Yoshitaka Ōuchi was a Military leader of the late Muromachi period.
Background
Yoshitaka Ōuchi was born on 18 December 1507. He was the son of Ouchi Yoshioki, who had his base at Yamaguchi in the province of Suo (the present-day city of Yamaguchi in Yamaguchi Prefecture) and extended his control over the neighboring provinces of Nagato, Aki, Iwami, and others.
Career
With the death of his father in 1528, Yoshitaka became head of the family and worked to widen the area under its control, in 1535 siezing the region of northern Kyushu.
Hoping to engage in foreign trade, he fought with the Hosokawa family over the rights to such trade and, emerging victorious, began to conduct trading missions with Ming China and Korea. He met twice with the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier, in 1550 and 1551, and gave Xavier permission to preach Christianity in his domain. During this period, many of the courtier families, in order to escape the troubled conditions in Kyoto, sought protection under Yoshitaka, and Yamaguchi soon became a flourishing center of cultural life, but in 1551 one of Yoshitaka’s vassals, Sue Harukata, attacked his master and Yoshitaka was forced to commit suicide.