Background
Junkei Tsutsui was born on March 31, 1549. He was the son of Tsutsui Junsho, a warlord of the Japanese province of Yamato.
Kōfukuji Temple at Nara
順慶 筒井
Junkei Tsutsui was born on March 31, 1549. He was the son of Tsutsui Junsho, a warlord of the Japanese province of Yamato.
Junkei Tsutsui studied Shintoism and Confucianism.
After studying Shintoism and Confucianism, Tsutsui became a priest under the name of Yōshunbo-Junkei (1561) and gradually worked himself to become the leader of the soldier-priests of Kofukuji Temple at Nara.
Later he sided with Nobunaga Oda and led the attack against Hisahide Matsunaga in Kinki District. For this he was made Lord of Yamato Province. After Nobunaga was assassinated by Mitsuhide Akechi (1582), the latter invited Junkei to join his army, but he preferred to watch the outcome of the battle between Akechi and Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Akechi’s troops were routed and Junkei, with the view of securing the favor of Hideyoshi attacked the remnants of the defeated army. He was rewarded for this and was allowed to build a castle at Semba, Osaka.