Matsu Ino

Please note: This article is about the Lord of the Suboten Castle. For other uses of the term, please see Ino (disambiguation).
Matsu Ino was a samurai of the Lion Clan in the early 12th century, and the Lord of the Suboten Castle.
== Family ==
Ino was the younger brother of the brilliant general Matsu Chonoku, Honor's Veil, p. 25 and Matsu Kuno was his grandfather. Honor's Veil, p. 28
== Plotting against his brother ==
Ino lived behind his brother's shadow and his bitternes grew big enough to plot against his own brother. Ino made a bargain with a Crane daimyo, Kakita Hojin, who had to harass the Lion border to lure Chonoku in the battlefield. Ino was sent by his brother to explore the terrain, and he returned with an erroneous information. It led general and his forces to complete defeat in the Battle of Kotanu Plains. After the death of Chonoku the family lands passed to Ino. The conquered Lion lands returned to him after he defeated Hojin in a non lethal duel, which was a part of the bargain. Honor's Veil, pp. 25, 33
== Exposed ==
Ten years later a group of magistrates detained Kakita Hachi, as murderer of a Scorpion shugenja, Shosuro Kujiko. Hachi accused his Lord, Kakita Hojin to had ordered him to kill Kujiko, because she had gathered information on Ino's treachery. Ino simply denied the testimony of Hachi, a samurai of lower station, and the matter ended. Or Ino thought it so. Honor's Veil, p. 34
== Death ==
In 1122 Imperial Histories, p. 130 Ino provoked a scandal during one of the courts of Hantei XXXVIII, claiming that it was Bayushi Kachiko who manipulated Ino's fall from his lord's favor. With the help of Bayushi Yojiro, the scandal was diffused before it was too late.
On the following day, Ino woke up covered with the blood of his lord, and was found guilty in murdering him while drunk by Bayushi Yojiro. His fate was left to decide for Akodo Toturi, either seppuku or execution. "The Honest Scorpion" The Way of the Scorpion, pp. 4-6
Yojiro, Kujiko's cousin, had finally taken revenge on Ino. Hojin was also killed in the same month. Honor's Veil, p. 35
== See also ==
* Matsu Ino/Meta
Category:Lion Clan Members