castle finally remained in Mōri possession. However, Motonari's advance against the Ōtomo was checked by the 1568 alliance between the Amago and Ōtomo clans. In 1569, Mōri Motonari led the assault on the Ōtomo clan's Tachibana castle which was held by Tachibana Dosetsu. Motonari won and captured the castle, but was driven back by Otomo Sorin in the Battle of Tatarahama that followed the siege. The battle of the Mōri clan with this larger allied force was part of Yamanaka Yukimori and Amago Katsuhisa's arrangement with Ōtomo. Motonari was distracted from his designs against the Ōtomo in Kyushu by his inability to defeat the Amago in Izumo province, some distance away in Honshu. As a result, he abandoned Tachibana castle and withdrew from his campaign against the Ōtomo. Death Motonari had been suffering from illness during the first half of the 1560s so the shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, sent him his doctor, Manase Dōsan (曲直瀬道三), to treat him. It seems that his physical condition improved temporarily and in 1567 his last son, Kadokikumaru (才菊丸) was born, later known as Kobayakawa Hidekane. Mōri Motonari died on June 14, 1571, at Yoshida-Kōriyama Castle at the age of 74. The cause of death is said to be both esophageal cancer and old age. Legacy Motonari is remembered as one of the greatest Japanese warlords of the mid-16th century. Under his leadership the Mōri expanded from a few districts in Aki Province to rule over ten of the Chūgoku region's eleven provinces, and Motonari was known even in his day as a master of wiles and trickery, a warlord whose schemes won as many battles as his soldiers. He is best remembered for an event that probably never took place – the "lesson of the three arrows". In this parable, Motonari gives each of his sons an arrow to break. He then gives them three arrows bundled, and points out that while one may be broken easily, not so three united as one. The three sons were of course Takamoto, Motoharu, and Takakage, and the lesson is one that Japanese children still learn in school today. It is not known for certain if this actually happened or if it is an apocryphal legend. Motonari in fact had six other sons, two of whom appear to have died in childhood. The others included Motoaki, Motokiyo, Motomasa and (Kobayakawa) Hidekane. Shiji Hiroyoshi, Kuchiba Michiyoshi, Kumagai Nobunao, Fukubara