Nasu Sukechika

那須資親

Nasu Clan

Bushō

Shimotsuke Province

Lifespan:  14xx to Eishō 11 (1514)

Rank:  bushō

Title:  Governor of Harima, Master of the Palace Table

Clan:  Nasu (Upper Nasu family)

Father:  Nasu Ujisuke

Siblings:  Akisuke, Sukechika, Kamikawai 資威, sister (wife of Utsunomiya Hitotsuna)

Children:  Yamada Sukehisa, daughter (formal wife of Utsunomiya Shigetsuna), daughter (wife of Nasu Sukenaga), daughter (wife of Sawamura Saburō)

Adopted Children:  Sukenaga (second son of Yūki Masatomo (Yoshinaga))

Nasu Sukechika served as a bushō during the late-Muromachi and Sengoku periods.  He was the fifteenth head of the Nasu clan (the Upper Nasu family).

Sukechika was born as the son of Nasu Ujisuke, the thirteenth head of the Nasu clan.

Sukechika entered into a political alliance through marriage of family members with Utsunomiya Shigetsuna, a sengoku daimyō and the seventeenth head of the Shimotsuke-Utsunomiya clan who controlled a majority of Shimotsuke Province and a portion of Hitachi Province.  Furthermore, he adopted Sukenaga, the second son of Yūki Masatomo (Yoshinaga), the eighth head of the Shirakawa-Yūki clan based in the southern portion of Mutsu Province.  By designating Sukenaga as a successor, he aimed to secure his position in the Upper Nasu family.

In 1514, after the death of Sukechika, a succession struggle erupted between his natural son, Yamada Sukehisa, and his adopted son, Sukenaga.  Nasu Sukefusa supported Sukehisa but, at the height of the conflict, Sukehisa was killed by Sukenaga and the Upper Nasu family came to an end.  Sukefusa, together with Ōtawara Sukekiyo and others, attacked Sukenaga, compelling him to take his own life.  Sukefusa positioned his own son, Nasu Masasuke, as the head of the Upper Nasu family while he unified the Nasu clan and became the real holder of authority.