Sagara Yorihiro

Sagara Yorihiro (相良 頼寛, さがら よりひろ) was the second daimyo of the Hitoyoshi Domain in Higo Province.

Life

On the 13th day of the 12th month of Keichō 5 (1600), he was born as the eldest son of Sagara Yorifusa, the first daimyo. In Kan'ei 13 (1636), following his father's death, he succeeded to the headship of the house. In Kan'ei 14 (1637), during the Shimabara Rebellion, he was himself in attendance in Edo, so he dispatched his retainers to the field.

In Kan'ei 16 (1639), Yorihiro accused Indo Yorimori, a senior retainer who had served since his father's time, before the shogunate, calling him a "tyrannical retainer." As a result, Yorimori was summoned to the shogunate and his person was temporarily entrusted to the Odawara Domain. During this period, Kamise Gaiki was dispatched from the Edo residence to the domain as an envoy. The message the envoy conveyed was that Indo Yorimasa, Yorimori's adopted son, should continue to be employed as a domain retainer. However, Gaiki, who had been summoned to Yorimori's residence known as the "Oshimo-yashiki (お下屋敷)," was killed by Yorimasa and others. It is said that this occurred because Yorimasa was worried about his adoptive father's safety and suspected it to be a plot. Then Yorimori's kin barricaded themselves in the Oshimo-yashiki, and domain troops surrounded it, leading to a battle. In the end, all 181 members of Yorimori's kin were either killed in action or committed suicide. Yorimori himself was exiled to the Tsugaru Domain by order of the shogunate in Kan'ei 17 (1640) (Oshimo Incident).

In the 3rd month of Shōhō 2 (1645), an incident occurred in which Murakami Akitake, a senior retainer receiving 300 koku, invited his kin to a memorial service for their ancestors, during which Murakami Kakubee, Akitake's adopted son, and his elder biological brother Yanase Nagazaemon burst in and slaughtered more than 70 members of the family. Both Kakubee and Nagazaemon committed suicide immediately afterward, so the detailed circumstances of the incident remain unclear to this day. It is believed the cause was that Akitake had no heir and had intended to adopt Kakubee as his successor. However, because Kakubee's birth mother was of low status, Akitake's wife opposed the adoption and appealed to her husband, and Akitake temporarily suspended the adoption arrangement (Murakami Clan Massacre).