The Hetsugi River: In 1586, Motochika Lost His Beloved Son and Was Changed Beyond Recognition

In the twelfth month of 1586 (Tenshō 14), at the Hetsugi River in Bungo (the area of present-day Ōita City).

Taking part in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's conquest of Kyushu, Chōsokabe Motochika fought the Shimazu army together with his eldest son Nobuchika.

Forced into a reckless crossing attack, the Toyotomi side collapsed utterly, and Nobuchika was cut down in the melee.

He was twenty-two — a youth excellent in both letters and arms, whom everyone in the house had expected to be the next lord.

Receiving the news, Motochika was crushed as if a changed man.

Nobuchika was Motochika's eldest son, excellent in looks, valor, and character alike, gathering the trust of the whole house upon himself.

It is transmitted that Oda Nobunaga granted him one character of his name. Motochika, unlike himself who had been mocked as the princess-boy, entrusted the future of the Chōsokabe house to this child born with the caliber of a lord.

So long as there was Nobuchika, everyone believed, the fate of the Chōsokabe was secure.

At the Battle of the Hetsugi River, the Toyotomi side's inspector Sengoku Hidehisa ordered a reckless crossing attack in the face of the Shimazu army.

Motochika and Nobuchika argued for caution, but were not heeded. Caught in the trap of the Shimazu's favored 'luring ambush,' the Toyotomi side was annihilated.

Nobuchika served as the rear guard and fought to the last before being cut down.

The foolish judgment of another house's commander had taken from Motochika his most beloved heir.

Motochika's grief came together with a deep resentment.

Nobuchika's death changed Motochika from the root. The once-cheerful hero sank into suspicion and obsession.

In the process of settling the succession on his fourth son Morichika, he purged, one after another, the senior retainers and kin who raised objections, leaving a deep fissure in his house.

The grief of losing his beloved son tilted a wise lord toward a tyrant. This lingering trouble became a remote cause of the dispossession and fall of the Chōsokabe house in Morichika's generation after Motochika's death.

The second half of the hero who had taken Shikoku was cast into darkness by the death of a single child.