was a retainer of Ikeda Katsumasa, head of the powerful "Setssu-Ikeda clan" of Settsu Province. Under Katsumasa, Murashige sided with Oda Nobunaga following Nobunaga's successful campaign to establish power in Kyoto.
Murashige became a retainer of Oda Nobunaga and become daimyà  (feudal lord) of Ibaraki Castle in 1573 and gained further notoriety through military exploits across Japan.
In 1571, Murashige and Nakagawa Kiyohide killed Wada Koremasa, a senior retainer of the Ashikaga Shogunate, at the Battle of Shiraigawara.
In 1574, Murashige along with Hashiba Hideyoshi captured Arioka Castle (Itami castle) from Itami Chikaoki. Nobunaga gave Itami castle to Murashige.
In 1576, he commanded part of Nobunaga's army in the ten-year siege of the Ishiyama Honganji. But in 1578, during the Siege of Miki, he was accused of sympathies to the Mà Âri clan, one of Nobunaga's enemies. Murashige retreated to Itami Castle (Hyà Âgo Prefecture) and held out there against a one-year siege by the forces of Oda before the castle fell in 1579.
Araki escaped from the Siege of Itami (1579) and lived the rest of his life as a chanoyu disciple of Sen no Rikyà «. He also served as a teaist and took the tea name of Dà Âkun éÂÂè«. Rikyà « shared some of his most detailed teachings with Murashige, one example being the well-known âÂÂAraki Settsu Kami-ate Denshoâ (èÂÂæ¨æÂÂæ´¥å®Âå®Âä¼Âæ¸) manuscript. In the âÂÂTeaist Genealogy of All Generations Past and Presentâ (Kokin Chajin Keifu å¤ä»Âè¶人系èÂÂ), Murashige is included as one of Rikyà «âÂÂs Seven Sages.
In 1580, Ikeda Tsuneoki beat Murashige at Siege of Hanakuma castle, who locked himself in the castle. Ultimately, he escaped and defected to the Mori clan. Later Tsuneoki was given Murashige's domain.
There is a semi-legendary tale told about Araki's creative use of a tessen, or iron fan, in saving his own life. After being accused of treason by Akechi Mitsuhide, Araki was called before his lord, Oda Nobunaga. As was customary, he bowed low over the threshold before entering the room. But he sensed somehow Nobunaga's plan to have his guards slam the fusuma sliding doors on him, breaking his neck. Araki placed his fan in the doors' groove, preventing the doors from closing. Nobunaga's plan revealed, Araki's life was spared, with much reconciliation.
His son, raised under his mother's name, was the artist Iwasa Matabei.