Mizoguchi Hidekatsu
Biography. Mizoguchi Hidekatsu was the eldest son of Mizoguchi Katsumasa and was born in Mizobuchi village, Nakamura District of Owari Province, in what is now part of the modern city of Inazawa, Aichi. HIs childhood name was Take-maru (竹丸), and his post-"genpuku" name was Sadakatsu (定勝). He entered the service of Niwa Nagahide as a child. By 1581, his talents had come to the attention of Oda Nobunaga, who accepted him as a direct retainer, and who granted him a 5000 "koku" fief in what is now Takahama, Fukui, In 1582, Nobunaga was assassinated in the Honnō -ji Incident and he transferred his allegiance to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Following the 1583 Battle of Shizugatake, he was made a "yoriki-daimyō" under Niwa Nagahide and transferred to Daishō-ji in Kaga Province with a "kokudaka" of 44,000 "koku". In 1585, following Niwa Nagahide's death, Hideyoshi recognized him as an independent "daimyō", and the following year he changed his name from Sadakatsu to Hidekatsu. During the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), he was assigned to the guard at Hideyoshi's headquarters at Nagoya Castle in Hizen Province and in 1598 was transferred to Shibata Domain in Echigo Province with  an increase in "kokudaka" to 60,000 "koku". He sided with the Eastern Army in the Battle of Sekigahara and was thus confirmed in his holdings by the Tokugawa shogunate. He died in Shibata in 1610 at the age of 63 Hidekatsu had 2 sons and 5 daughters and was succeeded by his eldest son, Mizoguchi Nobukatsu. His second son, Mizoguchi Yoshikatsu was the first "daimyō" of Sōme Domain, a 10,000 "koku" domain which existed from 1610 to 1687.