None of the 'featured samurai' are archived, and we took down the
registry a while ago and totally reworked, added to, and cleaned it
up, but it is still a work on progress, so none of those bios are
available online. There is a chance within the next 6 weeks that it
will get put together into a giant online database, but that is still
sort of up in the air. For the moment, here is info on Otani
Yoshitsugu:
Yoshitsugu's origins are unclear but one theory holds that
Yoshitsugu's family were former retainers of the Ôtomo family of
Bungo Province. He was recommended to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (possibly by
the young Ishida Mitsunari) around 1574 and quickly rose through the
ranks. He attacked Takigawa Kazumasu in the 1583 Shizugatake Campaign
and afterwards, follwing Hideyoshi's defeat of Shibata Katsuie, was
given Tsuruga in Echizen Province. He assisted in the logistical
aspects of Hideyoshi's 1587 invasion of Kyushu and was present for
the siege of Odawara Castle in 1590. He was later dispatched to the
northern provinces as a land survey officer, though his activities
during the 1590's are otherwise obscure, possibly due to a worsening
case of leprosy he was suffering from by this point. While in the
north he was forced to quell the resistance of Onodera Yasumichi in
1599, whose castle of Ômori Yoshitsugu besieged. In 1600 he at first
thought of joining Tokugawa Ieyasu's side in the coming war but was
convinced by Ishida Mitsunari to follow the latter instead. Though
suffering from now-advanced leprosy, he joined the 'western' forces
on the battlefield at Sekigahara and directed his troops from within
a palanquin. After the defection of Kobayakawa Hideaki to Tokugawa
Ieyasu's side, he ordered a retainer to cut off his head and spirit
it away. His daughter was married to Sanada Yukimura.
--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, Tom Helm wrote:
> http://www.samurai-archives.com/searchst.html
>
> Is this listing any help?
> -t