Yamana Tokihiro (山名時熙)
Tokihiro YAMANA (1367- August 7, 1435) was a busho (Japanese military commander), who lived from the period of the Northern and Southern Courts to the Muromachi period. He was the eldest son of Tokiyoshi YAMANA. There was Ujiyuki YAMANA among his adopted siblings. His legal wife was the daughter of Ujikiyo YAMANA. His children were Mitsutoki YAMANA, Mochihiro YAMANA, and Mochitoyo YAMANA (Sozen).
His given name is also written using a different set of Japanese characters as '常熈.'
He succeeded to the family after his father Tokiyoshi died in 1389. In March 1390, under the order of the third shogun Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA to expel him and Ujiyuki YAMANA due to their dispute over the right to the succession to the Yamana clan, he was attacked by one of the family members, Ujikiyo YAMANA, and he escaped from Tajima Province and went to Bingo Province. He was pardoned by Yoshimitsu a year later in 1391, and in the Meitoku War when Ujikiyo mobilized an army against Yoshimitsu, he participated in the fight as a member of Yoshimitsu's escort called umamawari (mounted guards of a general).
After the war, he was granted with Tajima Province as an enfeoffment
He also fought in the Oei War, the uprising by Yoshihiro OUCHI occurred in 1399 in Sakai City, and became shugo (the military governor) of Bingo Province.
He joined the shogunate government as one of the shobanshu (officials who accompany the shogun) and served the government during the reigns of the 4th shogun Yoshimochi ASHIKAGA and the 6th shogun Yoshinori ASHIKAGA. After holding a position of samurai-dokoro tonin (governor of the board of retainers) twice in 1414 and 1432, he became the shukuro (chief vassal) of the family of Mitsuie HATAKEYAMA. During the Uprising of Zenshu UESUGI that occurred in 1416 involving the Kamakura government, he was suspected of having held secret communication with the adversary, along with Yoshitsugu ASHIKAGA who attempted to escape from Kyoto around the same period. When the incident, in which Mitsusuke AKAMATSU ran away from Kyoto after assassinating the 6th Shogun Yoshinori ASHIKAGA, occurred in 1427, he joined the punitive forces. After he yielded his position as head of the family to Mochitoyo in 1433, he was downfallen due to his alleged involvement in a misappropriation case related to the trade between Japan and the Ming Dynasty in China. He died at the age of 69.
Although the Yamana clan fell in the aftermath of the Meitoku War in 1491, but the family line of Tokihiro survived.