Ōuchi Yoshioki
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Ōuchi Yoshioki (大内 義興, April 7, 1477 – January 29, 1529) became a sengoku daimyō of Suō Province and served as the 15th head of the Ōuchi clan. Yoshioki was born early in the Sengoku period, the son of Ōuchi Masahiro, shugo of Suō Province and the 14th head of the Ōuchi clan. The first character in Yoshioki's name originated from Ashikaga Yoshihisa, the ninth shōgun in the Muromachi bakufu. In 1492, Masahiro ordered Yoshioki to join the battle against Rokkaku Takayori, a sengoku daimyō from southern Ōmi Province. In the midst of this engagement in 1493, an incident known as the Meiō no seihen occurred, by which Hosokawa Masamoto, a kanrei, or deputy, held the shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshiki, in confinement. Yoshioki withdrew his men from the battle to Hyōgo in Settsu Province to wait for the outcome of the event, which resulted in Yoshiki being deposed and replaced by Ashikaga Yoshizumi. Yoshioki's younger sister was abducted while staying in Kyōto in an area under the control of Takeda Motonobu, an ally of Hosokawa Masamoto. Masamoto took her hostage as leverage against Masahiro in his support for Yoshiki. Masahiro then ordered close associates of Yoshioki to commit seppuku. This may have been as retribution for what he viewed as Yoshioki's tepid response to the pressure exerted upon him by Masamoto and his retainers. Nevertheless, Yoshioki's decision to withdraw his forces was well-received by the hikan, or administrators, in his birthplace of Kyōto, building relationships that benefit him later at the time of his succession to Masahiro.
When Masahiro became ill In the autumn of 1494, Yoshioki was nominally appointed his successor. In 1495, he formally became the 15th head of the clan after the death of his father. The Ōuchi clan, however, continued to experience discord during this period. First, a retainer named Sue Takemori, who had suddenly absconded from Kyōto to the Tennō Temple in Settsu Province, returned home and killed his younger brother, Sue Okiakira, who had become head of the family in his absence. Takemori himself had earlier taken over the clan after his father, Sue Hiromori, was assassinated in 1482 by Yoshimi Nobumori while attending a celebration at the Tsukiyama residence hosted by Masahiro. Takemori falsely claimed to Yoshioki that Naitō Hironori, shugodai of Nagato Province, sought to support his younger brother. Yoshioki then directed his men toward Hōfu, proceeding to execute Hironori and his son, Hirokazu. Later, upon learning of the injustice committed against Hironori and Hirokazu, Yoshioki executed Takemori and received Hironori's daughter as his formal wife. Further, he supported Hironori's younger brother, Naitō Hiroharu, to reconstitute the Naitō clan, while enabling Sue Okifusa, the youngest member of the Sue clan, to lead the Sue. In 1499, Sugi Takeakira, a senior retainer, colluded with a daimyō from Bungo Province named Ōtomo Chikaharu in an effort to seize control of the Ōuchi clan. The plot was to abandon Yoshioki in favor of his younger brother, Ōuchi Takahiro. Upon learning of the plot, Yoshioki compelled Takeakira to commit seppuku, while Takahiro narrowly escaped to the protection of the Ōtomo clan in Bungo.