Mōri Motonari

Mōri Motonari (1497-1571) raised the Mōri clan from minor local lords in Aki Province to masters of almost the entire Chūgoku region. The younger son of Mōri Hiromoto, he spent his childhood and youth, from 1500 to 1523, at Tajihi-Sarukake Castle, an outpost to the west of the family castle. In 1523, at the age of 27, he inherited the main branch and moved into Yoshida-Kōriyama Castle, which he transformed into a vast fortress covering the entire mountain. Caught between the powerful Ōuchi clan to the south and the Amago clan to the north, he relied on alliances with the lords of Aki. In 1540-1541, he held out at Kōriyama against a siege by an Amago army and drove it off with the help of the Ōuchi. He placed his younger sons at the head of two major families, Kikkawa Motoharu among the Kikkawa and Kobayakawa Takakage among the Kobayakawa, a system that secured the strength of the Mōri house. His famous 1557 letter urging his three sons to unity, preserved at the Mōri Museum, is the origin of the legend of the 'three arrows'. He died in 1571 and is buried at the Kōriyama site.