Mōri Motonari was born under the name Shōjumaru in a small domain of Aki province in 1497.
Motonari was called the "Beggar Prince".!
Mori Motonari (毛利元就)
Motonari MORI was kokujin (local lord) and a fighting daimyo (territorial lord) of Aki Province in the late Muromachi to the Sengoku period.
Starting off as a kokujin lord in Aki Province, he extended his power to rule the almost entire region of Chugoku and has been described as one of the greatest commanders of the Sengoku period.
He is renowned as an outstanding strategist who brought victory to his army using deliberate tactics.
Mori Motonari (1497–1571), a local lord in the Sengoku, or Warring States, period controlling a region in western Honshu, had three sons.He was originally of the Oe clan. His family descended from the Mori clan whose progenitor was Suemitsu MORI, the fourth son of OE no Hiromoto. The Sagae clan belonged to the same family. The elements of his family crest are composed of Ichimonji and Mitsuboshi (a straight line and three stars).
Born in Japan on to Hiromoto Mori.
He was the second son of Hiromoto MORI who was based in Yoshida Koriyama Castle in Aki Province (present Yoshida-cho, Akitakata City, Hiroshima Prefecture).
His childhood name was Shojumaru (also known as Shonojiro).