Born the eldest son of Mōri Takamoto, eldest son of Mōri Motonari.
His father Takamoto died suddenly and he became head of the Mōri as a child, with his grandfather Motonari as guardian.
With his grandfather he took Gassan-Toda castle in Izumo, destroying their old rivals the Amago; the Mōri ruled most of the Chūgoku region.
Motonari died, and Terumoto ruled supported by his uncles Kikkawa Motoharu and Kobayakawa Takakage, the "Two Rivers of the Mōri".
He welcomed the exiled shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki at Tomo and ran supplies by sea to Ishiyama Hongan-ji, which was fighting Nobunaga (first Battle of Kizugawaguchi).
In the second Battle of Kizugawaguchi the Mōri fleet was beaten by Nobunaga's great iron-plated ships.
With Takamatsu castle in Bitchū under Hashiba Hideyoshi's flooding siege, he made peace. It came just after the Honnō-ji Incident, and Hideyoshi hurried back to Kyoto.
He began building Hiroshima castle at the mouth of the Ōta River and laid out a castle town—the origin of today's Hiroshima city.
He became one of the Five Elders of the Toyotomi government.
At Sekigahara he entered Osaka castle as supreme commander of the Western Army but did not fight; his kinsman Kikkawa Hiroie was secretly in touch with the Tokugawa. Afterwards his lands were cut to the two provinces of Suō and Nagato.
Taking the tonsure as Sōzui, he built a castle at Hagi in Nagato, which flourished through the Edo period as the centre of the Chōshū domain.
He died at Hagi. The Mōri continued as lords of Chōshū, which became one of the driving forces of the Meiji Restoration.
Mōri MotonariKikkawa MotoharuKobayakawa TakakageAshikaga Yoshiaki
Honda TadakatsuNene (Kōdai-in)Sakakibara YasumasaTakayama UkonHori HidemasaSuminokura RyōiGamō UjisatoTōdō Takatora
People of the Sengoku/Azuchi-Momoyama period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.