Who Is Takenaka Hanbei (Hanbei Takenaka)?
The Mino tactician who seized Inabayama Castle
Takenaka Shigeharu
Takenaka Hanbei was a brilliant Sengoku-period tactician who served the Saito clan of Mino Province and later worked under Hideyoshi. His given name was Shigeharu. In an incident dated to 1564, he is said to have astonished the country by seizing Inabayama Castle from his lord, Saito Tatsuoki, with only a handful of men.
In this manga, Hanbei has given up the castle he took and is hiding in the mountains when he joins Tokichiro's service. The number of men in the raid is given as sixteen, but accounts differ, and why he returned the castle remains unclear. The story that Tokichiro visited the mountains again and again to win him over, in the style of the classic "three humble visits" tale, is thought to owe much to later tradition.
He died of illness in 1579, in camp during the attack on Miki Castle in Harima Province. He is paired with Kuroda Kanbei as the "Two Bei" (Ryobei), but "gunshi" (military strategist) is a label from later times, and some argue that his actual position was different.
