Career
succeeded him as lord of the domain, and the following year carried out revenge on his father’s killer, Hatakeyama Yoshi- tsugu, at Nihonmatsu. In 1589 he defeated another long-time enemy of the family, Ashina Yoshihiro, and took over control of the region of Aizu, in present-day Fukushima Prefecture, moving his residence to Kurokawa Castle in Aizu. The following year, however, he was berated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi for his tardiness in joining the campaign against Odawara Castle, which Hideyoshi was then conducting, and was obliged to give up possession of the three districts of Aizu that he had recently acquired and return to his former residence in Yonezawa. In 1592-93, at the time of the so-called Bunroku era campaign against Korea, he fought in various encounters in the Korean peninsula and won merit. By 1634 Masamune had succeeded in becoming one of the most powerful lords of the Tokugawa regime, commanding a large domain centered around the province of Mutsu, receiving a stipend of 620,000 kohl of rice, and laying a firm foundation for the later prosperity of the fief of Sendai.
