was the first daimyo to plan revolt against the Tokugawa. He built a new castle in Aizu, attracting the attention of Ieyasu, who ordered him to Osaka, to explain his conduct. Kagekatsu refused, and Tokugawa began plans to lead a 50,000 man army north against him. Ishida and Uesugi hoped to occupy Tokugawa Ieyasu with this fighting in the north, distracting him from Ishida Mitsunari's attacks in and around Osaka. Anticipating this, Ieyasu remained in Osaka to engage Mitsunari; his generals Mogami Yoshiaki and Date Masamune would fight Kagekatsu in Tōhoku (the far north-east of Honshū, Japan's main island). Kagekatsu had intended to move his force south, attacking the Tokugawa from the north-east while Ishida attacked from the west, but he was defeated very early in the campaign, at the siege of his castle at Shiroishi.
Declaring his allegiance to Tokugawa following his defeat, Kagekatsu became a tozama (outsider) daimyo; he was given the Yonezawa han, worth 300,000 koku, in the Tōhoku region. Kagekatsu would later fight for the Tokugawa shogunate against the Toyotomi clan in the 1614-15 siege of Osaka.
Ukita Hideie (1573 – December 17, 1655) was the daimyo of Bizen and Mimasaka provinces (modern Okayama Prefecture), and one of the council of Five Elders appointed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Son of Ukita Naoie, he married Gohime, a daughter of Maeda Toshiie. Having fought against Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Battle of Sekigahara he was exiled to the island prison of Hachijōjima, where he died.
Hideie's father Naoie was daimyo of Bizen province and initially opposed, but later sided with Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Naoie died in 1581, and in 1582 Hideie became the head of the Ukita clan. As Hideie was still young, it was Hideie's uncle who acted as leader of the Ukita army (under Toyotomi Hideyoshi) during the siege of Bitchu Takamatsu Castle in 1582. Nobunaga was assassinated on June 2 of that year, but the siege continued until the castle fell two days later. Hideyoshi raced back to Kyoto, leaving the Ukita clan in charge of Bizen, Mimasaka and newly taken parts of Bichu provinces. The Ukita were also to keep watch on Mori Terumoto to the west.
In 1586, Hideie was married to Hideyoshi's adopted daughter, Gohime. (She had been adopted by Hideyoshi from Maeda Toshiie.)
Hideie joined Hideyoshi's military campaigns in Shikoku(1585), Kyushu(1586) and the Siege of Odawara(1590). Following the unification of Japan under Hideyoshi, Hideie joined the Korean campaigns, returning in 1598 to serve as one of Hideyoshi's five counselors, along with Maeda Toshiie, Uesugi Kagekatsu, Mori Terumoto, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Hideyoshi died in 1598, leaving his five-year-old son Hideyori as his successor and Tokugawa Ieyasu moved to take control. Hideie contributed 17,000 men to the Toyotomi army at the Battle of Sekigahara but they were defeated after many of their "allies" defected to the Tokugawa side. One of these defectors was Kobayakawa Hideaki, who was granted Okayama Castle and surrounding Ukita territories as the spoils of war.
Hideie escaped from the confusion of the battlefield, but was later found and exiled to the island of Hachijōjima, along with several supporters, including his two sons and their nurse(s?). Hideie's wife sought refuge with the Maeda clan and was able to correspond and send gifts (rice, sake, clothing) to her husband and sons from there.
Hideie eventually outlived his wife and all of the sengoku (warring states) era samurai. He was offered a conditional pardon after Ieyasu's death, but declined and never returned to the mainland. His wife had died, the Toyotomi were defeated, there was no place to return to, his sons had fathered children on Hachijo, and the Shogunate was to be inherited by members of the Tokugawa clan.
There is no evidence to suggest that Hideie fathered any further children himself, but many of his sons' descendants emigrated back to the Japanese mainland when a full pardon was granted at the end of the Tokugawa era.
Kobayakawa Hideaki (1577 – December 1, 1602) was fifth son of Kinoshita Iesada and the nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
He was adopted by Hideyoshi and called himself Hashiba Hidetoshi and Shusen . He was then again adopted by Kobayakawa Takakage and renamed himself Hideaki. Because he had gained the rank of Saemon no Toku or in China Shikkingo (執金吾) at genpuku and held the title of Chunagon, Hideaki was also called Kingo Chunagon .
During the Battle of Keicho he led reinforcements to rescue Ulsan Castle from the Ming army. Fighting on the front line with a spear, he managed to capture an enemy commander and successfully broke the siege. However, Hideyoshi saw the danger of a reckless charge by the general commanding an army and deprived him of his domain, Chikugo after returning. Kobayakawa, angered by this, believed the lie circulated by Tokugawa Ieyasu that this had been the doing of a jealous Ishida Mitsunari. He never forgot or forgave Mitsunari and worked to undermine his position.
Before the battle of Sekigahara, Kobayakawa happened to be in Osaka and acted as though he would go along with Mitsunari, even though he had intended to betray him, having secretly communicated with Ieyasu. Knowing Kobayakawa held ill feelings, Mitsunari and Otani Yoshitsugu promised him two additional domains around Osaka and the position of kampaku (until Toyotomi Hideyori grew old enough to rule) if he helped them to victory.
Even after the battle began, Kobayakwa kept his intentions hidden. Ieyasu's force (east) was not faring well against Mitsunari from the west; Ukita Hideie was winning against Fukushima Masanori and Otani Yoshitsugu was also winning against Todo Takatora. Kobayakawa was hesitant to participate with either side. Ieyasu ordered troops to fire blanks against the Kobayakawa troops to force them into action. Kobayakawa then ordered an attack on the Otani troop and while this attack was beaten back temporarily, his action forced the other armies who had pledged betrayal to also turn. The battle was over within a day.
Kobayakawa also had success in the mopping up operations that followed, defeating Mitsunari's father, Ishida Masatsugu in the siege of Sawayama. Once the dust had settled, Kobayakawa was given the defeated Ukita clan's former fiefdoms of Bizen and Mimasaka, for a total of 550,000 koku. However, Kobayakawa suddenly died two years later after supposedly going mad, and with no one to succeed him, the Kobayakawa clan disbanded, and his feifdoms were absorbed by the neighboring Ikeda clan.