A Sengoku warlord who controlled Yamato Province. He survived fierce conflicts from childhood, struggling against Matsunaga Hisahide to unify Yamato. He joined Oda Nobunaga and later entered under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At the time of the Honnoji Incident (1582), he is said to have sat on the fence at "Dorogahara" during the Battle of Yamazaki, and is the origin of the Japanese idiom "settling in at Dorogahara" (meaning to wait opportunistically). However, much of this is later invention or exaggeration, and some research indicates he actually joined Hideyoshi's side relatively early. He died of illness at thirty-six in 1584.

A Sengoku warrior with survival instinct and realistic judgment. The "Dorogahara" episode made him a byword for opportunism, but in reality he was largely a ruler who devoted himself to the stability of Yamato.

His name survives in later generations through the Japanese idiom "settling in at Dorogahara." For better or worse, he continues to hold cultural influence as a symbol of "sitting on the fence."