Hirata Masumune

{{Short description|Japanese samurai}}

{{Expand Japanese|topic=bio|平田増宗|date=July 2017}}

{{Infobox samurai|name=Hirata Masumune|Era=Sengoku – early Edo|birth_date={{birth year|1566}}|death_date={{death date and age|1610|08|07|1566}}|Dharma name=Sankakuan-no-shu|Clan(s)=Hirata}}

{{nihongo|Hirata Masumune|平田 増宗|extra=1566 – 7 April 1610}} was a Japanese samurai of the early Edo period. He was a retainer and karō in the service of the Shimazu clan of Satsuma Domain.

Hirata took part in Battle of Sekigahara. After Western Army lost the war, he saved Shimazu Yoshihiro's wife and Shimazu Iehisa's wife, let them go back to Satsuma safely.

Shimazu clan decided to invade Ryukyu Kingdom in 1609, Hirata Masumune was appointed vice general.{{Cite book |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ryukyuan_Relations_with_Korea_and_South/JJJxAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Hirata%20Masumune%22%20-wikipedia&dq=%22Hirata%20Masumune%22%20-wikipedia&printsec=frontcover |title=Ryukyuan Relations with Korea and South Sea Countries: An Annotated Translation of Documents in the Rekidai Hōan |date=1969 |publisher=Author, 7 Sennyuji-tōrinchō, Higashiyamaku |pages=36 |language=en}} The invasion of Ryukyu was successful, Satsuma troops captured King Shō Nei and his ministers, and took them to Kagoshima. Hirata was assassinated in 1610.{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=John Whitney |title=Studies in the Institutional History of Early Modern Japan |last2=Jansen |first2=Marius B. |date=2015 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-6895-7 |series=Princeton Legacy Library |location=Princeton, N.J |pages=135}}