Tsuchiya Masatsugu

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Tsuchiya Masatsugu (土屋昌次, 1544 - July 9, 1575) was a senior retainer beneath the clan of Takeda throughout the latter Sengoku PeriodofFeudal Japan. With the death of Kanamaru Torayoshi--Masatsugu's legitimate father--Masatsugu began to support Takeda Shingen with even greater fervor, and at length was granted the privelage of being regarded as one of his Twenty-Four Generals. As Masatsugu thus became a senior retainer to the Takeda, he enlisted himself within any such battle that acted to the attention of his master, notably during that of the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajimain1561, where he scored for himself qualities of leadership as a head commander of the Takeda's famous cavalry unit. With Shingen's sudden passage in 1573, Masatsugu felt an intense level of conviction to end his life with his late lord, but became initially convinced by Kosaka Masanobu to discard such trivial views and continue to live on in the name of the Takeda. As the Battle of Nagashino became existent within the year of 1575, Masatsugu presently acted as one of the head commanders of the Takeda's cavalry army, assaulting the arquebusier barricades of Oda Nobunaga with short-lived equilibrium. And as the Takeda gained an initial disadvantage against the opposition's superior barricaded fire-arm tactic, Masatsugu would be unfortunately shot to death in the same process, along with many of his subordinates and fellow retainers. Even though possessing three sons to carry on his name--and potentially that of the Takeda--they would each be killed during the 1582 invasion of Kai province, thus spelling an end to Masatsugu's honorable tale.