Araki Murashige

In this Japanese name, the family name is Araki.

Araki Murashige

Araki Murashige (荒木村重, 1535 – June 20, 1586) was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, and daimyō (feudal lord) of Itami Castle during the late Sengoku period of the 16th century in Japanese history, in what is now Itami city in Hyōgo Prefecture.

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. He retreated to Itami and held out there against a one-year siege by the forces of Oda before the castle fell in 1579; Araki escaped, and lived out the rest of his life as a chanoyu disciple of Sen no Rikyu.

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 significant artist Iwasa Matabei.

References

Ratti, Oscar and Adele Westbrook (1973). Secrets of the Samurai. Edison, NJ: Castle Books.
Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & Co.

Prominent people of the Sengoku period

Three major daimyōs	Oda Nobunaga Toyotomi Hideyoshi Tokugawa Ieyasu

Shogun	Ashikaga Yoshiharu Ashikaga Yoshiteru Ashikaga Yoshihide Ashikaga Yoshiaki Tokugawa Hidetada

Emperors	Go-Kashiwabara Go-Nara Ōgimachi Go-Yōzei

Other daimyōs	List of daimyo from the Sengoku period

Swordsmen	Hikita Bungorō Kamiizumi Nobutsuna Miyamoto Musashi Sasaki Kojirō Tadashima Akiyama Tsukahara Bokuden Tsutsumi Hōzan Yagyū Munenori Yagyū Munetoshi

Ninja, rogues and mercenaries	Fūma Kotarō Hattori Hanzō Ishikawa Goemon Katō Danzō Kirigakure Shikaemon Kōzuki Sasuke Mochizuki Chiyome Nakamura Chōbei Ohama Kagetaka Saika Magoichi Suzuki Sadayu Suzuki Shigehide Suzuki Shigetomo Suzuki Magoroku Igasaki Dōshun

Monks and other religious figures	Ankokuji Ekei Honganji Kennyo Hon'inbō Sansa Ishin Sūden Jion Nankōbō Tenkai Rennyo Sessai Choro Shimozuma Chuko Shimozuma Rairen Shimozuma Rairyū Takuan Sōhō

Onna-bugeisha	Ii Naotora Ikeda Sen Kaihime Komatsuhime Maeda Matsu Ōhōri Tsuruhime Tachibana Ginchiyo

Other women	Asahihime Chacha Dota Gozen Gotokuhime Hosokawa Gracia Izumo no Okuni Kitsuno Kyōgoku Maria Kyōgoku Tatsuko Nene Nōhime Oeyo Oichi Ohatsu Okaji no Kata Lady Kasuga Lady Saigō Lady Tsukiyama Senhime Sentōin Tokuhime

See also	List of samurai from the Sengoku period

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