浅井長政

Asai Nagamasa (1545–1573) was the young lord of North Ōmi (modern Shiga Prefecture) whose decision to honor an old alliance over a new one made him one of the most celebrated figures of honor in Sengoku history — and cost him everything. He married Oda Nobunaga's beloved sister Oichi (お市の方) in 1567 in a strategic alliance, but in 1570, when Nobunaga attacked his clan's old ally Asakura Yoshikage of Echizen, Nagamasa broke with Nobunaga and attacked his rear — reportedly sending Oichi ahead to warn her brother by passing him a bag of beans (a coded message). He and Asakura fought Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Anegawa and held out for three more years, but when Asakura fell in 1573 his position became untenable. Odani Castle fell in August 1573; Oichi and their three daughters were evacuated to Nobunaga, and Nagamasa died by his own hand at twenty-nine. The three daughters — Chacha (later Yodo-dono, mother of Toyotomi Hideyori), Hatsu, and Gō (second wife of Tokugawa Hidetada) — would leave indelible marks on the rest of Japanese history.