後藤 又兵衛 ごとう またべえ Gotô Matabei 1573 - 1615 Appearances: Kessen (1) Gotô Matabei, also known as 後藤基次 Gotô Mototsugu, was born in the year of 1573 and was the son of chief retainer 後藤基国 Gotô Motokuni, who served the Bessho clan of Harima province. When the Bessho's Miki castle was besieged by the Hashiba Army and at length forced to surrender in 1580, Motokuni commited suicide. Sometime before his death, Motokuni had given his son into the care of Kuroda Yoshitaka (Kanbei), who was a retainer of Hashiba (later Toyotomi) Hideyoshi and acted as a messenger around the time of the siege. Mototsugu grew into a very well-known retainer of the Kuroda. He fought in the Sekigahara Campaign but left the Kuroda's service some time later. In 1614, for unknown reasons, Matabei joined the defenders of Toyotomi Hideyori at Osaka Castle. It is believed that the reason behind this was because of Hideyori's father, Hideyoshi, who spared Matabei's life in 1580 during the Siege of Miki Castle. Gotô fought bravely but was killed at the battle of 道明寺 Domyoji in 1615, right around the time of the end of the siege. Biography created by: Shogun