Harukata Sue (1521-16 October 1555) was a Japanese daimyo who ruled over the Sue clan and served as a retainer to the Ouchi clan during the Sengoku period.
Biography[]
Harukata Sue was born in 1521 to the Sue clan, a subgroup of the Ouchi clan of Chugoku, and he was childhood friends with Yoshitaka Ouchi. He succeeded his late father as daimyo of the Sue clan in 1539, and he became known as a peerless general in western Japan. From 1540 to 1542, he led the Ouchi clan's war effort against the Amago clan, but the Ouchi clan was heavily defeated in 1542, forcing Yoshitaka to make peace. Taketo Sagara soon took Harukata's place as Yoshitaka's closest advisor, and, in 1551, Harukata rebelled against Yoshitaka, killed Sagara, and forced Yoshitaka to commit suicide. The next year, he made Yoshinaga Ouchi the head of the Ouchi clan, and he oversaw the Ouchi clan's military expansion. In 1554, Masayori Yoshimi (Yoshitaka's brother-in-law) and Motonari Mori rebelled against Harukata, and he was defeated by Mori at the Battle of Itsukushima in 1555 and forced to commit suicide.