狩野安信 · Public domain
Azuchi-Momoyama to early Edo period · 1567–1636
Date Masamune
伊達政宗 · Japan
Founder of the Sendai domain, 'the One-Eyed Dragon'
From the illustrious Date family of the Tōhoku region, he was a brilliant strategist. Smallpox in childhood cost him his right eye, earning him the name 'the One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshū'. Tokugawa Ieyasu granted him the vast, rich Sendai domain, making him one of Japan's most powerful daimyō. In 1604 he moved with more than 50,000 retainers and their families to Sendai, then a small fishing village, and built today's Sendai Castle.
Where the story happened
Places connected with this person
History · Zuihōden
The One-Eyed Dragon's last wishes
Date Masamune lost his right eye to smallpox as a child and later became known as the 'One-Eyed Dragon of Ōshū'. In 1604 he moved with more than 50,000 retainers and their families to Sendai, then still a small fishing village, and built a castle town. Before his death in 1636 Masamune left instructions for building his mausoleum, the origin of Zuihōden; it was destroyed in an air raid in 1945 and rebuilt to its original design in 1979.
Legend · Zuihōden
Where did that eye go?
Masamune's right eye was blinded by smallpox, but exactly how he lost it is not reliably recorded. One widely told story is that, so that the dead eye would not become a weakness, Masamune had his most trusted retainer, Katakura Kojūrō, gouge it out with his own hands.
