Great Figures of the World Series | Episode 37: Muneshige Tachibana, Sengoku Warlord and First Lord of the Yanagawa Domain

In this world,

there are those who are strong in battle.
There are those who expand their territory.
There are those who conquer the realm.

However,

there are few who

“remained respected by others even after defeat.”

People gather around winners.
People gather around power.
People also gather around money.

But people leave the loser.
That is the way of the world.
Yet, he was different.

He lost his territory.
He lost his status.
He even lost his income.
Still, his retainers did not leave him.

Many people know him as a great commander.
But what was truly amazing was not his strength in battle.

It was that he never lost the hearts of his people.

Muneshige Tachibana
First Lord of the Yanagawa Domain.
One of the strongest warlords of the Sengoku period.
And one of the greatest men of character in the Sengoku period.
1567-1643 | Sengoku Warlord.

【A Boy Raised by Two Fathers】

Born in Chikuzen Province in 1567.
His father was Shoun Takahashi.
A great commander who would later meet a heroic end at Iwaya Castle.

And there was another.
Dosetsu Tachibana.
He was a warlord called the strongest in Kyushu.

Dosetsu had no sons.
So Muneshige, the eldest son of Shoun, entered the Tachibana family as an adopted son.

In modern terms,
it was like being scouted as the successor to a powerful company.

But that did not mean an easy life.
Expectations were placed on Muneshige.
As the successor to the Takahashi family.
As the successor to the Tachibana family.

He became someone who carried the weight of two prestigious houses.

【Business Succession Came Suddenly】

The Tachibana family built by Dosetsu Tachibana was strong.

An elite group of retainers.
High name recognition.
One of the best military forces in Kyushu.

What Muneshige inherited was not just territory.
It was the Tachibana brand.
However, the greatest crisis arrived immediately after the succession.

1585.
Dosetsu passed away.

And the following year,
the Shimazu clan began their conquest of Kyushu.
An ordinary second-generation leader would have a transition period.
Muneshige did not.

It was as if the company was facing a crisis of survival the day after the previous leader died.

【His Father Died to Buy Time】

1586, the Battle of Iwaya Castle.
His biological father, Shoun Takahashi, faced tens of thousands of Shimazu troops with only a handful of soldiers.
The result was defeat.

But the goal was not victory.
It was time.

He acted as a decoy himself,
drawing in the Shimazu army.
In the meantime, the Tachibana family and the Toyotomi army prepared.

Shoun shared his fate with the castle.
Muneshige knew.
His father did not lose.
He died for the future of the Tachibana family.

This event defined Muneshige's life.
It is not about profit or loss.
Keep your honor.

That is what it means to be a samurai.
That is what he came to believe.

【Growth into the Strongest Warlord in Kyushu】

After that, Muneshige
made a name for himself in the battles against the Shimazu army.

His judgment on the battlefield was quick.
His troop deployment was skillful.

Moreover, he did not engage in reckless battles.
He was not just brave.
He was rational.

Eventually, he also played an active role in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's conquest of Kyushu.
Hideyoshi highly valued Muneshige.

There were great commanders all over the country.
But Muneshige had a rare characteristic.

He could fight.
He could think.
He had the support of the people.

He possessed all three.

【The Man Who Made the Tachibana Family Even Stronger】

The founder was Dosetsu Tachibana.
But it was Muneshige who grew the organization.
This is important.

Many second-generation leaders
fail by rejecting their predecessors.
Muneshige was different.

First, he respected Dosetsu's methods.
He protected the trust of the retainer group.

On top of that,
he added his own strengths.

That was his human power.
Dosetsu was strict.
Muneshige had tolerance.

That is why the retainers adored Muneshige.
Despite being in the Sengoku period,
there were few defections from the Tachibana family.

【The Man Called the Peerless of the West】

When talking about Muneshige,

a man of character.
A righteous general.
An ideal leader.

Such words are listed.
But we must not forget.
He was, first and foremost,

one of the strongest warlords of the Sengoku period.

In fact, at the time, Muneshige
was called

“Peerless of the West”
and “Peerless under Heaven.”

This is not an embellishment by later generations.
It is a contemporary evaluation.
Muneshige's way of fighting was distinctive.

He did not make reckless charges.
But he did not remain on the defensive either.
He deployed the most appropriate forces

to the places the enemy hated most.
His judgment was fast.

His troop deployment was skillful.
And above all,

he had the ability to see the entire battlefield.
The Tachibana family was on the front lines of Kyushu.

Their opponent was the Shimazu clan.
The Shimazu army at the time was one of the strongest military forces in Japan.
They swallowed up warlords across Kyushu one after another,
expanding their power.
While many warlords were defeated,

the Tachibana family continued to resist until the end.
At the center of that was Muneshige.
Especially famous are the chaotic period after the Battle of Hetsugigawa

and the series of defensive battles around the arrival of the Toyotomi army.
The difference in military strength was overwhelming.
But Muneshige

used the terrain.
Cut off supply lines.

Struck at the enemy's weaknesses.
Instead of clashing head-on,
he created a situation where he could win and fought.

After his adoptive father, Dosetsu Tachibana, passed away,
the Shimazu army thought they could crush the Tachibana family.

But the result was the opposite.
The Tachibana army held on even more.
They became even stronger.

Even after Muneshige took command,
the combat power of the Tachibana family did not drop.

There are even historical documents that evaluate it as having improved.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi also saw through his ability.
After the pacification of Kyushu, Muneshige participated in campaigns across the country.

He was also active in the invasion of Korea,
earning praise from both friend and foe.
In fact, among the warlords of the Toyotomi administration,
there are many voices that highly value Muneshige.

The interesting part is here.
There are many anecdotes about Muneshige's military prowess.

But people of later generations
talk about his character more than his strength in battle.
Why?
There are other warlords who are strong in battle.

But a warlord who is strong and also has the support of the people

is rare.
Muneshige was
a great commander if only for his military prowess.

A great ruler if only for his character.

He possessed both.
That is why, even now, more than 400 years later,

he is spoken of as the ideal image of a Sengoku warlord.

【The Man Trusted Even by His Enemies】

Muneshige has a rare evaluation.
It is not “strong.”
It was “trustworthy.”

He kept his promises.
He did not lie.
He valued loyalty.

He was even evaluated by enemy generals.
The Sengoku period was an era of betrayal.
Yesterday's ally becomes today's enemy.

In such an era,

to be told “that man can be trusted”

was in itself extraordinary.
Muneshige had built up trust
before his military power.

【The Greatest Failure of His Life】

1600, the Battle of Sekigahara.
Muneshige sided with the Western Army.
The result was defeat.
He lost everything.

Confiscation of the 130,000 koku of Yanagawa.
Loss of income.
Deprivation of daimyo status.

In modern terms,

company bankruptcy.
Presidential bankruptcy.
Dismissal of all employees.

He was in such a state.

But what was most painful for Muneshige was
that because of his own failure,
he had left his retainers wandering the streets.

He could endure it himself.
But his retainers had families.
They had children.
They had lives to protect.

Muneshige later
is said to have said, “I felt sorry for my retainers.”
What he suffered from was not

the defeat itself.
It was that he had caused suffering to the people who trusted him.

【Why Did the Retainers Not Leave?】

This is Muneshige's greatest achievement.
Normally, it would be the end.
But it did not end.
The retainers remained.

The reason was simple.
They were not serving the Tachibana family.
They were serving Muneshige.

Even when the territory was gone.
Even when the salary was gone.
The trust in the person named Muneshige did not disappear.

This is extremely rare in Sengoku history.
Because it is normal for people to disappear
the moment power is lost.

[Miraculous Revival]

Afterward, Muneshige lived the life of a ronin.
However, his talent did not fade.

Tokugawa Ieyasu recognized his worth.
Tokugawa Hidetada also recognized his worth.

And so, he returned as a daimyo.
Then, something even more surprising happened.

He returned to his former territory of Yanagawa.
This was extremely unusual.

For a daimyo who had once been stripped of his rank
to return to his original territory
is almost unheard of in Sengoku history.

Muneshige did not revive through military force.
He revived through trust.

[The Opponents He Fought]

What Muneshige was fighting against
was not other Sengoku warlords.

What he was truly fighting against were:

• The pressure of succeeding as head of the family
• The threat of the Shimazu army
• The death of his father
• The death of his adoptive father
• The defeat at Sekigahara
• The confiscation of his territory
• The livelihood of his retainers
• The honor of a samurai
• The public's view of the defeated

He did not want to protect his territory.

He wanted to keep his promises to people.

[Was This a Strategy?]

Looking only at the results, it is a success story of a great commander who rose from defeat.
However, there is a consistent pattern within it.

Adopted into a prestigious family
↓
Succeeds the Tachibana family
↓
Respects the predecessor's policies
↓
Gains the trust of retainers
↓
Achieves results on the battlefield
↓
Becomes one of the strongest in Kyushu
↓
Plays an active role in the Toyotomi administration
↓
Defeated at Sekigahara
↓
Loses everything
↓
Yet his retainers remain
↓
Recognized by the Tokugawa
↓
Returns as a daimyo
↓
Returns to Yanagawa

Furthermore,

Values people
↓
Trust is born
↓
The organization becomes stronger
↓
Overcomes crises
↓
People remain
↓
Able to make a comeback

In other words, Muneshige
is not great because he kept winning battles.
He was great because he did not lose his people.

[Summary]

Muneshige Tachibana was a great commander.
But that is not all.

He was an excellent second-generation leader.
He was an excellent organizational manager.
He was an excellent person of character.

And above all,
he was a man who rose from defeat.

Many warlords are defined by their victories.
But Muneshige is different.

He is defined by his defeat.

Because when you lose everything,
your true value is revealed.

Even when the territory is gone, the people remain.
Even when the power is gone, the people remain.

That was the greatest asset of his life.
Muneshige was
an "ideal leader who moved an organization through trust"
who appeared in the Sengoku period.

He was called the Peerless of the West.
He was also called the Peerless under Heaven.
But now, more than 400 years later,
what people talk about is not his success, but his character.

Muneshige Tachibana is
not a man who was great because he won.
He was a man who was great
because people did not leave him even when he lost.

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Great Figures of the World Series | Episode 38: Masayuki Sanada
Sengoku Warlord and Head of the Sanada Family

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