here we are at aoba castle ruins and here at the aoba castle ruins there was a castle that
was a natural fortification with cliffs on both the south and east side but over time the castle
has been destroyed by earthquakes a fire the restoration war and even a bomb during world
war ii however these walls that are still intact were actually restored a couple of different
times and although they have a controversial restoration history this is what remains however
there is one piece of history that remains a huge legacy here in sendai at the aoba ruins
and that one piece of history or maybe that one person of history is date let's check it out
i left my mark
here at the aoba castle ruins you can find this famous statue of date masamune
a man who's famous all throughout the sendai area the largest city in the tohoku region
and throughout all of the surrounding area latte masamune has actually been featured
in different films he's been featured in different video games and advertisements
and even has a manga and anime adaptation for himself so what is it that makes masamune
so influential what is it that's earned him the right to have this awesome and fearsome looking
statue right on top of the aoba castle ruins where you can overlook the entire city of sendai
was born september 5th in 1567 and at a young age somewhere between three and four years old he
actually lost his eyesight to smallpox and there's a lot of heavy debate as to how he actually
physically lost his eye but this loss of his eye would actually become a key characteristic as the
who date masamune was and it would earn him the name dokuganryu which means the one-eyed dragon
of ocean now date masamune at the young age of 12 was married and at the age of 14 he led his first
campaign with his father against the soma clan which they were victorious at the age of 17 date
masamune even became the leader of his own plan inheriting the title of daimyo from his father
so
after date masamune took his position as the head daimyo for the date clan
one of his retainers actually fled to the ashina clan now date masamune was not happy
about this and so he declared war on the ashina clan now when he declared war he was merciless
because he not only declared war on the ashina clan but also all of their allies and in his quest
to retrieve and take care of this traitorous retainer he actually did battle with a number of
amicable clans as well as clans that he had family members in or family ties to so as he was going
after the ashina clan there was actually one clan that tried to surrender to date masamune and that
clan was under nihonmatsu another daimyo in the area now nihonmatsu when he surrendered
date actually accepted his surrender but under one condition nihonmatsu and their clan
would have to give up most of their territory to date masamune and the date clan this naturally was
not favorable for nihonmatsu so when nihonmatsu came to meet with date masamune he actually
kidnapped date masamune's father and while he was fleeing with date masamune's father date's men
caught up and somewhere in the struggle we're not sure if it was date masamune's men we're not
sure if it was nihonmatsu or who did this but both nihonmatsu and date masamune's father were killed
because of this date masamune would actually seek revenge and would swear that he would get
his vengeance against the nihonmatsu clan which he would later in the battle of hitoribashi date
masamune would continue to do battle with many other neighboring territories and clans for many
years after but when toyotomi hideyoshi came into power he requested that all of the daimyo inside
of the tohoku region come to his aid in a specific battle but date masamune decided not to go
and because of this a little while later when toyotomi hideyoshi became one of the most powerful
daimyo in all of japan he summoned date masamune and date knew that he had no choice but to go
and he was likely going to be executed but he went with his best clothes he showed no fear
and he kept a complete composure of attitude so when he showed up in front of toyotomi
hideyoshi although he was burning with anger from when date masamune rejected his request
he decided not to execute dakte he was so composed in his stature and toyotomi actually said this
man could be of some use and so his life was spared after toyotomi hideyoshi would pass away
tokugawa ieyasu would continue to rise in the ranks until he actually became shogun in japan and
masamune was continuing to build up his relationship with tokugawa ieyasu and his clan
and so when tokugawa ieyasu became the shogun of japan he actually gifted the sendai domain
to masamune this right here is what it's become the city of sendai
but date masamune was not just a fearsome warrior he was also interested in expanding his territory
in politics and even in foreign affairs in fact when he was building up sendai and developing it
into the current city that it is today he would invite foreigners and promote tourism in his area
and he would even send different ambassadors all the way to spain
and rome and he even sent an envoy to the pope and as it would turn out masamune was actually a
at the very least christian empathizer he set free a number of different missionaries that were under
tokugawa's hold and he also allowed missionaries to come into the sendai area and not only practice
their faith but also spread the gospel in the area and it wasn't until regrettably uh when tokugawa
closed off the borders to japan in the 250 years of isolation known as the tokugawa period that
tokugawa would require all of his different daimyo under him to persecute and eliminate
any christians and so even though masamune wasn't into the idea he actually continued with
tokugawa ieyasu's wishes and so today it's because of date masamune's efforts to improve
the region that many people believe sendai is the largest city in the tohoku region
so before you go i actually had something special i wanted to show you guys now while
i was wandering around sendai i was trying to find some data merch that i could buy for myself
but i couldn't really find anything that matched my style so i hired an artist and she made some
designs and honestly i liked them so much that i wanted to share them with you guys as well so
if you're interested we have different merch with date masamune as well as some other japan related
content that you can find at our store which if you wanted to check that out i have a link both
in the comments below and also in the description below and in addition to that what did you guys
think of the video did you like date masamune do you think he's as cool as i do and in addition
uh if you found the video informative or helpful please consider sharing this video with someone
else or leaving a like and if you like samurai related content which i know i do uh check out
this playlist where i talk about different samurai related information as well as everything in a
katana it's a pretty cool playlist and i'd love to hear what you think of it and in addition to that
thank you guys so much for watching the video please consider leaving that like or sharing it
with someone it helps us tremendously with growing our channel so that we can continue to provide
more videos for you guys so with all that said thank you so much and dyce quirk out