Katagiri Katsumoto

Who was Katagiri Katsumoto?

Katagiri Katsumoto was a Japanese warlord Daimyo of the Azuchi–Momoyama period through early Edo period who in his youth was famed as one of the Seven Spears of Shizugatake..

Katsumoto hailed from an ancient samurai clan with a long and distinguished history. In the early Middle Ages, Clan Katagiri served the Minamoto family, traditional head of the samurais that supplied early Shoguns and their government, and ruled the southernmost part of Shinano region for nearly 500 years.

Despite of his linage and the promising start at Shizugatake, Katsumoto's rise under Toyotomi Hideyoshi was relatively slow, compared to his fellow "seven spears" which included Kato Kiyomasa and Fukushima Masanori. More of a court samurai rather than a warrior as Kato and Fukushima certainly were, Katsumoto was kept in Osaka region, the de-fact capital of Japan under the Toyotomi family, and his holdings were in Ibaraki area in the north..