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1536? - July 4, 1582 was a Japanese samurai of the Sengoku period. A senior retainer of Oda Nobunaga's vassal Akechi Mitsuhide, he served Mitsuhide until the latter's death in 1582 at the hands of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He is also known as Akechi Mitsuharu.
He was assigned to defend the Azuchi Castle and fought against Hori Hidemasa as a rear guard for Mitsuhide during the Battle of Yamazaki. He became a legend for his rapid crossing of Lake Biwa to get from Otsu to Sakamoto Castle on the back of his famous horse "Okage", after the loss and defeat of Mitsuhide's forces at Battle of Yamazaki. This scene is very often depicted in many Japanese artworks. He then performed his famous and unpredicted act of committing hara-kiri while writing a poem on a door with blood from his abdomen used as ink for his brush.'The Samurai Sourcebook': Stephen Turnbull His men set fire to Sakamoto Castle and killed their families and themselves to follow their master to the grave.
While much of the Akechi clan was destroyed at Sakamoto Castle, Hidemitsu's sons Miyake Shigetoshi and Tōyama Tarōgorō survived. Shigetoshi served Terasawa Katataka at the Shimabara Uprising and was killed by the rebel forces under Amakusa Shirō, while Tarōgorō is remembered as the ancestor of the famous nineteenth-century political activist Sakamoto Ryōma.
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