Kitabatake Tomonori

nihongo|Kitabatake Tomonori|北畠具教|Kitabatake Tomonori (1528-December 12, 1576) was a Japanese samurai of the 16th century who was the eighth generation lord of the Kitabatake clan that governed the province of Ise. Tomonori was the son of Kitabatake Harumoto and used Anotsu castle as his central domain of power. As time passed on he found himself forced to deal with strife that had evolved itself within his family household and ward off a relatively subsequent invasion by the Miyoshi clan in 1566. This detriment further expanded itself with threats instigated by Oda Nobunaga in 1569, who would invade Ise by fall of that year and have Anotsu surrounded by the 10th month. Preparations had been made by Toriyao Iwami no kami to essentially reinforce their defenses against such an incursion, but with the defection of Kotsukuri Tomomasa, Tomonori's younger brother, and the Oda's treaty agreement that stated Nobunaga's second son Nobuo would become the Kitabatake's heir if surrender were to be initiated, Tomonori elected for submission. Following this point Tomonori became a monk and died in the 11th month of 1576, many having considered such a death as consequential to an alleged assassination by one of his retainers.

Apart from the status of daimyo or monk, Tomonori was a swordsman of note who had studied the Kashima Shinto-ryu style of swordsmanship under the famous fencing instructor Tsukahara Bokuden. [ [http://city.kashima.ibaraki.jp/english/100705.htm KASHIMA CITY/The Statue of Tsukahara Bokuden] ]

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