Sanada Nobuyuki

Sanada Nobuyuki (真田 信之, 1566 – November 12, 1658) was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period. He was the son of daimyō Sanada Masayuki and the older brother of Sanada Yukimura.

He was the first son of Sanada Masayuki and his wife, Kansho-in. His younger brother was Sanada Yukimura. He was married to Komatsuhime (Ina), a adopted-daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

At an early age, Nobuyuki's father served under the daimyō Takeda Shingen and sent Nobuyuki as a hostage to prove the Sanada clan's loyalty to the Takeda clan. After the Takeda clan was destroyed by joint Oda and Tokugawa army, Nobuyuki fled to Ueda Castle, the stronghold of the Sanada Clan and where his family were. In AD 1585, Tokugawa Ieyasu attacked Ueda Castle; Nobuyuki fought alongside his father and was victorious. Later, as Masayuki served under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Nobuyuki was sent to Tokugawa to be a retainer in order to preserve the clan if anything wrong happened to the Toyotomi clan.

Edo period screen depicting the Battle of Sekigahara.

During the Battle of Sekigahara, he fought on the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu, against whom Masayuki and his brother, Yukimura were fighting. After the Western Army was defeated by Ieyasu, Nobuyuki used this position to save his father's and brother's lives. After the battle Masayuki's territory was seized and he and Yukimura were exiled to Kudoyama in Mt. Koya in the Kii Province. Ueda was given to Nobuyuki.

In 1614 the relationship between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi started heating up again. Ieyasu ordered 10,000 army to surround the Osaka Castle. Yukimura escaped from Kudo and serve Toyotomi to take the fight against the Tokugawa. Accepting the truth, Nobuyuki couldn't spare Yukimura again and his brother was killed in battle.

The Tokugawa generally have a high regard of Nobuyuki. In 1622, he became the first lord of the Matsushiro clan and lived to 92 years of age.

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