Sanada Yukimura (Sanada Nobushige)

Sanada Nobushige (c. 1567–1615), immortalized in folklore and theater as Sanada Yukimura, was a renowned samurai warrior and field commander during the Sengoku and early Edo periods. Clad in distinctive crimson red armor adorned with the six-coin (rokumonsen) crest representing the Buddhist toll across the Sanzu River into the afterlife, Yukimura was called by Shimazu Tadatsune 'the number one warrior in all of Japan' (Nihon-ichi no tsuwamono).

During the Winter Campaign of the Siege of Osaka (1614), Yukimura constructed the legendary 'Sanada-maru', an earthen barbican fortress on the southern side of Osaka Castle, where his arquebusiers and spearmen slaughtered thousands of Tokugawa assault troops. During the Summer Campaign in 1615 at the Battle of Tennoji, Yukimura led an all-or-nothing crimson cavalry charge that shattered Tokugawa Ieyasu's central vanguard three times, forcing Ieyasu to trample his own banner in panic before falling exhausted on the field.