Born in 1567 as the eldest son of Date Terumune, 16th head of the Date clan in Yonezawa, and his wife Yoshihime. His childhood name was Bontemaru. Around age 10 he lost his right eye to smallpox, earning him the later epithet "One-Eyed Dragon." Inheriting the clan leadership at 18 in 1584, he launched a furious campaign to dominate the Tohoku region. His victory over Ashina Yoshihiro at the Battle of Suriagehara in 1589 gave him control of Aizu, and within a few years he had swept through most of southern Tohoku—at his peak controlling over 1.7 million koku. However, following Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Odawara campaign, he was found guilty of violating the Sobuji peacekeeping edict and forfeited Aizu and much of his southern domain. He rebuilt as lord of Sendai at 620,000 koku, developing the castle town of Sendai, promoting agriculture and industry, and building one of the northeast's premier domains. At Sekigahara he joined Tokugawa's eastern coalition. In 1613 he dispatched his retainer Hasekura Tsunenaga on the Keicho Embassy to Spain and Rome, seeking overseas trade—a level of international ambition rare among daimyo of his era. He died in 1636 at age 70.