Editing Hirate Masahide

{{Short description|Japanese samurai}}
{{family name hatnote|Hirate|lang=Japanese}}
[[File:Statue of Hirate Masahide.jpg|thumb|Statue of Hirate Masahide at Seishū-ji, [[Nagoya]]]]
{{Nihongo|'''Hirate Masahide'''|平手 政秀|extra=June 4, 1492 – February 25, 1553}} was a Japanese [[samurai]] who served the [[Oda clan]] for two generations. His original name was {{Nihongo|'''Hirate Kiyohide'''|平手 清秀}}.

== Life ==
Masahide first served [[Oda Nobuhide]]. He was a talented samurai as well as skilled in [[Japanese tea ceremony|sado]] and [[Waka (poetry)|waka]]. This helped him to act as a skilled diplomat, dealing with the [[Ashikaga shogunate]] and deputies of the [[Emperor of Japan|emperor]]. In 1533, a well-known regent Yamashina Tokitsugu visited [[Owari Province]], the domain of the Oda clan. Finding the reception prepared by Masahide superb, Tokitsugu praised Masahide's knowledge highly. Other signs of his importance as a diplomat can be found in the fact that he paid a visit to [[Kyoto]] in the name of Nobuhide to offer the funds needed to repair the Emperor's residence.

When Nobuhide's son [[Oda Nobunaga|Nobunaga]] was born in 1534, Masahide became the second highest ranking [[Karō]] as well as the tutor of the newborn heir. In 1547 Nobunaga finished his coming-of-age ceremony, and on the occasion of his first battle, Masahide served beside him. The next year, he exerted himself to establish peace between Nobuhide and his agelong rival [[Saitō Dōsan]] of [[Mino Province]], and to arrange the marriage between Nobunaga and Dōsan's daughter [[Nōhime]]. This move made it possible for the Oda clan to concentrate on the fight against the [[Imagawa clan]].

Masahide served the Oda family faithfully in many ways, but he was also deeply troubled by Nobunaga's eccentricity. After Nobuhide's death, discord in the clan increased and so did Masahide's concern about the future of his master.

In 1553, Masahide committed [[Seppuku|''kanshi'']] ("remonstration death") to startle Nobunaga into his obligations.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Turnbull|first1=Stephen|title=The Samurai Sourcebook|date=1998|publisher=Cassell & Co|location=London|isbn=9781854095237|page=68}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirate, Masahide}}
[[Category:1492 births]]
[[Category:1553 deaths]]
[[Category:Samurai]]
[[Category:Suicides by seppuku]]