Born in Kyoto, the son of Mitsubuchi Harukazu, a retainer of the shogun's house. As a child he is said to have been adopted into the Hosokawa family (accounts differ on who his adoptive father was). He would become a rare figure remembered both as a warrior and as a man of culture.
Around this time he served the 13th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru. While training hard in martial arts, he studied a wide range of things, from waka and the classics to the tea ceremony and even the etiquette of cooking, absorbing Kyoto culture at the shogun's side.
The shogun Yoshiteru lost his life in an attack by a Miyoshi faction and others (the Eiroku Incident). Fujitaka rescued Yoshiteru's brother Kakukei (later Ashikaga Yoshiaki), who was confined at Kōfuku-ji in Nara, and traveled from daimyō to daimyō seeking support to make him shogun.
With the help of Oda Nobunaga, he entered Kyoto with Yoshiaki. Yoshiaki became the 15th shogun, and Fujitaka served as a link between the shogunate and Nobunaga.
When Yoshiaki and Nobunaga fell out, Fujitaka took Nobunaga's side. After Yoshiaki was driven from Kyoto and the Muromachi shogunate fell, he was given Nagaoka in Yamashiro (Kyoto) as his domain and changed his surname to Nagaoka.
He received the Kokin denju, the secret teachings on interpreting the Kokinshū, from the noble Sanjōnishi Saneki. A warrior who became one of the finest poetry scholars of his age, he was then the only living holder of these secret teachings.
His son Tadaoki married Tama (later Hosokawa Gracia), daughter of Akechi Mitsuhide. Fujitaka and Mitsuhide were old comrades from the days when both served Yoshiaki.
With Mitsuhide he subdued Tango (northern Kyoto), was given the province and built a castle at Miyazu. As a warrior he too became a daimyō ruling a domain.
When Mitsuhide struck down Nobunaga, he was urged hard to join Mitsuhide but refused. He shaved his head, took the name Yūsai, handed the headship to Tadaoki and mourned Nobunaga's death.
He then served Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was valued as a man of culture versed in waka, renga, the tea ceremony and court custom. He followed Hideyoshi's Kyushu campaign and described the journey in Kyūshū Michi no Ki.
Before the Battle of Sekigahara, he shut himself up in Tanabe Castle in Tango with only about 500 men and held off 15,000 troops of the Western Army. Fearing that the Kokin denju would die with him, Emperor Go-Yōzei ordered a truce, and he surrendered the castle.
He died in Kyoto. His son Tadaoki's line later became lords of Kumamoto, and the Hosokawa house lasted until the Meiji era. He is still remembered as a man who mastered both the sword and letters.
Akechi MitsuhideAshikaga YoshiakiHosokawa GraciaOda NobunagaAshikaga YoshiteruToyotomi Hideyoshi
Asakura YoshikageShimazu YoshihisaŌmura SumitadaOda NobunagaShimazu YoshihiroNiwa NagahideAshikaga YoshiteruToyotomi Hideyoshi
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.