Shimizu Muneharu

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Shimizu Muneharu (清水宗治; 1537 – June 23, 1582) was a military commander in the Azuchi-Momoyama period. He was a retainer of the Mori clan and the lord of the Bitchu Takamatsu Castle. He was also known as Shimizu Chōzaemon (清水長左衛門). His father was Shimuzu Munenori.

The Shimizu clan was a retainer of one of the powerful clans in Bitchu Province. He had been the lord of Shimizu castle at Bitchu Province. Muneharu became the lord of the Bitchu Takamatsu Castle after he captured it in 1565.

After that, he served the Mori clan and belonged to Kobayakawa Takakage and took part in the expedition to unify the Chugoku region. The head of the Mori clan including Takakage quite relied on Muneharu since he was capable and had strong loyalty to the Mori clan.

In 1582, Hashiba Hideyohi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi) who was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, went on an expedition to the Chugoku region to reunify Japan. Muneharu locked himself in Bitchu Takamatsu Castle and resisted Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi advised Muneharu to surrender on the condition that he was given Bitchu Province, but Muneharu rejected. Takamatsu Castle was flooded by Hideyoshi and became close to falling. (This strategy was worked out by Kuroda Yoshitaka who was on the staff of Hideyoshi.) In the middle of flooding in June, Nobunaga died in the Incident at Honnoji in Kyoto. Hearing about Nobunaga, Hideyoshi made peace overtures on the condition that Hideyoshi helped Muneharu's soldiers defending the castle if Muneharu committed suicide (seppuku). Muneharu didn't know of the death of Nobunaga and committed suicide after a few days. He was 45.

His grave is at Seikyō-ji, Hikari, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

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