Mizoguchi Hidekatsu

Lord of Daishōji (1583) · First daimyō of Shibata (1598)

Mizoguchi Hidekatsu (1548-1610) was the founder of the Shibata domain and of the castle that served as its seat for nearly three centuries. A native of Owari Province, he served Niwa Nagahide from childhood, became a direct vassal of Oda Nobunaga in 1581 with a fief at Takahama, then joined Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who entrusted him in 1583 with Daishōji Castle in Kaga (44,000 koku). In 1598, Hideyoshi transferred him to Shibata in Echigo with 60,000 koku. There he began construction of a flatland castle that his descendants completed in 1654. Having joined the Eastern side in 1600, he suppressed an uprising by former Uesugi partisans and retained his fief under the Tokugawa. At his death in 1610, he left his son Nobukatsu a domain that the Mizoguchi clan would hold until the Meiji era.