Matsumae Kinhiro

, was the second ''daimyō'' of Matsumae Domain in Ezo-chi, (Hokkaidō), Japan, in the early Edo period. Holding this position from 1617 until his death in 1641, he was successor to Matsumae Yoshihiro and followed by Matsumae Ujihiro.

Names

His given name Kinhiro may also be read Kimihiro. In childhood he was known as , later as , and he also had the ''imina'' and then .

Biography

Kinhiro was born in Keichō 3 (1598) in , the Kakizaki, later the Matsumae, clan fortified residence in Matsumae before the construction of Fukuyama Castle. He was the eldest son of , the eldest son of Matsumae Yoshihiro, the first ''daimyō'' of Matsumae Domain, his mother the daughter of a clan retainer. His father died in Keichō 13 (1608). In Keichō 18 (1613), he received audiences with Tokugawa Hidetada and Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the following year was invested with Junior Fifth Court Rank, Lower Grade and the title . After the death of his grandfather Yoshihiro in 1616, Matsumae Kinhiro was confirmed as ''daimyō'' in Genna 2 (1617).

His years as ''daimyō'' saw the development of '' han'' finances, with the arrival of , the establishment of a gold dust emporium, and the conferral of trading rights on his senior retainers. In 1617, prospectors using placer methods began to extract gold from local streams in the south of the Oshima Peninsula. In 1620, Kinhiro presented a hundred ''ryō'' of gold dust to the ''bakufu'', Doi Toshikatsu and Aoyama Tadatoshi conferring rights to its continued gathering and to new gold mining operations on the island in return. These spread rapidly: by 1628, extraction activities had advanced to the , by 1631 to Shimakomaki, then by 1633 to the and Shizunai Rivers further east, and by 1635 to streams near Samani, as well as the Yūbari River. Kinhiro established a and leased rights to stretches of streams and rivers, the working methods being described in detail in a long surviving letter by Portuguese Jesuit missionary Diogo de Carvalho who, following in the footsteps of Jerome de Angelis, travelled to Ezo in 1620, and again in 1622.

These years were also marked by the development of the town below Matsumae Castle, extending down to the sea and supplanting the earlier centre to the north around Ōdate and the temple district. Kan'ei 10 (1633) saw the arrival of and the erection of distance markers every '' ri'' throughout the . In the third month of 1637, the predecessor of today's Matsumae Castle went up in flames, with the loss of innumerable family treasures and documents, and Kinhiro himself hurt; it was rebuilt two years later.

Despite earlier tolerance, his final years brought persecution of Christianity, in line with the Shogunate's clampdown. Already in 1613, a Christian physician had been brought over to tend to an ailing lord, most likely Matsumae Yoshihiro. When Jerome de Angelis arrived in 1618, Kinhiro took no action, but after his departure he banned inhabitants of the domain from practising the faith. Turning a blind eye nevertheless to the large number of fleeing ''Kakure Kirishitan'' who came for refuge and to work in the gold-mining operations, in 1639 he complied more fully, executing one hundred and six, according to the official clan documents known as . Registers were compiled of current and former Christians, and attempts were made to persuade adherents to abandon their beliefs.

Kinhiro himself died on the eighth day of the seventh month of Kan'ei 18 (1641), at the age of 44 according to traditional age reckoning, after composing a death poem. He is buried at , in Matsumae, and was succeeded by his second son Ujihiro, his original heir Kanehiro having died at the age of ten in a smallpox outbreak that swept the island in 1624.

See also

* Takeda Nobuhiro
* Shinra no Kiroku
* Kitamaebune
* Ichirizuka

References

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Daimyo
Matsumae clan
1598 births
1641 deaths
People from Matsumae, Hokkaidō