Nakagawa Kiyohide

Nakagawa Kiyohide (中川 清秀, 1542-June 6, 1583) was a samurai of the Azuchi Momoyama period. His childhood name is "Nakagawa Toranosuke" (中川 虎之助) and his working name is "Nakagawa Sebe" (中川 瀬兵衛).

His father is Nakagawa Shigekiyo. Nakagawa Hidemasa and Nakagawa Hidenari are his sons. Furuta Oribe's wife is the younger sister of Kiyohide.

Kiyohide was first in the service of Ikeda Katsumasa, from a powerful clan of the Settsu province. He then became independent with Araki Murashige and Takayama Ukon in Settsu province. When Oda Nobunaga entered Kyoto with his army, Kiyohide surrendered and put himself at his service. In 1572, he and Murashige killed Wada Koremasa.

In 1578, when Murashige rebelled against Nobunaga, Kiyohide, acting in concert, also rebelled. However, when Nobunaga comes to attack him with a large army, Kiyohide surrenders and attacks Murashige instead. After Murashige was defeated, Kiyohide participated in various battles under the command of Niwa Nagashige and Ikeda Tsuneoki.

In 1582, he served Hashiba Hideyoshi after the death of Nobunaga and took part in the battle of Yamazaki.

In 1583, he was part of the second vanguard of Hideyoshi's force at the battle of Shizugatake and occupied the fort of Oiwayama Oiwayama-toride (大岩山砦) with Takayama Ukon and Miyoshi Hidetsugu.

Sakuma Morimasa, a brave commander of Shibata Katsuie, then strengthened his attack and Kiyohide died in battle at the age of 42. His tomb is at the Bairin-ji (梅林寺) in Ibaraki in Osaka prefecture.

Hidenari, his second son, later became the first head of the Oka clan in Bungo province. The Oka clan continued until the Meiji era.