Yukimura Sanada (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
crimson_war_demon) wrote2012-09-28 06:09 pm
crimson_war_demon) wrote2012-09-28 06:09 pm
Entry tags:
A Brief History of Lancer
(Partially for my own benefit, partially for anyone else who's curious, considering how many sources I am mangling combining for this particular incarnation of him! I'll try to use Western-style name order for everyone: given name followed by family/clan name. As far as the historical accuracy of this thing goes, let's just go with "good enough for Fateverse although I did make him ten years younger but you probably shouldn't use this to study for a history test.")
Once upon a time in feudal Japan, in what is now the Nagano prefecture (and right next to Shizuoka prefecture, where we're assuming that Fuyuki is located), the Sanada clan loyally served Shingen Takeda, the daimyo of Kai. The Takeda clan was effectively destroyed in 1582, though, when this version of Yukimura was five, and Yukimura's father Masayuki expanded the Sanada's holdings into an adjacent province to ensure that they wouldn't be destroyed. Unfortunately, the lands Masayuki took over initially belonged to an ally of Ieyasu Tokugawa's, and Ieyasu demanded that the Sanada give those lands back. Masayuki said "nuh-uh," Ieyasu marched on Ueda Castle, and Masayuki asked Kagekatsu Uesugi, Kenshin's successor, for a little bit of backup. To seal the deal, Masayuki sent eight-year-old Yukimura to Kagekatsu as a hostage. Yukimura put on a brave face, but secretly counted the days until he could go home again. After Ieyasu's attack on Ueda Castle failed, he thought he'd get to return for sure -- except Masayuki decided to make friendly overtures to Hideyoshi Toyotomi (then the shogun of Japan in all but name) in order to get Ieyasu to lay off for good. Yukimura was removed from the Uesugi's care and sent to serve Hideyoshi instead.
The poor kid had no idea what would happen to him when he got there. Hideyoshi was said to be a stunted, wizened man, more monkey than human; a ruthless schemer who rose from Nobunaga Oda's sandal-bearer to his second-in-command through carrying out his dirty work; a conqueror even more set on subjugating Japan than his predecessor had been. Yukimura wondered if his father had simply written him off as an expendable second son -- but much to his surprise, Hideyoshi stepped in to fill the role Masayuki had vacated.
At that point in time Hideyoshi had no children of his own, so Yukimura became the closest thing to a son he had. When he wasn't being instructed in the arts of a warrior, Yukimura was constantly at Hideyoshi's side, accompanying him on trips and sitting in on statecraft and strategy meetings (though it became clear that he didn't have much of a talent for the former). He begged Hideyoshi to let him go on military campaigns, too, and Hideyoshi relented in time for Yukimura to take part in his first military action at the Siege of Odawara in 1590.Said siege, granted, was more of a three-month party for the Toyotomi troops than anything else. Hideyoshi even brought in performers and set up markets so his troops wouldn't get too bored. Afterwards, Hideyoshi granted Yukimura the right to use the Toyotomi surname, an almost unheard-of honor. Some of Hideyoshi's advisors wondered if Hideyoshi planned to make Yukimura his heir, although Yukimura himself protested that all he wanted to do was serve his lord faithfully.
Unfortunately, things started to go downhill after that. Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in 1592 ended in disaster, and his newborn son died. He had a second son, Hideyori, in 1593, which nearly triggered a succession crisis -- one Hideyoshi resolved by forcing his nephew to commit suicide. These events took a toll on Hideyoshi, and his health began to decline. Yukimura worried incessantly about his lord, though he would never be so rude as to share his concerns publicly; even his marriage to Akihime, the daughter of one of Hideyoshi's senior retainers, didn't give him much relief. He did what he could to care for Hideyoshi and his son, but he could do nothing to prevent Hideyoshi's ultimately fatal illness in 1598. Hideyoshi established a council of regents to rule Japan until Hideyori came of age (one of whom was Ieyasu); privately, he asked Yukimura to watch over his son, and make sure he grew to be as fine a man as Yukimura had become. Yukimura wept, but vowed to keep his final promise to his lord until he breathed his last.
But keeping that promise proved difficult. Ieyasu assumed more and more control over the council of regents until he ruled virtually unopposed, and Yukimura's older brother Nobuyuki married Ieyasu's daughter by adoption, effectively making him Ieyasu's son-in-law and allying the Sanada with Ieyasu. Yukimura wasn't the only one discontented with Ieyasu's growing power. Mitsunari Ishida, one of the civil administrators of Japan and one of Hideyoshi's chief supporters, had Ieyasu declared an enemy of the state in 1600 and formed an anti-Tokugawa coalition in the west to bring Ieyasu down. He invited the Sanada to join him. Nobuyuki's loyalties remained with Ieyasu, but Yukimura begged his father to allow him to fight on Mitsunari's -- and Hideyori's -- behalf. Masayuki agreed, reasoning that this way, the Sanada clan would survive no matter which side won. He and Yukimura returned to Ueda Castle with young Hideyori in tow. Ieyasu's son led a force of 40,000 men to besiege the castle, but Masayuki and Yukimura held them back with only 2,000 men of their own.
Their valiance became a strike against them when Ieyasu defeated Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara. Both Masayuki and Yukimura faced execution for opposing Ieyasu, but Yukimura stood steadfast: he would never regret protecting Hideyori, only that his strength was not enough to guard him in the end. He refused to beg for forgiveness, even after Nobuyuki pleaded with him to. Eventually, Noboyuki managed to get his father's and brother's sentences commuted to exile, and they were sent to the remote town of Kudoyama, high in the Mount Koya range. Yukimura was 22 years old.
It was the first time in over a decade that he'd lived with Masayuki, and this distant and calculating man felt less like a father than Hideyoshi had been. Masayuki didn't seem inclined to spend much time with his son, either, preferring to discuss matters of the outside world with the ninja in his employ. Yukimura wrote often to his wife, his brother and his sister-in-law, and some of his retainers, but it didn't do much to stave off his loneliness. He learned how to write poetry and to sing (though both were difficult since he'd started so late), but he hated feeling as though he was idling in leisurely exile, ignoring his true duty to his lord. His frustration only got worse after Masayuki's death -- Yukimura suspected that he was poisoned, but could do nothing. He assumed leadership over the Sanada ninja troops, and had them investigate his father's death. They brought back a young ninja named Sasuke Sarutobi, who claimed he knew the culprit: Saizo Kirigakure, a ninja in Ieyasu's employ and Sasuke's archrival.
The story of how Sasuke captured Saizo is another legend entirely, but after long months of chasing him, he managed to haul Saizo back to Kudoyama to await Yukimura's justice. Saizo offered to commit suicide: while he wasn't bound by bushido as samurai were, some of Ieyasu's methods had become too cruel for even a ninja to support, and he was ashamed to be called a Tokugawa retainer. Yukimura realized they had a common enemy in Ieyasu, and incensed by this most recent news, offered to spare Saizo's life if he swore his loyalty to the Toyotomi and the Sanada. Saizo agreed, though Sasuke initially wasn't thrilled about it. Sasuke and Saizo became the first members of what would later become the Sanada Ten Braves, and over time, grew from archrivals to best friends.
Under Sasuke and Saizo's leadership, the Sanada ninja troops began scouring the countryside for news of Hideyori. Eventually, they received word that Ieyasu was planning an attack on Hideyori's castle at Osaka, and Yukimura wasted no time in escaping from Kudoyama to rush to his lord's side. He'd hoped to find Hideyori marching out to confront the Tokugawa troops and intercept them before they reached Osaka, but Hideyori had chosen instead to stay inside the walls of Osaka castle, hoping they would be enough to protect him. Discouraging as he found the news, Yukimura resolved to devise the best defensive strategy he could, drawing on what he'd learned from the siege on Ueda so many years ago. He gathered the rest of the Sanada Ten Braves to him then, all expert ninjas whose skills he knew he'd need: hotheaded Mochizuki Rokuro, the strong and rough Miyoshi brothers, the soft-spoken Kamanosuke Yuri, Kosuke Anayama, Juzou Kakei, Rokuro Unno, and Jinpachi Nezu.
As the Tokugawa troops closed in, Yukimura got to work on improving the fortifications at Osaka castle. He built a barbican (nicknamed the Sanada-maru) to defend the castle from the east. Wave after wave of Tokugawa soldiers tried to break past it, but the combined efforts of Yukimura's arquebus corps, ground troops, and Ten Braves held them back. Even artillery fire couldn't destroy Osaka's defenses.
But Hideyori's cowardice could. His mother pressured him to reach a peace agreement with Ieyasu, no matter how often Yukimura assured them both that the castle would stand. He spoke of how he planned for Hideyori to escape with the Ten Braves, and how the Braves had assembled allied troops in a village nearby. All they needed, Yukimura said, was for Hideyori to go there and assume command, and they'd stage an attack on the Tokugawa troops from the rear to break the siege for good. Hideyori refused -- if he was killed on the battlefield, he said, then the battle would all be for nothing.
"If a warlord does not lead, your Lordship, what are his men left to follow on the battlefield?" Yukimura asked him.
"If you mean to follow me, then follow me now," Hideyori said, and began negotiating a settlement. What else could Yukimura do but obey?
The agreement was barely signed when Ieyasu's son, under orders from his father, began destroying the fortifications under Osaka castle. When Hideyori protested and tried to rebuild his moats and walls, Ieyasu claimed that his refortification meant he was reneging on the peace treaty and planned to fight. This time, the Toyotomi forces couldn't trust Osaka's walls to keep them safe -- they had to challenge Ieyasu in the field, and put an end to his tyranny.
Yukimura rallied his troops to head off Masamune Date's forces, but retreated back to Osaka castle when his Braves gave him news that a massive Tokugawa force of 150,000 was moving into position to crush it. He sent Sasuke to do what he could to stall the Tokugawa forces until Yukimura's arrival. Sasuke managed to slow their advance, but at the cost of his life. He caught his foot in a bear trap and was forced to cut it off to escape. But he couldn't make it back to Yukimura, and rather than be captured by Ieyasu's troops, he committed suicide.
Meanwhile, Yukimura launched a last-ditch offensive, charging down to smash into the vanguard of the Tokugawa left flank. Ieyasu rushed his personal army up to support the crumbling line, and Yukimura seized one last, desperate chance. If he broke through and engaged the heart of the Tokugawa army, then Hideyori could charge out, attack the exposed Tokugawa flank, and claim victory.
He launched a head-on assault on Ieyasu's personal army and shattered its ranks, his spear moving almost too fast for the eye to see. When it was knocked from his hand, he tore down Ieyasu's flag and fought with that until he made his way to his spear again. Ieyasu was straight ahead, and Yukimura charged again to engage him in personal combat. He managed to inflict him with a serious spear-wound before Ieyasu was forced to flee, and for perhaps the first time in fifteen years, forced to consider seppuku.
This was the moment where Hideyori would sweep through, intercept Ieyasu, and finish him off. But Hideyori never came.
The Tokugawa forces greatly outnumbered Yukimura's troops, who were exhausted from their charge, and once the Tokugawa forces rallied from their shock, Yukimura knew the day was lost. "It seems the war is over," he told his troops, "but while we fight to our hearts' content, we are not yet defeated. Our goal is Ieyasu Tokugawa's head!"
Saizo, by then the only Brave still alive, took his words to heart and raced after Ieyasu, but Hanzo Hattori struck him down before he reached his goal. The fighting raged on, Yukimura's wounds grew worse, and eventually even leaning on his spear couldn't help him stand. As he collapsed onto a camp stool, an enemy samurai recognized him and charged forward, shouting a challenge. Yukimura acknowledged who he was, took off his helmet, and, for one last time, stood up.
When he fell, so did the Toyotomi; Hideyori committed suicide the next day. Ieyasu's rule over Japan was complete. Even he, however, acknowledged Yukimura's bravery and loyalty, and said Yukimura was the one he most wanted to share a drink with in the afterlife. Masamune sheltered and assisted many of Yukimura's family members and vassals, and more than one legendary samurai saluted Yukimura as "the bravest warrior in Japan."
As dissatisfaction with the Tokugawa shogunate grew, so did Yukimura's legend. Rumors arose that the man killed during the battle of Tennou-ji was Yukimura's double, and that he had escaped with Hideyori so that one day, the Toyotomi could rise again.
Perhaps if that were true, Yukimura could have kept his last promise to Hideyoshi after all, and helped Hideyori become the kind of man worthy of his father's legacy and of Yukimura's own. But such rumors would also mean that Yukimura had sent someone else to face death in his stead, and what kind of man would Hideyori have become if such a coward had spirited him away?
.
Once upon a time in feudal Japan, in what is now the Nagano prefecture (and right next to Shizuoka prefecture, where we're assuming that Fuyuki is located), the Sanada clan loyally served Shingen Takeda, the daimyo of Kai. The Takeda clan was effectively destroyed in 1582, though, when this version of Yukimura was five, and Yukimura's father Masayuki expanded the Sanada's holdings into an adjacent province to ensure that they wouldn't be destroyed. Unfortunately, the lands Masayuki took over initially belonged to an ally of Ieyasu Tokugawa's, and Ieyasu demanded that the Sanada give those lands back. Masayuki said "nuh-uh," Ieyasu marched on Ueda Castle, and Masayuki asked Kagekatsu Uesugi, Kenshin's successor, for a little bit of backup. To seal the deal, Masayuki sent eight-year-old Yukimura to Kagekatsu as a hostage. Yukimura put on a brave face, but secretly counted the days until he could go home again. After Ieyasu's attack on Ueda Castle failed, he thought he'd get to return for sure -- except Masayuki decided to make friendly overtures to Hideyoshi Toyotomi (then the shogun of Japan in all but name) in order to get Ieyasu to lay off for good. Yukimura was removed from the Uesugi's care and sent to serve Hideyoshi instead.
The poor kid had no idea what would happen to him when he got there. Hideyoshi was said to be a stunted, wizened man, more monkey than human; a ruthless schemer who rose from Nobunaga Oda's sandal-bearer to his second-in-command through carrying out his dirty work; a conqueror even more set on subjugating Japan than his predecessor had been. Yukimura wondered if his father had simply written him off as an expendable second son -- but much to his surprise, Hideyoshi stepped in to fill the role Masayuki had vacated.
At that point in time Hideyoshi had no children of his own, so Yukimura became the closest thing to a son he had. When he wasn't being instructed in the arts of a warrior, Yukimura was constantly at Hideyoshi's side, accompanying him on trips and sitting in on statecraft and strategy meetings (though it became clear that he didn't have much of a talent for the former). He begged Hideyoshi to let him go on military campaigns, too, and Hideyoshi relented in time for Yukimura to take part in his first military action at the Siege of Odawara in 1590.
Unfortunately, things started to go downhill after that. Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea in 1592 ended in disaster, and his newborn son died. He had a second son, Hideyori, in 1593, which nearly triggered a succession crisis -- one Hideyoshi resolved by forcing his nephew to commit suicide. These events took a toll on Hideyoshi, and his health began to decline. Yukimura worried incessantly about his lord, though he would never be so rude as to share his concerns publicly; even his marriage to Akihime, the daughter of one of Hideyoshi's senior retainers, didn't give him much relief. He did what he could to care for Hideyoshi and his son, but he could do nothing to prevent Hideyoshi's ultimately fatal illness in 1598. Hideyoshi established a council of regents to rule Japan until Hideyori came of age (one of whom was Ieyasu); privately, he asked Yukimura to watch over his son, and make sure he grew to be as fine a man as Yukimura had become. Yukimura wept, but vowed to keep his final promise to his lord until he breathed his last.
But keeping that promise proved difficult. Ieyasu assumed more and more control over the council of regents until he ruled virtually unopposed, and Yukimura's older brother Nobuyuki married Ieyasu's daughter by adoption, effectively making him Ieyasu's son-in-law and allying the Sanada with Ieyasu. Yukimura wasn't the only one discontented with Ieyasu's growing power. Mitsunari Ishida, one of the civil administrators of Japan and one of Hideyoshi's chief supporters, had Ieyasu declared an enemy of the state in 1600 and formed an anti-Tokugawa coalition in the west to bring Ieyasu down. He invited the Sanada to join him. Nobuyuki's loyalties remained with Ieyasu, but Yukimura begged his father to allow him to fight on Mitsunari's -- and Hideyori's -- behalf. Masayuki agreed, reasoning that this way, the Sanada clan would survive no matter which side won. He and Yukimura returned to Ueda Castle with young Hideyori in tow. Ieyasu's son led a force of 40,000 men to besiege the castle, but Masayuki and Yukimura held them back with only 2,000 men of their own.
Their valiance became a strike against them when Ieyasu defeated Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara. Both Masayuki and Yukimura faced execution for opposing Ieyasu, but Yukimura stood steadfast: he would never regret protecting Hideyori, only that his strength was not enough to guard him in the end. He refused to beg for forgiveness, even after Nobuyuki pleaded with him to. Eventually, Noboyuki managed to get his father's and brother's sentences commuted to exile, and they were sent to the remote town of Kudoyama, high in the Mount Koya range. Yukimura was 22 years old.
It was the first time in over a decade that he'd lived with Masayuki, and this distant and calculating man felt less like a father than Hideyoshi had been. Masayuki didn't seem inclined to spend much time with his son, either, preferring to discuss matters of the outside world with the ninja in his employ. Yukimura wrote often to his wife, his brother and his sister-in-law, and some of his retainers, but it didn't do much to stave off his loneliness. He learned how to write poetry and to sing (though both were difficult since he'd started so late), but he hated feeling as though he was idling in leisurely exile, ignoring his true duty to his lord. His frustration only got worse after Masayuki's death -- Yukimura suspected that he was poisoned, but could do nothing. He assumed leadership over the Sanada ninja troops, and had them investigate his father's death. They brought back a young ninja named Sasuke Sarutobi, who claimed he knew the culprit: Saizo Kirigakure, a ninja in Ieyasu's employ and Sasuke's archrival.
The story of how Sasuke captured Saizo is another legend entirely, but after long months of chasing him, he managed to haul Saizo back to Kudoyama to await Yukimura's justice. Saizo offered to commit suicide: while he wasn't bound by bushido as samurai were, some of Ieyasu's methods had become too cruel for even a ninja to support, and he was ashamed to be called a Tokugawa retainer. Yukimura realized they had a common enemy in Ieyasu, and incensed by this most recent news, offered to spare Saizo's life if he swore his loyalty to the Toyotomi and the Sanada. Saizo agreed, though Sasuke initially wasn't thrilled about it. Sasuke and Saizo became the first members of what would later become the Sanada Ten Braves, and over time, grew from archrivals to best friends.
Under Sasuke and Saizo's leadership, the Sanada ninja troops began scouring the countryside for news of Hideyori. Eventually, they received word that Ieyasu was planning an attack on Hideyori's castle at Osaka, and Yukimura wasted no time in escaping from Kudoyama to rush to his lord's side. He'd hoped to find Hideyori marching out to confront the Tokugawa troops and intercept them before they reached Osaka, but Hideyori had chosen instead to stay inside the walls of Osaka castle, hoping they would be enough to protect him. Discouraging as he found the news, Yukimura resolved to devise the best defensive strategy he could, drawing on what he'd learned from the siege on Ueda so many years ago. He gathered the rest of the Sanada Ten Braves to him then, all expert ninjas whose skills he knew he'd need: hotheaded Mochizuki Rokuro, the strong and rough Miyoshi brothers, the soft-spoken Kamanosuke Yuri, Kosuke Anayama, Juzou Kakei, Rokuro Unno, and Jinpachi Nezu.
As the Tokugawa troops closed in, Yukimura got to work on improving the fortifications at Osaka castle. He built a barbican (nicknamed the Sanada-maru) to defend the castle from the east. Wave after wave of Tokugawa soldiers tried to break past it, but the combined efforts of Yukimura's arquebus corps, ground troops, and Ten Braves held them back. Even artillery fire couldn't destroy Osaka's defenses.
But Hideyori's cowardice could. His mother pressured him to reach a peace agreement with Ieyasu, no matter how often Yukimura assured them both that the castle would stand. He spoke of how he planned for Hideyori to escape with the Ten Braves, and how the Braves had assembled allied troops in a village nearby. All they needed, Yukimura said, was for Hideyori to go there and assume command, and they'd stage an attack on the Tokugawa troops from the rear to break the siege for good. Hideyori refused -- if he was killed on the battlefield, he said, then the battle would all be for nothing.
"If a warlord does not lead, your Lordship, what are his men left to follow on the battlefield?" Yukimura asked him.
"If you mean to follow me, then follow me now," Hideyori said, and began negotiating a settlement. What else could Yukimura do but obey?
The agreement was barely signed when Ieyasu's son, under orders from his father, began destroying the fortifications under Osaka castle. When Hideyori protested and tried to rebuild his moats and walls, Ieyasu claimed that his refortification meant he was reneging on the peace treaty and planned to fight. This time, the Toyotomi forces couldn't trust Osaka's walls to keep them safe -- they had to challenge Ieyasu in the field, and put an end to his tyranny.
Yukimura rallied his troops to head off Masamune Date's forces, but retreated back to Osaka castle when his Braves gave him news that a massive Tokugawa force of 150,000 was moving into position to crush it. He sent Sasuke to do what he could to stall the Tokugawa forces until Yukimura's arrival. Sasuke managed to slow their advance, but at the cost of his life. He caught his foot in a bear trap and was forced to cut it off to escape. But he couldn't make it back to Yukimura, and rather than be captured by Ieyasu's troops, he committed suicide.
Meanwhile, Yukimura launched a last-ditch offensive, charging down to smash into the vanguard of the Tokugawa left flank. Ieyasu rushed his personal army up to support the crumbling line, and Yukimura seized one last, desperate chance. If he broke through and engaged the heart of the Tokugawa army, then Hideyori could charge out, attack the exposed Tokugawa flank, and claim victory.
He launched a head-on assault on Ieyasu's personal army and shattered its ranks, his spear moving almost too fast for the eye to see. When it was knocked from his hand, he tore down Ieyasu's flag and fought with that until he made his way to his spear again. Ieyasu was straight ahead, and Yukimura charged again to engage him in personal combat. He managed to inflict him with a serious spear-wound before Ieyasu was forced to flee, and for perhaps the first time in fifteen years, forced to consider seppuku.
This was the moment where Hideyori would sweep through, intercept Ieyasu, and finish him off. But Hideyori never came.
The Tokugawa forces greatly outnumbered Yukimura's troops, who were exhausted from their charge, and once the Tokugawa forces rallied from their shock, Yukimura knew the day was lost. "It seems the war is over," he told his troops, "but while we fight to our hearts' content, we are not yet defeated. Our goal is Ieyasu Tokugawa's head!"
Saizo, by then the only Brave still alive, took his words to heart and raced after Ieyasu, but Hanzo Hattori struck him down before he reached his goal. The fighting raged on, Yukimura's wounds grew worse, and eventually even leaning on his spear couldn't help him stand. As he collapsed onto a camp stool, an enemy samurai recognized him and charged forward, shouting a challenge. Yukimura acknowledged who he was, took off his helmet, and, for one last time, stood up.
When he fell, so did the Toyotomi; Hideyori committed suicide the next day. Ieyasu's rule over Japan was complete. Even he, however, acknowledged Yukimura's bravery and loyalty, and said Yukimura was the one he most wanted to share a drink with in the afterlife. Masamune sheltered and assisted many of Yukimura's family members and vassals, and more than one legendary samurai saluted Yukimura as "the bravest warrior in Japan."
As dissatisfaction with the Tokugawa shogunate grew, so did Yukimura's legend. Rumors arose that the man killed during the battle of Tennou-ji was Yukimura's double, and that he had escaped with Hideyori so that one day, the Toyotomi could rise again.
Perhaps if that were true, Yukimura could have kept his last promise to Hideyoshi after all, and helped Hideyori become the kind of man worthy of his father's legacy and of Yukimura's own. But such rumors would also mean that Yukimura had sent someone else to face death in his stead, and what kind of man would Hideyori have become if such a coward had spirited him away?
.