Daidoji Hira

Please note: This article is about the youngest brother of Daidoji Daimyo Daidoji Kamei. For other uses of the term, please see Hira (disambiguation).
Daidoji Hira was the youngest brother of Daidoji Daimyo Daidoji Kamei. Secrets of the Crane, p. 31
== Maddened Behaviour ==
In 520 Hira began to act erratically, as the dead mouse left before the Lion envoy's quarters, the scolding he gave a visiting Kakita for testing sword blades on live criminals, or the time he had to be removed from the village market in a wheelbarrow. Kamei ordered his brother to commit seppuku, but Hira fled along with forty-four bushi from the Shiro Daidoji guard, leaving a message behind: "You did not set a date for my death, brother. Seek me in the Uebe Marshes if you wish to hasten it." 
== Foxfire War ==
Incensed, Kamei sailed down the coast to the Uebe Marshes to chase his brother. In the unfamiliar terrain, his troops were slaughtered during the Foxfire War with trap-laying and ambush strategies developed by Hira. After several months, Kamei retired to Shiro Daidoji, and found Hira's body in his former quarters, dead by seppuku. Arranged around him was a model depicting the most treacherous ambush points in the Marshes in the same scale as those in the Daidoji Library, and the message: "Do not let the food and drink of peace make the belly of the Daidoji grow fat. Seek my son in the marshes." 
== Aftermath ==
Hira's two sons, Daidoji Yasuhira and Daidoji Shigehira, followed the Blood feud against Kamei and his followers, and eventually they were chased and killed. Those troops that had helped the current daimyo defeat Hira's followers, were proclaimed the Hiramori family, vassals to the Daidoji. The family was named the "Forest Hira," an ironic joke at the traitorous Hira's expense. Hira's third son, Daidoji Michihira, was pardoned for his involvement in the uprising, and Kasami chartered him with his own family, the Hiramichi family, or "Hira of the paths." It was formed by men forced to rely on illegal sources, smugglers who had supplied food and war material to the revolters. Secrets of the Crane, pp. 31-32
Category:Crane Clan Members