Honda Tadakatsu

Born in Mikawa Province, he lost his father Tadataka early and was raised by an uncle, fighting his first battle at thirteen. He fought at Okehazama, Anegawa, Mikatagahara (in 1572, covering Ieyasu's retreat to Hamamatsu Castle; the Takeda army's remark that "Ieyasu has two things unbecoming to him: his antlered helmet and Honda Heihachirō" is a later tradition), Nagashino (1575), Komaki-Nagakute (in 1584, the famous anecdote of challenging Hideyoshi's great army with about thirty horsemen, whereupon Hideyoshi ordered that he not be harmed), Odawara and Sekigahara (in 1600, aged 57, charging with only about 500 horsemen, changing horses after his mount was shot). In 1590 he received Ōtaki (Kazusa, 100,000 koku, one account says 150,000); in 1601 he was transferred to Kuwana (Ise, 100,000 koku, one account says 150,000; Tadatomo received Ōtaki at 50,000 koku). He retired in 1609, and his son Tadamasa succeeded at Kuwana.

• Birthplace: Kuramae, Nukata District, Mikawa Province (around present-day Nishi-Kuramae, Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture).
• Places of activity: Okazaki Castle (present-day Okazaki, Aichi Prefecture), Hamamatsu Castle (present-day Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture), Ōtaki Castle (present-day Ōtaki, Chiba Prefecture), Kuwana Castle (present-day Kuwana, Mie Prefecture), the Sekigahara battlefield.
• Place of death: Two accounts recorded side by side — Edo, and Kuwana (marked as two accounts).
• Burial place: Two accounts recorded side by side — Ryōgen-ji in Ōtaki, Chiba Prefecture, holds the graves of Tadakatsu, his wife and Tadatomo (Ryōgen-ji was founded by Tadakatsu in 1595, originally called Ryōshin-ji, later renamed for Tadatomo's posthumous name, and now holds Tadakatsu's portrait, memorial tablets and documents); there is also an account of a gravestone on Mount Kōya. The relationship between the two is not established, and neither may be chosen over the other as certain.
• Further reading places: Ōtaki Castle (the Ōtaki branch of the Chiba Prefectural Central Museum), Okazaki Castle, the Kuwana Castle ruins.

Cultural significance

Tadakatsu is the embodiment of the "warrior among warriors": his antlered side-crested helmet, his black-laced armour and his spear Tonbokiri ("a dragonfly landing on the blade is cut in two" is a legend); the tradition that he fought 57 battles (one account says over fifty) without a serious wound; and the sayings attributed to others — Nobunaga's "a warrior among warriors", Hideyoshi's "in the east Honda Tadakatsu, in the west Tachibana Muneshige", Shingen's "an excessive possession of Ieyasu's" — are all later traditions, to be marked as such, not as confirmed quotations. Both Okazaki City and Ōtaki Town use Tadakatsu as their warrior brand.