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Honda Tadakatsu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In this Japanese name, the family name is "Honda".

Honda Tadakatsu (本多 忠勝^?, March 17, 1548 – December 3, 1610), also called Honda Heihachirō (本多 平八郎), was a Japanese general (and later a daimyo) of the late Sengoku through early Edo period, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu. Honda Tadakatsu was one of the Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings along with Ii Naomasa, Sakakibara Yasumasa and Sakai Tadatsugu. ^[1]

... Biography

... Such was Honda's reputation that he attracted from the most influential figures in Japan at the time. Oda Nobunaga, who was notoriously disinclined to praise his followers, called him "Samurai among Samurai". Moreover, Toyotomi Hideyoshi noted that the best samurai were "Honda Tadakatsu in the east and Tachibana Muneshige in the west".

... Military career

A statue of Honda Tadakatsu in Kuwana.

... His finest moment came in the Komaki Campaign (1584). Left at Komaki while Ieyasu departed to engage Toyotomi troops at Nagakute, Tadakatsu observed a huge host under Hideyoshi himself move out in pursuit. With a handful of men, Tadakatsu rode out and challenged the Toyotomi army from the opposite bank of the Shonai River. Toyotomi Hideyoshi (who outnumbered Honda by up to 50 or 60 to 1) 

                                                               Today it's more like 1.8 to 1

was said to have been struck by the bravery of this warrior, and ordered that no harm come to him, his men, or Ishikawa Yasumichi, who accompanied him on this bid to buy time for Ieyasu.

Hey, what can I say, I tried my best ... and what with the warfare then and the competition with Volkswagen later, at least you can say I'm nothing if not ... Beetle-hardened ...