was a Japanese ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominall ...

'' of the Sengoku period, and high-ranking government advisor, holding the title of '' Rōjū'', and later '' Tairō''. The son of

Sakai Shigetada is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and inclu ...

, Tadayo was born in Nishio, Mikawa Province; his childhood name was Manchiyo. He became a trusted elder (''rōjū'') in

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

's government, alongside

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fello ...

. Under Hideyoshi, he was made lord of Kawagoe Castle (in

Musashi Province was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. Musashi bordered on Kai, Kōzuke, Sagami, ...

, today

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

) and later of

Nagoya Castle is a Japanese castle located in Nagoya, Japan. Nagoya Castle was constructed by the Owari Domain in 1612 during the Edo period on the site of an earlier castle of the Oda clan in the Sengoku period. Nagoya Castle was the heart of one of the ...

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

's Hizen Province. In 1600, in the lead-up to the decisive

Sekigahara campaign The Sekigahara Campaign was a series of battles in Japan fought between the Eastern Army aligned with Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Western Army loyal to Ishida Mitsunari, culminating in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara. The conflict was sparked ...

, he fought against the Tokugawa at

Aizu is the westernmost of the three regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, the other two regions being Nakadōri in the central area of the prefecture and Hamadōri in the east. As of October 1, 2010, it had a population of 291,838. The princi ...

, and submitted to them at the siege of Ueda. Thus, having joined the Tokugawa prior to the battle of Sekigahara itself, Sakai was made a '' fudai daimyō'', and counted among the Tokugawa's more trusted retainers. He served under Ieyasu for a time, and under the second shōgun,

Tokugawa Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

, as a '' hatamoto''. Sakai's father died in 1617, and so he inherited his father's domain of

Maebashi is the capital city of Gunma Prefecture, in the northern Kantō region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 335,352 in 151,171 households, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . I ...

Harima Province or Banshū (播州) was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is the southwestern part of present-day Hyōgo Prefecture. Harima bordered on Tajima, Tanba, Settsu, Bizen, and Mimasaka Provinces. Its capital was Himeji. During t ...

, which had been assessed at 33,000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. 1 koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about . It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1000 gō. One ''gō'' is the volume of the "rice cup", the plastic measuring cup that is supplied ...

'', and was now changed to 85,000 ''koku'' by the shogunate. In 1632, following a shakeup of positions within the bureaucracy, Sakai became ''nishi no maru rusui'', placing him in charge of the western districts of

Edo Castle is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo and is therefore also known as . Tokugawa Ieyasu established ...

, the seat of the shogunal government. Two years later, the Western districts were burnt down while the shōgun was away in Kyoto. Sakai was stripped of his position, and exiled to

Kan'ei-ji (also spelled Kan'eiji or Kaneiji) is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1625 during the Kan'ei era by Tenkai, in an attempt to emulate the powerful religious center Enryaku-ji, in Kyoto. The main object of worship is .Ni ...

. Appealing to the Gosanke (the heads of the three branch families of the Tokugawa), Sakai was invited to return to the castle two years later, in 1636. Along with

Doi Toshikatsu was a top-ranking official in Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during its early decades, and one of the chief advisors to the second Tokugawa shōgun, Hidetada. The adopted son of Doi Toshimasa, Toshikatsu is generally believed to be the biological ...

and Sakai Tadakatsu, he was appointed to the newly created post of ''Tairō'' (Great Elder). He died within weeks of being appointed, however, at the age of 64. His eldest son,

Sakai Tadayuki was the 10th ''daimyō'' of Obama Domain in mid- to late Edo period Japan.Meyer, Eva-Mari"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit". University of Tübingen (in German). Biography Tadayuki was the seventh son of Sakai Tadaka of Tsuruga Domain an ...

, died around the same time, and so the next oldest son, Sakai Tadakiyo succeeded his father.

References

*''Much of this article's content derives from that presented on the Japanese Wikipedia.'' *Sansom, George (1963). ''A History of Japan: 1615–1867''. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sakai, Tadayo Rōjū Tairō Daimyo 1572 births 1636 deaths Sakai clan