Fukushima Masanori and the End of the Sengoku Jidai: A Bow Laid to Rest in the Silence of Peace

With Fukushima Masanori, an era comes to an end. This fourth entry takes us to the twilight of the Sengoku period, when the warriors of chaos were gradually removed from power to make way for a unified Japan under Tokugawa rule. A veteran of Hideyoshi’s campaigns and a key figure at Sekigahara, Masanori was stripped of his lands and exiled to obscurity. And yet, in that moment, with words as sharp as steel, he showed what it meant to be a man of war.

In 1615, the Toyotomi clan was defeated in the Summer Campaign of Ōsaka and destroyed.
The following year, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had annihilated the Toyotomi, also ended his own life.
Then, three years later, an event occurred that impressed upon the people that the Sengoku era had truly come to an end.

The protagonist of this event was Fukushima Masanori.

Masanori had served under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, distinguishing himself in numerous battles.
After the Battle of Sekigahara, he supported the Tokugawa government as a daimyō of 490,000 koku in Aki and Bingo Provinces.

However, in 1619, he was stripped of his domain for “repairing a castle without shogunate permission.”
His lands in Aki and Bingo were confiscated, and he was demoted to Kawanakajima in Shinano Province with a reduced fief of only 45,000 koku.

This harsh decision—reducing a decorated general’s holdings to one-tenth—sparked criticism,
and rumors of a possible “Masanori Rebellion” began to circulate.

Yet Masanori accepted the shogunate’s judgment, and is said to have declared:

“I am a bow, useful in times of war.
A bow is treasured during chaos,
but in times of peace, it is stored away.
I am a bow. A man of disorder.
Now that peace has come, I will rest in the storehouse of Kawanakajima.”

Fukushima Masanori did not rebel. He accepted his fall with the same composure with which he once marched to war. His response to the shogunate was not submission, but understanding—a quiet farewell to the warrior era. Even a bent bow can bow with grace.