Sakai Tadakatsu

was a Sengoku period Japanese samurai, and early Edo period ''daimyō'' and served in several important positions within the administration of the Tokugawa shogunate. Papinot, Edmond. (2003)
''Nobiliare du Japon''
Sakai. pp. 50–51

Biography

Tadakatsu was born in Nishio, Mikawa Province as the son of Sakai Tadatoshi, a hereditary retainer of Tokugawa Ieyasu and future ''daimyō'' of Kawagoe Domain. In 1591, he was awarded a 3000 ''koku'' fief in Shimōsa Province. In 1600, he was assigned to the train of Tokugawa Hidetada in the Battle of Sekigahara and participated in Hidetada's failed attempt to defeat the Sanada clan at the Siege of Ueda. He was awarded the court rank of Lower 5th, Junior Grade and the courtesy title of ''Sanuki-no-kami'' in 1607. Bodart-Bailey, Beatrice. (1999)
''Kaempfer's Japan: Tokugawa Culture Observed''
University of Hawaii Press. p. 442. In 1620, Shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada assigned Tadatoshi to the court of his son, Tokugawa Iemitsu and gained him additional estates with a '' kokudaka'' of 7,000 ''koku'' in Fukaya, Musashi Province in 1622. This enabled him to resurrect Fukaya Domain and to style himself as a ''daimyō''.

In 1624, when Iemitsu became Shōgun, Tadakatsu was awarded with an additional 20,000 ''koku'' in holdings scattered throughout the provinces of Kazusa, Shimōsa and Musashi. The same year, together with Doi Toshikatsu, he was promoted to the office of ''rōjū''.

On the death of his father, Sakai Tadatoshi in 1627, Tadakatsu inherited the Kawagoe Domain. He added an additional 20,000 ''koku'' to the domain's holdings in Musashi Province in 1632 and his court rank was increased to Lower 4th, Junior Grade, with the additional courtesy title of ''Jijū'' added to his honorifics. In 1634, he was transferred to Obama Domain, whose holdings covered all of Wakasa Province, with additional holdings in Echizen, Ōmi and Awa. This brought his total ''kokudaka'' to 123,500 ''koku''.

In 1638 (together with Doi Toshikatsu), he retired from the post of ''rōjū'', with permission to return for important issues. This dispensation later evolved into the official title of '' tairō''.

In 1643, he was promoted to Upper 4th, Junior Grade court rank and added the courtesy title of ''Sakonoe-gon-shōshō''.

Also in 1643, he was involved in the "Nanbu Incident", when ten sailors (including the captain) of the Dutch Ship ''Breskens'' were taken into custody by local Japanese officials. after the ''Breskens'' had sailed unannounced into the Bay of Yamada in Northern Honshu. The Dutch ship had visited the bay once before seeking to resupply after a heavy storm, and quickly left after trading with the locals for two days. However, when the ''Breskens'' returned in July the ship and its crew were seized by local authorities for its violation of Japan's national isolation policy. This sparked an international incident, and at the time the ''rōjū'' serving the shogunate were Sakai Tadakatsu, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, and Inoue Masashige. The Shogunal government went to great lengths to use the Nambu incident to pressure the Dutch into sending an embassy to Edo, by which it attempted to use the incident as means of securing domestic legitimacy. What was for the Dutch merely a cynical gesture aimed at preserving their trade relations with Japan was for the shogunate an opportunity to parade twenty-two Dutchmen in red and white striped uniforms through the streets of Edo, impressing upon a domestic audience the fiction that the shogunate's authority was recognized throughout the world.

In 1652, Tadatoshi sponsored the publication of the ''Nihon Ōdai Ichiran'' in Kyoto. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834)
''Annales des empereurs du Japon''
Oriental Translation Fund. pp. 406, 412. This book was brought from Japan to Europe by Isaac Titsingh in 1796, who translated the text from Japanese and Chinese; and his work was then supplemented for posthumous publication by Julius Klaproth in 1834. In supporting this work, Tadakatsu's motivations appear to spread across a range anticipated consequences; and it becomes likely that his several intentions in seeing that this specific work fell into the hands of an empathetic Western translator were similarly multi-faceted.

In 1656, Sakai Tadatoshi retired from public life. He died in 1662 and his grave is at the clan temple of Kuin-ji in Obama.

The Lion dance (''Shishi-mai'') is a popular folk dance imported to Obama from Kawagoe by Sakai Tadakatsu. Three lions move to the accompaniment of music played on Japanese flutes.Obama Shrine
Festivals in May.
Jonai, Obama-shi. The traditional dance continues to be performed regularly during the ''Hoze Matsuri'' and the ''Osiro Matsuri.''

Further reading

* Sansom, George Bailey. (1963). ''A History of Japan: 1615–1867''. Stanford: Stanford University Press
OCLC 36820228

References

* Papinot, Edmond. (1948). ''Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan''. New York: Overbeck Co.
* Hesselink, Reiner H. (2002). ''Prisoners from Nambu: Reality and Make-Believe in Seventeenth-Century Japanese Diplomacy''. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

External links

Obama Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"
(3 November 2007)
* Nikko pagod

* Toshogu pagoda in Nikko [http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/target.php?id=283 – interior vie
--exterior view, Nagasaki University Library Collection
* Tourist photos uploaded to interne

* Wakasa-Obama castl
– details of the construction instructions given by Sakai Tadakatsu
* Kawagoe han in Musashi provinc

* Miyoshino Shrine [https://archive.today/20070927220151/http://www.city.kawagoe.saitama.jp/icity/browser?ActionCode=content&ContentID=1105178088147&SiteID=0 – municipal web site, Kawagoe City]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakai, Tadakatsu
Fudai daimyo
Sakai clan
Tairō
Rōjū
1587 births
1662 deaths
People of the Edo period