Araki Murashige

Araki Murashige (荒木 村重, 1535 – June 20, 1586) was a retainer of Ikeda Katsumasa, head of the powerful Ikeda clan of Settsu Province. Under Katsumasa, Murashige sided with Oda Nobunaga following Nobunaga's successful campaign to establish power in Kyoto. Murashige became a retainer of Oda Nobunaga and daimyō (feudal lord) of Ibaraki Castle in 1573 and gained further notoriety through military exploits across Japan.[1]

In this Japanese name, the surname is Araki.
Araki Murashige

He commanded part of Nobunaga's army in the ten-year siege of the Ishiyama Honganji, but was accused in 1578 of sympathies to the Mōri clan, one of Nobunaga's enemies, by Akechi Mitsuhide. Murashige retreated to Itami Castle (Hyōgo Prefecture) and held out there against a one-year siege by the forces of Oda before the castle fell in 1579. Araki escaped[2] but not without his wife and children, along with around 200 of his vassals being put to death.

Murashige took his tonsure after the siege of Itami Castle and lived the rest of his life as a chanoyu disciple of Sen no Rikyū. He also served Toyotomi Hideyoshi as a teaist and took the tea name of Dōkun 道薫.[3]

Rikyū shared some of his most detailed teachings with Murashige, one example being the well-known ‘Araki Settsu Kami-ate Densho’ (荒木摂津守宛伝書) manuscript. In the ‘Teaist Genealogy of All Generations Past and Present’ (Kokin Chajin Keifu 古今茶人系譜), Murashige is included as one of Rikyū’s Seven Sages.[3]

There is a semi-legendary tale told about Araki's creative use of a tessen, or iron fan, in saving his own life. After being accused of treason by Akechi Mitsuhide, Araki was called before his lord, Oda Nobunaga. As was customary, he bowed low over the threshold before entering the room. But he sensed somehow Nobunaga's plan to have his guards slam the fusuma sliding doors on him, breaking his neck. Araki placed his fan in the doors' groove, preventing the doors from closing. Nobunaga's plan revealed, Araki's life was spared, with much reconciliation.

His son, raised under his mother's name, was the artist Iwasa Matabei.

References
  1. Ueda, Sōkei (2016). The Ueda Sōko Tradition of Chanoyu. Hiroshima Bunko. p. 32.
  2. Turnbull, Stephen (2000). The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & C0. p. 230. ISBN 1854095234.
  3. Chanoyu jinbutsu jiten : ryakuden kotoba itsuwa. Sekai Bunkasha., 世界文化社. Tōkyō: Sekaibunkasha. 2011. ISBN 9784418113088. OCLC 731903922.CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Ratti, Oscar and Adele Westbrook (1973). Secrets of the Samurai. Edison, NJ: Castle Books.



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